Music Street Press Of Australia

Australia has had a long history of street press media, beginning in the 1980s. Most street press have been centred around music and gig guides, but subjects have also included movies, fashion, and food. Each major city in Australia had at least two music street press at some point, and they were at their most popular during the 1990s. During the height of their popularity most were initially tabloid size, and printed on newsprint with glossy covers. Later titles shrunk to A4 size magazine.

State based titles

Victoria

One of Australia's earliest street press was '' TAGG – The Alternative Gig Guide'', which ran between 1979 and 1981. It was originally published in Melbourne before a Sydney edition was launched in 1980.

In Melbourne during the 1980s, ''Beat'' ''Magazine'' and ''Inpress'' were both published weekly, with ''Beat'' first published in 1986 and ''Inpress'' following two years later. ''Beat'' was founded by Rob Furst and published by his company Furst Media, while ''Inpress'' was published by Street Press Australia. Both companies would go onto own and run multiple street press titles across Australia.

''Forte'' was started in 1991 as a regional gig guide, similar to ''Beat''. It was published in Geelong and distributed to Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Geelong, Surfcoast and Warrnambool. In 2015 Furst Media became their publisher, starting with issue #619 on August 20. ''Mixdown'', a street press magazine focused on music creation and audio production, launched in 1993 and is printed by Furst Media as a national street press.

New South Wales

In 1989, ''3D World'' began in Sydney, and ran until 2011. The magazine focused on dance music and club culture. Its main competitor was ''The Brag'', published by Furst Media''.'' ''3D World'' was purchased by Street Press Media in 2009, and they expanded to Melbourne and Brisbane in 2010 before closing the print edition the following year. It was then revived in August 2011 as ''Three Magazine,'' an iPad-only magazine''.'' It had been removed for the App store by 2014.

Sydney also had ''On The Street'', which began in 1981 before its staff led a mass walkout and started a rival publication ''Drum Media'' in 1990. A similar story occurred when Sydney's ''Revolver'' closed in 2003, after six years of publication, and its staff created a new magazine ''Evolver''. When Revolver's publisher threatened to sue due to the new magazine's similarities to theirs, ''Evolver'' was renamed ''The Brag''. This new title was briefly owned by Furst Media until 2016, and was published weekly until 2017 when it became fortnightly, then monthly, and in 2018 moved to quarterly.

Also in NSW, Newcastle's ''Reverb'' ran from 2006 to 2012, and became an online only publication from 2013.

Queensland

During the 1980s ''Time Off'' was published in Brisbane, after starting as a campus newspaper at the University of Queensland in 1976. It became a widely available bi-weekly title from March 14, 1980. ''Rave Magazine'' was also published in Brisbane, starting in 1991 and ran for 1047 issues until 2012.

''Scene Magazine'' was started in 1993 in Brisbane, and focused on dance music to differentiate themselves from the more rock focused ''Rave'' and ''Time Off''. They would later rename themselves as ''scenestr'' and become national in the 2000s.

South Australia

''Rip It Up'' was published weekly in Adelaide, beginning in 1989 before it went digital in 2014 and ceased publication in 2016. Although not officially part of Street Press Australia, it was added to the network via an agency agreement in 2008. Adelaide also had ''db'' which ran between 1990 and 2014, and ''BSide Magazine'' which began publishing in 2015, but ceased publication in 2018.

Western Australia

Perth's ''X-Press'' started in 1985 as a weekly title, later shifting to monthly in 2014, and the city also had their own edition of ''Drum Media'' starting in 2006''.''

Australian Capitol Territory

''BMA Magazine'' began publishing in Canberra in 1992, and is still publishing in 2022 as a fortnightly title. ''Drum Media'' was also distributed in Canberra from Sydney.

Northern Territory

Starting in 1996, ''Pulse NT'' was published in Darwin and called themselves, "The Northern Territory's first street mag: local, national, international music and reviews." It was published monthly by Pulse Street Press.

National titles and mergers

In 2006 the owners of ''Inpress'' formed Street Press Australia and took over ''The Drum Media'' and ''Time Off'', before merging them all together in 2013 as ''The Music''. Alongside the new name came a smaller A4 size and a less frequent publication as ''The Music'' went monthly, shifting their focus away from being a weekly local gig guide. In 2018 Street Press Australia ceased to exist, and their assets were taken over by Handshake Media who continued to publish ''The Music'' on Australia's east cost.

Furst Media's titles such as ''Beat'' and ''The Brag'' had been the major competitor with Street Press Australia in their cities, but never expanded further or merged their titles nationally. Instead they joined ''Beat, The Brag, Rave, dB,'' and ''X-Press'' under the banner of the National Street Press in 2009, but the companies remained separate.

Perth's ''X-Press'' was merged with ''The Music'' in 2015, but continued to be printed under its own name. ''X-Press'' was later put up for sale in April 2016.

