Music magazines
Everyone has a view on music and it’s a formative part of growing up, so it’s no surprise that magazines on the topic have been one of the most vibrant sectors in magazine publishing. Changing trends and new bands can make or break a title. Examples include:
- Melody Maker's jazz coverage established its position as the leading music weekly for half a century. Its 1928 'honours list' is regarded as the UK's first music chart;
- On 14 November 1952, New Musical Express published the first singles chart in the UK; Record Mirror also started a singles chart and was the first to run an album chart, from 28 July 1956;
- Beatlemania boosted the music weeklies and sparked several dedicated titles, both in the UK and US;
- Julie Burchill Tony Parsons famously answered an NME advert for 'hip, young gunslingers' and their writing about punk helped catapult the title ahead of rivals Melody Maker and Sounds
- in 1990, Smash Hits publisher Rita Lewis told Marketing Week (23 Feb, p22) that a fall in sales was down to a fickle market: 'We had an influx of new and very young readers last year ... They were mad about Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Bros and ran around buying everything that had them in. When the crest of the wave is over, you lose readers.'
- the 1990s club scene spawned Mixmag, Ministry and Muzik; however when the scene collapsed in 2003, it took down two of these titles too;
- The BBC launched Top of the Pops magazines as a brand extension for its long-running TV series; the series has ended but the magazine continues;
- Classic FM was one of the first national commercial radio stations in 1992. It helped expand the marker for classical and launched its own magazine;
- Emap (now Bauer) launched radio stations off the back of its music titles such as Kerrang!
- the tabloid weeklies Melody Maker, Record Mirror, Sounds and NME were nicknamed the 'inkies' (because the ink came off) but fashion turned against the tabloid format and their readership ebbed away to glossy, niche magazines. Only NME survives - having switched to a magazine format;
- demographics plays a role too. The post war baby boom supported the massive growth in rock and pop of the 1950s and 1960s; yet in 1990, the number of 17-24-year-olds was forecast to fall from 7 million to 6 million by 1995 (and then along came digital media and the web to finish off the likes of Smash Hits!);
- as CD sales have fallen with the advent of Kazaa, MP3 players, the iPod and mobile phones, magazines have lost advertising revenue, as well sales;
- NME has been credited with sparking the 'New Rave' trend in the summer of 2006.
Table 1 gives the sales figures for the main music magazines in 2008. Table 2 lists all the titles on this page with basic details such as publisher and launch (closing) date.
Music magazines in recent years can be categorised as:
- teen glossies, such as Smash Hits;
- the 'inkies' such as Melody Maker and NME that thrived on critical rock journalism in the 1970s, so named because the ink came off the tabloid newsprint pages so easily;
- style bibles, a genre created by The Face, reflecting the role of music and fashion in pop culture;
- critical monthly glossies such as Q, Mojo, Uncut and Word;
- genre-specific: Kerrang!, Mixmag, Songlines and The Wire;
- fanzines and underground titles such as Barbed Wire and Sniffin Glue. (Fanzines
by Teal Triggs was published by Thames & Hudson in 2010.)
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BBC Music Back to top Bristol Magazines.
Monthly. September 1992- In March 1993, a US edition was launched and then a German
language edition in autumn 1994. To celebrate
its 5th anniversary in 1997, BBC Music used a silver cover
and mounted a Yehudi Menuhin CD and postcards on its cover. |
BBC
Music Magazine
in March 1994 with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on the cover. Below
is the August 2008 cover featuring the Proms in London's Albert
Hall 
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Bang [closed] Back to top Future, London. Rock. April 2003- January 2004. Unusually, the Future logo was not carried on the cover. Bang aimed at a 16-24-year-old male rock audience. The launch run was 150,000, which was expected to settle down at 50,000. There was no supporting website - again, unusual for a Future title. The launch marked a departure from Future's usual formula
and markets (though the company did have two magazines for
guitarists). Bang was a monthly music title in small-A4
format that went straight up against established titles from
Emap and IPC, as well as Development Hell's recent launch Word.
