Loading AI tools
Australian music magazine 1986–2020 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beat (formerly Beat Magazine) is a free monthly tabloid-sized music, arts and culture magazine (street press) as well as a website and social media network published and distributed in Melbourne, Australia. It's Melbourne's longest running street press, and one of the earliest street press magazines after TAGG.
| |
| Categories | Arts |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Furst Media |
| First issue | 30 July 1986 |
| Country | Australia |
| Based in | Melbourne |
| Language | English |
| Website | beat |
Beat paused its print edition between March 2020-May 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged Victorian lockdowns, but has since resumed publishing.
The magazine was founded as a weekly street press by Rob Furst and was printed by his company Furst Media. Between 1994 and 1998 a Sydney edition was printed, known as Beat : Sydney Listings Bible.[1] The magazines and their online component were published each Wednesday, with the printed magazines distributed to nearly 1,000 locations in 1997.[2] By 2020 the Melbourne edition was distributed to over 3,200 locations.[3] They're currently printed and distributed towards the end of each month, covering a range of events happening in the proceeding month.
The magazine has shifted between calling itself Beat and Beat Magazine periodically throughout its history.[4][5][6][3] Beat's main competitor was Inpress, a Melbourne-based street press which was co-created by Rowena Sladdin in 1988 after she had left Beat.[7]
In May 2012, 35,000 of the magazine copies were printed and distributed with a cartoon drawing of a naked man on its cover. The text "Sayonara, Bitches! It's been real" were written above the man's genitalia and many feared this would be Beat's final issue. Beat explained on their website that the cover was meant to feature English band Kaiser Chiefs, but the cover had been swapped out by their typesetter on his last day of work as a prank.[8][9]
Beat announced in 2019 they would begin publishing fortnightly, starting with issue #1673. Both the magazine and Beat's website were also redesigned at this time.[10][11] The subject of the magazine also expanded beyond music, and now included video games, film, and television.[12]
The print issue of Beat was suspended after issue #1695, published on 11 March 2020, due to the inability to distribute street press magazines during the COVID-19 pandemic and Victorian lockdowns.[13] The magazine shifted its focus temporarily to its website, social media accounts and email newsletters, which it continues to send out regularly to subscribers. In May 2022, its editor Lucas Radbourne announced that the print issue had returned, and was available freely again as a monthly magazine.[14]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
