The internet claims another victim

[The Curmudgeon]

Sad news today, as it was revealed that the longest running music magazine in the world was slowly but surely dying.

Inevitable in today's digital age, I suppose, but the NME announced they would be turning into a free magazine in the next few months, and would start covering fashion and technology. So basically, one of those free rags you get handed out in train stations, far removed from the new music bible it was for many, many years.

The NME saw the birth of rock and roll. It saw the rise of the Beatles. The death of Elvis. The rise of punk. Oasis vs Blur. Nirvana. You name it, the NME were there, and even though they were infuriatingly opinionated and sometimes latching onto terrible bands as The Future, hell.. that was part of their charm.

So it's just another nail in the coffin for alternative music and rock, because this was a pivotal voice for that culture. Half of the bands I've been to see live and bought music of are because of the NME.

I don't know if it was a "thing" in the US (I remember reading that Ryan Adams would walk a couple of miles every week to pick one up in a store), and their dwindling numbers suggest a lot less people actually care, but this is a huge loss.

[trashcanman]

Traditional physical media is dying off fast. Digital is going to take over as surely as anything. It's just the march of progress. Personally, I feel like music magazines had become a cesspool of unreadable masturbatory bullshit years before the internet became the dominant form of media, but that's just me.