It closed in January 2004 |
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Barbed Wire [closed] Back to topFred Pipes. 1978-1980, punk fanzine Punk-inspired zine published in Guildford (40p). Fanzines such as this followed in the footsteps of Private Eye, in using new technology. In this case, it was golfball typewriters and high street copy shops. The copies were stapled by hand and sold in record shops, schools and colleges in Guildford and Surrey - and as far way as Rough Trade in London. |
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Big! Back to top Emap Metro. Fortnightly / Monthly. 14 Mar 1990- The launch was designed to strengthen the group's share of the teenage market. It came out as a monthly; then going fortnightly - to alternate with pop title Smash Hits - on April 11. It focused on TV, music and film celebrities and cost 60p. Big sought out the same age group as Smash Hits, with an average age of about 15. It was promoted in Smash Hits and Just Seventeen. The managing editor was Bev Hillier, a former Just Seventeen editor; editor David Bostock had been art editor of the same title. Emap was aiming for an average 120,000 sales in the first year. In the first half of 1991, sales were at 257,584, while the company's Smash Hits fell 24.4 per cent year-on-year to 420,239. Dawn Bebe was appointed editor in 1993; she went on to launch Bliss in 1995 and edit New Woman in 1996 (where she instigated a Weird Willy spot). Big! was relaunched in 1994 with a heavier, glossy cover to reflect a more sophisticated readership. It was relaunched again in December 1999 with the Back Street Boys on the cover and the tag line 'Closer to the stars'. |
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Blender CD-Rom [closed] Back to top Dennis, 1995?- |
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Blender (US) Back to topDennis Inc. Monthly. May 2003- ‘The ultimate music magazine’was how Dennis described Blender, which drew on the massive reader base for men's magazine Maxim in the US with its 'Maxim presents...' tag line. The cover featured The White Stripes as 'The greatest rock and roll band in the world', TATU, and Eminem’s harem. Advertising for menthol cigarettes looked odd, but it was a big push with a four-page tip-in gatefold advert. The launch issue promoted a big subscription drive: $7.97 for 10 issues: 80% off. Andy Pemberton was editor of the 160-page launch issue.Dennis profile |
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Bullit [closed] Back to topNew Standard, London. December 2003- £3.50; 132pp. Ed: Steve Janes ‘New adventures in music and vision’ said the cover line, with the mag sparked off by the way technology was shaping the music and film industries |
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Clash Back to top Vibe Media, Dundee. Ten times a year. 2004- |
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Classic FM Back to top Contract magazine for Classic FM by John Brown. March 1995- By 2008, although its monthly ABC figure - at 41,412 - was lower
than BBC Music, fewer than 3,000 copies were sold overseas,
making it the biggest-selling classical title in the UK. |
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Classic Rock Back to top Dennis / Future / Team Rock. Monthly. 1999- In September 2002, Classic Rock sealed a deal with Sanctuary Records to produce four CDs entitled 'Rock of Ages'. Each CD was dedicated to a decade between 1962 and 2002. By December 2003, Classic Rock was selling 43,545
copies a month. |
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Cream [closed] Back to top Bob Houston. Rock. Monthly; 1971-73 There was also a shortlived 1988 men's magazine called Cream Guardian's Bob Houston obituary from 2005 |
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Digital DJ Back to top Future, London. June 2004 (one-off).
Practical/Playing |
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Encore [closed] Back to top July 1995. Haymarket; £2.25; 172 pages. Editor: Paul
Colbert |
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(The) Face [closed] Back to top Wagadon/ Emap. 1980 - May 2004 |
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Flipside [closed] TopVedapoint Ltd. 6 March 1999. 90p. Tabloid fortnightly. Flipside had a tabloid cover that disguised an A4 stapled format. The first issue cost 90p, going up to £1 for the next issue. ‘We are not your enemy’ was its motto. |
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(The) Fly Back to topChannelfly. 10 times a year. Rock. 2001- |
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Future Music Back to top Future, London. Monthly.
