COMPETITION

NME MAGAZINE • “NME Magazine is free and distributed at various locations around the UK every Friday.”

• “New Musical Express (NME) is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper.”

• “NME magazine was re-launched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. The first circulation figures published in February 2016 of 307, 217 copies per week were the highest in the brand's history, beating the previous best of 306,881, recorded in 1964 at the height of the Beatles' fame.”

• “An online version of NME, NME.com, was launched in 1996. It became the world's biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month.”

• “Distributed nationwide via universities, retail stores and the transport network, the first circulation numbers published in February 2016 of 307, 217 copies per week were the highest in the brand's history. Since re-launch the magazine has featured a number Kanye West and Green Day alongside emerging talent like Zara Larsson, Years & Years, Lady Leshurr and Christine and the Queens.”

Q MAGAZINE• “Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.”

• “Q was founded in 1986 by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published by the EMAP media group in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing.”

• “The magazine has an extensive review section, featuring: new releases (music), reissues (music), music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star-rating system from one to five stars; indeed, the rating an album receives in Q is often added to print and television advertising for the album in the UK and Ireland. While its content is non-free they host an archive of all of their magazine covers.”

• “Much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists. It is well known for compiling lists. It has created many, ranging from "The 100 Greatest albums" to the "100 Greatest '100 Greatest' Lists". Every other month, Q — and its sister magazine, Mojo (also owned by Bauer) — have a special edition. These have been about musical times, genres, or a very important/influential musician.”

• “It's single copy subscription figures are 22,798. (19,097 being in the UK and republic of Ireland) 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008. - The target audience for Q magazine are the older generation such as people in their 30's and 40's who are looking for a different mode of address, more sophisticated and just want to know more about the music.”

• The cover price is £4.50.

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE • “Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard

Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events and style. It is also known for its music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters.”

• “Billboard is owned by Prometheus Global Media, a diversified company with leading assets in the media and entertainment arenas, including: Music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including The Billboard Latin Music Awards), Entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShowEast, Cineasia, and CineEurope); and Advertising & Marketing (Adweek, Adweek Conferences and The CLIO Awards).”

• “Billboard receives hundreds of millions of brand impressions daily through many strategic relationships with major companies across various industries.  These relationships leverage Billboard's brand recognition, proprietary chart data and information resources to develop products, live events and print, television, radio, digital and mobile platforms.  In addition to North America, Billboard operates businesses in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia.”