ICE Newsletter Publicity Coverage 1988-2000

ICE Publicity Coverage 1

		“ICE is probably the best source of CD news in the world....” England’s New Musical Express (NME), December 1, 1990

		“If you’ve never seen this essential monthly compendium of compact disc information, pick up one now.... ICE offers a comprehensive listing of upcoming CD releases. One always provocative department is ‘CD Watchdog,’ an often newsy section of consumer questions and complaints about various CD packages. [Editor Pete Howard] has also been known to dig up his share of scoops about both new and catalog releases, and he covers such industry issues as the CD longbox debate skillfully and evenhandedly. When ICE arrives at Billboard’s offices every month, there’s always a fight to see who reads it first, and there are few higher recommendations than that.” Billboard, February 29, 1992

		“Crawdaddy, generally recognized as the first magazine to feature pop music criticism, is back in business after a 14-year layoff. Paul Williams, who started the publication in 1966, has revived the name for a newsletter in which he assesses new album releases.... How does Williams feel about the current rock journals? ‘I find Rolling Stone informative,’ he tells Pop Eye.... ‘I haven’t read Spin much.... What I do like is ICE. That has a tremendous amount of information in it and it’s about what I want to know–what’s coming out, and the stories behind the albums.’” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1993

		“The hidden track phenom won’t be ending anytime soon, predicts Pete Howard of the CD newsletter ICE; seems artists and record execs get a real charge out of stumping the consumer. ‘Fun is the key word,’ he says. ‘There are plenty of Nirvana fans who still don’t know about that song.’” Entertainment Weekly, May 21, 1993

		“We’ve discovered a great monthly CD crib sheet called ICE.” Playboy, May 1988

		“Pete Howard, editor and publisher of the California-based ICE magazine, one of the premier sources on CD release news, feels Enhanced CDs are exploring new technology, but not taking the world by storm. ‘A lot of consumers have greeted these CDs with indifference,’ Howard says. ‘The enhancements are nice add-ons, but they’re not pushing sales all that much.’” Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2000

		“The entire CD field has gotten so big over the past year that it takes more than the reviews that magazines like this one can print (with two months lead time) to keep up with all of it... All of this activity makes the newsletter format particularly inviting, since it requires less lead time than a magazine. ICE is probably the best of these, in terms of reliability and timeliness. [ICE] covers lots of up-to-the-minute news not only about vintage rock, but jazz and soundtrack recordings as well. Their information tends to be accurate as far as upcoming releases, and they print a fair number of reader letters and inquiries.” Goldmine, July 15, 1988.

		“‘The box-set trend over the last couple of years has pretty much been treading water,’ says Pete Howard, the editor and publisher of ICE, a newsletter devoted to upcoming compact disc releases. ‘It’s not working like it was in the early ’90s, when retailers were stocking their shelves with box-sets gleefully, and it was a hot item.’” The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 1999

		“[And box-sets] are selling. The leader so far is Led Zeppelin, which has sold about 750,000 copies of its $70 CD box set for Atlantic Records. ‘If these boxed sets were just out on cassette, it wouldn’t have the same impact,’ said Peter J. Howard, the editor and publisher of ICE, a monthly newsletter based in Santa Monica, Calif. ‘There is something magical about the CD format. People really feel that when you buy a boxed set, this is the final word on something.’” The New York Times, September 4, 1991

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