Practical/Playing/Music technology. November 1992- Other titles published at the time were SOS Publications' Sound on Sound and Music Technology from Music Maker Publications. In
September 1996, Future built on the launch by buying Music Maker Publications,
which came with Guitarist, Guitar
Techniques,
The Mix, Rhythm, Bassist, Hip
Hop Connection and Keyboard Review magazines
as well as the London Music Fair, the National Guitar Show and
the
Musician Net
website. In early 2000, it bought Metal Hammer and Classic
Rock from Dennis. |
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(The) Gramophone Back to top Gramophone Publications / Haymarket, London. Monthly. April
1923- Gramophone is not a title to hide its light under a bushel. The website proclaims: 'From its peerless - and fearless - reviews to its penetrating interviews with the world's leading classical music artists Gramophone magazine is simply unmatched.' However, sales peaked at almost 70,000 in about 1992 and stood
at 36,817 in early 2008. About half of these are overseas. It
is being given a run for its money by BBC Music, which
sells 47,104 a month, again almost half overseas. |
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Guitar & Bass Back to top IPC Media, London.13/year. Practical/Playing. 1991-For serious
guitarists and bass enthusiasts, aged 30-40. Carries instrument
tests, playing techniques, a bass section and features on guitar
heroes. Publisher’s data suggests 60% of readers
have played for more than 10 years. |
Guitar
and Bass cover from August 2008
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Guitar Techniques Top
Future, Bath. 13/year. Practical/Playing.1994- |
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Guitarist Top
Future, Bath. 13/year. Practical/Playing.1984- |
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Hip Hop Connection [closed] Top Music Maker Publications/Future, London. Monthly. -August 2001 |
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(The) Hit [closed] Back to topIPC/Holborn Publishing Group, September 1985 Around the same time, rival publisher Emap was investigating
the men's market but rather than a general interest magazine
launched music title Q for
men aged 18-30. |
The
Hit launch issue with Style Council's Paul Weller on
the cover
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Hot Press (Eire) Back to top Osnovina,
Dublin. Fortnightly. Rock. 1978- |
Hot
Press - Irish music magazine that stresses its journalistic
credentials
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Ikon [closed] Back to topEuropean Consumer Pubs, London. Monthly. September 1995-? Chris Roberts was editor of this title, which covered music, film and sport (99p; 132 pp). The first issue carried a plastic 'privilege card' on the cover for discounts on events and products. The main cover line was: 'I'm not homosexual and I'm not heterosexual. I'm...sexual' with Paul Morley interviewing the 'wild one' of REM. Other articles covered: Belly; Alan Shearer; Kevin Costner; Martin Amis; Blur's football focus; Eddie Irvine; Sandra Bullock; Black Grape; Batman; Christina Ricci; and Soul II Soul. |
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Kerrang! Back to top Spotlight Publications (United) / Emap / Bauer. Heavy metal. Weekly.
June 1981- Emap launched Kerrang! as a national digital radio
station in
2000 and there is also a TV channel. Kerrang! now claims
to be the world's biggest-selling rock weekly, having vied with NME for
the top-selling UK position since 2002. There
are also Australian and Spanish versions. |
Kerrang! issue
4 with German heavy metal guitarist
Michael Schenker on the cover. Below is the 6 August 2008
cover 
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Kicks [closed] Back to top Teenage Kicks, London. Pop. MOnthly. November 1981-? The editor of the 48-page magazine was Bert MacIver with design by Andy Dark. Only the centre 8 pages and cover were printed in colour. Contributors included Robin Bextor. |
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Kingsize [closed] Top Emap Performance,
London. Monthly. April-August 2001. |
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Klub Knowledge Back to top Music HQ Media, Watford. |
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Melody Maker (MM) Back to topLongacre Press/ IPC. Weekly 1926- Melody Maker was founded in 1926 for musicians. It developed a strength in jazz and was always regarded as more serious than its great rival (and stablemate at IPC) New Musical Express. As late as 1963, it was described in the Writers' and Artists' Year Book as seeking: 'Technical, instructional and informative articles on jazz and pop music'. By the mid-1970s it was selling 250,000 copies a week but was slow to respond to the arrival of punk and lost sales to Sounds and NME. IPC claimed to have spent £1 million overhauling New Musical Express and Melody Maker in March 1998. However, sales carried on falling. NME reported a year-on-year decline of 13.5% to 92,367 while Melody Maker's circulation fell 11.5% year on year. By mid-2000 MM was down to 32,206 while NME had stemmed its decline at 76,215. In 1999, Melody Maker relaunched as an A4 glossy magazine.
The 22 December 1999 edition was a double issue to
cover the fortnight over Christmas and New Year. At 112 pages
it was described as the biggest ever issue by IPC and cost £1.70.
However, the change failed and a year later it was taken over
by
NME. |
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Metal Hammer Back to topDennis / Future / Team Rock. Monthly. Dennis launched Metal Hammer and sold it in
January 2000 along with its website and three other magazines
(including Classic
Rock) to Future. The rock metal metal title claimed to
lead the 16 to 21-year-old market at the time. By December 2003, Metal
Hammer was selling 35,876 copies
a month. In turn, Future sold Classic Rock and Metal Hammer to Team Rock in April 2013 for £10.2 million. |
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Ministry [closed] Back to top Dennis contract for Ministry
of Sound club. January1998 - December 2002.
