Music Magazine Research - Media AS Coursework

1. Music Magazine
Research

2. • My first magazine research is based on what I can find on
the internet. I simply googled “Popular music magazines”
and “music magazines UK”. Google then came up with
top 7 most popular music magazines from January to
June in 2006. I thought that should be my basic and work
myself upwards from there. So I am going to visit those 7
magazine’s internet page and find out who their
publisher is. I also thought I should do some research on
what type of music magazines you can find in an average
British grocery shop, for instance Tesco.

4. 1. Q-magazine - Bauer Consumer Media
2. Mojo - Bauer Consumer Media
3. The Fly - MAMA & Company (No longer existing)
4. Uncut - Time Inc.
5. Kerrang! - Bauer Consumer Media
6. New Musical Express (NME) - Time Inc.
7. Classic Rock - TeamRock
Top 7. Magazines in the UK from 2006

5. • I came to notice that Bauer Consumer media publishes 3/7 of the magazines.
So I thought I could do some exploring and seek some information about this
popular media group, and find out as to why two of their magazines are at
the top of best selling list of magazines from 2006.

6. Bauer media group is a European-based media company with their
headquarter in Hamburg, Germany. They manages a portfolio of more than
600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50 radio and television stations
around the world. It is a multi-platform media in 17 countries. It is no
wonder as to why 3 of the 7 magazines I found is published by Bauer when
they are the UK’s most influential media brand Network. For that reason it
is understandable that Bauer Consumer Media has a lot of impact on the
British people and are the publisher of Q-Magazine, Mojo and Kerrang!

7. • I also came to observe that the publisher Time INC. publishes two of
the magazines on the list. So I thought I should do some research on
the company to see if they are as successful and big as Bauer Media
Group.

8. • Time Inc. is an American mass media company
founded in 1922 andis based in New York. The
firm publishes and owns over a 100 magazine
brands, mostly notably its crown jewel, Time
news magazine. But other magazines as well,
like Sports Illustrated, People, InStyle,
Entertainment Weekly, Life and more. On the
other side of the Atlantic, in the UK, Time
publishes the magazines like What’s on TV,
NME, InStyle etc. It looks like Time Inc. is more
picky and critical on which magazines they
want to publish than Bauer Media Group. For
instance, they do not publish just to publish,
they are looking for quality and value.

9. In The Shop Shelf
• While I was out grocery shopping I took the opportunity to
check the music section in the magazine division at Tesco. I
basically found all of the magazines on the top 7 list, except
The Fly of course, and more. There were magazines like BBC
Music, Sound On Sound, Rock Sound, Classic Pop, Computer
Music and etc. This communicates that there exists all kinds
of different music magazines that suites the taste of a large
audience of various social groups in the UK.