*insert usual disappointing NME sales headline here*

More gloom for the NME in the latest ABC figures, as sales of the print edition slide below 15,000. MediaGuardian reports:

Music magazine New Musical Express has suffered another slump in its print sales, falling more than a quarter to fewer than 15,000 in the first half of this year.

The 62-year-old IPC Media title had an average weekly sale of 14,312 in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday, down 28.5% on the same period in 2013. Including digital sales, its circulation rose to 15,830.

The figure of just over 1,500 digital sales is probably the one piece of joy - fairly pitiful, but a massive improvement on the three figures they were reporting last time round.

But something has changed. The usual positive talk from the publishers has shifted direction:

Jo Smalley, publishing director of IPC’s music brands, said NME’s total reach across all platforms was now 3.6 million, “bigger than it has ever been” despite its decline in print. In its print heyday, the magazine sold more than 300,000.

Traffic on the NME mobile website grew 85% year on year, with nearly 40% of its total online audience now reading on mobile.

Smalley said: “We are also continuing to explore how NME can further expand its international footprint. This builds upon the launch of NME.com in India and Club NME in Brazil.

“These are just a few of many examples revealing how the NME business model is changing to pursue new opportunities and grow new revenues.”

Now, maybe MediaGuardian just chose to not report it, but it does sound somewhat like IPC is describing a world in which NME is not more than a magazine, but post-magazine. With the news today that Company is abandoning its print edition from next month, who would bet on a weekly, paper NME having that much of a future?

In other sales news, Q is down to just over 46,000; Kerrang also slumped by still manages over 33,000 copies a week (a resilience NME can only dream of); Uncut is down to 50,000; Mojo to 70,000.

We're putting our plans to run a kickstarter to buy and relaunch Sounds on permanent hiatus.

Circulation figures for NME stuck on repeat

As I type this, Today on Radio 4 are effectively using the latest NME sales figures as a chance to have run a eulogy.

And the figures are grim - down below 20,000 for the first time; it's a point where received wisdom in publishing suggest there's no hope for a title.

I suspect this won't come as a surprise to the title - the last few weeks had seen a return to the front page of John Lennon, and nothing says panic like slapping The Beatles on the cover.

It's a pity, though, as particularly since the last relaunch the magazine has been better than its been for years - intelligent features, often about surprising subjects, sparky writing. There's still a tendency to do long, pointless lists (how do determine with single X is the 435th or 436th best single ever?) and the covers don't always reflect how much thought is going into the magazine these days.

And maybe that's the trouble - there's a treble problem; having spent so long doing little more than applaud every bon mot of the Gallaghers, there's an alienated audience who might be impossible to win back; the new readers who might have replaced the natural wastage a music title experiences as fans move on need persuading to buy a print publication at all; and the Ozzy Osbourne splashes aren't really helping convince browsers that this is still a magazine that has its ear near the beating heart of music.

With the parent company going through a painful period of restructuring, and such a long history of decline to turn around, the brittle truth is that it might now be too late for simply being better to salvage a print edition.

Triple J killing Australian music, or possibly reflecting moribund music scene

There's a battle going on in Australia between Triple J, the "youth" radio station, and some other parts of the media.

It started last week when The Age "investigated" the station:

Triple J is [...] the most supportive of emerging Australian artists, with an average weekly reach of 1.8 million listeners across the country.

It's popular and supports emerging artists. That's a good thing, right?

Hang on a moment, though. The Age is published by a commercial media organisation, Fairfax. Triple J is part of the public broadcaster ABC. It is scientifically impossible for a commercial media organisation to look at a public broadcaster and report that things are going well.

For The Age, then, Triple J has a 'sound'. New bands form, and either through a shrewd desire to please the station, or else from having absorbed this sound growing up, the bands all mould to fit that sound.

