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In this video I will be looking at the music magazine industry, where I will be looking
at music magazines produced by media conglomerates Bauer Media, IPC Media and Future Publishing.
This task fulfils Assessment Objective 4. Bauer Media own several music magazines in
the UK. These include titles such as Kerrang!, MOJO and Q, which appeal to fans of rock music.
The latter two are published monthly whereas Kerrang! is published weekly. IPC Media own
magazines such as NME which, like Kerrang!, is published weekly. Future Publishing own
music magazines Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, which are published monthly.
Most of these magazines cater for mainstream audiences because rock music is one of the
main genres of music that audiences listen to. Metal Hammer and Classic Rock cater for
niche audiences as younger readers wouldn’t usually listen to that genre of music.
Out of these music magazines I am going to be analysing three of them; Kerrang!, NME
and MOJO. Kerrang! is a rock music magazine published
weekly by Bauer Media, at a cost of £2.20. It initially began as a supplement in former
newspaper Sounds in 1981, before becoming a separate magazine later on. It was sold
from United Newspapers to EMAP in 1991, and then onto Bauer Media in 2008. According to
ABC, Kerrang! sells 43,000 copies per issue, about 6,000 of those subscribe to the magazine.
Here are some statistics about Kerrang! readers. Most Kerrang! readers are aged 15-24 (61.7%
of their total readership), 54.1% of the total readers are ABC1, 71.3% of the total readers
are male, and the median age of readers is 22. Kerrang! readers are 5.5x more likely
to attend a rock gig. Kerrang! readers buy 6 albums per month on average (53% more than
the national average) and 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums.
NME is a rock music magazine published weekly by IPC Media that costs £2.30. The magazine
was first published in March 1952 as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine
format during the 1980s. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart in
November 1952. The target market of NME is men aged 17-30; 70% of all NME readers are
male, the median age of all readers is 25, 35% of readers are students, and 57% of readers
are ABC1. ABC report that NME sells 29,000 copies per weekly issue, that’s 14,000 less
copies than Kerrang!, with around 7,000 of those coming from subscriptions to the magazine.
NME readers are 3 times as likely to convince friends and family about what mobiles to buy.
The NME audience are very influential in their social circles and are twice as likely as
the average to be the first amongst their friends to know what is going on.
MOJO is a music magazine mainly focused on classic rock published monthly by Bauer Media,
which costs £4.50. MOJO was first published by EMAP in November 1993, making it one of
the more recent music magazines. It regularly features a cover mount CD which ties in with
a current magazine article or theme. ABC say MOJO sells 87,262 copies per issue. 67.3%
of MOJO readers are ABC1, comparable with traditionally ‘premium’ men’s magazines
such as GQ and Esquire and 78% of MOJO readers are male. The magazine is targeted towards
older readers; 25.6% of all readers are between 45-54 years old and the mean age of MOJO readers
is 37. These magazines promote their brand across
other platforms by using synergy; Kerrang! has a radio station, Kerrang! 105.2 that broadcasts
to the West Midlands on FM and to the rest of the UK via DAB radio and on the internet.
There is also Kerrang! TV that broadcasts on Sky and *** Media’s TV platforms.
The Kerrang! website also promotes the magazine and the TV and radio stations. These services
create horizontal integration across the Kerrang! media brand, by playing the same music, and
advertising Kerrang!-branded events and products. The NME brand is promoted across radio, the
internet and, previously, TV. The NME website is horizontally integrated with NME Radio,
which broadcasts on DAB radio in certain areas of the UK and online, with a ticker at the
top of the website saying what song is playing right now, as well as being able to stream
the station online. Content from the NME magazine is available on the website.