Music magazines published in Australia

The first music magazines in Australia began during the 1950s and were focused around youth and pop stars of the day. During the early 1960s titles included Teens Today, Teen Topics, Fan Forum, Australian Rock and Pop Stars, and Young Modern. They weren't viewed as being very serious, and by the mid-60s had ceased publishing, and it wasn't until 1966 when Go-Set was launched that Australia had its first successful national music magazine. Go-Set was founded by Philip Frazer, and is considered to have laid the foundations for the Australian music press industry. It was published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974. The magazine had two offshoot titles, Revolution which ran from 1 May 1970 to 1 August 1971, and High Times which ran August 1971 to 1 January 1972. In the fourth issue of Revolution, Rolling Stone Australia was included as a supplement. It became its own magazine in January 1972. Australian Dance Band News had been founded in 1932, and later became Music Maker in 1960. It focused on jazz, both international and Australian jazz. It ceased publication in 1972 and was absorbed into Soundblast which ran another year. During the 1970s Juke Magazine and its main competitor Rock Australia Magazine (RAM) started. Juke ran from 1975 to 1993 and was published weekly in Melbourne, while RAM was published fortnightly in Sydney from 1975 to 1989. RAM republished articles from English magazine New Musical Express (NME) alongside new Australian content. Outside of Melbourne and Sydney, Roadrunner was published in Adelaide as a monthly music magazine between 1978 and 1983. In 2019 an anthology of articles from the magazine was published in a book titled The Big Beat. Between 1982 and 1987 the ABC TV series program Countdown had their own magazine and annual. Other music titles formed during this period included Australian Smash Hits (1984–2007), TV Hits (1988–2005), cassette magazine Fast Forward (1980–1982), classical music magazine ABC Radio 24 Hours (1976–current), and several others. == Australia's street press ==

See main article: Music Street Press of Australia.Beginning in the late 1970s Australia had a strong street press culture, with titles in each state. They were available free and were often published weekly. The popularity and frequency of the street press are credited with killing off the paid weekly music magazines during the 1990s, with Juke and RAM falling to their free competitors Beat and Drum Media. In 2020 most street press across Australia closed due to COVID19. In 2022 the remaining national titles are Mixdown and scenestr, while Canberra's BMA has become Australia's longest-running street press after Beat moved completely online. == The 1990s, early-2000s, and Internet magazines ==

The 1990s saw several new magazines founded. Rhythms Magazine began in 1992, focused on Americana music such as blues, folk, and jazz. Juice, which included articles reprinted from Spin, was launched in March 1993 but closed its doors in 2003 after circulation dropped in its last three years from a reported 25,000 to only 6,000. In 1994 The Music Network was started, and ran for 925 issues until 2013. Drum Scene launched in 1995, focused on drumming, following the percussion newsletter In The Groove. Recovery launched in 1998, as a spinoff from the popular ABC TV series, and ran for 25 issues until 2000. The ABC's Triple J radio station launched their own J Mag in 2005, eventually changing its name to Triple J Magazine, and then moving to an annual format before closing in 2015. ABC Radio 24 Hours was rebranded Limelight in 2003 and has continued to publish regularly about classical music. Online music websites Mess+Noise, The Vine, FasterLouder and inthemix each had their own following, but were either merged or shut down as they were assimilated into Junkee Media. Nearly two decades of past content was erased during the process. Mess+Noise had begun in 2005 as a bimonthly print publication and was one of the most widely viewed websites in Australia before it was closed. The print edition ended in 2007 with their 14th issue. Swampland launched in 2016 and focused on longform writing, earning it comparisons to Mess+Noise. The magazine also stood out for not running album reviews, and for focusing on Australian music. It closed in 2019. == Current titles ==

While there had been several Australian music magazines running concurrently during the 1970s and 80s, while Rolling Stone Australia is licensed from the American company Penske Media Corporation. The original run of Rolling Stone Australia ended in 2018 but was relaunched again in 2020 by The Brag Media, publishers of The Music Network website. Australian Guitar is part of Guitar World, an American magazine owned by NewBay Media. They published their 146th Australian issue in January 2022. Outside of the popular music focus of NME and Rolling Stone, the remaining titles tend to focus around niche subjects, such as Rhythms and Trad&Now (Americana), Limelight (classical), and DRUMscene (drumming). Others like Foley are produced independently, and aren't as widely available. Music zines are also available in print and online and serve local focuses, such as Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Zine, an independent publication covering emerging artists and underground music scenes. These are often printed in limited quantities and are available to purchase in speciality stores or online. == Timeline 1966–2022 ==

ImageSize = width:850 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:80 bottom:100 top:5 right:5 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1966 till:01/01/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1966 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1967 Colors = id:mag1 value:red id:mag2 value: yellow id:mag3 value:green id:mag4 value:purple id:mag5 value:blue id:mag6 value:orange id:mag7 value:pink id:lines value:black id:lines2 value:gray(0.65) id:bars value:gray(0.92) BackgroundColors = bars:bars BarData = bar:GSet text:"Go-Set" bar:RStone text:"Rolling Stone" bar:Juke text:"Juke" bar:RAM text:"RAM" bar:A24 text:"Limelight" bar:RRun text:"Road Runner" bar:Count text:"Countdown" bar:SH text:"Smash Hits" bar:TVH text:"TV Hits" bar:Rhythms text:"Rhythms" bar:Juice text:"Juice" bar:Recov text:"Recovery" bar:JJJ text:"Triple J" bar:MAN text:"Mess+Noise" bar:SWAMP text:"Swampland" bar:NME text:"NME Aus" PlotData= width:15 bar: GSet from:02/02/1966 till:08/24/1974 color:mag1 bar: RStone from:01/01/1972 till:01/01/2018 color:mag3 bar: RStone from:01/01/2019 till:01/01/2022 color:mag3 bar: Juke from:01/01/1975 till:01/01/1993 color:mag4 bar: RAM from:03/08/1975 till:06/01/1989 color:mag5 bar: A24 from:01/01/1976 till:01/01/2022 color:mag1 bar: RRun from:03/01/1978 till:01/01/1983 color:mag6 bar: Rhythms from:04/01/1992 till:01/01/2022 color:mag5 bar: Juice from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/2003 color:mag6 bar: Recov from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/2000 color:mag1 bar: JJJ from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2015 color:mag3 bar: MAN from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2007 color:mag6 bar: NME from:04/01/2020 till:01/01/2022 color:mag4 bar: Count from:01/01/1982 till:01/01/1987 color:mag1 bar: SH from:01/01/1984 till:01/01/2007 color:mag3 bar: TVH from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/2005 color:mag4 bar: SWAMP from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2019 color:mag5 == See also ==