Meanwhile, because it's good at what it does, the station's popularity is growing, and thus its taste becomes the dominant taste in the marketplace:

The Basics’ Kris Schroeder says: ‘‘Basically if you put it in a metaphor of the stockmarket, Triple J is the insider that says ‘Buy these shares’ and everybody rushes to buy them. There’s stuff that just falls by the wayside consequentially. It’s about alternatives and there aren’t many alternatives in this business because most people prefer to be followers rather than leaders.

‘‘It’s just a shame that the industry is so obsessed with the decisions that a couple of people [at Triple J] make,’’ he says.

‘‘Maybe if the industry wasn’t so f---ing lazy and so narrow-minded ... the industry itself needs a shake-up.’’

Oddly, although The Age ends on that suggestion that the problem is that music is lazy, the headline still focuses on the idea that the problem is the station, not the culture in which it operates.

In its fightback, Triple J is quick to blame the artists:

Station Manager Chris[Station Manager Chris] “We’d much prefer bands to go out and find their own style. There are so many exciting new artists out there at the moment, doing their own thing and making something quite unique, it’s really exciting. We’re never looking for one particular sound, we’re looking for songs that stand out and resonate with our audience. Basically we’re looking for good music, as shown by the range of artists and styles currently played on triple j.”

Yes, that's a radio station doing the 'we just play what we play and if anyone else likes it it's a bonus' line.

It's hard to know where the truth sits, although experience suggests it will probably be closer to the side that isn't a massive media conglomerate.

Triple J is growing an audience in a competitive market, and while that could purely be down to the muscle of a national broadcaster, it seems unlikely that if the audience didn't want the bands they'd turn up in such large numbers. And "the state broadcaster is supporting dozens and dozens of new artists" is an odd complaint.

Even if Triple J closed tomorrow, there'd still be some dominant force where the audience would gather. Surely?

Numbers Mortifying Endlessly

The January - June 2012 circulation figures for NME have been announced today (difficult period, what with the handover of the editor and everything). They're neither surprising nor encouraging, an average circulation of 23,924 per issue.

They were distributing 27,650 issues a week in the second half of last year; in January-June 2011, it was 29,020. That's 17.5% gone in a year.

Rumours suggest that a merger with The Dandy is being considered.

Amy Winehouse: The gap between the headline and the quote

You'll see a lot of sites doing this right now, so I'm not singling out ABC News, but...

Is the headline right?

What does the story say?

The family revealed the results of a toxicology test in a statement released today.

"Toxicology results returned to the Winehouse family by authorities have confirmed that there were no illegal substances in Amy's system at the time of her death," the statement read. "Results indicate that alcohol was present but it cannot be determined as yet if it played a role in her death."

There's an important difference between "no illegal substances" and "no drugs". (It might not be a significant difference in terms of what happened to Amy Winehouse, but it's an important detail when referencing a carefully-worded public statement.)

Watch with No Rock: Editors

It's a head-over-to-some-other-site deal, but at least ABC aren't blocking it to viewers outside the 50 states: Editors do Papillon on Kimmel.

Downloadable: Basement Jaxx/ABC

And all my friends just might ask me, they say 'Martin one day you'll find true love'. And I say I'm not called Martin, but, you know, cheers. And maybe one day, you'll be able to visit the Basement Jaxx site and download a free remix of The Look Of Love. Yes, the ABC one.

[via Stereogum]

ABC welcomes back Adam Lambert

Oh, that whole faux-blow-job thing? Let's just put that behind us, trills ABC:

Apparently ABC is not done with the singer and “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert, below, just yet. Barbara Walters will showcase him in an interview and performance on “The View” on Thursday as well as on her “Ten Most Fascinating People of 2009” special on Wednesday night, both on ABC, The Associated Press reported.

It's nice they're letting him come back on their channel, but one of the ten most fascinating people of the year? Are ABC just easily fascinated? Who are the other nine going to be?

Good Morning to you, Adam Lambert: GMA swings axe

If only Adam Lambert had been deliberately courting controversy by feigning oral sex on prime-time mainstream telly, eh? But who knew that might upset people.

If Adam had been interested in exploring exactly how liberal ABC is, he's now found out: Kicked off Good Morning America and - oh, the shame - having to relying on a counter offer to go on CBS''Look, It's This Or More Advertorials For Snuggies' programme.

