Case study of METAL HAMMER magazine

METAL HAMER is one of the most well known metal magazines that you can buy nowadays and is very popular amongst the die-hard metal fans out there.

The Magazine
As soon as you pick up the latest issue of METAL HAMMER you don't need to be a reader to know that this magazine is not cheap. METAL HAMMER comes in a sealed bag which in this case came with a cd and a large poster to get the reader that little bit more intetrested in buying it. The front cover rather than being made of the same material as the rest of the magazine is made of glossy card and the graphics and imaging used can't of been cheap either because the image of the band (alice in chains) has been put on a digitaly created backround and the guitar in the hands of Jerry Cantrell has been digitaly made to look like it's slowly being engulfed by flames.This magazins retails at £3.99 which is at the top end of magazine prices in generall which is quite pricey in my opinion which is why I don't buy every issue but there are many out there who are willing to pay that much for every issue because it has alot to offer to the reader.

Imagery

With METAL HAMMER I wasn't suprised with the imagery. you had the classic pictures of metal bands posing and on the front cover of the latest issue (above) Sean Kinney from Alice in Chains is putting up his middle finger. looking inside the magazine I can see loads of images of bands such as slipknot with scary masks and prisoner convict outfits and there are loads of images with Satanic and deathly references such as demons, maggots and fire. Common font styles used in these sorts of magazines referance gothic culture which many metal bands use and generaly the sort of imagery used in this magazine looks very similar to the front covers and merchandise of metal bands.

Commercial aspect

METAL HAMMER obviously has lots of information about the current metal bands aand generally everything to do with the genre that someone who is in to metal and reads this magazine would want to know, however there is alot of advertisment that has been put in to this magazine for quite a large range of things but that would all apeal to someone who reads this magazine. There are the conventional advertisments that you would expect to find in a magazine like this such as CD albums and singles being released, upcoming festivals, upcoming gigs and all thatsort of thing but there are also adds for alot of merchandise and products such as DVDs, electric guitars and clothing , in fact there is a whole other little catalogue that comes with the magazine which is filled with clothes accessories and gadgets which all to do with the metal genre.

Overall contents of the magazine

METAL HAMMER look at the current metal bands out there in cluding new ones and classics plus I can tell from having read a few ohter metal magazines that METAL HAMMER is a magazine that keeps with the times because I have noticed that the other magazines I have read have been look ing at the fact that the band Slip Knot's tenth anniverssary was this year and Metal Hammer have also picked up on this and have dedicated a whole five page spread to the exeadingly popular metal legends. Aswell as looking at the expected things in a metal magazine which i have just covered this magazine covers a fewmore things; They have sections where they list popular movies and review them, sections that review new gameas such as guiter hero and generally things that would apeal to the reader and in a way it is like a break from the the metal so to speak.

Music magazine questionaire

I decided that it would be a good idea to do a little market research to find out how to make my magazine interesting and apealing to todays readers of music magazines so I have created a little questionnaire consisting of ten simple questions about the music/magazine industry.

Here is my questionnaire:

1. What Gender are you?
Male
Female

2. How old are you?
16-18
18-20
20-25
25+
Other

3. How often do you read Music Magazines?
Every day
Every Week
Every Month
A few times a year
Never

4. Which of these Magazines (if any) do you read? (you can pick more than one)
NME
Q
Mojo
Rolling Stone
KERRANG!
Metal Hammer
Top of the Pops
Other

5. What type of music do you listen to? (you can pick more than one)
Rock & Roll
Indie Rock
R&B
Metal
Rap
Country Rock
Classic Rock
Other

6. How much are you usually willing to pay for a Music Magazine?
£2-£2.50
£3-£3.50
£4-£4.50
£4.50+

7. When do you usualy read your Magazines once you buy them?
As soon as you buy them
Throughout the day
Throughout the week
When you get home from work/school
Other

8. What do you usualy do with your magazines once you’ve read them?
Keep them
Throw them away
Give them to a friend or family member
Other

9. Do you prefer to buy a magazine or find out the information you want on the internet?
Buy a Magazine
Go on the internet

10. What are the main pieces of information you want know when you read a music magazine? (you can pick more than one)
What new albums/singles are being released
Who are releasing new albums/singles
Information about the personal lives of artists/bands
To find out about up coming gigs/tours/festivals
To find out about new bands
Other

Hopefuly this will give me some insight in to the music magazine industry and help me to start work on my own music magazine and what will go in it.

