Recent Music Magazine Covers

Music Magazine Research

'The Fly' is a free music magazine published monthly, solely in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by an independent music company called 'Mama Group' and has grown from its origins as a listings guide for the Barfly (club) venues (in London, Liverpool, Brighton, Cardiff and York), to becoming the biggest free music magazine in the country.

The Fly is A5-sized, and is distributed around most record shops, clothing stores, bars and venues around the UK, these include: Topman and HMV. In 2008, the magazine announced that it's circulation had increased to 105,212; at a time when many other publications such as the 'NME' and 'Q' had reported a sharp decline in circulation.

The magazine has a notably extensive review section for a free publication, featuring: new releases (both singles and albums) and live gig reviews. It uses a unique 'fly' rating system; in place of the traditional star rating system, from one 'fly' to the coveted five 'flies'.

The remainder of the magazine is devoted to articles and interviews. 'The Fly' is also notable for featuring brand new bands alongside more established acts; the magazine has a regular 'Levi's OnesToWatch' feature in association with the prestigious 'Levi's Jeans', which focuses on discovering new talent via specially-organized gigs and interviews.

The Fly is renowned for supporting bands early, having given the likes of
Razorlight, Muse and Coldplay their first cover features. In the year of 2008,
they had Foals, MGMT, Friendly Fires, Black Kids, Late Of The Pier and Noah
and the Whale on the cover, before any other UK publication.

Design Brief

* To prouduce a realistic media publication (music magazine)
* To use and challenge form and conventions of existing music magazines on the market
* To enhance the skills I have learnt through my preliminary task (please refer to 'Kitty's School Magazine')
* It is imperative that all images and text used within my project are original.

All images within my blog can be clicked on to enlarge
Additonal photographs which I had taken through the duration of the project and then decided not to use within my final piece can be found on my supporting disc (apx. 100 photos)