Announcement: Future Music Magazine To Launch in US!!

PlasticMoonRain

New member
FUTURE NETWORK USA TO LAUNCH US VERSION
OF FUTURE MUSIC MAGAZINE
IN APRIL 2005


Brisbane, CA and New York, NY (October 11, 2004) – Future Network USA, the country's foremost publisher of cutting edge gaming, computing and musician magazines, is launching an American version of its successful Future Music magazine in April 2005, it was announced today by president Jonathan Simpson-Bint.

The completely new, American-edited magazine will be part of the company’s music division, which includes market-leading titles Guitar One, Guitar World, Guitar World Acoustic, Guitar World’s Bass Guitar, Guitar World Legends, and Guitar World Buyer’s Guide and is run by group publishing director Steve Aaron. The magazine will be based in Future Network USA’s New York offices.

Future Music will launch as a bi-monthly with paid circulation of 50,000, although Future will examine increasing the frequency after the first few issues.

The news follows the recent announcement of the launch of the Future Action Sports division focusing on skateboarding and snowboarding consumer and trade titles.

Future Network USA is a division of UK-based Future Network, plc [FNET].

Future Music is a reader-driven publication featuring an entertaining and highly substantive mix of artist-driven features, product reviews, and multiple entry points for today’s musicians as well as anybody who uses a computer to make, play or produce any genre of music:

* Loads of reviews of the latest gear, from instruments and software to monitors, controllers, microphones and samplers, giving readers a thorough analysis of what makes a product tick, if it does what it’s supposed to do well, and if it will be worth buying.

* Crafty tutorials and advice on making music with the latest equipment and technology.

* Behind the scenes with well-known and upcoming artists to see how they create their songs.

* Home studio makeovers and demo song critiques.


In the successful Future Network tradition, each issue will feature a cover-mounted CD-ROM with videos, products demos, sample libraries, and tutorials, making the magazine the ultimate package on newsstands for musicians everywhere.

The magazine’s design will look unlike any other music enthusiast magazine in America – slick, exciting and inviting, with the many products showcased in full glory.

For musicians everywhere, this announcement is the equivalent of manna from heaven: import copies of the magazine now account for 10% of total sales, as they are heavily snapped up on newsstands and music stores everywhere. Now they will have an original product written, edited and designed right in the US with a new crack editorial staff.

James Rotondi, the editor-in-chief of Guitar World’s Bass Guitar, will be editor in chief. While Rotondi’s editorial credentials are superb (features editor of Guitar Player, associate editor and writer at Remix, stories for Spin, Rolling Stone, Pulse, and Harmony Central), he walks the walk too: he spent two years as a singer, keyboardist and synth programmer for the popular French electronic band Air, while performing similar duties in the past for rock band Mr. Bungle. He has also played guitar on over 100 national television commercials.

“Musician-oriented editorial needs to be informed by real musical experiences,” Rotondi says. “The future of music technology is always a result of the dialogue between those who play, and those whose ideas help us play better.”

“We know the moment has arrived for Future Music – the proliferation of music software and lower price points for gear have fueled significant growth in the last five years,” explains Simpson-Bint. “Along with Apple loading GarageBand into four million Macs, everybody has the opportunity to make music with their computers and be a Future Music reader. It’s already a coveted import title, and now it’s going to take on a bigger audience than ever before.”

Future Network USA currently ranks 13th out of the top 20 audited newsstand publishers in gross retail sales. As stated in the April 2004 issue of Circulation Management, Future showed the biggest increase among the top 50 newsstand publishing companies for 2003, with a gross retail revenue sales increase of 77%. The average U.S. magazine cover price of the top 50 audited titles on the newsstand is $3.28 while the average Future cover price is $7.65. With an average cover price more than twice the industry average, Future consistently outperforms their competitors.



# # #

About The Future Network plc
The Future Network was founded in the UK in 1985. Today, it publishes over 100 special-interest consumer magazines worldwide, is the world’s leading publisher of games magazines and is the fifth largest magazine publisher in the UK. Future employs over 1,000 people in offices in the UK, US, Italy and France. Around 100 international editions of Future’s magazines are also published in 31 other countries across the world. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FNET).


About Future Network USA
Future Network USA (www.futurenetworkusa.com), formerly Imagine Media, built its success on a strategy of "passion": serving markets where there is a thirst for expert knowledge and advice. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area with an office in New York City, Future Network USA's publications sell in excess of 2.2 million copies per month. Its market-leading titles include PC Gamer, PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation 2 Magazine, Official Xbox Magazine, Mobile PC, Maximum PC, MacAddict, EZ Tech Guides and guitar titles: Guitar World, Guitar World Acoustic (bi-monthly), Guitar World Bass Guitar (semi-annual, bimonthly in 2004), Guitar World Legends (quarterly) and Guitar One. The Action Sports Division of snowboarding and skateboarding consumer and trade titles will be launching in spring 2005.
 
