Media institutions -magazines

Rock Sound Magazine

• The magazine is generally about music within the world of rock, including metal, pop-rock/punk, and metal core.

• The magazine’s USP is giving recognition to ‘underground’ artists, by discovering up and coming musicians

• It was first published in March 1999, by a French publisher, Editions Freeway, hence it is very popular in France, and in 2004, it was bought by Patrick Napier

• It is 100% independent, which means that, unlike other institutions such as Bauer Media, Rock Sound would need to employ an external publisher

• The magazine consists of covering as many bands, albums and live shows, with exclusive posters and interviews

• A free CD comes with every issue, similar to BBC Music

• The magazine’s target audience:

- Young people – the average age is 21

- They will be interested in the newest bands and names on the rock music scene

- They like to spend money on buying music and attending gigs (over £250 million spent a year)

- They must be fashionable (a total of £245 million spent on fashion)

Kerrang/MOJO/Q

• These magazines are all published by Bauer Media• Bauer Media Group is a conglomerate, multi-national institution, which

focuses on multi-platform media: print, digital, radio, TV as well as having print houses, postal services, distribution and marketing services

• They publish a variety of magazines of the following categories: angling, entertainment and music, football, gardening, lifestyle, outdoor, pets, photography, transport, etc.

• Whilst Bauer Media cater for niche brands, such as the Angling Times, it is very different to other institutions such as Rock Sound and CLASH as they are 100% independent and niche institutions who have a very specific objective of discovering new artists, as opposed to talking about famous ones already.

• Bauer Media also publish FHM

Kerrang

• Kerrang is a UK-based magazine, first published on 6 June 1981 and founded by Alan Lewis

• It is a weekly rock magazine

• The magazine is solely about different genres of rock music, from emo to thrash, etc

• It usually contains free posters with every issue, with exclusive interviews, competitions and reviews which contribute to reader interaction

• The primary target audience for the magazine is anyone interested in rock music, who often attend gigs, play instruments, and have a sharp fashion sense and lifestyle.

• Kerrang also have a radio player, and kerrang tv which means that they can promote their music to an even wider, national audience, along with their awards and partnership with Download Festival. They will be fairly young – teenagers to mid twenties

MOJO

• The media institution known as MOJO debuted in the form of a magazine in Britain, 1993

• It is a monthly magazine

• It was initially published by Emap, before being taken over by Bauer in January 2008

• The magazine is about classic rock music

• It consists of album reviews, a free CD with every special (similar to Rock Sound, CLASH and BBC Music), articles and interviews

• The general MOJO reader would be a passionate and discerning music, possibly a musician themselves and a music collector – therefore will spend a lot of money on music. They will probably also attend festivals, such as Latitude or Green Man Festival.

Q

• It was first published in October 1986• The magazine is all about finding out about the biggest music

news, reviews, and world exclusives with the most important bands on the planet – this contrasts with smaller institutions such as Rock Sound as they aim to discover new bands, rather than talk about the biggest and most important ones that already exist.

• It generally contains news articles of mainstream acts, exclusive interviews, song and album reviews and recommendations, etc

• General Q readers will be a passionate music fan, inspired by existing musicians, who will have minimal responsibilities. They will be a fairly young audience who still like to go out at nights and attend gigs and concert

BBC Music

• It is owned by BBC Worldwide – a public service broadcaster

• Immediate Media has bought a license from BBC Worldwide to publisher the magazine

• The magazine focuses mainly on classic music

• Much like Rock Sound, this magazine also comes with a free CD with every issue

• It’s target audience = 41 years old, 70% subscribe, 56% male, 46% female

Classic FM

• It was first launched in 1995, and published under John Brown Publishing, before transferring to Haymarket Publishing in 2000 when the contract ended

• It was a printed adaptation of the radio station, Classic FM, and was published in the UK every month

• The magazine was all about classical music, and would consist of reviews of recordings and live performances. Often it would include a free CD, too.

• The magazine no longer exists due to the fact that Haymarket would no longer publish the title as part of their company, which was under the license of Global Radio. This can be justified due to the circulation figures where, at its height, sold around 55,000 copies, before monthly figures falling to around 30,000 copies in the autumn of 2011.

• The magazine itself was rather niche, as they focus solely on classical music, similar to BBC Music, which can also be compared to Rock Sound and CLASH

Mixmag/The Word

• Both magazines are published by Development Hell Ltd, which is an independent company based in London.

• Judging by the name of the publisher, it is clear that their views of rebelling against society would be projected through their media texts.

The Word

• The Word magazine took a high-brow look at music and culture, whilst also trying to not sound too pretentious

• The Word magazine no longer exists after closing in July 2012, mainly due to the “dramatic changes in the media and the music business”. These changes clearly impacted on the small independent magazine, which made it unlikely to survive sufficiently. From 2010, their readership circulation had dropped by 5.7% year on year to 25,048

MixMag

• The monthly magazine was launched in 1982

• Unlike the Word, MixMag focuses on rather mainstream, electronic dance and clubbing music, whilst still being a rather small magazine

• The magazine generally covers dance event, and reviews music and club nights, often including a free mix cd

• The target audience is generally people who enjoy electronic music, and often go out for hardcore clubbing with friends. They will around the age of 20+.

CLASH

• The publisher is Music Republic

• It is mainly about fashion and popular music

• The magazine generally is about the latest new artists, including articles, reviews, information about artists – this is very similar to Rock Sound, in that they are an independent institution, which tries to nurture the latest talent, unlike Bauer Media which is much more mainstream

• They also have a website, which includes videos, promotions and competitions for prizes such as festival tickets - for audience interaction

Classic Rock

• It is a British magazine which started in 1998

• The publisher is TeamRock

• It is a monthly magazine, which costs £7.99 per issue

• It is about rock music, much like Rock Sound

• The magazine is packed with exclusive interviews and features on rock’s biggest names, including the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you will find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock.

• The target audience is primarily white, middle class, heterosexual men, who are in the social class C1-E, and aged between 14-30+

• TeamRock also owns Metal Hammer and Prog Rock magazine