The Music Magazine Marketplace

Here I will analyse two music magazines, and their place on the magazine marketplace, looking into how they are sold, how often they are published and released, and price.

NME

Released weekly since 1952, NME (new music express) started off in a newspaper format, becoming the UK’s biggest sold music publication, in 1998 it changed from a newsprint, to a weekly magazine.

NME was also the first magazine to include a singles chart, in my opinion this is an outstanding feature of many music magazines today. Nme, is priced at 2.20 (as of 2010), which is a lot cheaper than monthly magazines, for evident reasons.

Kerrang

Kerrang was first published in 1981, and is a weekly rock music magazine, and in 2000, became britains best selling music magazine.  It started as a column in sounds magazine, then became a monthly magazine, then to a fortnightly magazine, then to a weekly magazine, an unsual shift in publishing in the music magazine marketplace.

Kerrang is priced at 2.20 ( as of 2010), which is exactly the same of NME, as they are both weekly music magazines of similar length and features.

Publication Plan

After conducting my research into magazines and their features and conventions I have made my conclusions and am ready to start production of my magazines,

My magazine will be released monthly, as a large 104 page magazine, with a front cover, contents page and a double page spread as the main/cover feature

Using my own research into the music magazine marketplace and my own audience research, I have decided to price my magazine at £3.49, which is standard price for a magazine of its length and amount of features.

However the way my magazine will compete with others in the market will be its amount of features, with competitions and an extensive gig guide, and the lengthy article and pictures on the double page spread

Also with accurate recent news, and many images and reviews, my magazine can easily compete with others in the market

Sketch of DPS Pages

The music Magazine industry

The music magazine industry has always been popular  in the uk, with NME(new musical express) being the most popular since its first issue in 1952, and became the dominant music magazine for some time, causing many other competitors to cease publishing in future years.

In the turn of the 21^st century, many more music magazines emerged, to cater for the younger ‘pop’ generation, these included smash hits, and BBC’s top of the pops.

Several music magazines include a free album of music (usually a compilation of tracks by various artists), known in the publishing industry as a cover mount.

Many music magazines are usually produced by one company   with Q !, kerrang !  and mojo as a few examples of magazines created by publishing group EMAP.

Conventions of a Magazine Double Page Spread

Main body text

Category text

Web address

Gutter

Filler images

Captions

Brand/page number

Sidebar

Kicker

Dropcap

Feature image

College Magazine front cover