Magazine industry overview.

The magazine industry in the UK today is slowly declining for selling magazines. The most main stream magazines like Kerrang and NME have survived this long, but may not be able to survive much longer with how time is changing. In the first half of last year NME's average sale fell by 14.3 percent! Between 1960 and 2000 the magazine industry was strong and it had a large audience but, as time went on, the interest in magazines became less and less as new technology was being invented.

First of all came the Internet, where news and reviews could be read for free. Next came technology like Smart phones and iPads. These allowed people to download apps which could provide them with portable magazine content. This became a major threat.

If magazines want to survive they will need to evolve to the changes of the world, i.e set up websites, make new apps etc.. , find out exactly what the people want, research into different genres of music and see which has a large target audience etc.

Looking at circulation figures from 2011, the most popular magazine was The Fly at 100,386. The next was Mojo at 87,262. Other magazines like NME and Kerrang where near the bottom. There a few differences between The Fly and the other magazines i have just listed. One is that The Fly is not a main stream magazine, not many people have heard of it. The other is that The Fly is a free magazine. It is handed out in record stores, bars and venues around the UK. It makes its money by other companies paying to put in advertisements. As it is such a well distributed magazine, people will see the adverts. The magazines content consists of new releases, tour dates, all the must know things.

Is this the future of music magazines? Or will no magazines survive due to new technology? Personally, i do not think so, i think that people will always get magazines dew to the feeling of the pages and for something to collect. But i do think that music magazines need to evolve with the time if not their survival may not last much longer.