Rock Sound - History

History

The British edition of Rock Sound was launched in March 1999 by the French publisher Editions Freeway. The magazine was bought out by its director, Patrick Napier, in December 2004. The magazines offices are in London. Separate titles with the same name have been published under the same umbrella company in France since 1993, and in Spain since 1998.

The magazine is well known for including a free CD in most issues, which has tracks from bands' new albums that have not been released as singles. These are now normally called '100% Volume' or 'The Volumes', but in the past compilations were also called 'Music With Attitude', 'Bugging Your Ears!', 'Sound Check' and 'Punk Rawk Explosion'. Buyer reaction has been very negative when there has been talk of turning the CD compilation into a digital compilation. Sometimes whole albums are included with the magazine, particularly from bands wanting to gain exposure, including Futures' debut album The Holiday in March 2010, and Burn The Fleet's debut album The Modern Shape in May 2012.

The first issue was published in April 1999. Issue 2 featured British band Reef on the front cover, whilst issues 3 and 8 featured Terrorvision and Foo Fighters respectively. In July 2011 a host of "Through The Years" articles were written to celebrate the 150th issue of the magazine.