Editor: Pauline
Haldane |
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Mix [closed] Back to top
Rapid 469, London W2. Pop. Monthly. October 1986-? |
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Mixmag Back to top DCM/Emap/Development Hell, London. Monthly, 1983- |
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Mojo TopEmap/Bauer, London. November 1993. 10 issues a year, misses Feb and Aug. Ed: Paul du Noyer. 132 pp. £2.25. Dylan and Lennon cover |
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Mojo Specials TopEmap. March 2002. |
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Muzik [closed] Back to top IPC, London. Monthly. June 1995-2003 The idea was sparked by the dance pages of Melody Maker. Muzik sought an audience of '18-to-30-year-old men with disposable income who are obsessed with music and looking good' said Campaign ('IPC reveals plans for dance-music launch,' 10 March 1995, p7). It was also expected to appeal to readers with a similar profile to Loaded, which had launched a year earlier. Advertisers were guaranteed an initial circulation of 35,000 copies. Its first ABC came in at 40,544. Sales were 42,034 in 1998, though it was overshadowed by newcomer Ministry, which saw a first ABC of 61,395. It fell back to 40,097 in 2000. By 2001, though, dance music was back in vogue and magazine sales reflected this, with the market as a whole growing 20%. Emap's Mixmag, saw its sales rise by nearly half, to 106,111. Ministry was at 90,235, despite a dip of 5% period on period. Muzik reversed a two-year downturn with a 9% rise to 43,748. The April 2002 issue was relaunched for men in their twenties who were more serious dance music fans and budding DJs, and moved away from covering fashion and youth culture. It reflected Muzik's position behind Emap's Mixmag, selling 100,400, and Ministry at 75,200. Editor Conor McNicholas saw the title as as the serious voice of the sector, like 'a dance music Q' ('Radical editorial revamp for Muzik,’ PR Week, 9 November 2001, p9). It carried a covermounted CD. In June 2002, McNicholas became editor of NME, but his relaunch had not worked: by August the title was seen as 'troubled', having dropped 11.2% in sales to 36,018. This was due to a downtown in the the club sector - Ministry closed before the year ended. In July 2003, IPC announced the closure of Muzik. Media Week reported the title was "no longer economically viable" following the demise of the clubbing scene. Tim Brooks, managing director of IPC Ignite!, said: 'Sadly, nothing [the staff] could do in isolation was going to turn around this sector of the music market.' The sharp decline in the sector was demonstrated by Mixmag losing
34.7% of its sales year, from 91,944 to 60,070. Muzik sold just
36,089 copies. |
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Neon [closed] Back to topEmap, London. January 1997 The first issue, a sample, came boxed with an issue of Select. As well as the two magazines, the box held:
However, Neon was not mentioned on the box! |
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New Musical Express (NME)TopIPC, London. 1952- By 1973 NME was selling almost 300,000 copies a week, ahead of weekly rivals, Melody Maker, Disc, Record Mirror and Sounds. Launched in Russia in 2001. In May 2006,
an IPC press release claimed: 'The NME is the biggest-selling and most
respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the
most exciting, wittiest, most authoritative coverage of the very
best in music.' |
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No 1 / Number One [closed] TopHolborn Publishing Group (IPC)/BBC Enterprises, London. Weekly. 1985-1990 No 1 was a pop weekly aimed at the 13-to-19 age group. Reports said £343,500 was spent on TV advertising for the launch and the title was selling 146,302 copies a week by 1988. (Chartbeat was launched as a fortnightly on alternate weeks to Emap's Smash Hits at the same time but soon folded.) At the start of 1989, No1 was selling 130,721 copies a week - but fortnightly Smash Hits was roaring away at Emap with 786,886. No1 was redesigned with a more sophisticated look and logo under editor Colin ‘French Kiss’ Irwin. Columnists included Pete Waterman with a Hitman! piece, Help!, with Pat Thomas answering queries and Parlez-vous Pop? However, circulation wilted in the face of the competition from
Emap to 102,347. In April 1990, IPC sold the 'ailing' Number
One to
BBC Enterprises, which announced it was suspending publication
from August 8 to prepare for a relaunch in
October. Former Fast Forward editor
Nicky Smith, said No1 had lost its way under IPC
as it tried to appeal to an older readership.