Review of news article 'Behind NME Lines'

I will be looking at Eva Wiseman's article in the Observer Music Magazine about her weeks experience in the NME magazine headquaters and the different views on what NME used to be and what it is now.

NME has been around for a long time now, since 1952 which is fifty-seven years. NME is a magazine that looks at new music and upcoming artists, it keeps up with the times and obviously it is aimed at people who are young say from teens to twentys so that people who it was aimed at say thirty years ago and who used to read it will not be interested anymore because it will always be aimed at young people to give them an insight in to whats new and everybody gets older and even though right now it is aimed at someone my age in thirty or forty years It would be aimed at the next generation from me and in this article Eva Wiseman even talks about how she used top read the NME "I have a nipple-high stack of NME's in the attic, with the last one I kept from June 1996, on top." this suggests that NME meant alot more to people all those yaers ago than it does now because the journalist herself has declared that she stopped collecting in 1996 . "I was 15 and the NME was important" this suggests that is is not important any more and I can see where she is coming from because thare are many different factors that come in to the NME not being as important as it was twenty years ago and I can see where she is coming from because thare are many different factors that come in to .

The Internet has had a big impact on the sales of NME as people can just as easily look at blogs containing articles withe the same information as we could find in the latest issue of NME and it's not just other media stealing readers, its also to do with the magazine itself for example Wiseman writes "I was 15 and the NME was important. Pre-Jarvis at the Brits, pre-tabloid invasion and internet saturation, it was the only place I read about music." this gives us a breif overview of the main factors into NME's decline over the past few decades and shows us that it was not just because of the internet but that NME has become more tabloidy and less about the music overall.

Later in the article Wiseman shows the extent of the decline of readers for NME: 17.4 percent year on year to little over 56,000. As far as magazine sales go it's not just NME who are declining, its the whole music magazine industry which is going down in very similar (baisically the same) ways; Wiseman mentions this in the article "Other specialist music magazines are suffering similarly, with Q Magazine seeing circulation fall 13.1 percent to 113,174 year on year" This shows that in general music magazines are apearing to be a duying media form with things like the internet and tv to replace it and in my opinion (and I'm sure I speak for many others) it is quite sad that music magazines have changed so much and that people of my generation and onwards will not get the same experiance as those who read music magazines twenty-thirty years ago.

Music Magazine Types

When it comes to Music magazines, there are many different ones which cover different areas in the music world. There are so many different aspects of the music industry which people want to know about; wether it the music itself, the artists or just whats new in music as it is such a widespread and popular aspect of our lives which just keeps on growing.

In my opinion (and I probably speak for many if not most) the best music magazine on the market are the ones which focus mainly on the music itself and the artists/slash band because after all they are music magazine and whilst it may sound like I have stated the obvious alot of music magazines that you get these days do not focus mainly on the music.

Some magazine will look prodominantly at the behaviour and backround of artists and bands as opposed to the music element for example if there was an artist who was going through a drugs phase and another artist who had say just re-leased an album many magazines would look more at the one who was going through a drugs phase because at the end of the day this is what grabs people's attention and you could say thet this is one of the reasons why music magazines are duying, because there may not be enough magazines out there for the people who want to know about the music and because of this sales have gone down. these are baisicaly very tabloid- esque music magazines which I personally am very against because in my opinion this takes away the purpose of the music magazine, however this is just my opinion and I don't want ot make this to biased.

I know that there is a very large market for these types of magazines and this is exactly what some people want to read on a regular basis because it can give them a low down on how their favourite bands or artists personal lives are going and wether or not it is affecting their music carears.

you also get magazines which look at the music industry as a whole including artist's/band's backrounds, whats at the top of the charts, what tours are coming up, the releases of new albums etc. these are sort of all-round music news magazines not to say that all music magazines do not provide us with news on the current status of the music industry but some magazines prodominatly look at whats new.

Why are Magazine sales plumeting in todays magazine industry?

There are many different factors that come in to magazine sales having gone down in the last few years some being more direct and noticable that others and some having started out as minor problems and growing into big problems as the years went by.

