Death Throes of NME?

[Woffy]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/18/nme-free-time-inc-uk-marie-claire

This seems to have becoming 'more inevitable' for a while now.

Will anyone care? It has a pretty shitty rep' on eFests Forums, it seems.

Do you still read NME? Or any other music mags?

Or are they all 'inevitably' on the way out?

I ask on here because:

- NME used to be fairly decent for Glasto info / free festival guides.

- The reviews afterwards used to be ok...and long, rather than 4 pages of 'reviews' for the whole festival.

- Some of us still quote NME / Glasto news on here, but just as an example of how guff / unreliable it is.

Also:

- Q had a close relationship with Glasto (does it still? Haven't noticed), but their magazine on the way out of the festival was clearly written before Glasto it seems.

[TomViolence]

Interesting. Haven't bought NME for years as its gone downhill massively (like most music mags tbf). Dread to think what the free edition would be like.

I still buy Q some months because the interview section is quite substantial

[Amy Lawn]

Been in its death throes since before I was even born.

[Woffy]

Interesting. Haven't bought NME for years as its gone downhill massively (like most music mags tbf). Dread to think what the free edition would be like.

I still buy Q some months because the interview section is quite substantial

I still buy Q just to have SOMETHING tangible in my hand to read about music and there's lots to read.

Admittedly i'm obsessed with reading constantly in some form and will read the label on a bleach bottle while having a shit if i haven't got a book with me.

Could a free NME be BETTER though?

Edited due to shit grammar. Maybe I can write for NME before it dies.

NB: I did work experience there in the mid-90s and ended up staying for a couple of months rather than a week. Not that any c*** who worked there noticed.

(I did a week work experience at SHOOT magazine the week before and blagged the NME work experience as they were on a floor above or below. As were Meoldy Maker...either a floor above or below. Can't remember which. This was at Kings Reach Towers).

Edited February 18, 2015 by Woffy

[Amy Lawn]

I still buy Q just to have SOMETHING tangible in my hand to read about music and there's lots to read.

Admittedly i'm obsessed with reading constantly in some form and will read the label on a bleach bottle while having a shit if i haven't got a book with me.

Could a free NME be BETTER though?

Edited due to shit grammar. Maybe I can write for NME before it dies.

NB: I did work experience there in the mid-90s and ended up staying for a couple of months rather than a week. Not that any c*** who worked there noticed.

(I did a week work experience at SHOOT magazine the week before and blagged the NME work experience as they were on a floor above or below. As were Meoldy Maker...either a floor above or below. Can't remember which. This was at Kings Reach Towers).

There's DIY magazine for free, which isn't weekly, but isn't as shit as the NME and still not usually worth bothering with unless you've nowt better to be doing. The internet's made them completely redundant, I wouldn't want to read all the features from one publication alone, I like to cherry pick articles from loads of different sites.

[dentalplan]

I like the NME. I discovered many decent bands growing up from buying it and I still enjoy the articles and it does give exposure to some good new artists, whereas I find Q looks backwards a lot more probably because of the older audience reading. I don't buy it often (probably not for a couple of years) because it's about £2.50 and I'd only read it for a couple of hours on the train if I'm not reading a book or something. The website is shit clickbaiting vaguely musical gossip so I understand why it gets such a bad wrap. Free NME would make me more inclined to read it however if it's free I would envisage the quality of articles dropping and it just being a magazine version of the website, so I'm not sure.

[Amy Lawn]

I like the NME. I discovered many decent bands growing up from buying it and I still enjoy the articles and it does give exposure to some good new artists, whereas I find Q looks backwards a lot more probably because of the older audience reading. I don't buy it often (probably not for a couple of years) because it's about £2.50 and I'd only read it for a couple of hours on the train if I'm not reading a book or something. The website is shit clickbaiting vaguely musical gossip so I understand why it gets such a bad wrap. Free NME would make me more inclined to read it however if it's free I would envisage the quality of articles dropping and it just being a magazine version of the website, so I'm not sure.

The website is obviously a total sphincter, but the magazine has spent the last couple of decades trading on "We're the kingmakers, this is the only music that matters here in the NME, all the other music is shit". It's cliquey and stupid, and their faux-punk attitude is just embarrassing. Since Britpop, they don't seem to have been concerned with actually documenting and critiquing the music scene, but taking a small segment of it and hyping it up, more concerned with how "generation defining" it is than anything else.

[The Placid Casual]

It's a very good magazine for finding new acts (found a lot from it) but I'm not too keen on a lot of the content. I use other mediums now to find new acts, so I don't tend to buy it anymore. I might buy an NME and 442 for a train journey if I don't have a book on me

Edited February 18, 2015 by WessexBoy

[Woffy]

I like the NME. I discovered many decent bands growing up from buying it and I still enjoy the articles and it does give exposure to some good new artists, whereas I find Q looks backwards a lot more probably because of the older audience reading. I don't buy it often (probably not for a couple of years) because it's about £2.50 and I'd only read it for a couple of hours on the train if I'm not reading a book or something. The website is shit clickbaiting vaguely musical gossip so I understand why it gets such a bad wrap. Free NME would make me more inclined to read it however if it's free I would envisage the quality of articles dropping and it just being a magazine version of the website, so I'm not sure.

Pretty spot on, from my POV, Dental.

It'd be nice if a free version regained that 'fanzine' quality NME used to retain and got rid of the dead wood like Mark Beaumont, etc, and got / gave the opportunity to some young, opinionated, talented but polarising little shitheads to write for them.

Spread the invective - and new bands / movements - around for free in sixth forms, schools, on the tube (like Metro)...

Basically fuck us old farts off out of it.