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Notion Back to topGrew out of Klub Knowledge. Notion magazine website |
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Observer Music Monthly Back to top Observer newspaper, London. Free supplement;
68pp. Ed: Caspar Llewellyn Smith
21 September 03- |
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Opera Now Back to top Opera Now Enterprises / Rhinegold, London. Monthly; later 6
a year. April 1989- |
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Play Music / Pickup Back to top Genoa Bay Publishing / Standfirst Media,
Kent. Monthly. November 2006- The magazine has since changed its name to Play
Music Pickup,
with the masthead stressing the final word, suggesting it is
trying to change its name. It is published by Standfirst Media and
the editor is Tim Slater. |
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Pop Ten [closed] Back to topA. Hand, Heanor, Derbyshire. Pop. Pocket format monthly. 1962-? Pop Ten was a pocket format title (1/-; 32pp; editor: D. Cardwell) printed in black and white with spot blue on the cover. Its big selling point was a chart based on votes by readers. In the May issue shown here, Cliff had taken over from Elvis in poll position (as at April 1). Readers' top artistes were: Cliff (2,829 votes); Elvis (2,640); Billy Fury (1,368); Bobby Vee (1,119); Shadows (1,110); Adam Faith (750); Eden Kane (693); Helen Shapiro (579); John Leyton (405); Kookie (288). The chart ran to 20 names (Russ Conway was 19th with 96 votes and Chubby Checker 20th with 78). The centre spread carried a picture of Presley in Blue Hawaii. Other full-page photos were devoted to: Billy Fury; The Shadows; Bobby Vee; Adam Faith; the Everly brothers; John Leyton; Helen Shapiro; Eden Kane; and Cliff (back page). The articles carried details of the latest singles and addresses for the artiste's fan club. Readers could also prints of some of the images. A classified advert on page 3 was from the editor selling copies of Movieteen, a US title, which he had bought in Hollywood . |
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Popworld Pulp [closed] Back to topBrooklands Group. Weekly. 11-18 April 2007 |
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Q Back to topThe Emap triumverate of editor Mark Ellen, editorial director David Hepworth and art director Andy Cowles was behind this launch. In his first issue note, Mark Ellen wrote: 'Magazines tend to bracket people by taste, or what they assume that taste to be. This is a magazine that doesn't. but still brings you a wide range of news, comment, interviews and insight. We don't presume to know what you like but we hope you like this.' Paul McCartney was the subject for the first Q interview, setting the tone for the magazine (and Ellen and Hepworth's later launch Word). In September 2001, Emap Performance
Network announced it was to launch a masthead TV show based on Q. The
show will be called QTV. And Radio Q will be broadcast 24 hours a day,
seven days a week across north London, starting in October. |
Q
first issue with Paul McCartney as the main feature
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Rave [closed] Back to top Pop. Monthly. February 1964-1969? |
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Raw (Rock Action Worldwide) [closed] Back to top Rogue/Emap, London. Fortnightly / Monthly. 31 August-13 September
1988 - December 1995 The editor was Malcolm Dome; managing editor Dante Bonutto; and the design was by Mike Sinister. The associate publisher was former pop star Jonathan King, shown dressed in a schoolboy costume playing a guitar. In 2001, King was jailed for four indecent assaults and two serious sexual offences on boys aged 14 and 15. He served half of the seven-year term. In April 1989, Emap bought the title, which claimed a circulation of up to 35,000. Sales rumbled along at 25,00-30,000 but the title always trailed behind Emap's weekly Kerrang (which it had bought when United Consumer Magazines was closed by the Express newspapers group in 1991). In 1995, Emap took Raw off the shelves for several weeks and relaunched it with a sample issue free with a boxed edition of monthly Select. The aim was to base the title on pictures and news to complement Emap's Select an additional, more frequent, read. However, it closed within five months. |
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Record Mirror (RM) [closed] TopSpotlight Publications (United Consumer Magazines) ?- April 1991 Record Mirror published the first UK album chart in 1956. In the 1970s, it was selling 136,000 copies a week, though it always lagged behind the likes of NME and Melody Maker. Like all the tabloid 'inkies' its circulation fell in the mid-1980s. Between 1985 and 1988, it dropped 28 per cent. It switched to a glossy magazine format to try to compete with the likes of Smash Hits and the many launches of the period. The editorial strategy and design switched as well. However, this did not halt its decline. Although advertising was healthy and it had found a niche in the dance scene with a readership among DJs, it was selling just 31,000 copies a week. So it was taken into the business title Music Week as a charts supplement in 1991, at the same time as the company closed Sounds. The publisher, Daily Express owner United, was by this stage pulling out of consumer magazines to concentrate on its business arm. It sold its other titles to Emap. |
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Revolver (US) Back to top Future. Monthly. Heavy metal |
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Rhythm Back to top Future, Bath. 13/year. Practical/Playing. 1985-Drumming magazine
comes with a CD to help readers improve their playing. |
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Rip and Burn [closed] Back to topHaymarket, London. November 04 £3.30; 164pp. Ed: Matt Snow The offer of a free 30-day trial with the new, paid-for version of Napster, and Eminem on the cover are clear signs that this launch aimed at MP3-carrying youth. However, it only lasted for a handful of issues. |
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Rock Sound Back to topThere have been two magazines with this name:
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Rolling Stone Back to top In June 1969, US fortnightly music magazine Rolling
Stone launched
a British edition. The Who's Pete Townsend was the cover image.
