Spin

About Spin

Spin (stylized as SPIN) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr. that has spent four decades chronicling popular music from an angle Rolling Stone never occupied. Born as a scrappy alternative to the establishment music press, the magazine built its reputation on college rock, grunge, indie rock, and the emerging hip-hop movement of the late 1980s, putting artists like R.E.M., Prince, Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads on its covers long before they became consensus icons. After nearly forty years of ownership changes, frequency shifts, and a long digital-only interlude, Spin returned to print as a quarterly publication in September 2024 under the ownership of Next Management Partners, with founder Bob Guccione Jr. back at the editorial helm. Based in Los Angeles, the magazine now operates as both a print quarterly and a daily digital publication at spin.com.

Founding and the May 1985 Launch

Spin was established in 1985 by Bob Guccione Jr., the son of the Penthouse magazine founder, who wanted to create a music publication with a younger, edgier sensibility than the incumbent titles. The first issue appeared in May 1985. From the start, the magazine positioned itself as a pointed national alternative to Rolling Stone's more establishment-oriented style, narrowing its early focus to the scenes the mainstream press was ignoring: college rock, grunge, indie rock, and hip-hop, while largely steering clear of genres like country and metal. That narrow but passionate lens became the magazine's signature, and its early cover choices — rising acts such as R.E.M. and Prince alongside lengthy features on figures like Duran Duran, Keith Richards, Miles Davis, Aerosmith, Tom Waits, and John Lee Hooker — announced a publication that took underground credibility seriously. Culturally, the magazine also devoted significant coverage to punk and its offshoots, cementing its identity as the magazine for readers who thought rock criticism could be both irreverent and literate.

The 1987 Near-Collapse and Revival

Spin's early success did not guarantee its survival. In August 1987, the publisher announced that the magazine would stop publishing, a crisis that could have ended the title less than three years into its life. Guccione Jr. managed to retain control of the magazine and quickly revived it in partnership with former MTV president David H. Horowitz. During this period the magazine was published by Camouflage Publishing, with Guccione Jr. serving as president and chief executive and Horowitz as investor and chairman. The rescue kept Spin alive through the late 1980s, a formative era in which it covered the rise of alternative rock and the deepening cultural footprint of hip-hop. The episode established a pattern that would repeat across the magazine's history: Spin has been declared vulnerable or even finished several times, and each time it has found a way to keep publishing.

Ownership Changes: 1997 to 2012

Guccione Jr. sold Spin to Miller Publishing in 1997, ending his first long run as the magazine's steward. The ownership carousel accelerated in the following decade as the print magazine business entered its long contraction. In February 2006, Miller Publishing sold the magazine for less than US$5 million to the McEvoy Group LLC, a San Francisco-based company that also owned Chronicle Books; the McEvoy Group formed Spin Media LLC as the holding company for the title. In 2008, the magazine began publishing a complete digital edition of each issue, signaling where its future was headed. In July 2012, Spin was sold to Buzzmedia, a digital media company that eventually renamed itself SpinMedia. The September/October 2012 issue was the magazine's last print edition for nearly twelve years. By then the magazine had shrunk from a circulation of 450,000 in 2007 to a rate base of 350,000, and its frequency had been cut from monthly to bimonthly in an effort to right-size print for a readership that was migrating to the web.

The Digital-Only Era

Between 2012 and 2024, Spin existed primarily as an online publication, joining a generation of once-dominant music titles that traded newsstand presence for digital reach. The digital-only years kept the brand alive through a turbulent period for music journalism, in which legacy publications like Blender and Vibe folded and many others shrank dramatically. Spin.com continued to publish music news, reviews, interviews, and features throughout this period, maintaining the brand's name recognition among music fans even as its print identity faded into memory. The era underscored how much of the magazine's value had come to reside in its brand and archive rather than its monthly print product.

