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Dr. Hook never saw it coming. For less than the cost of buying five copies of Rolling Stone on the newsstand, you can now have online access to not only the current issue of the magazine devoted to rock 'n’ roll and the music industry but the contents — including the covers — of every issue since its debut more than 43 years ago.

Signing up for "Rolling Stone All Access" service costs $3.95 a month, or $29.99 a year. Online subscribers will automatically get a print subscription, which normally costs $19.95 a year. That works out to just more than $10 a year for access to the archives. Print subscribers don't automatically get online access; they must pay $2.50 a month for access to the archives.

All-Access customers will be able to see the full contents of each new issue of the weekly magazine, plus everything published there since 1967. I had some trouble getting to the Rollingstone.com site today, as news of the revamped site and new paid archive database has slowed the site. When I got there, I saw samples of the types of packaged stories and photos editors assembled. For example, you can get all the cover interview stories of selected artists such as Bob Dylan or Madonna.

The photo archives include some of the best rock photography on the planet, and site visitors can also listen to any piece of music as they read about it on the site. It seems tailor-made for the iPad, but no hint of the Rolling Stone app just yet.

The Rolling Stone has never included all the content from its print edition on its website. The new site, however, lets readers flip through and search every page of the complete replica of the print edition. Without the subscription, site visitors will now get an index, and samples of for-pay content, on the home page.

In an interview with Time magazine, Steven Schwartz, chief digital officer for the magazine's parent company, Wenner Media, referred to the archive as "the collected history of everyone who's grown up over the past 40 years."

See more on this story at: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1982533,00.html#ixzz0lZg05YTM

Is putting content behind a pay wall a good thing? Rolling Stone is among the first mainstream publications to try. By the looks of things, I'm pretty sure customers will like what they see. But it's far too soon to know whether revenue Rolling Stone gets from online subscriptions will offset advertising revenue lost by reducing the size of its online audience.

Stay tuned, and expect to see other publications follow the Rolling Stone’s lead if the rock magazine succeeds here.

And, if you plan to send five links to your mother, be sure to buy her an online subscription first.