Sheffield blog

The magazine is dead; long live sandmanmagazine.co.uk

Sandman is a bit of an institution in Sheffield music circles. For over six years it has been providing music fans in the city with reviews, features and listings about hundreds of bands and artists – and most importantly, the inclination to go and see them live.

Its influence shouldn’t be underestimated: many people agree that the fact that we have seen a major resurgence in the Sheffield music scene within Sandman’s lifetime is no coincidence.

However, as a free paper magazine, Sandman is coming to an end. The editorial in the current, final issue explains that they have thrown off the shackles of expensive print, with all its limitations, in favour of concentrating on revamping their website, sandmanmagazine.co.uk.

I’ll miss the aesthetic quality of the paper edition and not being able to read it on the bus (unless of course I now upgrade my mobile handset) but overall I think they have done the right thing. As well as offering an almost infinite amount of space for more depth and breadth, being on the web offers far more potential for immediacy, interactivity and rich-media content, which for a music offering is surely key.

At the moment, the site does seem to have quite a basic, web 1.0 feel about it, but hopefully with all energies being channelled into the digital version of Sandman, this will improve.