Music magazine Rolling Stone has a brand new iPhone app, Rolling Stone: Music News, which launched quietly on the App Store on Friday (10 August).
The app promises “real-time music news, artist photos and exclusive videos straight from the editors of Rolling Stone”, including breaking news alerts, and the option to “personalize your feed with custom artist alerts, giving you real time news on the artists that matter most to you”.
The app is free to download, but at present is only available in the US App Store.
It’s the third Rolling Stone app on iOS, following iPhone live-music app Rolling Stone: On the Road and the artist-focused iPad app Rolling Stone’s Beatles Album-by-Album Guide.
Publisher Wenner Media has yet to launch an app providing the issues of Rolling Stone itself, though. That’s not a surprise, with boss Jann Wenner having spoken out publicly against the magazine industry’s fervour for apps in May 2011.
“From the publisher’s point of view I would think they’re crazy to encourage it. They’re going to get less money for it from advertisers,” said Wenner.
“Right now it costs a fortune to convert your magazine, to program it, to get all the things you have to do on there. And they’re not selling… to rush to throw away your magazine business and move it on the iPad is just sheer insanity and insecurity and fear.”
