Research Task Two : Independent Music Magazines

Independent magazines are magazines that are produced without the financial support of a large company to help with production and distribution costs. They are often free to explore more niche topics and themes without interference. There are many differences between mainstream and independently published magazines. For example, mainstream magazines feature many advertisements from large brands as they rely on selling advertisement spaces to guarantee profit, however, independently published magazines focus less on advertisements and instead rely on physical and online sales to make profits. Additionally, whilst many mainstream magazines are published weekly or monthly, independent magazines have much less funding so are generally published a lot less, with some being published only bi-annually, this means that independent magazines can't focus on more time-sensitive topics as, by the time they are released, the story will most likely be outdated and audiences won't be interested in reading about it so it will make less profit. 

One example of an independent magazine is The Wire. They are a music magazine, focusing on a range of experimental and non-mainstream genres. The Wire was founded in 1982 and was owned by Namara, a small, independent media company, until 2000 when it was purchased through a worker's buyout by it's then six full time staff. Since its inception, The Wire's circulation has ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 a month. The magazine costs around £7 and is targeted at music enthusiasts under 25 who are interested in experimental genres and up-and-coming artists. Their focus is on "investigating music's past, as well as it's present and future".

Another independent music magazine is RnR. They were founded in 1988 and were originally called Rock and Reel. They focus on many genres of music including roots, rock, folk, singer-songwriter, blues and country. Originally, RnR began as a fanzine but relaunched in 2007 as an A4, full-colour, glossy magazine, it's currently published bi-monthly. They aim to offer an unbiased view of music and pride themselves on being "neither a fickle follower of musical fashion nor a mere major label mouthpiece". Generally, issues of the magazine contain festival news, CD and DVD release dates, interviews and artist updates, also, many copies come with an exclusive CD featuring the artists mentioned in the issue, called 'UN-HERD', this encourages audiences to spend money on the magazine, which costs around £6.50, as it also comes with this CD. They are targeted at people who are very interested and educated in the specific music genres they cover.