The format was a tabloid newspaper, like the 'inkies', but it
folded over to an A4 format with the cover shown here. The idea
has been used many times, including with Flipside. However,
the attempt was a failure and the UK version closed after a few
months. |
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Rotations [closed] Back to top November/December 1996. Rotations UK. £2.95.
Editor: Steve Edwards |
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RWD Back to top RWD Media, London. Dance. Monthly. |
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Select [closed] Back to topUnited Consumer Magazines/Emap. Monthly. June 1990-2001 £1.50; 164pp. Ed: Tony Stewart Select pitched itself as a a younger version of Q. United put a £500,000 advertising budget behind the launch and was estimated to have sold 109,845 copies (the . guarantee to advertisers was 75,000). Q was selling 159,047 copies a month in the second half of 1989. ‘Mixing music every month’. Issues carried cassette tapes on the cover. It was taken over by Emap. In December 1995 (£2; 148pp. Ed: Jon Hotten), the magazine came in a box with the Stone Roses on the front in a graphic style reminiscent of washing powder. As well as the magazine, the box contained:
In January 1997 (£2.30; 132pp. Ed: John Harris), Emap
used the same idea to kickstart the launch of Neon. |
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Smash Hits! [closed] Back to top Emap. Monthly. November 1978 - 13 February
2006. Smash Hits! was a springboard for many journalists, including founding editor Nick Logan (The Face), David Hepworth and Mark Ellen (who together founded Word publisher Development Hell), Barry McIlheney and Heat editor Mark Frith. The week the closure was announced, a copy of the first issue sold on Ebay for £30. The seller, Ruth, said: 'I bought it. Smash Hits! was the best pop magazine of its time. I'm 35 now and I used to buy it regularly from about the age of 8 to 13. I remember tearing out the posters to cover my walls and singing along really girlie to the songs.' A book, The Best of Smash Hits by Mark Frith (editor),
was published by Little, Brown in 2006 at £14.99. |
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Songlines Back to top£3.80; 116pp. Ed: Simon Broughton Launched in 1999, Songlines is published eight times a year and 'looks at the world through its music'. It is edited by Simon Broughton, co-editor of The Rough Guide to World Music. Coverage is from traditional and popular to contemporary and fusion; from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe; from Miriam Makeba to Mariza; from Gilberto Gil to Gogol Bordello and from Bjork to Buena Vista Social Club. Each issue is distributed with a world music sampler CD. Cover price: £4.95. The 50th issue - a collector's edition of 50 great moments in world music - is available as a free digital sampler of Songlines. |
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Sound (Australia) [closed] Top
Folio Publishing Pty Ltd, Sydney. October 1967
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Sounds [closed] Back to topSpotlight Publications (United Newspapers). Weekly. Rock/Heavy
Metal. October 1970-April 1991 |
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Tense [closed] Back to top Tense. July, 2003-?. |
Tense magazine first issue in July 2003
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Terrorizer Back to topDark Arts, London. Heavy metal. Monthly. October 1993 - Terrorizer bills itself as 'the world's number one magazine for extreme music of ANY kind ... Whether it's Metal, Hardcore or Industrial'. The list includes Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal/Grindcore, Doom/Stoner Metal, Hardcore, Punk, Industrial, Noise, Ambient/ Experimental and Gothic. About half of its monthly sales are made overseas. Each issue
comes with a cover-mounted CD and poster; there is a free
digital edition on offer every Thursday. The
editor (August 2008) is Joseph Stannard. |
Terrorizer
magazine
in 1998 featuring Iron Maiden - and an even creepier cover
from July 2008 below
 Top of the Pops first issue cover in March 1995 |
Top of the Pops Back to top BBC Worldwide, London. Fortnightly. March 1995- Six months later, BBC TV announced the end of Top
