Beat (magazine)


Beat is a free monthly tabloid-sized music, arts and culture magazine, 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.
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.

History

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. The magazines and their online component were published each Wednesday, with the printed magazines distributed to nearly 1,000 locations in 1997. By 2020 the Melbourne edition was distributed to over 3,200 locations. 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. 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.
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 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.
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. The subject of the magazine also expanded beyond music, and now included video games, film, and television.
The print issue of Beat was temporarily 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. 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.

Online

In addition to its monthly print magazine, which focuses entirely on cultural events happening in Melbourne and across Victoria each month, Beat's website contains a long-running online Gig Guide allowing venues and event promoters across Melbourne to upload events for free. Originally starting as a gig guide in print before the internet, the online gig guide is arguably the best-known aspect of Beat's online coverage.
All of the magazine's print editions since its 1600th issue are also freely available to read on its website while issues dating back to January, 2012 - issue 1,303 - are available to read for free via the publication's Issuu page.

Notable former covers

While Beat has primarily featured Australian artists and has often spotlighted small-profile, alternative acts, the magazine has featured a range of high-profile international artists on its cover. These are some of the notable cover stars since 2012.