stroller Advanced Member Posts:576  
| 1/26/2005 4:50 PM |
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BTW have just heard The Magic Numbers' single. my breath has been taken away to somewhere very strange.
It's magical isn't it? |
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Gar Veteran Member Posts:1676
| 1/26/2005 4:56 PM |
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If there is no market out there to sell music magazines then who currently buys Hotpress, queue up all night for U2 tickets and cram into festivals like Oxegen every year? I take your point on board and the Irish music industry could be in a better state but there is certainly a market out there. As long as a magazine is interesting, informative, affordable and entertaining...then I believe it will be a success.
Of course, the magazine should provide something different than what is on offer currently. It should be run effiecently (handling advertising to keep itself alive and producing copies on a consistent basis) and be able to catch your attention (new exciting writers, interesting features and covering of either mainstream or unsigned acts would help). Let us hope that Hotpress remodels itself or a magazine does arise someday. But by then, I'm sure Cluas will have attracted more of a readership and Cluas could be the answer we seek, in webzine form anyway.
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PilchardAdvanced Member Posts:699
| 1/26/2005 5:00 PM |
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Originally posted by vandala
Have you given any consideration to the fact that the absence of quality music mags is mainly down to the fact that there's little or no market for them? In fact, in the wider scheme of things, the whole history of the magazine industry in Dublin/Ireland seems pretty shambolic...interesting publications folding after a handful of issues (Foggy Notion, etc), longer-established ones folding because of poor sales (D-Side, etc). I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but thought it might be worth a mention.
v good point. small country = small readership/market = tiny audience when u go to find those who will spend a few euros every week/fortnight/month on a music title. HP has survived and deserves kudos for this. It does not deserve praise for what is contained between its covers, though.
it would be interesting to find out if IPC or EMAP supply Irish sales figures for NME, Mojo, Q, Uncut. I remember looking before but the only figures available did not break it down to these numbers. Anyone here work at Newspread or Easons and have access to this data????
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PilchardAdvanced Member Posts:699
| 1/26/2005 5:03 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by stroller
quote:
BTW have just heard The Magic Numbers' single. my breath has been taken away to somewhere very strange.
It's magical isn't it?
A beam of sunshine on a cloudy day!  |
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GarVeteran Member Posts:1676
| 1/26/2005 5:46 PM |
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Where did you hear that tune by the way?
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strollerAdvanced Member Posts:576
| 1/26/2005 5:59 PM |
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Originally posted by Gar
Where did you hear that tune by the way?
You can watch the video/listen to the song here;
http://www.nme.com/features/110565.htm |
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strollerAdvanced Member Posts:576
| 1/26/2005 6:04 PM |
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it would be interesting to find out if IPC or EMAP supply Irish sales figures for NME, Mojo, Q, Uncut. I remember looking before but the only figures available did not break it down to these numbers. Anyone here work at Newspread or Easons and have access to this data????
Would you believe I did a comparitive marketing study on Hot Press and it's competitors in college last year. If my memory serves me correctly Hot Press sells about 17,500 issues a fortnight in Ireland while NME shifts a paltry 1000 copies a week. For a sense of perspective the market leader is the RTE Guide with 70,000 issues a week. |
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PilchardAdvanced Member Posts:699
| 1/26/2005 6:05 PM |
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Originally posted by Gar
If there is no market out there to sell music magazines then who currently buys Hotpress, queue up all night for U2 tickets and cram into festivals like Oxegen every year?
i am not trying to be smart here but its the people who obviously DO NOT buy music mags! take it that HP is the only irish music, right. It sells 10-12k copies per fortnight. 80k will try to go to see U2, 100k bought paddy casey records and 50k will go to oxegen. these people do not rely on music mags to find out about music. they listen to the radio, they get word of mouth recommendations, they are the five records a year brigade,.
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I take your point on board and the Irish music industry could be in a better state but there is certainly a market out there. As long as a magazine is interesting, informative, affordable and entertaining...then I believe it will be a success.
i think vincent browne might have something to say about that! he would say that The Village (his weekly politics and current affairs mag) is all that and more but the sales figures bely this. i would love to agree with u but having seen so many great mags come and go over the years, i fear that the public gets what the public can be arsed to buy, read and support.
