Examine the relationship between the music industry and the music press in the promotion of music

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Examine the relationship between the music industry and the music

press in the promotion of music.

The press and music industry work symbiotically with each other,

meaning that they depend on each other to help them grow, and be

successful. The music industry provides news, photographs and

interviews for music journalists, whilst the record companies and

artists gain more publicity. The music press plays a major part in

the process of selling music as an economic commodity, whilst at the

same time investing it with cultural significance.

The magazine ‘Smash Hits’ is a bi-weekly consumer magazine, which

covers mainstream music that is currently in the charts. It has a

massive reader audience mainly consisting of the teen market. There

are adverts aimed at the younger readers in these magazines, such as

information on tours and where to purchase the tickets, as well as the

latest albums being released. This provides advertising for the

record companies and helps increase the artist’s coverage.

The music press does not just cover the mainstream music, but over

time has catered for more specialised genres and the growth in musical

diversity. The range of print coverage of music has also broadened

to reflect the different age groups of music consumers. There are now

specialised genre based magazines such as Kerrang, for metal music,

and Mixmag for dance music. Generational based rock magazines are

also being produced, including Mojo and Q. Print media can more

easily cater for niche markets as they are cheaper to produce than

radio or TV.

Music coverage has spread to Newspapers, with many offering a section

dedicated music, with the latest news and reviews of albums and live

concerts. For example ‘The Sun’ which has a ‘Bizarre’ column all about

music. Often tabloids offer music gossip and fun reviews, where they

focus on the personal lives of the artists. The broadsheets often

provide more serious information, including reviews from top music

critics who have the similar tastes and views as the majority of the

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