Next Management Partners and Guccione Jr.'s Return

In 2020, Spin was acquired by Next Management Partners, ending the SpinMedia era. Jimmy Hutcheson serves as chief executive officer of the company and of the magazine. In a move that energized long-time readers, Bob Guccione Jr. returned in 2020 as the magazine's editor, three decades after he had sold it. Media observers noted that the new ownership intended to restore quality journalism to the title rather than simply maintain a content farm trading on a famous name. Hutcheson described the mission as becoming the greatest music magazine in the world, covering what matters most in culture alongside the musicians readers know and those they have never heard of. Guccione Jr., for his part, emphasized editing, fact-checking, and a holistic vision for the subject matter — "not cheerleading for every artist that has a press agent," as he put it.

Return to Print as a Quarterly

The most dramatic chapter of Spin's revival came in 2024, when the magazine announced it would return to print as a quarterly publication. The first print edition since 2012 appeared on August 29, 2024, edited by Guccione Jr., printed on 50-pound paper with a 100-pound cover, and distributed in an initial run of some 50,000 copies through higher-end retailers such as Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Kroger's, Walmart, and Canadian chain Smiths, as well as airports and independent record stores. The return was timed to build toward a 40th-anniversary issue in March 2025. The December 2024 issue featured Oasis's Liam and Noel Gallagher on the cover, signaling the magazine's ambition to make its quarterly print edition a premium, collectible object rather than a disposable monthly.

Editorial Coverage and Identity

Throughout its history, Spin's editorial identity has been defined by its willingness to champion music outside the mainstream consensus. Its early years were marked by serious coverage of college rock, grunge, and indie rock alongside the emergence of hip-hop — genres that Rolling Stone was slower to embrace. The magazine also cultivated a broader cultural coverage that included punk and its associated scenes. In its relaunched quarterly form, Guccione Jr. has emphasized pieces that go beyond music proper, including long-form reporting on figures who matter to music fans even when they are not musicians — one slated article for the return issue was an interview with a most-wanted person, chosen because it had "nothing to do with music, but everything to do with the kind of person who likes music." That philosophy — treating music as the center of a wider cultural conversation — has been Spin's throughline since 1985.

Staff and Leadership

The magazine's leadership history reflects its turbulent ownership path. Founder Bob Guccione Jr. led the title from 1985 through its sale in 1997, returned briefly as a consultant and then as editor under Next Management Partners in 2020. The McEvoy Group era brought leadership changes, including publisher Malcolm Campbell and editor Doug Brod, who were replaced by Mike Albanese and Steve Kandell during the 2011 bimonthly transition. Under Next Management Partners, Jimmy Hutcheson runs the company as CEO while Guccione Jr. edits the magazine. The combination of the founder's editorial vision and a new ownership structure committed to print represents a rare full-circle moment in American magazine publishing.

Digital Presence at Spin.com

Spin.com is the magazine's digital home and the backbone of its publishing operation. The site publishes daily music news, reviews, interviews, and features, complementing the quarterly print edition. In the years when the magazine had no print product, the website was the entirety of the brand, and its continued operation through that period preserved the audience and search presence that made the 2024 print relaunch viable. Guccione Jr. has said that reviving the brand required improving the online experience as well as returning to print, after finding that previous owners had let the site fall fallow. Today the print and digital arms operate as complementary expressions of a single editorial vision.

Legacy and Influence

Spin's influence on music journalism is substantial. It demonstrated that a national music magazine could thrive by covering the margins rather than the center — a lesson that shaped a generation of alternative publications and, eventually, the music blog era. Its early embrace of hip-hop, indie rock, and grunge helped legitimize those genres for a mainstream-adjacent audience, and its covers of R.E.M., Prince, Run-D.M.C., and the Beastie Boys now read as a map of popular music's late-20th-century transformation. The magazine's survival through near-collapse, multiple sales, and a twelve-year print hiatus has made it one of the great endurance stories in American music publishing. Its 2024 return to print, with its founder back in charge, remains one of the most closely watched experiments in the magazine business.

How to Read and Subscribe

Spin is published quarterly in print and continuously online at spin.com. The print edition is distributed through major retailers, airports, and independent record stores, and subscriptions are available through the website. Readers looking for the classic Spin experience — long-form music journalism, sharp criticism, and covers that take risks — will find it in the relaunched quarterly, while the site serves daily music coverage. With a 40th anniversary behind it and its founder still editing, Spin remains the most storied survivor of the alternative music press.