Research into state of current music magazine sector

Research into current state of music magazine sector


Q retains its pre-eminent position as the number one music monthly brand in the UK and across Europe of 112,532, alongside an ever-increasing digital reach via q4music.com.
MOJO’s sales are up on the period to 106, 367 and is second only to stablemate Q in the sector. Combined Q and MOJO deliver almost half (43%) the share of the monthly music market. MOJO – which brings classic music to a new generation and new music to established fans – consistently delivers a bespoke fix of high quality journalism and iconic photography to music fans alongside mojo4music.com.

Reference: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Press-Office/News/Bauer-Media-ABC-Magazine-Sales-Figures-Jan-Jun-2008/


IPC Media's weekly rock magazine NME suffered a year-on-year circulation slump of 17.3 per cent in the first half of 2010 as sales of music and film titles slumped.
NME had an average weekly circulation of 33,875 in the six months to the end of June, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Rivals to NME also suffered in a bad set of results for entertainment titles. Circulation of Bauer's Q Magazine dropped 10.7 per cent compared to the first half of 2009, taking it to an average of 89,450 per issue.
Mojo magazine, a stablemate of Q at Bauer, fell by 6.2 per cent year on year to a monthly circulation average of 91,678.
NME's sister title Uncut fared slightly better but still fell with a 3.2 per cent year-on-year drop to a monthly average circulation of 74,067. Bauer's heavy metal weekly Kerrang! increased its average per-issue circulation by 1.8 per cent to 44,013.
As for film titles, the situation is just as bad. Future Media's recently relaunched Total Film saw its sales fall by 10.5 per cent year on year to 76,088, although Future will be hoping the new-look title manages an uplift in the next ABC results in six months' time. Bauer's Empire magazine fell by 7.7 per cent year on year to 179,064.

Reference: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45844&c=1

The top selling music magazine at current is NME, which sells £33,875 on average weekly. However, it also loses the most sales annually, 17.3%. NME’s weekly sales are a lot more than other music magazine sales. An annual sale for The Fly music magazine is £108,207 that would total to be a lot less than NME’s average sale.

WHSmith sells around about 12 music magazines in store. This proves how the popular music magazines will get very high sales whereas the new, or less-known music magazines will perform weaker. This is one of the main reasons for success or failure of music magazines. They have very specific styles of music included in the magazines, so their target audience is very particular and small. Music magazines have to compete greatly against each other because there is only a minority of genres around.