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UK MUSIC MAGAZINE CIRCULATION FIGURESThe latest ABC circulation figures have been released for the period July to

December 2009. On the face of it, the monthlies have done pretty well with mostly minor ups and downs. The exception being Q Magazine which had a major relaunch in the autumn and yet has shed a further 10,000 sales – nearly 10 per cent of its readership.

On the next slide, there is a list of eleven of the top titles. The bold figure is the July-December 2009 sales figure. The two figures in brackets are for January to June 2009 and July to December 2008 respectively. Terrorizer only publishes its numbers annually which is why there’s only a single bracketed figure.

Even though the information provided is not up- to- date, it is still reliable to understand the impacts of technology especially internet had played on the magazines. The direct impact would be that the sales revenue would decrease dramatically but how would the magazines are going to overcome over this issue?

CIRCULATION FIGURES

Classic Rock 70,188 (66,632 / 67,399)

Kerrang! 52,272 (60,294 / 76,937)

Metal Hammer 50,269 (48,540 / 45,809)

Mixmag 30,159 (34,073 / 35,817)

Mojo 100,507 (106,367 / 106,218)

NME 48,459 (56,284 / 64,033)

Q 103,017 (113,174 / 131,330)

Rock Sound 20,011 (22,527 / 23,021)

Terrorizer 13,786 (14,952)

Uncut 87,069 (86,925 / 91,028)

Word 34,280 (33,775 / 33,217)

These three magazines, which I have highlighted in Red have the highest circulation in comparison with the competitors. By undertaking research I would like to find out- why and how the magazine is able attract large amount of customers and what gives them a competitive advantage?

ANALYSIS THE FIGURES

I am going to use these magazines to understand on why the magazine attract more customers?

• MOJO

• Q

• Uncut

INTERNET ADVANTAGES OVER PHYSICAL COPY OF THE MAGAZINE

The potential customer could access the information for free, without having to go the shop ( or order online) and purchase the magazine. As the result, this had played a major in the decrease of every magazine in the industry but due to the adaptation the companies were not able to survive but also increase their reputation and sales levels.

How did the magazines were to adapt?

• Create a website

• Include extra services in order to attract the customers eg. Include a CD with goes with the magazine

• Due to the research, I was able to find that the interviews and photo-shoots with music ‘celebrities’ attract more customer by over 30 per cent.

ADAPTATION

Including the free CD

This is the issues of Q ( August 2011)

TARGET AUDIENCE OF THE MAGAZINE

MOJO

MOJO is the world's biggest UK music magazine, delivering a monthly dose of world class journalism and iconic photography. It represents a carefully crafted musical archive, providing its audience with an authentic, independent and emotional connection to the music. Classic sits comfortably with cutting edge, with quality and integrity being constant.

Audience Profile

Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominantly male (77%) and affluent (63% ABC1). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality. As the result this would a direct impact on the language and tone being used in the magazine as most the customers are male.

TARGET ADIENCE:Q

The target audience for Q magazine are the older generation such as people in their 30's and 40's who are looking for a different mode of address, more sophisticated and just want to know more about the music instead of what colour pants so and so is wearing (which would be mentioned in Kerrang). Although the founders state that they want to appeal to all the older generation, it seems that Q magazine doesn't appeal to many woman of that age.

VIBE

The target audience of the previous two magazines had been the same as the magazine which I would have to create. As the result, I have looked at the magazine which is similar to the one which I will create in a month time not only due to the same target audience but also genre of music which the magazine mostly concentrates

Vibe, one of the nation’s leading popular music magazines, is closing immediately, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“The print advertising collapse hit Vibe hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business,” he wrote.

The closure of Vibe leaves just two large-circulation music magazines, XXL and The Source, focusing on hip-hop and R&B. The Source has had its own troubles, going through a bankruptcy and emerging under new ownership last year. A rock-focused magazine, Blender, folded last year.

CIRCULATION IN 2011

Mojo has overtaken its sister title Q to become the biggest-circulation paid-for music magazine, while there were big drops for music titles New Musical Express, Kerrang! and Metal Hammer in the latest circulation figures out today

There was better news for Q's sister title, film magazine Empire, which was up 2.4% year on year to 194,239. It stretched its already substantial lead over Future Publishing's Total Film, which was down 5.8% year on year to 81,029.

Dance title Mixmag, owned by Development Hell, was also down, falling 13.4% year on year to 26,116. Development Hell's sister title, Word, was down 22.5% year on year to 26,555.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/11/mojo-q-nme-kerrang-abcs

This is the website which I have used in order to find the circulation of magazines in 2011.