of the Pops,
the world's longest running weekly music show (started in January
1964). The closure cast doubt over the magazine spin-off, whose
sales had dropped to 96,576. However, with the
demise of Smash Hits, TotP's sales recovered
to 105,025 by 2007. |
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Total Guitar Back to top Future, Bath. 13/year. Practical/Playing. 1996- |
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Touch [closed] Back to top Studio 606, London. March 1991-?. Star writer was Troy Convers (an alias gleaned form 'controversy'). His column Troy's Tales continued from Free! and 'caused the most distress and ... has consistently been the most popular of our contributors'. The magazine was a breeding ground for photographers, who included Eddie Otchere, Rupert Sanders - who was art director and took the photograph of Snoop Dogg seen here - Will Bankhead and Simon Bower. Ran for at least 50 issues (August 1985 cover date). |
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Trash [closed] Back to top Contract title for Ministry of Sound by Conde
Nast. July/Aug 2003 Unconventional sectioning (eg 20 pages
of city reviews, from Newcastle to Tokyo); grungy, underdesigned look and typography
gave a fanzine feel; some unfortunate spreads resulted in editorial merging
into adverts; naive, line graphics; used price-labels to pick
out text. Several house ads for Ministry and Conde Nast's Glamour magazine
CD (!). Target sales 100,000. Closed after just one issue. |
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Uncut Back to topIPC; JUne 1997. £1.50 (special); 164 pp. Ed: Allan Jones The music and movie magazine. Ads for Eat Soup and MBR www.uncut.net |
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Unzip CD-rom [closed] Back to top IPC/Zone, 1995-? |
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Vox [closed] Back to topOct 90. IPC. 95p (£1.50). Editor: Roy Carr. Vox was IPC's response to Emap's Q (and had been talked about for a year under the name Max). It appeared with a format slightly larger than A4 and came with a 32-page magazine insert, Record Hunter, for collectors. The cover price was £1.50 but the launch issue was 95p to encourage sampling. IPC Holborn Group managing director Mike Tudball was reported at the time as saying that free cassette tapes (used on Select for example) performed badly in research.The 150,000 print run was supported by a £500,000 media campaign and advertisers in the magazine were guaranteed a 65,000 average circulation for the first three issues. Record Hunter relied on classified advertising and
would
have become a standalone title had it succeeded. |
|
The Wire Back to topNamara Group (1984-2000); The Wire Magazine Ltd. Non-mainstream. Monthly. 1982-The Wire started as a jazz magazine but broadened out over the years to embrace alternative, underground and non-mainstream music across the globe. Coverage includes avant rock, electronica, hip hop, new jazz, modern composition and traditional music. Its tagline is ‘Adventures in Modern Music’.In 1984, the title was bought up by Naim Attallah, a former foreign exchange dealer and book publisher, who was the backer for The Literary Review and also later The Oldie (a certain irony here in that during his tenure as Private Eye editor, Oldie founder Richard Ingrams had lampooned Attallah as the ‘The Ayattallah’). By the time Attalah retired at the end of 2000, The Wire was established and was bought out by publisher Tony Harrington and the staff.The Wire is widely distributed internationally and is involved in running several international music festivals. |
|
Word Back to top Development Hell, London. March 2003-. £3.50. 132 pages.
Editor: Mark Ellen For the 50th issue, editor Mark Ellen discussed what issues
had sold in an
interview with Ian Burrell
in the Independent.
Ellen, a former editor of both Q and Smash Hits,
said the September 2003 edition with Dido as the cover star remained
'both nailed and glued to the shelves'. A Prince cover had a
similar effect, but for Tom Waits 'extra forests were felled
to sustain monumental sales boost'. |
|
X-Ray [closed] TopContract title by Swinstead, London for Xfm. November 2002.
