Frank Asch did it first, and ever so much better :D
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vBno_L1o-8A/S940g70c8QI...

...one of my favorite books as a kid.

I think that is an amazing cover! I would probably buy it just for that bit of artwork alone :D

A new genre? Moon music!

I could accept this :D

Some very nice songs today, superb picks!

Well, from what I can see the fandom is still quite healthy. There was a few years of very rapid expansion (as fandoms go, the Brony phenomenon exploded like a A-bomb) which I think has perhaps slowed down from its huge initial surge, but that is a far cry from it actually dying.

Ah, Bagpipe Brony, now there is a blast from the past. I still have his Baroque mix of the FiM theme song on my player! Definitely an artist who's work I enjoyed. Unfortunately, do artists seem to come and go in the fandom, I have especially missed MIU's work :/ However, there are still a lot of quite impressive artists out there and new ones are popping up all the time it seems. One just has to do a bit of digging to find them.

In an earlier post today, someone else had mentioned 'Lunaloves.us'; which is my preferred streaming music site. They play a lot of the type of music that interests myself (classical, orchestral, and the like) and I occasionally find new artists to follow just from listening to this site.

Anyways, back to 'Is the fandom dying?', I would say an emphatic "No". As fandoms go, it is still quite young (five-plus years) and what it has achieved so far already is quite amazing. The artistic side is still quite prolific overall I would say.

As for the movie in 2017 being the finale; I have my serious doubts about that. Hasbro struck pure franchise gold with Fausts' FiM and they know it. With impressive marketplace success and a huge world-wide following, they could milk this for decades perhaps. As a corporation, they will keep producing as long as people keep consuming, and they keep making money. And I would say that the bronies are a large group of rather rabid consumers indeed.

I honestly find little to worry about with the franchise, other then Hasbro might keep throwing out spinoffs and eventually over-saturate their own market.

Ah, my favorite station! Pity it does not get more mention/recognition. They have an excellent playlist.

Two orchestral pieces today? My cup doth runneth over (well, auditorily anyways).

I enjoyed both pieces, excellent picks!

I quite liked all of these, nicely done!

Indeed.

For every 'Swing! Tavi Swing!' or 'Moonlight Symphony', there are a thousand Remix/Dubstep/Electronica's to wade though. It seems to be what the majority of the brony fandom likes, but it absolutely kills the diversity and originality of fandom music I think :/

*Unrelated edit/observation* I see the 'Thumbs-down' is back once more; not sure why as giving anon forum users the ability to downvote has never worked well on EqD in the past. Not well at all.

Hrm, lets give this a go!

MUSIC: I will start with that I do like that the music posts are genre-labeled, as so one knows somewhat what to expect from them before clicking. Personally I am more of a fan of orchestral/classical/acoustic music, and the fandom is generally pretty heavy into bass, trance and the like so music posts are usually more miss then hit for myself, but that is nothing against the quality of the posts themselves.

PMV's: Honestly, it is a rare PMV that I do not like, so I am not sure as to what to offer here for advice, other then to always keep mixing it up. Comedy, musical, typographical, etc. There is a lot of great and very diverse work out there! Perhaps I would also recommend giving the 'B-listers' the occasional spotlight? One thing i do notice is that the EQD PMV videos are all very polished and professional. Which is undoubtedly attractive to viewers, but perhaps a bit discouraging to the up-and-comers to see how high the bar is set for EQD spotlighting?

I have no dog in this race personally, so to speak; and I could be completely wrong in this. But it is perhaps something to consider anyways.

ART: I generally have few complaints about the Drawifieds. 'Saucy' is handled well I think, where the rare flagged image does not show so those not interested are not viewing it. As long as they stay a 'saucy' PG-13 and do not wander into R or X territory, I think the status quo seems to be working alright. While I certainly loathe EqG, I do find that the fandoms artwork is generally much superior to the EqG Flash puppets and do not mind a mix of various subjects. Still prefer ponies being ponies though :D

Perhaps, much like I suggested with the PMV's, occasionally pick a younger 'up and coming' artist from the submissions and slide them in? As others had pointed out the age range of the fandom is pretty wide and I suspect that not too often you will find say a ten-year-old who can produce art at SouthParkTaoist's level. So perhaps throw them the occasional bone?

Again, I have no dog in this race either, I can draw a bow, I can draw a conclusion but I could not draw a straight line if my life depended on it, so just a thought, wither it is a good one or not is up to you.

COMICS: I do prefer the one-shots when it comes to comics, rather like reading the funnies in the paper. Multi-parters are also good, but one usually has to hop back a ways to get an idea of what is going on (not a bad thing; just a little more time intensive). Again, I think EqD is doing a good job with usually having a few of both styles in their comic posts.

FAN FICTION: I probably should read more of these then I do, and with Hiatus once again upon us I suspect it will be an increasing 'go to' source for those looking to get their pony fix in. I do have a list of favorites (I still re-read 'Exit Through Canterlot') and often find intriguing stories showcased in the posts. If I had any sort of complaint, is that perhaps the EQD FanFic showcase posts could be a bit larger/contain more stories?

MISC: I suppose the occasional update/big news post from 'Fightin' Herds' is not too onerous to see. As long as it does not turn into another EqG fangasm-fest on EQD, where every time the slightest hint of anything faintly resembling news is found; it immediately gets a post(s). One of those is more then enough already, thanks. Also, I still very much loathe EqG :D

If you are looking for suggestions to combat the hiatus blahs with, perhaps a 'Bronies around the World' thing? Interview/post things from JapanPonyCon, the Taiwan bronies, Mexico, and the like? It would mayhaps be something interesting. Art/Music/Videos they create, what their fandom branches do.

That Octavia plushie is super adorable! Amazing work!