Future Publishing is to launch a premium online subscription service offering readers of its Classic Rock magazine the chance to listen to albums before they go on general release.
The service, called Classic Rock Album Club, is the first of its kind allowing subscribers to read reviews for forthcoming albums while listening to them online.
Classic Rock’s editorial team will select the albums and musicians which will be delivered to subscriber’s desktops – where they will be available for a week.
The service will send out four to six albums in full each month with subscriptions costing £3, compared with the print magazine which retails at £4.50.
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The site has been designed with online content specialist Jack Brand, which created the Classic Rock Club music sampling software.
Launch of the club marks Future’s first moves in charging for premium online content and comes a week after Financial Times editor Lionel Barber predicted that most sites will be charging for content within a year.
Classic Rock Club is currently in beta and offering early subscribers a free preview of the forthcoming Disguster album, Not So Sweet.
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