Rolling Stone Magazine Versus Spin Magazine

With the myriads of new artists coming out in the professional music field, we often have to rely on different guides to understanding what music we may like. One of those ways is through magazines that have a specific focus on music. Paying the cover price for magazines is completely uneconomical so a subscription seems like the best idea. The question becomes which one.

Two of the biggest magazines out there that are associated with music and the industry are Rolling Stone and Spin. While both can lay claim to their focus on the music world, there are some vast differences in their areas of coverage.

Most notably, Rolling Stone, while having the longest enduring history in the world of music magazines, has been falling away from strict music focus for some time. While Rolling Stone maintains album reviews for new releases, the major stories it covers don't always stay strictly within the musical field. Various Hollywood starlets grace its cover anymore almost as much as hard rockers do. While cover stories about Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Outkast, and the Beastie Boys still appear frequently, it is of no surprise to see on the cover of Rolling Stone other pop icons such as Stephen Colbert, The Rock, and the casts of various hit TV shows. While Rolling Stone's inclusion of all popular culture onto its cover is apparent, it is also not the limit. The magazine also has seemed to relinquish more print space for the purposes of reporting on new TV dramas, blockbuster hit movies, and the political landscape.

Spin Magazine on the other hand found its roots in that which was anything but popular and has attempted to continue that tradition throughout. Spin's focus is sharply pointed towards new music and up and coming artists. Their reports range from artists growing in popularity on the British scene to ground-breaking hip hop artists. Spin's articles attempt to give heavy press to artists with foreseeable bright futures such as Franz Ferdinand in the early 2000's while still acknowledging long time favorites such as U2, Dr. Dre, and Radiohead.