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Of course, the magazine should provide something different than what is on offer currently. It should be run effiecently (handling advertising to keep itself alive and producing copies on a consistent basis) and be able to catch your attention (new exciting writers, interesting features and covering of either mainstream or unsigned acts would help). Let us hope that Hotpress remodels itself or a magazine does arise someday. But by then, I'm sure Cluas will have attracted more of a readership and Cluas could be the answer we seek, in webzine form anyway.
it IS the answer and this debate probably proves it. I mean, could u imagine something like this getting printed in HP??? |
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GarVeteran Member Posts:1676
| 1/26/2005 6:46 PM |
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I disagree about The Village and I would disagree with Vincent Browne aswell (don't tell him I said that). I have read every issue of The Village since it has started and the point I was making was regarding entertainment magazines. The Village is a current affairs magazine with a splash of entertainment and sport. In saying that, the best two articles are always by Graham Hunter (Sport) and Declan Burke (Film). The music section is dire, in my opinion, it offers nothing at all really. I have been in talks for a long time over writing in the music section, although there is no room currently available. Even though I offered to write for free, I still haven't had a chance to submit to a magazine which looks like it might soon disappear.
And your point about the five records a year birgade is true. But I was stressing that there is a market out there that could be tapped. Currently fans of indie/rock/garage etc aswell as singer/songwriters have to buy Hotpress to read interviews, reviews of them in magazine format. Of course, there are webzines like Cluas and radio shows like John Walshe Going Underground but in terms of magazines, there is a market there, I believe anyway, that demand more than what Hotpress are offering. Otherwise we wouldn't really be having this discussion.
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UnicronVeteran Member Posts:1696
| 1/26/2005 8:38 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by stroller
Would you believe I did a comparitive marketing study on Hot Press and it's competitors in college last year. If my memory serves me correctly Hot Press sells about 17,500 issues a fortnight in Ireland while NME shifts a paltry 1000 copies a week.
I'm gonna stick my neck out here and say this "Good, the NME is garbage too, but in a different way". |
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Nick The Greek New Member Posts:21
| 1/26/2005 11:13 PM |
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Originally posted by Gar
Of course, there are webzines like Cluas and radio shows like John Walshe Going Underground but in terms of magazines, there is a market there, I believe anyway, that demand more than what Hotpress are offering. Otherwise we wouldn't really be having this discussion.
I agree with you 100% Gar, and I wish there was something out there that could cater for our market - but I wonder if there is a large enough demand for it? The stats on HP sales are true - over 17,500 every fortnight, but I believe that these punters are made up mostly of those who are interested only in the glossy side of the industry. We (being the hardcore music fans and supporters of independent and up and coming acts) are unfortunately a minority. At the end of the day, Hot Press is a business, and in publishing terms quite a successful one. So, I think that rather than slagging of the magazine, why dont the members of Cluas put together some recommendations for the magazine and petition them with it, without ofcourse trying to tell them how to run their business. I'm sure they're not so unreasonable as to turn a blind eye to a collective bunch of creative ideas?? You'd never know, maybe Cluas will have their own page in it some day.. |
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PilchardAdvanced Member Posts:699
| 1/27/2005 9:12 AM |
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at the risk of extending this debate another day. i'd hate to see a Cluas page in HP. it would put me completely off cluas. The reason why i come here and post here is because its an alternative which is not available anywhere else. The idea of having "Lending an ear to irish music" splashed in HP turns my blood cold and i'd hope the people behind Cluas would not be so foolish. Thats my tuppenceworth
Re NME selling 1000 copies here - that;'s actually quite good, given NME's overall sales. I'd have thought it was half that
Re Village. I bought the mag the 1st few weeks and got cheesed off reading political articles i had already read in various online places like New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian etc. Yes, their music stuff is dire - most of their arts stuff is dire, actually - and that needs a big shakeup but it seems that despite Vinny Browne's assertions before the mag started that there would be room there for everything and everyone, he really only meant there was room for him to bash the usual suspects.
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| 1/27/2005 1:29 PM |
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mainline, jove and the murder of crows are b****x! i saw someone mentioning them and felt that that should be put straight. the angels of mons are however, deadly! i think that ch-1 are really good also and possibly the soviet filter although i have serious reservations about some of their stuff!
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UnicronVeteran Member Posts:1696
| 1/27/2005 6:43 PM |
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Originally posted by Nick The Greek
You'd never know, maybe Cluas will have their own page in it some day..
Apparently in the 5 years that the site has been going it has not got a single mention in HP so I wouldn't hold your breath, probably got something to do with supplying all out content for free. |
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eoinfilterNew Member Posts:52
| 1/27/2005 7:08 PM |
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the same goes for anything interesting that could take their place as head muckball on the irish music scene. instead of acting as a hub for irish music all that its involved in is conservative market protection. i agree that the NME is awful! its really corporate in its ways, bliss for indie kids
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