This week Oxfam and NME invite music fans to spring clean their record collection and donate any unwanted music to Oxfam stores in exchange for a free exclusive copy of the new-look NME. The magazine available in Oxfam will have a special collectors cover celebrating the greatest lyricists writing and recording today.
Packed to bursting with all the hottest new music, NME will help music fans find the perfect replacement for any unwanted CDs or records. The old music for new music swap gets underway on Friday 16th April at more than 150 Oxfam stores nationwide (listed in full at www.oxfam.org.uk/nme).
All the music donations will be sold in Oxfam shops to raise money to change lives around the world. The partnership marks the first time a major publication has been given away for free in a charity shop. The link up is expected to bring in more than 12,000 donations of music to Oxfam’s shops.
The donation could be music in any format from an old vinyl album to a new band CD. It could be a guilty pleasure that it’s time to let go of or the soundtrack from a particular moment in life now in the past.
Krissi Murison, editor of NME, said:
“We’ve all got old albums in our collections that have been gathering dust for years. Now is the time to dig them out and do something with them! Head to Oxfam this week to swap your unwanted CDs and records for some new sounds. Not only is it a great chance to discover different music, but you’ll get a free copy of NME with every exchange too.”
Sarah Farquhar, head of retail at Oxfam, said:
“Every Oxfam shop that sells music has its own unique stock. As everyone from DJs to vinyl aficionados knows, our shops are one of the best places on the high street to pick up hidden treasures.
“NME readers have been filling their record collections with bargains from our shops for years, helping us raise millions to fight poverty at the same time. It’ll be fascinating to see what music comes through the door this week.”
The new-look NME unveiled last week is now a more opinionated, entertaining and heavyweight music magazine. The new magazine also looks very different with a complete redesign and new layout. There are more words on the page, a smarter feel and better use of NME’s raw and essential photography throughout and even the logo has had a makeover – the infamous red that has been used for over 20 years will now be just one of many colours used.
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Content in the new look NME:
- A brand new front section, featuring vital, in-depth reads such as ‘The Main Event’ – a report, investigation or debate on the week’s most pressing music news story.
- Weekly Talking Head comment pieces from both musicians and NME’s star writers, including Gavin Haynes, Luke Lewis and Emily MacKay.
- Regular new First Night, On The Road and In The Studio pages which showcase NME’s unrivalled access to bands and provides invaluable information to readers on major tours and upcoming albums.
- A complete overhaul of Radar, NME’s vital new music section, to include more new band news, live reports and hot tips each week. The section will also feature regular expert columnists – including Tim Westwood, Simian Mobile Disco and Mary-Anne Hobbs – writing incisively about different music scenes from hip hop to hardcore rock.
- A celebration of NME’s incredible history through a new page ‘This Week In’ which looks back at the brilliant and often bizarre stories from NME’s archive.
NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music. Across its various platforms, the NME brand reaches well over 1million people each week.
About Krissi Murison
Krissi Murison became the new editor of NME, effective September 1, 2009. She took over from Conor McNicholas, who resigned in June 2009. Previously NME’s deputy editor, Krissi left the magazine in February to take up the position of music director for Nylon magazine in New York. She joined NME in 2003 as junior staff writer and went on to work as new bands editor and features editor. She is the 11th editor of the magazine, which launched in 1952.
About Oxfam
Oxfam has an illustrious musical history spanning decades:
- More than 600 Oxfam shops across the country sell second-hand music – double the total number of independent record shops in the UK.
- The charity sells approximately £6 million of music every year, enough to fund its entire programme in Indonesia for a year, buy 187,000 emergency shelters, or provide safe water for eight million people.
- Oxfam sells around 1.8 million CDs and records every year, all donated by the British public. The largest single donation was of 4,000 vinyl albums to an Oxfam shop in Devon in 2008.
- The charity’s Oxjam festival has raised more than £1 million through 3,000 events featuring more than 36,000 musicians, including Jarvis Cocker, Fatboy Slim, and Hot Chip.
- Oxfam has been one of the lead charities at Glastonbury since 1993, raising £2.7 million through stewarding the festival and signing up more than 400,000 people in support of its campaigns at the festival.
- Oxfam has been involved with everything from Live8 to its own Make Trade Fair concerts, and has worked with everyone from Chris Martin and Michael Stipe to Noel Gallagher and Klaxons.