Music Magazine - Task 1

Music Magazine - Task 1

A music magazine is a magazine which is dedicated to releasing music to the music culture, and help promote different kinds of artists throughout the genre they are associated with. Music magazines usually provide interviews, photo shoots, reviews, event dates, and some times have cover mounts with recorded music from a selected band or artist. 

The history of music magazines originate back to 1894 of a magazine named 'Billboard' magazine, although BIllboard didn't gain major popularity in 1936. But the first UK music magazine which was released was a magazine which was named BMG, which looks at learning the audience to learn how to play guitar or any kind of fretted instrument. The magazine BMG is still currently in product

ion, and is the UK's longest serving music magazine publication to date. But ever since the rise of this magazine publication of BMG, it has made room for the likes of NME, Q, etc. to be created which then have made their own success and then creating a cycle of other magazines to emerge, especially in todays modern music culture. 

Music magazines vary for their target audiences so they span out and attract people to get a magazine associated with their favourite genre of music. The likes of NME usually attract the audiences of the rock genre specifically, but from the 1980's they decided to include the likes of RnB into their magazine to gather a whole new range of an audience from a different genres. But also, Q magazine seems to interest all different kinds of audiences by including a various amount of genres in the magazine to attract many people to buy their magazine so therefore more people will end up buying the magazine. And for the likes of Mixmag, it mainly appeals to people who are majorly interested in EDM music ranging from house, trance, etc. From this, there are many different kinds of magazines which appeals to everyone, even to the niche audiences, as there are many profitable areas in music as many people like different kinds, so there will always be something new. 

The most popular music magazine in production in the UK is The Fly. The Fly is a free magazine published monthly in the UK and its circulation is 104.5k. The Fly has been in around since 1999 and has remained popular since. Writers from NME, Q Magazine, Kerrang!, etc also contribute to write the magazine. The Fly is a small magazine, being A5 sized, and is usually distributed around shops, cafe's, bats, record shops, etc. The most popular music magazine globally is Q magazine. Although distributed in many other place in the world, such as America, it is still a very popular magazine has it covers a broad spectrum of genre's in which many people like and admire. Without the variation in genre's Q offers, it would most likely not be as popular. 

I think there is hardly a future for music magazines or no future at all. The reason behind this is because we live in such a modern culture, in which everything is ran by technology and it makes it easier for people to get information for free, as opposed paying for a magazine which gets released monthly. The internet is updated every day and there will always be something new. The likes of social media also become apart of this as you may follow pages or people who give you regular updates with their own status, posts, etc. which makes it very hard for magazine publishers to keep up. It will only ever get better to receive information from the likes of the internet, and there will be a time when magazine publishers will have to stop releasing magazines and turn toward becoming digital. Magazine publishers have indeed made an attempt to regain more profit by releasing articles on their own websites, but show no signs of improving. So in conclusion, magazine publishers would most likely have to turn digital at some point full time to keep their audience in tact and informed, other wise it would be the beginning of their own downfall. 

Mixmag featuring Pendulum, well known Drum N' Bass group.

I don't necessarily have a favourite magazine as I do not read them, well not music magazines, but a magazine which I would be interested in buying would be MixMag, or even Kerrang!. I would choose MixMag as I am a very big fan of the EDM genre, especially more towards Drum N' Bass. I have read MixMag once before and it has featured some of my favourite Drum N' Bass producers and Dj's in it. I was fairly happy to see some of the artists in there, especially reading some articles and finding out new releases and album / EP reviews from certain artists, etc. The covers are very attractive to buy as a fan of the genre as it is upbeat, colourful and vibrant. It would immediately make me drawn toward the magazine, because of the features and what it includes in the magazine as a whole. 

Kerrang! magazine featuring one my favourite bands: Parkway Drive.

I would also choose Kerrang! like being a fan of the EDM genre, I am a big fan of many kinds of rock music, more specifically heavy metal, metalcore, etc. I have never read Kerrang! before but it does really make me want to buy the magazine as it does, like Mixmag, make me want to buy the magazine as it features news on my favourite bands, which I love to be updated about. Kerrang! is also a good source to find very small bands to listen to and become a fan of. The magazine style is very relatable to the rock genre and you would immediately tell that Kerrang! would appeal to the 'metalhead' as the use of colours, layout, fonts relate to the genre.