Music Week is a trade paper for the UK record industry.

Founded in 1959 as Record Retailer, it was relaunched on 18 March 1972 as Music Week . On 17 January 1981 the title was again changed, owing to the increasing importance of sell-through videos, to Music & Video Week. The rival title Record Business, founded in 1978 by Brian Mulligan and Norman Garrod, was absorbed into Music Week in February 1983. Later that year, the offshoot magazine Video Week was launched and the title of the parent publication reverted to Music Week .

Since April 1991, Music Week has incorporated Record Mirror, initially as a 4 or 8-page chart supplement, later as a specialist dance supplement featuring articles, reviews and charts.

In the 1990s, several magazines and newsletters become part of the Music Week family: Music Business International (MBI), Promo, MIRO Future Hits, Tours Report, Fono, Green Sheet, Charts+Plus (published from May 1991 to November 1994), and Hit Music (September 1992 to May 2001). By May 2001 all newsletters (except Promo) ceased publication.

In 2003, Music Week relaunched its website, offering daily news, features, record release listings and UK sales, airplay and club charts.

In early 2006, a separate free-to-access site was launched for the Music Week Directory giving users access to around 10,000 contacts from across the UK music industry.

In mid-2007, the magazine was given a facelift and redesigned by London-based design company This Is Real Art. In October 2008 another redesign led to major changes to the magazine.

In June 2011, Music Week was sold to Intent Media.^[5][6][4] The package was sold for £2.4m^[5][6] and contained also titles Television Broadcast Europe, Pro Sound News, Installation Europe, and additional websites, newsletters, conferences, show dailies and awards events, which generated £5.4m of revenue in 2010.^[6] As of issue 30 July 2011, UBM is still named as publisher,^[7] as the new publisher Intent Media took over on 1 August 2011.^[8] In the first edition under new ownership it was announced that the title would switch its day of publication Monday to Thursday with immediate effect.^[9]

Charts[link]

Music Week currently features these British charts: Top 75 Singles, Top 75 Artist Albums, Top 20 Downloads, Top 20 Ringtones, Top 20 Compilation Albums, Top 50 Radio Airplay, Top 40 TV airplay, and a number of format and genre charts (Music DVD, Rock, Indie, etc.). It also includes extensive background on major chart hits in the form of sales and airplay analysis from chart expert Alan Jones. Following a redesign in October 2008, the magazine introduced live charts based on Tixdaq data, a Box Office chart and new predictive charts based on information from Amazon, Play.com, Shazam, HMV.com and Last.fm. Music Week also compiles and publishes weekly club charts from chart returns supplied by DJs in nightclubs around the UK. These charts are: Upfront Club Top 40, Commercial Pop Top 30 and Urban Top 30. Music Week also publishes a weekly Cool Cuts chart which is compiled from tastemaker DJ feedback and sales reports from independent record shops around the UK.

Publishing details[link]

Music Week is published weekly (51 editions p.a.) by Intent Media. It is available as a B4-sized printed magazine and an identical PDF digital edition. ISSN 0265-1548.

Editorial staff[link]

• publishing director: Dave Roberts^[1]
• editor: Tim Ingham^[1]
• head of business analysis: Paul Williams ^[10][3][1]
• senior designer: Ed Miller^[10][3][1]
• designer: Simon Christophers^[1]
• staff writer: Charlotte Otter^[3]
• staff writer: Ben Cardew^[10][3]
• staff writer: Tina Hart^[1]
• charts & data controller: Isabelle Nesmon^[3]
• chart consultant: Alan Jones^[10][3]

Previous editors of Music Week include David Dalton, Steve Redmond, Selina Webb, Ajax Scott, Martin Talbot and Paul Williams. Other former staff:

• contributing editor Paul Gorman ^[11]
• publishing director: Joe Hosken^[10][3]
• content director: Michael Gubbins^[7]
• associate editor: Robert Ashton^[10][3]
• features editor: Christopher Barrett^[10][3]
• sub-editor & design: Simon Ward^[10][3][12]
• contributing editors: Gordon Masson, Eamonn Forde^[3]
• digital content manager: Tim Frost^[10][3]
• talent editor: Stuart Clarke ^[10][3]

Circulation[link]

Circulation trend (ABC data):

• 1997/98: 12,503^[13]
• 1998/99: 11,851^[13]
• 1999/00: 10,982^[13]
• 2000/01: 10,933^[13]
• 2001/02: 10,555
• 2002/03: n/a
• 2003/04: 9,622
• 2004/05: n/a
• 2006/07: 7,960^[10]
• 2007/08: 6,771^[14]
• 2008/09: 5,962^[15]
• 2009/10: 5,218^[2]

By October 2011, Music Week had been deregistered with ABC after 54 years.^[16]

The website musicweek.com had 63,904 monthly unique browsers for the audited period 1–31 October 2008.^[17] By 2009 the website had been deregistered with ABC.^[18]

See also[link]

• UK Singles Chart
• UKChartsPlus
• Hit Music
• Record Retailer

References[link]