Music magazine circulation figures July 2010.

 These are the current circulation figures for music magazines from 6 months ending June 2010. Some magazines post their circulation figures yearly, whilst others do it every 6 months.

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 From these circualtion figures, I have found out that only Kerrang! has made a profit of 1.8% (and Classic Rock hasn't made a loss or profit), and the rest have made a loss of a considerable amount since last year;

• Metal Hammer has lost 4.3%
• Mojo has lost 6.2%
• NME has lost 17.3%
• Q has lost 10.7%
• Uncut has lost 3.2%

(source:

http://dezji.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/july-2010-music-magazine-circulation-figures/)

These are rather large losses, especially for leading magazines such as NME and Q. Although this isn't my music genre, this shows that magazines aren't doing that well. This could be down to a number of issues, for example, the genre may not appeal to a lot of people any more, their price may be too high and people on low incomes may not be able to afford the magazines or that they've simply lost interest in the contents of the magazines.
 This is important for me because, even though this isn't my music genre, pop genre magazines may be going the same way (and it'll be unknown until they publish their curculation figures) so when producing a magazine I must find out the risks of what made these magazines lose numbers and see if I can stop it happening to my magazine.

 Seeing as magazines aimed at my genre haven't yet posted circulation figues, I will look at the last two previous years figues to see if they have made a loss of profit.

• Top of the Pops magazine. In December 2008 its circulation figure was 119,739 however, in December 2009 it's figure had dropped to 107,576.
• Hot Press magazine. In December 2008 its figures was 19,387 however, in December 2009 it had also dropped to 18,394.
• Rolling Stone magazine. In 2004 its figures were 1,267,110 and in 2005 that had risen to 1,309,117.

This shows that pop music magazines had gone down in figures between '08 and '09. Although, you cannot be sure if their figures have risen or fallen since 2009, I still need to take in to account that they have in fact lost sales. However, Rolling Stone magazine had in fact risen in 2005. This may be because Rolling Stone magazine is a mixed genre magazine because a lot of its focus is on chart music, and although most of that is pop, there is other elements in there also. I haven't been able to find figures of 2009 onwards for Rolling Stone, so I cannot be sure that they have still risen in figures. Also back in 2005, people had slightly more money to spend because the world wasn't in recession so recession plays a big factor in to whether a magazine is still doing well or not.

(sources:

http://dezji.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/uk-music-magazine-circulation-figures-to-dec-2009/ 
http://www.magazine.org/CONSUMER_MARKETING/CIRC_TRENDS/16117.aspx)

 This means that my magazine will be competing against things like the internet. People are turning to the internet for music information because it's quick to access, free and simple to understand. Also, if your first language isn't English you can translate it over the internet, which you cannot do with a magazine.
 Ways magazines get around this is by;

• Putting their magazine online. So not only is their a magazine you can buy, you can go online and get more up-to-date information.
• Having freebies in the magazines.
• Having 4 magazines for the price of 1. For example, OK magazine has three extra magazines inside it's main magazine.  
• Making their magazine cover look attractive and interesting and making sure they have interesting subjects inside their magazine. People would buy a magazine if it was the latest news which the magazine claims can only be read in their magazine.