YAY!....so now we get to have the same absolutely unbiased and non-partisan reviews, critiques, etc. that the readers of Guitar World get! WOOHOO!!!!

This is gonna make a whole lot of people go broke from G.A.S.
 
Great, is this going to be like the Home Recording magazine (which was done by the same people). That magazine rocked until it suddenly dissapeared and I started getting GuitarOne's instead (even though I never asked for them)....
 
Think of it in terms as a cross between the UK editions of Future Music and Computer Music, but not as dance/electronica oriented -- a little more broader covering more genres.

A whole new US staff to edit it too.


Drew
 
Those UK magazines are so much more informative, ballsy and down to earth than US mags. I hope the American editors are going to run it with the same spirit.

I got that crappy GuitarOne mag myself.
 
You must be joking. Future Music is rubbish, cynically targeted by the hugely successful and commercially astute Future Publishing group at GAS hungry talentless wannabes. "How to make a killer track in a day" and other such trifles. It's the McDonalds of music production mags, as is its sister mag Computer Music. If you want a good UK mag read Sound on Sound, which is an absolute labour of love. But maybe with stuff like EQ, Tape Op and so on you're well enough served by mags in the US anyway and I for one am not pleased that Future Music is going to be a UK export to our friends in the US.
 
I do not know remember Home Recording magazine.

As for criticizing Future Music, this kind of arguing is like "less filling taste great."

While Computer Music (UK) is skewed towards beginners in some respect to prod them along the way and get their feet wet, Future Music is for more advanced musicians and its edit reflects as suich.

The US magazine market for musicians is outdated and boring. That is why Future Music is launching into the fray.

10% of FM's current sales are imports from the UK. Which says quite a lot -- musicans aren't getting what they want here in the US.

This will be a completely American edited and produced publication.

Current readers of FM (UK) will be happy while new readers can decide for themsevles.

We think American readers will be very pleased, as this will be vastly superior and different to what's out there. And Future has the track record to prove it.
 
Well if you want to sign me up for a free subscription I'll take it....flipping through audio mags is always a good way to procrastinate.
 
Oh that's OK then, Plastic. Just for a minute, i thought you might be spamming this board with a puff piece about the launch of some ghastly new magazine with which you are connected, which would of course be breaking the rules.

But now you've made it clear, you're doing the US a huge favour, that's OK :rolleyes: Why don't you post the rest of the biz plan while you're at it.....

Moderator?
 
MadAudio said:
Spam spam spam spam

Spam indeed. In fact this post of Plastic doo dah's goes beyond spam - it is the simple abuse of a freely accessible, non commercial forum to deliver a blatant piece of advertisng to a highly targeted and very valuable market, for which Future Publishing should be paying good money.

The only consolation is that his (or her) two posts contain such vomit inducing, hyperbolic, bullshit ridden corporate gobbledegook. This not only reveals the poster as some pre programmed marketing drone of no creativity or talent whatsoever but I hope will actually deter clear thinking American members of this bbs from dirtying their hands with the wretched "product" when it appears in their magazine stores.

So hopefully this attempt at advertising on the cheap will do more harm than good.
 
Spam? Big MotherEffing Deal. It happens from time to time. It's a press release. If the post was about how to get a bigger schlong or better home mortgage I'd share your views, but Christalmighty get a life. With all due respect...
 
I had a subscription to Home Recording mag for about 2 years. It was great when it first came out, but then like most mags, less and less useful articles and more and more ads. Maybe this mag will be ok. I'll at least give it a look.
 
Mountainmirrors said:
Spam? Big MotherEffing Deal. It happens from time to time. It's a press release. If the post was about how to get a bigger schlong or better home mortgage I'd share your views, but Christalmighty get a life. With all due respect...

I was only having a bit of fun....;)
 
Garry Sharp said:
Spam indeed. In fact this post of Plastic doo dah's goes beyond spam - it is the simple abuse of a freely accessible, non commercial forum to deliver a blatant piece of advertisng to a highly targeted and very valuable market, for which Future Publishing should be paying good money.

The only consolation is that his (or her) two posts contain such vomit inducing, hyperbolic, bullshit ridden corporate gobbledegook. This not only reveals the poster as some pre programmed marketing drone of no creativity or talent whatsoever but I hope will actually deter clear thinking American members of this bbs from dirtying their hands with the wretched "product" when it appears in their magazine stores.

So hopefully this attempt at advertising on the cheap will do more harm than good.


"Having fun?" (cough) (cough)

Yeah, right.
 
PlasticMoonRain said:
"Having fun?" (cough) (cough)

Yeah, right.

Well, I was having a bit of fun but I meant it at the same time :) Please feel free to take Blue Bear's example and actually pay when you want to use this site for advertising.
 
Garry Sharp said:
Well, I was having a bit of fun but I meant it at the same time :) Please feel free to take Blue Bear's example and actually pay when you want to use this site for advertising.

Perhaps you should know the difference between advertising and a press release, as per Mountainmirrors' example.
 
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