Researching the music magazine market-place

Internet research of music magazines

 

Magazine Title	Genre of Music	Target  Audience
Big Cheese	Punk/Metal/Rock	Older teenage and adults that are a fan of punk and rock music.
Black Velvet	Rock	Mainly a teenage audience for male and females. Fans of rock music.
The Fly	Indie/Alternative/Rock	Teenagers who like a large variety of music, mainly the alternative genre.  Mainly male audience.
Hip Hop Connection	Hip-hop/ R&B	Male Teenagers who enjoy hip-hop and R&B music.
Kerrang	Rock	Large age range.  Fans of live rock music. Male and female audience.
Metal Hammer	Heavy metal/Rock	Teenagers/adults who enjoy heavy metal music. Mainly male audience.
Mixmag	Dance/Pop	Girls/teenagers who like pop music. Mainly the latest popular music.
Mojo	Rock/Metal/Indie	Older male audience who like rock music and enjoy live music.
New Music Express	Alternative/Indie/Rock	Teenagers who like a wide variety of rock and alternative ‘indie’ music. Male and female audience.
Q	Rock/Indie	Older teenager audience/adults. Enjoy reading and rock music. A lot of detailed information about the bands. Male and female audience.
Terrorizer	Extreme metal/rock	Older male teenagers who like extreme metal and rock music.
Dj Magazine	Chart/Hip-hop/Dance	Teenage boys who enjoy popular chart music and dance music.
Top of the Pops	Pop/chart/dance	Younger female audience who like pop and chart music.
Uncut	Rock/Indie	Wide teenage audience, maybe young adults who like indie/rock music. Both male and female audience.
The Clash	Alternative/Rock	Older male audience who like girls and rock music.

 Publishing Groups

IPC is a consumer magazine and digital publisher. It has more than 60 iconic media brands; IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events. IPC reaches over 25 million global users every month. IPC deals with New Music Express and Uncut.

Future plc is an international media group, listed on the London Stock Exchange and founded in 1985 with just one magazine, whereas now they have over 200 specialist publications, apps, websites and events. It has more than 38 million monthly unique visitors to digital properties websites and sell's 2.2 million magazines every month. It also exports to 89 countries, which makes Future Publishing’s the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of magazine content. Future Publishing’s deals with Metal Hammer

Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group. Bauer Media spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests. Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. It offers over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Bauer Media deals with Mojo, Kerrang and Q magazine.

Circulation Figures.

Magazine	Circulation Figure
The Fly	8.4%
Mojo	-2.4%
Properganda	68.8%
Q	-19.7%
Uncut	-4.5%
The Stool Pigeon	N/A
Kerrang	-6.6%
NME	-17.6%

The indie/rock magazine, Q, has a -19.7% slump in sales which is the highest dip in sales out of the eight magazines. Closely following is their rival magazine, NME, taking a -17.6% fall. However, Properganda taken a 68.8% rise in sales, although it is a free magazine.

Ideas for new magazines

A new pop magazine suitable for all ages and genders would fill a gap in the market. Currently there are no  'pop' magazines other than 'Top of The Pops' ,whose main target audience is a teenage female audience; which doesn't apply to a wide target audience. I feel that a pop magazine suitable for all ages would be quite popular as it would be suitable for everyone. As there will be a wide target audience it would mean more money, which would make it popular as everybody would be reading it. Artists such as: One direction, Katy Perry, Take That, Rihanna, lady Gaga and many could be featured in the magazine. Considering the pop genre has so many popular artists it would draw the audience’s attention to the magazine as there would always be a popular band or singer on the cover of the magazine.

A 'Dubstep' magazine would fill a gap in the market as there are no magazines focusing on this genre of music. The main target audience would be teenagers, maybe more males than females, although it would be suitable for both genders. Young adults may be interested also as it would be aimed at older teenagers from 16+. On the cover there could be bright, neon colours and pictures of people dancing, which would make people aware it was a dance/dupstep magazine. Teenagers and young adults are more likely to go out and buy this magazine than older adults because it would be new and exciting.

 Another gap in the market is a country and western magazine. As it is so popular the age range could be from 14+ which makes a large target audience aiming for both males and females. A younger audience would be interested in the magazine as popular country singer Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are in popular chart magazines although she is categorised as country. The magazine would interest a younger audience to broaden their horizons about music. And an older audience would be interested in the magazine because of the older generation of country and western singers such as Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. I think a country and western magazine would be popular as the music its self is popular and with a wide variety of artists, young and old, it would appeal to a wide target audience.