Q Magazine is finished.

Arghus

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2020/0721/1154552-q-magazine-to-close-after-34-years/

Q is done. I'm kinda surprised and not at the same time. Surprised because it was the big lad of all the UK music magazines. Not surprised because it was a magazine.

Wasn't a big fan myself. I didn't really understand how there was an audience for it to be honest. If you're interested enough in music to buy a magazine then surely what you'd read about in the pages of Q would bore the arse off you. Even Mojo and Uncut were a bit more adventurous.

Dravokivich

Seems it was going to happen with'em sooner or later alright. Never read it, but magazines as a format, look like they don't have much longevity in'em. A monthly/weekly periodical with a target audience that has access to more immediate information. Why read a review of an album, when you can more than likely stream it on Spotify without needing to invest in buying a copy? Why read a review on a gig, when a lot of artists either put up old gigs, or snippets of current tours on youtube? Or if you are on fansites, or discussion forums, get direct feedback from someone who's been there, experienced them before, or bought the cd?

I stopped buying a lot of those types of magazines when I started having more consistent access to the internet. I'd generally only get hobbyist style magazines now for Music Production whenever it looks like it's bundled with something I'd want.

Beechwoodspark

Would buy Q maybe 3 times a year and always a good read. I found myself gravitating more towards mojo and uncut in recent years as Q seemed to go down the pop route a bit more, maybe that’s just me getting older!

I particularly enjoyed their end of year issue with albums of the year count down.

I remember they did a great article about U2 and dublin a few years back too.

sad to see it fold. Surprised they havnt started up a subscription based app instead

Strumms

I’ve been buying Q religiously every month for about 23 years. It started off as my favorite music monthly and I’d never miss a Q but I haven’t bought a copy in about 3 or 4 years. The quality and overall editorial decline has been very apparent for a while. While you’d expect maybe in order them to stay profitable in times of everything moving online but when you are having the like of Adele as a cover star and a 9 page interview with similar borefests the writing was on the wall. A great shame, I genuinely liked it , they had intelligent warm and genuine writers . The reviews were pretty accurate, reliable and fair and without the bias you’d get with a couple of other publications.

I wonder how long the likes of Word, Mojo and Uncut will survive.