[Mezhyp1]

I still buy it most weeks, unless the bulk of the articles, which you can get a flavour for online, don't appeal to me

Great coverage and new and inspiring acts and it's good for album reviews and gig reviews

[Woffy]

It's a very good magazine for finding new acts (found a lot from it) but I'm not too keen on a lot of the content. I use other mediums now to find new acts, so I don't tend to buy it anymore. I might buy an NME and 442 for a train journey if I don't have a book on me

Is the new act finding just purely that 2 page spread near the start though? As useful as it's been...

[The Placid Casual]

Is the new act finding just purely that 2 page spread near the start though? As useful as it's been...

I remember them running a couple of issues a year, dedicated to new acts, but usually I'd use the radar section which used to be a tad longer than it is now. It was useful, though

A few years ago mind, I was at that age where a lot of what they said was gospel, so I'd buy the magazine on a regular basis for the content, but nowadays it doesn't really appeal to me, so I don't tend to buy it as often

[Mouseboy11]

I can never even find it in my local village, tried to buy the Glastonbury review issue last year and could never track it down.

[jpeee]

In theory I'd like to buy the NME but in reality it's much easier and quicker to find new music on spotify, NPR, youtube etc... Basically anywhere that's not MTV.

It terms of the content GETOFFMYLAWN got it spot on by saying

'they don't seem to have been concerned with actually documenting and critiquing the music scene, but taking a small segment of it and hyping it up, more concerned with how "generation defining" it is than anything else.'

You need 2000 followers and to havef luorescent stickers on your guitar before you can get in NME. It's just puff with extended tit bits. The real pitty is for any decent writer or photographer losing out by offering the mag for free. No doubt another wave of interns and do it for free contributors will contribute even less.

ALL MAGAZINES AND EDITORS!!! should use a much smaller staff of informed journalists, on sallery, to offer hard hitting opinions in columns that people will actually respect.

Free news means a bigger circulation. But it just says 'We will output anything to keep going'.. Journalists lose credit & salery whilst sales teams get a top up bonus.

Smaller staff - respected opions - online subsciption & limited run magazine. Tra la la.

[DGrant261]

Been buying/collecting NME from a younger age but I've stopped buying it in the past few years as I simply can't afford it. The drop in quality/focus has really intensified in the past 2 years and I really can't see it having a future beyond 2016 as a paid magazine. I'd more than welcome a free edition, if it kept it going with the possibility of quality improving.

[DGrant261]

I can never even find it .

I have the same problem, and I live in a wealthy suburb of Manchester!

[ItsBadForYa]

I never buy the NME, as, it has been mentioned before, they tend to be very cliquey, insular and anal about what's cool, very often overhyping fairly average bands.

In the mid-to late 00's they were w*nking furiously over acts like Razorlight, Ting Tings and Klaxons and it rendered the thing unreadable.

Their online content is the musical equivalent of The Sun.

The only magazine I'd recommend - and buy faithfully every month - is Uncut. Its articles, interviews and reviews are second to none, and their cover mount CDs are treasure troves.

[Mardy]

NME is great when you're 16 or 17, start really getting into music and before you head off to your first year at college. Then, like the books of Steinbeck, drinking alcopops and fingering in bus stops, you leave it behind and look back on it with fondness but also a hint of derision and embarasment.

Its been like that for at least 30 years, i reckon.

That's not to knock it, it can be a lifesaver for an adolescent in a small, dull town.

[Woffy]

NME is great when you're 16 or 17, start really getting into music and before you head off to your first year at college. Then, like the books of Steinbeck, drinking alcopops and fingering in bus stops, you leave it behind and look back on it with fondness but also a hint of derision and embarasment.

Its been like that for at least 30 years, i reckon.

That's not to knock it, it can be a lifesaver for an adolescent in a small, dull town.

'...fingering in bus stops...'!!!!!!!

It was the local churchyard...down our way.

[Nickyboy]

Yes, since its high watermark in the late 70's with the advent of punk, and you had real journo's writing for it (Julie Burchill, Charles Shaar-Murray, Tony Parsons, etc.), its been a gradual and slow decline for the mag. I used to buy it every week without fail, but since the turn of the century its been pretty much unreadable.

I bought it for a train ride a couple of years back for old times sake and I was shocked by how poor the writing was, and simply how puerile it had got.

The end can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned - a musical version of the Sun is an apt description.

[Woffy]

Yes, since its high watermark in the late 70's with the advent of punk, and you had real journo's writing for it (Julie Burchill, Charles Shaar-Murray, Tony Parsons, etc.), its been a gradual and slow decline for the mag. I used to buy it every week without fail, but since the turn of the century its been pretty much unreadable.

I bought it for a train ride a couple of years back for old times sake and I was shocked by how poor the writing was, and simply how puerile it had got.

The end can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned - a musical version of the Sun is an apt description.

Not necessarily aimed at you Nickyboy, since i've quoted you, but:

Does anyone have an NME journo they look forward to reading NOW?

I'm 40.

And in my days of reading NME I looked forward to reading some journos because I generally had similar tastes as them...an opinion gleaned after getting a handle on what they'd recommended and i'd bought and liked, so they were a good taste guide to spend my money on...or because they were vitriolic, beautifully well-written fuckers who were worth reading for their WRITING regardless of who / what they were writing about.

[Woffy]

Also:

Select.

Now THERE was a music mag which in it's early days I LOVED.

[jpeee]

I like listening to Antony Fantano - he pulls no punches. He has a channel on youtube called the needle drop.

https://www.youtube.com/user/theneedledrop

[A13]

They got the foos announcement

[DGrant261]

They got the foos announcement

Very apt timing for them to choose the NME awards as the forum announce it