Discuss the Problems Facing the Specialist Music Press and Suggest how the Format could develop in the Future

The Specialist Music Press was first started to provide a variety of information relevant to different areas of the music industry to young people who had developed a particular interest in music. Before this point there was nowhere for music lovers to read about their favourite artists and information could only be found on the radio.

The Specialist Music Press grew in popularity as wider ranges of magazines focusing on specialised areas of the industry were developed and this popularity has been recognised by a number of other format magazines. Lifestyle magazines such as FHM and Cosmopolitan now incorporate sections on music, film, books, and in some magazines, computer games. The addition of these features to the already extremely popular Lifestyle genre has created devastating competition to the Specialist Music magazine as readers of the Lifestyle magazines no longer need to buy separate supplemental magazines for each of their interests to find out up to date information. Specialist Music magazines were often purchased in addition to a lifestyle or similar magazine but the introduction of music features into the Lifestyle genre has meant that, unless a reader requires more detailed information, or unless an issue of a Music magazine contains a feature on a favourite band, there is less need for readers to purchase a Music magazine as well as a Lifestyle magazine.

The reduction in sales has already had a noticeable effect on the Specialist Music Press resulting in the conclusion of the magazine Melody Maker and the incorporation of its staff into NME magazine as the magazines had a very similar content and style, the reducing readership was no longer great enough to allow for the continuation of both magazines.

This is an example of the potential fate of a growing number of music magazines.

The format of the music magazine is currently based solely around music. The Specialist Music Press is losing its audience to Lifestyle magazines, which incorporate a variety of different features into their magazine as well as the main lifestyle sections. The specialist music press could develop its format to mimic that of the Lifestyle magazine by including other features into the magazine whilst sill keeping its main emphasis on Music. This would provide readers with information relevant to music as well as fashion, literature, film and gaming. The development of a music magazine which included other subjects of interest to its readers could entice readers lost to Lifestyle magazines back into reading Specialist Music magazines as they would no longer need to read lifestyle magazines to find out news on fashion and lifestyle whilst at the same time finding out information on music in far greater depth that was provided in the Lifestyle magazines. The main attraction to these new Music Lifestyle magazines that could save the Music Press is that the different genres of music magazine are all aimed at people with different tastes, lifestyles and interests. The information based on the lifestyle genre, which is included in each magazine, would be tailored to suit the requirements of the existing and past readers of each magazine. Current Lifestyle magazines are written to cover a wide range of interests and tastes which means that many areas are only covered briefly or on occasion. Segmenting the lifestyle information to suit different categories of readers would provide much more relevant information and would mean that traditional lifestyle magazines would receive less readings that the specially targeted magazines as they would almost always contain information that is not relevant or not of interest to some of its readers. This could increase ratings for the Specialist Music Press enough to preserve the industry.