Why music fans might buy a music magazine

A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Every time a certain magazine is released each month/week etc they include different segments that may be based around a certain event, artist, group, album to appeal to varied audiences. Every different magazine is specifically designed towards different music genres. For example, Top of the Pops would appeal to people who are interested in pop music whereas NME would appeal more so towards people who listen to rock music. This means it is easy for music fans to buy a magazine that will specifically appeal to them whereas the Internet might give a more broad approach.

 People buy music magazines for many reasons:

 • Music News
 • Gossip on music artists
 • Posters
 • Interviews
 • Album/single/artist/gig reviews
 • Upcoming music events
 • Exclusive photo-shoots
 • See what is going on in the music industry

A big advantage that the Internet holds over a physical magazine is that it is free and in this society almost everybody has access to it. Social media is something that a lot of people are aware of and is major threat to the magazine industry. People are now using the Internet, phones and TV to gain knowledge about the music industry instead of buying magazines. Facebook and Twitter are very popular accessible, quick and easy ways of following the music industry. They allow audiences to follow and like pages, which enable you to join music communities and preview magazine issues before they reach the shops, and follow accounts, which are updated regularly. Magazine editors tend to tweet and post articles, photos, bloopers from the magazine, videos, gigs and create online debates, allowing their followers to first hand see the creation of the magazine.

However, dedicated music fans that collect music magazines over a long period of time feel a sense of satisfaction knowing they have willingly bought the magazine every time it is released each week/month, which is something the internet doesn’t offer. Some people also choose to buy the magazine itself because of its possible value in the future. A subscription is another thing that differs the Internet from music magazines as this enables readers to automatically receive the magazine each month. Magazines allow them to find other artists that are like the ones they listen to, and they can find out about competitions and gigs/concerts that are related to the genre of music that the magazine is based on. You can also carry magazines around with you whilst travelling, and not everyone has access to the Internet 24/7.