Help Keep Honky Tonk Times Alive

Team fundraiser

Taylor Austin and Cindy Davis are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

How many times have you heard people say, "Country music is dead."

For me, it was countless, and I know it isn’t true. I’ve made it my life's mission to show folks that Country music is alive and well — to spread the word about the music that I love and the amazing people who make it — musicians who are keeping true Country music alive and are often overlooked by the mainstream radio and media outlets — and to help Ameripolitan music grow.

My name is Taylor Austin and three years ago I started Honky Tonk Times. My idea was to create an old-school print magazine and bring current Honky Tonk and Classic Country music to an audience who likely had no idea that “their kind of Country” was still being made today. With a passion for Country music history we started telling stories of days gone by and of today. What I found is that our audience is much broader and younger than I had anticipated. Turns out folks really want a physical magazine to read, a quality product to hold in their hands, and a chance to disconnect from the never-ending online racket.

I started with nothing but a dream and lots of time during the COVID years. With the help of my Honky Tonk Times family (our group of dedicated volunteers) and like-minded folks like you, we have gone from a simple lyric magazine to a legitimate piece of journalism. I am proud of what we have built at Honky Tonk Times. For a Vermont boy with no formal education to have started a print magazine about Honky Tonk music in the 2020’s is pretty damn good. I know without the amazing team I have around me, it would not have been possible. It’s wild to think we have all done this on top of our full-time jobs and family responsibilities.

I've run this magazine out of my own pocket since the beginning and we have grown to the point where it is no longer sustainable in its current business model. I need your help to raise $36,500 and hope you will consider supporting us to keep Honky Tonk Times alive.

I’ve prioritized where the funds will be directed according to the business’ needs, as follows:

Our first goal is to bring people on to enhance and run the website. I am looking to bring Honky Tonk Times into the 21st Century. The goal of this is to not replace the print magazine but to reach a wider audience in a more timely fashion and produce more web content. Our hope is between the magazine and expanded web presence we can better serve the musicians and fans while also bringing in advertising dollars.
We need to bring in a bigger editing team to support the online and print stories. We also plan to return to a print schedule allowing for a regular subscription model.
Graphic Design and Layout of the print magazine have been an ongoing expense since Issue 1 of Honky Tonk Times. We will allocate these funds for the next year.
The cost to print the magazine has continued to rise every year (even though the cost of the magazine to the consumer has seen little increase). I have a rough idea of the projected expense over the coming 12 months and have budgeted for that based on a bi-monthly print schedule.
Social Media has become an integral part of our business. There are a lot of hours and planning that goes into running it and that person(s) needs to be compensated. The hope is to have a few more friendly faces to help out with this.
I am looking to compensate our current contributors and grow our writing team. Honky Tonk Times would not exist without these fantastic and talented people.
Bring in more visual artists to round out the magazine and give it more of an old-school feel. It will be exciting to bring this aspect to the website as well.
Advertising budget, as any business we need to be able to advertise in order to grow our readership. We have allocated some funds (albeit slim) to do this with.

We have a plan and now it’s just a matter of making it happen. I sincerely hope that you enjoy what we have been doing and will consider donating what you can. If you cannot support us monetarily, I hope you will consider sharing our needs with those who may be moved to support us. Please help us grow bigger and stronger so we can continue to promote the Grade A Honky Tonk music we all know and love.

Let's keep on Honky Tonkin' together,

Taylor Austin

P.S. You can always visit our website.