When it comes to good old fashioned music magazines, it seems NME, Q and Kerrang have got it covered - or at least that's how it seemed when Xfm's X-Ray magazine closed its doors at the start of the year, another of 2003's new music titles to not go the distance. The Observer Music Monthly was the only other big new music title that continued to prosper in 2004, though rumours in Private Eye say even that may not survive the whole of 2005.
Those music magazines that have survived through 2004 now find themselves needing to adapt to the aforementioned growth in digital music. Q had a bit of a rejig midway through the year to become less album driven – the consensus being that MP3 buyers are much more interested by individual tracks than long player releases. And, of course, the main new arrival of the year in the music press - Rip & Burn magazine - was completely concerned with music of the digital kind. How the main music titles will change as digital music continues to grow in 2005 remains to be seen.