Adam Lambert and his oral sex act

The poor editors at ABC have a bit of a problem. They're showing this year's normally dull American Music Awards, and when it went out on the East Coast, Adam Lambert reminded everyone he was gay:

When Lambert finished his song — complete with simulated oral sex with a male backup dancer and a passionate kiss with a male keyboardist — earlier tonight, fans hit the Internet to debate whether the American Idol runner-up’s first major televised performance since the Idol finale pushed the envelope too far.

Lambert points out that if he was Christina Aguilera, the stampede to the internet would be merely looking for downloads:

“It’s a shame because I think that there’s a double standard going on in the entertainment community right now,” Lambert tells RS backstage after the show at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.

A little disingenuous, Adam - it's not because of what you did, it's who you did it to - but the broad point is still valid.

So ABC have to decide if they leave the faux-blow in for the West Coast broadcast. Lambert warns them they better leave him uncut:

If ABC opts not to broadcast several of the more risqué moments of “For Your Entertainment” in a few moments, “In a roundabout way it’s a form of discrimination because it is a double standard,” Lambert says. “They didn’t censor Britney and Madonna macking onstage did they? But yet two men kissing they’ll censor?”

It might be more the oral sex bit that worries ABC - who, to be fair to them, aren't MTV and are also balancing the demands of the FCC and the threat of enormous fines alongside the cultural and societal questions.

In the end, ABC left in the kiss, cut the pretend oral sex bit - I'm sure you can download Adam Lambert blowjob video footage online if that slightly-understandable fudgey compromise disappoints you.

ABC + BBC @ RAH

Of course, it's bloody London again, but possibly worth having a crappy journey on Virgin for: ABC and the BBC Concert Orchestra are playing through the whole of The Lexicon Of Love at the Royal Albert Hall on April 8th.

Barker plane crash: Death sounds

You have to wonder: was there anyone, anyone at all, at South Carolina ABC affiliate WOLO TV, who paused for a moment before flinging out an audio recording of Travis Barker screaming for help as four of his friends and colleagues burned to death? Any single moment where someone thought that, perhaps, the audio added nothing to the story and might be better off left unheard? A single moment where someone with the power to take an editorial judgement might have considered how they'd feel if it was their anguish being served up between commercials?

This is why they want to keep children from computers

We suppose, at least, the current fascination with the 'Rickroll' (whereby one links something random to Never Gonna Give You Up on YouTube) isn't being driven by a marketing company trying to flog deodorant or training shoes.

What is rickrolling?

As far as we can tell. It's a bit like a slightly less infernal version of that 2inches.com stunt you used to see all the time on Popbitch, back when you used to read Popbitch all the time. A link promising one thing, but delivering something else.

Rick himself is being good natured about this blast of kind of fame:

“I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it,” Astley said. “But that’s what brilliant about the Internet.”

Rickrolling is being co-opted into direct action, too, reports the New York Times:

Former Scientologists protesting against the church, for example, have been playing and singing the song this year outside Scientology offices in London, Washington, Seattle and other cities.

Although singing 'Never gonna give you up' outside a cult office is surely the wrong message, isn't it?

It will all help ticket sales for this summer's Here And Now tour, where he shares billing with Bananarama, ABC, Paul Young, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Johnny Hates Jazz and the Cutting Crew. (Since H&N promises 'only the hits', surely those last two won't be on stage very long?) It'll help with sales, that is, providing that someone links to the actual ticketshop and doesn't just rickroll the curious.

The past's future: 1981 9 - ABC

Continuing our countup of Smash Hit's Brightest Hopes for 1982, Martin Fry's then-still-bright-eyed ABC. Described by SH as "scintilating", nobody knew the future held a brief period channelling the ghosts of the Archies before returning to hoofage on the 80s revival circuit.

A slightly blocky recording of a festive reworking of The Look Of Love:



[Buy: This year's ABC compilation Never More Than Now