£2.50;
132 pp. Ed: Rich Sutcliffe. “The
music of tomorrow.” With free CD on card backing; handbag-sized. Issue
2 in Feb 03; then monthly |
|
Zig Zag [closed] TopMentorbridge, London / Emap. April 1969-198? Indie rock magazine founded in 1969 that was bought up by Emap but closed in the 1980s.Emap tried to relaunch Zig Zag in 1990 with a distribution deal through Our Price Records, but it folded after just one issue. The relaunch would have put the Emap Consumer Magazines division in competition with Emap Metro's successful Q, though it would have aimed at a slightly younger audience. |
Zigzag -
first issue of the rock monthly in 1969 
10cc's
'I'm Mandy Fly Me' inspired this pre-punk cover in 1976
Top-selling music magazines (2008) Back to top |
||||
| Title | Publisher | Genre | ABC figure* | |
| Q (M) | Emap/Bauer | Rock | 131,330 | |
| Mojo (M) | Bauer | Rock | 106,218 | |
| Top of the Pops (F) | BBC Magazines | Pop | 105,025 | |
| Uncut (M) | IPC
Media |
Rock | 91,028 | |
| Kerrang! (F) | Emap/Bauer |
Rock | 76,937 | |
| Classic Rock (M) | Future
Publishing |
Rock | 67,399 | |
| New Musical Express (W) | IPC Media | Rock | 64,033 |
|
| Total Guitar (M) | Future Publishing | Practical/playing | 48,673 | |
| BBC Music Magazine (M) | Bristol Magazines | Classical | 47,104 |
|
| Metal Hammer (M) | Future Publishing | Rock | 45,809 |
|
| Sources: ABC *Jul-Dec 2007 | ||||
Music : details and sales Back to top |
|||
| Title | Publisher | Genre / Launch date | Sales 2007* |
| BBC Music Magazine (M) | Bristol Magazines | 47,104 |
|
| Big! (M) | Emap | Pop 1990 | closed |
| Classic Rock (M) | Dennis / Future | Rock 1999 | 67,399 |
| Classic FM: The Magazine (M) | Haymarket Media | Classical | 41,412 |
| Cream (M) | Bob Houston | Rock 1971 | closed |
| (The) Fly (10/year; free) | Channelfly Enterprises | Rock | 103,051 |
| (The) Face | Wagadon/Emap | Music/lifestyle | closed |
| Future Music (M) | Future Publishing | Practical/Playing | 9,787 |
| Gramophone (M) | Gramophone Publications | Classical | 36,817 |
| Guitar Techniques (M) | Future Publishing | Practical/Playing | 20,924 |
| Guitarist (M) | Future Publishing | Practical/Playing | 29,419 |
| Hot Press (M) | Osnovina | Rock | 19,215 |
| Kerrang! (F) | Emap/Bauer | Rock | 76,937 |
| Metal Hammer (M) | Future Publishing | Rock | 45,809 |
| New Musical Express (M) | IPC Media | Rock | 64,033 |
| Mojo (M) | Bauer | Rock | 106,218 |
| Mixmag (M) | Development Hell | Dance | 35,817 |
| No 1 / Number One (W) | Holborn Group (IPC) | Pop 1985-1990 |
closed
|
| Pop Ten | A. Hand | Pop 1962 | closed |
| Popworld Pulp | Brooklands / Channel 4 | Pop April 2007 | closed
April 2007 |
| Q | Emap/Bauer | Rock | 131,330 |
| Rhythm | Future Publishing | Other | 9,914 |
| Rock Sound | Rock Sound | Rock | 23,021 |
| RWD | RWD Media | Dance | 33,266 |
| Smash Hits (M) | Emap | Pop 1978 | closed
2006 |
| Songlines | Songlines Publishing | World, 1999 | n/a |
| Total Guitar (M) | Future Publishing | Practical/playing | 48,673 |
| Top of the Pops (F) | BBC Worldwide | Pop 1995 | 105,025 |
| Touch (M) | Studio 606 | Dance / clubbing | n/a |
| Terrorizer (M) | Dark Arts | Heavy metal 1994 | 14,952 |
| Uncut (M) | IPC Media | Rock | 91,028 |
| (The) Wire (M) | The Wire Magazine Ltd | Non-mainstream (1992) | n/a |
| Word (M) | Development Hell | Other | 33,217 |
| Zig Zag (M) | Mentorbridge | Heavy metal | closed |
*Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) |
|||
