History of Music Magazines

Q magazine is a British music magazine which is published monthly. Its founders are Mark Ellen and David Hepworth and the editor is Andrew Harrison.
The magazine was originally called 'Cue' for "cueing a record" but was changed so it wasn't mistaken as a snooker magazine. Also, single-lettered titles stand out more on the new stands making more sales.
The first issue published was in October 1986.
It has a review section inside the magazine which covers new releases of music as well as reviews on film, live concerts, radio and television which star rates them and this tends to be added to the album ratings on print or on television advertising in the UK and Ireland.
The audience is both genders with 68.3% being male and the rest - a total of 31.7% female. In total there are 35% of readers that are between the 15-24, 26% between 25-34, 19% are 35-44 and 17% 45+. The  magazine used to target the over 25's, which allowed the magazine to be slightly higher priced as an older audience can generally afford to pay more than younger audiences. Although, now more of the younger generation read Q making the magazines audience increase. It has been suggested that Q has a niche audience because the magazines main focus is music although it can be represented as having a mass audience as it is a well-known music magazine so more people trust it enough to purchase it.





Q magazine tries to put a range of artists who perform different genres of music on the front so that it reaches out to more people. This could influence someone who doesn't usually buy the magazine to purchase it due to the person on the cover, which inevitably gives Q magazine more readers. This means that more social groups will know about Q because there is a wider selection of music genres displayed on the magazine.
The housestyle is similar on each issue with the title being in the same place in every edition. Moreover, the background colour is beige in every copy with the writing different depending on what artist is on the front. This makes it easier for buyers to find the magazine on new-stands as it will always look the same.