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NME
New Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "rock inkie", the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication as well as a webzine, and the brand has also been used for their NME Awards show, the NME Tours and the former NME Radio station.
As a "rock inkie", NME was the first British newspaper to include a singles chart, adding that feature in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s, it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It became closely associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill, Paul Morley, and Tony Parsons. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998.
The magazine's website NME.com was launched in 1996, and became Britain's most popular commercial music site on the web, and had 1.6 million users worldwide in 2006. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector in the early 21st century, the NME magazine was relaunched in 2015 to be distributed nationally as a free publication. The first average circulation published in February 2016 of 307,217 copies per week was the highest in NME's history, beating the previous best of 306,881, recorded in 1964 at the height of the Beatles' fame. However, in March 2018, the publisher announced that the print edition of NME would cease publication after 66 years and become an online-only publication. In July 2023, the print edition of NME was revived, now as a bimonthly release.
NME was acquired in 2019 by Singaporean music company BandLab Technologies, which put all of its music publications under the NME Networks brand in December 2021, when the company was restructured.
The paper was established in 1952. The Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn for £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. Under the editorship of Ray Sonin, the paper began publishing artist interviews, industry gossip and, on 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, a list of the Top Twelve best-selling singles. Sales of the magazine jumped by 50%. The first of these singles charts was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino.
During the 1960s, the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray (editor 1957–1972) with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists also appeared at the NME Poll Winners' Concert, an awards event that featured artists voted as most popular by the paper's readers. The concert also featured a ceremony where the poll winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners' Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972. From 1964 onwards, they were filmed, edited, and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place.
In the mid-1960s, the NME was primarily dedicated to pop while its older rival, Melody Maker, was known for its more serious coverage of music. Other competing titles included Record Mirror, which led the way in championing American rhythm and blues, and Disc, which focused on chart news. The latter part of the decade the paper charted the rise of psychedelia and the continued dominance of British groups of the time. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock. The paper became engaged in a sometimes tense rivalry with Melody Maker; however, NME sales were healthy, with the paper selling as many as 200,000 issues per week, making it one of the UK's biggest sellers at the time.
By the early 1970s, NME had lost ground to Melody Maker, as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia and progressive rock. In early 1972, the paper was on the verge of closure by its owner IPC (which had bought the paper from Kinn in 1963). According to Nick Kent (soon to play a prominent part in the paper's revival):
NME
New Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "rock inkie", the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication as well as a webzine, and the brand has also been used for their NME Awards show, the NME Tours and the former NME Radio station.
As a "rock inkie", NME was the first British newspaper to include a singles chart, adding that feature in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s, it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It became closely associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill, Paul Morley, and Tony Parsons. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998.
The magazine's website NME.com was launched in 1996, and became Britain's most popular commercial music site on the web, and had 1.6 million users worldwide in 2006. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector in the early 21st century, the NME magazine was relaunched in 2015 to be distributed nationally as a free publication. The first average circulation published in February 2016 of 307,217 copies per week was the highest in NME's history, beating the previous best of 306,881, recorded in 1964 at the height of the Beatles' fame. However, in March 2018, the publisher announced that the print edition of NME would cease publication after 66 years and become an online-only publication. In July 2023, the print edition of NME was revived, now as a bimonthly release.
NME was acquired in 2019 by Singaporean music company BandLab Technologies, which put all of its music publications under the NME Networks brand in December 2021, when the company was restructured.
The paper was established in 1952. The Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn for £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. Under the editorship of Ray Sonin, the paper began publishing artist interviews, industry gossip and, on 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, a list of the Top Twelve best-selling singles. Sales of the magazine jumped by 50%. The first of these singles charts was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino.
During the 1960s, the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray (editor 1957–1972) with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists also appeared at the NME Poll Winners' Concert, an awards event that featured artists voted as most popular by the paper's readers. The concert also featured a ceremony where the poll winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners' Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972. From 1964 onwards, they were filmed, edited, and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place.
In the mid-1960s, the NME was primarily dedicated to pop while its older rival, Melody Maker, was known for its more serious coverage of music. Other competing titles included Record Mirror, which led the way in championing American rhythm and blues, and Disc, which focused on chart news. The latter part of the decade the paper charted the rise of psychedelia and the continued dominance of British groups of the time. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock. The paper became engaged in a sometimes tense rivalry with Melody Maker; however, NME sales were healthy, with the paper selling as many as 200,000 issues per week, making it one of the UK's biggest sellers at the time.
By the early 1970s, NME had lost ground to Melody Maker, as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia and progressive rock. In early 1972, the paper was on the verge of closure by its owner IPC (which had bought the paper from Kinn in 1963). According to Nick Kent (soon to play a prominent part in the paper's revival):
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