Here are the figures of music and film magazines for the first half of 2008

Dance Music

-ixmag 34,073, down 8.3 per cent year-on-year
-WD 31,333 down 5.1 per cent

Rock Music

Q 113,174 down 13.1 per cent
Mojo 106,367 down 5.1 per cent
The Fly 105,212 up 11.1 per cent
Uncut 86,925 up 1.2 per cent
Classic Rock 66,632 down 0.9 per cent
Kerrang! 60,290 down 27.9 per cent
NME 56,284 down 17.4 per cent
Metal Hammer 48,540 down 1.2 per cent
Rock Sound 22,527 down 3.2 per cent

Other Music

Word Magazine 33,775 down 3 per cent

Film & Video Reviews

Cineworld Unlimited 500,500 no change
Empire 187,202 up 4.4 per cent
Total Film 84,520 down 1.3 per cent.

The Economy

One of the main and most obvious factors is the current recession we are going through; it has affected almost everthing about our lifestyle including the prices of products, businesses and peoples employment. Because many people are trying to cut down on the more unneccesary things which include magazines because magazines on average cost about £3-£4 which may not seem like all that much but it adds up to a fairly large amount when you think about how many people buy because some people buy more than one magazine and poeple even subscribe to them on the internet whci again can add up to large sums of money.

Other Media Forms

Another major factor is the fact that because of all the media forms we have today we can find out the things we would in a magazine from other forms of media.

The Internet

one of the main scources we can get this information from is the internet. there are many websites which show the information,articles and pictures we would get from a magazine, many people prefer to do this rather than buy a magazine because it is cheaper and they don't get all the adds they would in a magazine; it is the same principle as downloading music on to an mp3 player rather than going out and buying a CD. people are even able to access the internet on their phones so they can look for the information they would find in magazines on their phones instead.

T.V. and Radio

People can also find out about the issues looked at in magazine by watching programs on television which look at the same thing that the magazine does and radio stations that have talk about these issues aswell. even some magazine have spawned their own t.v. and radio stations which some people are focussing on more than the magazine itself meaing that even though the magazine company has expanded in the media they begin to loose magazine sales.

Conclusion

Overall I think that Magazine are facing up to new media forms which is making it harder for magazines because in some ways they have been replaced by major media forms and I think that Magazines will never have as many sales as they did years ago.

What other media forms have spawned off of magazines as they have grown?

As music magazines become more popular and successful the companys look for new waysto get themselves more involved in todays media. This not only allows the magazine companies to keep their readers interested with something new but it also makes them better known by the public and it can get new people interested in buying their magazine because any other media forms that magazine get involved in will always advertise their own magazine and whatever else they have got.

I have chosen to look at kerrang magazine. Kerrang is a music magazine which focusses on the different genres of metal that we have today and all the different genres that are still being created. Kerrang of started off as a magazine which became very popular amongst those who were in to metal music and metal gigs and they realised that they needed to expand on their busines and become more than just a magazine . Kerrang have a website where they put information about their magazine e.g. whats in the latest issue, when its coming out, how much it will be and they have information about their other media forms.

Kerrang Radio and tv

Kerrang have a radio station which plays metal music and all the bands and artists that they look at in their magazine. thay also do interviews with metal artists and bands and they discuss new events and bands to do whith Kerrang and Metal music .

Kerrang also have a television channel where they show music videos of metal band and they show tours and interviews with different bands and artists to do with the genre.

The most recent instalation in the Kerrang company have something called Kerrang tour which is baisically a tour of loads of different bands and artists and the progress of the tour is followed by their television channel, their radio station, their website and of coarse their magazine.

Semiotic deconstruction of NME front cover

The music magazine that I have decided to write about is NME (New Music Express) a well known music magazine focusing on modern artists and bands. The dominant image on the front cover of this magazine issue is the band Muse followed by Muse written in large letters and although it is not the title it is the biggest bit of text on the front cover which suggests that the band Muse are the main item in this particular issue of NME. The picture shows three men of around mid-twentys to early thirtys who make up the band Muse which suggests that this magazine is for young people of teenage years to thirtys.

The band members of muse are all wearing clothes which are in fashion e.g. blazer, cardigen, t-shirts with weird designs etc and even though the cover is in colour the band members are wearing fairly dark colours such as black and grey which is also in fashion which suggests that this magazine is looking at modern music e.g. indie rock.

The title NME is being covered slightly by the image of Muse which may mean that this magazine is well known enough that even a glimpse at the title is enough for people to know what the magazine is. The cover is also dominated by teasers and snip-its of what is inside of the magazine so that people become interested and would buy it because that want to read more.

The band members have average looks on their faces with quite confident poses to go with them and in a way they are sort of representing modern clothing and hair styles.