The changing face of the music industry

Since the late ‘90s and early 2000s magazine have steadily had a decline in circulation figures, NME is down to 15000 copies sold per week and Q magazine has had a 21.8% year on year decline. This shows that the internet is easily taking over the music industry forcing magazine companies to either direct distribute or go online. Their audience has been moving away from the magazine industry which has become a third party for information on their artists as they can receive the information straight from them on twitter.

There many different music magazines available out there. The most notable are; Q with 158,271, Mojo with 121,746, The Fly with 109,734 and Uncut with a low 88,756. These magazines have had to expand their horizon to more than just a paper copy. They all have and online edition to increase their profits. These are the top four magazine at the moment. This was calculated via circulation (period on period). Regardless of these 100,000 readers, the artists are capable of publishing the information themselves straight from twitter. The weeknd for example has 2.74million followers. This shows that people would rather get the information directly from the artist. This is further shown via other artists who also have millions of followers. Martin Garrix with 2.25million followers, and a staggering 63.5 million followers for Taylor Swift.

The role of other forms of distribution such as; eBooks, direct (free) distribution, apps, e-zines (electronic magazine) and others have a role of expanding the artists/bands name to reach all the people. This will increase the popularity of the person and this will result in the people buying their products. These forms of distribution are also removing the need for magazines as the artists/bands are publishing things that come straight from them.

In my opinion the move to digital and free magazines is a positive thing for magazines, but it will be short lived as they are becoming obsolete. However, the music industries benefit from the magazines going online as it provides multiple areas for the people to gain access about the artist and any upcoming events. The magazines are also useful for promoting an event or something that has happened in the personal life of the artist. This benefits the music companies as it means the people will have to buy the magazines so they can read the news before everyone.