Studying Q

Studying Q

Studying 'Q'

When Q was first published in October 1986 it was a time when CD's were still a new technology that both the old and the young were purchasing. Yet Q felt the older generation were being ignored by the music press. Q founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by this occurance and felt it was time for a change. 'Q' was not the original idea for the magazine title, it was 'Cue' (cueing a recording) that originally stood but falling into confusion with Snooker magazines and 'Q' being short and powerful both Ellen and Hepworth decided the letter would be an eye-catching standout on the News stands. Q brings more of a personable approach to a music magazine, as Q themselves do a monthly rating (1-5*) of each album featured in their latest edition, giving the reader an insight into the writers opinion.

Q is widely known for their '100 best...' lists, for example '100 best albums ever'. Q's listings often go ahead as a critics opinion when looking for an albums critical reception. Repeatedly doing things like this gives the reader something to talk about, pass opinion on and compare opinion. It is very useful to involve lists like this when creating a music magazine as you can find that if readers agree with what you're saying then you are getting a slowly growing fanbase; that is why Q have been running as a successful music magazine for 25 years. Another way to get the reader numbers growing, is promotional gifts, something that Q have specialised in for years. The January 2006 issue included a free copy of "The Greatest Rock and Pop Miscellany … Ever!". Again something that could cause controversy, yet Q have rarely dissapointed.

Q have always attempted to intrege the readers, to set themselves apart from your typical; what you see is what you get; music magazine. One of their ways of doing this was putting a message on the spine of each edition, giving the reader the challenge of finding how the message relates to the contents of the magazine. 'The Spine' has since become a commonplace among British Lifestyle magazines. Following another personable approach, before each edition is printed, the public were to send in questions to Q, this was called 'Cash For Questions'. Each question that was printed an answered the sender would recieve a £25.00 cheque from Q, a win-win situation.

There are many listings Q have done that are your average, everyday listing. Things like '50 essential tracks of the month', '100 best...' but one thing that other magazines didn't do, were the more unique listings. To stick with the older (but by no means dated) feel, in each edition Q would invole a 'Rewind' section in which they would take a rewind over all the old classics that are being forgotten. Not only did Q review, rate, discuss and advertise these singers, but they also had a '10 commandments' section dedicated to their chosen artists. Each artist would be interviewed and tell Q the 10 commandments they would live by if they had to, this deemed extremely popular with the readers, finding out a variety of main things about an artist without having to read draining paragraphs.

Not only sticking with what's happening on the radio and television channels, Q would do a yearly release on Glastbonbury Festival at the end of each festival for the general public; particularly festival go-ers to read up on. Now Q do a constant update on their website of Glastonbury news, rumoured line up's, headliners etc. Although speaking of radio and TV, as of 2008, after a few years of doing a radio jukebox, Q became a fully serviced radio channel, involving drivertime and Q the 80's. There were also a Q television channel, but in which was unfortunately cancelled on 3rd July 2012.

Q holds a yearly ceremony to celebrate their magazine and award artists that have feautured strongly through-out the year. Since the 'Q Awards' beginning in 1990 they have became one of Britains biggest and best publicised music awards. Q has a circulation of 80,418 and has been a total commercial success since it was released in 1986.