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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Rolling Stone: Rolled out in India!

Almost four decade year old, American music & pop culture magazine 'Rolling Stone' is launched last week in India by MW.com India pvt Ltd (also the publisher of Man's World). Magazine is going to target college going kids and that’s why content relevant to that generation is also served in the language which they speak. Don’t get confused with the writing style of 'JAM', 'JLT', 'IGT" or something like that but RS is always admired for its standout, in depth content coverage with a serious journalistic writing. But, will RS India be carrying local content or US content? Well Mixed! Any Indian music which will sense Rock & Roll, will be covered here in RS India.

Content
Up to the mark! Following the ground rule for content creation, Inaugural issue is featuring Rabbi, Kailash, Anoushka, Raghu Dixit & Malayalam band- Avial. From phoren content, this issue is featuring Amy Winehouse, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen etc to represent the wide range of music coverage to show off what you can expect from forthcoming issues of RS India.

Apart from Features & Interviews, RS India also has interesting sections like Classic, Style, Review, Tech Files, Books, Games and Q&A etc. The Inaugural issue is also carrying a feature- The Future of Music, which is a nice compilation of talks from nineteen top artists about technology, Inspiration and what's next for the business.

Design
Excellent. Its quite disciplined, balanced, stick to the grid…well defined. Each & everything, even a small element is treated brilliantly. Large & bold images with simple text gives it a class appeal. Stylish layout makes it even more outstanding.
Very less text on the cover of Inaugural issue. For the Inaugural issue, RS India is available on news stand with 5 different covers for their reader. Readers can pick any one they love or they can collect all.

Printing
Superb. Good colors and sharp pictures are the proof of the quality of RS. Lots of pictures are taken in very low or very flashy stage lights or are taken when artist is performing…still pictures are printed very well. Details appeared in products shots in gear pages shows the excellent print quality of RS.

Product
Being a magazine worth Rs.100, its carrying decent quality of pages and it is big enough in size to stand out on the news stand. Inaugural issue is 170 pages bulky which is good content package for the full month, till next issue.

Rolling Stone, definitely is a special interest magazine for a very special audience who love rock & band music. As it has already created a 40 years track record in US, is now ready to touch the chord of Indian music lovers.

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