In 2017 ''The Brag'' was acquired by Seventh Street Media, and they ran ''The Brag'' alongside music websites ''Tone Deaf'', ''The Industry Observer'', and ''Rolling Stone Australia''.

''Scene Magazine,'' which had started in Adelaide in 1993 created a Melbourne edition in 2003. They downsized from their tabloid style magazine to A4 glossy in 2004 and later rebranded to ''scenestr'' in 2014, also changing from weekly to a monthly schedule. In 2015 they launched in Adelaide, Sydney in 2016, Perth in 2017, and relaunched in Melbourne in 2018. In 2021 they claimed to be the only national street press group.

Other publications included '' Australian Musician'', and ''Music Feeds.''

Distribution numbers

The number of copies each street press distributed was audited by the Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA) through their CAB brand which verifies and provides distribution data to media companies. Street press magazines would report their weekly distribution numbers as CAB audited, and would occasionally call each other out over displaying their numbers incorrectly. By 2020 no titles reported CAB audited data anymore, and instead displayed rounded numbers on their websites or inside each magazine, if at all.

* denotes national title

Current titles and closures

In 2020, during Australia's lockdown period, due to COVID-19, most street presses quietly stopped printing and moved completely online.

In Melbourne, ''Beat'' had moved to a fortnightly schedule in 2019. Following issue #1695's publication on March 11, 2020 ''Beat'' paused their print edition until in May 2022 editor when Lucas Radbourne announced the print issue had returned, and was available freely again as a monthly magazine.

In Sydney, ''The Brag'' also ceased publication in March 2020. But while most street press did so without a formal announcement, ''The Brag'' released a statement in February of their coming closure.

March 2020 was also the date of ''The Music''’s most recent issue, and in October 2021, Handshake Media (previously Street Press Australia) announced they had sold ''The Music'' to SGC Media, owners of online music titles ''Purple Sneakers'' and ''Country Town''. ''Time Off'' was separately sold to Sean Sennett, who had run the magazine through the 1990s, with plans to relaunch the magazine in 2022.

''scenestr'' reported in October 2021 they were the "largest – and only remaining – street press group in Australia", and had returned to printing copies of their magazine in mid-2020 in five states and territories "where COVID and prevailing conditions have permitted". They continue to be published in 2022.

''Mixdown'' has continued to be printed bi-monthly by Furst Media and made available nationally. They published their 318th issue in December 2021.

Elsewhere, ''BMA'' is still being published fortnightly in Canberra and is the longest consecutively running street press which is still in print in Australia.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:850 height:auto barincrement:30
PlotArea = left:80 bottom:100 top:5 right:5
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1979 till:01/31/2022
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1979
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1980

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:Tag text:"TAGG"
bar:Toff text:"Time Off"
bar:OTS text:"On The Sreet"
bar:XP text:"X-Press"
bar:Beat text:"Beat"
bar:Inpress text:"Inpress"
bar:3D text:"3D World"
bar:Rip text:"Rip It Up"
bar:Drum text:"Drum Media"
bar:DB text:"db"
bar:Forte text:"Forte"
bar:Rave text:"Rave"
bar:BMA text:"BMA"
bar:MD text:"Mixdown"
bar:Scene text:"Scene (scenstr)"
bar:Rev text:"Revolver"
bar:Brag text:"The Brag"
bar:Reverb text:"Reverb"
bar:TMusic text:"The Music"
bar:BS text:"BSide"

PlotData=
width:15
bar: Tag from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/1981 color:mag1

bar: Toff from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/2013 color:mag2

bar: OTS from:01/01/1981 till:01/01/1990 color:mag3

bar: XP from:01/01/1985 till:01/01/2016 color:mag4

bar: Beat from:01/01/1986 till:01/01/2020 color:mag5
bar: Beat from:01/01/2022 till:01/31/2022 color:mag5

bar: Inpress from:01/01/1987 till:01/01/2013 color:mag6

bar: 3D from:01/01/1989 till:01/01/2011 color:mag7

bar: Rip from:01/01/1989 till:01/01/2014 color:mag1

bar: Drum from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2013 color:mag2

bar: DB from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2014 color:mag3

bar: Forte from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/2020 color:mag4

bar: Rave from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/2012 color:mag5

bar: BMA from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2022 color:mag6

bar: MD from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/2021 color:mag7

bar: Scene from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/2022 color:mag1

bar: Rev from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/2003 color:mag2

bar: Brag from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2020 color:mag3

bar: Reverb from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2012 color:mag4

bar: TMusic from:01/01/2013 till:01/01/2020 color:mag5

bar: BS from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2018 color:mag6

See also

Music magazines published in Australia

References

{{reflist

Australian music history
Music magazines published in Australia