MUSIC MAGAZINE INTRODUCTION

For my music magazine it will be a niche magazine focused on the subculture of alternative or indie music since it seems that the people who listen to this music and like it enough to buy a magazine on it, include this music into their culture therefore making music a key point in their life. Although it is the mainstream music that is usually in the charts, it seems people still buy niche music magazines every week, for example Kerrang! or Base, in order to find the newest music which appeals to them. People also listen to radio shows, such as Zane Lowe on Radio 1, in order to hear the best, new music, as well as reviews and general music gossip. However, there are already several very popular music magazines focused on rock music, such as NME and Q, therefore there would be a lot of competition, especially as they have other successful platforms such as www.nme.com. For this reason I decided in order to make my magazine stand out in the industry and have a large enough target audience, it will be focused on live music. To people who consider music to be a very big concept in their lifestyle, live music is the best music there is, therefore this magazine could attract those who are interested in the newest tours, tickets, or reviews. I would also include interviews and album reviews. I will make my magazine a glossy magazine, but keeping the original "inkie" idea by making the reviews and interviews not have a wide variety of colour and making the font formal like in the newspapers. I thought in order to create a magazine which would fit well in the industry I would have to research successful magazines with a rock or alternative subculture, in order to see what it is about them that people find appealing.


NME Magazine is published by IPC Media, who are a leading publishing brand in the UK, publishing 80 magazines, with a very wide variety, from Country Life, to Marie Claire, with NME being their only music magazine. It came around in 1952 and nowadays this magazine costs £2.20 and is released on a weekly basis. NME stands for New Musical Express. It has a website, NME.com, which includes it's radio, and most of things which are usually in the magazine, such as reviews. NME's tag line is "first for music news" which appeals to music fans who want to know about all live dates and album's being released. It includes reviews, interviews, music news and tour dates.

Kerrang! Magazine is published by Bauer Media, who have 80 media brands and 20 local radio stations. some of the brands Bauer Media publish are Heat, Grazia, FHM and Closer. It costs £2.20 and it is released weekly, and started in 1981. Kerrang! like NME has many different platforms such as  a website, radio,  and clothing store. Kerrang! is a rock magazine, and rock magazines have been popular since the rock fanzies were introduced into the media. It includes the same things as NME does, but with more double page spread interviews.