Mixmag is a British dance music and clubbing magazine. With a circulation of 37,139 and a readership of 276,000 as of August 2008, it claims to be the biggest selling dance/clubbing magazine in the world.[1] Having begun 1982 in the United Kingdom, it covers dance events, and reviews music and club nights. Mixmag has coined terms and phrases to describe genres and conventions within dance music.
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The first issue was printed on February 1st 1983 as a 16-page black and white magazine published by DMC — the DJ mailout service. The first cover was Shalamar, the first editor DMC’s Tony Prince and the first advertiser was a company called Technics Panasonic.
When house music began, editor and DJ Dave Seaman turned the magazine from a newsletter for DJs to a magazine covering all dance music and club culture. Mixmag covered acid house, the subsequent rave era, the rise of superstar DJs and the Ibiza explosion. It was consulted by BBC Newsnight and even the Home Office.[citation needed] The magazine claims to have coined the terms superclub and trip hop and to have launched the first legal DJ mix tapes, the Mixmag Live series.[1] Later Mixmag, in association with their original publishing company, DMC Publishing, released a series of CDs under the "Mixmag Live" heading.
Mixmag was sold to EMAP Ltd. in the mid-1990s before being bought by Development Hell in 2005.[citation needed] The company also owns The Word music magazine. Development Hell relaunched Mixmag in May 2006 with a revamped design and the aim of appealing to a wider (both male and female) and older readership than had been targeted by EMAP. Editor Andrew Harrison told the Press Gazzette[citation needed] that staff had previously "focused the magazine very tightly on a young clubber, a very committed hardcore nutter clubber and we thought that wasn't necessarily the right way to go. Mixmag is now a magazine for the entire world of dance music, whether you like hard boshing music that's quite druggy, or chill out music, or you're someone like me who likes to keep in touch with the music but has grown out of clubbing. This idea that dance music is a kind of minority interest, a bit like ska, is wrong. The biggest album of last year was by the Scissor Sisters."
In addition to the change in editorial tone, the relaunched Mixmag features a fashion section, larger size and, according to Mixmag[1], improved production values.
Mixmag carries a cover mix CD each month by a different DJ or artist. These have included Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Erol Alkan, Tom Neville, Smokin' Jo, Ferry Corsten and DJ Touche. Several have become collectors items in their own right, fetching large sums on eBay.[citation needed]
Mixer magazine in the USA and 'Mixmag' in Russia have no connection to the UK magazine.