The explosion in legal downloading and dominance of guitar-based bands has boosted in the rock music magazine market, with Kerrang! the biggest climber.
Emap's weekly title recorded the biggest increase in circulation in the rock music sector, up 23.2% year on year and 18% on the period to 76,165 copies.
And as Kerrang! prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary under the new editor, Paul Brannigan, it has gained significant ground on IPC rival New Musical Express.
NME's circulation increased by 9.7% year on year to 76,792 copies, just 627 ahead of Kerrang!
Emap's Q maintains its position as the UK's top-selling music title with sales of 168,547, up 3.7% year on year according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Mojo, its Emap stablemate that marries new and old music with intelligent comment and covermounted CDs, recorded its highest circulation figure of 120,530 copies, up 7.8% year on year.
Marcus Rich, the head of Emap Metro, said the popularity of digital music downloads had encouraged music fans to find out more about their favourite bands and their influences.
"Accessing music by tracks has stimulated demand to look for what [fans] should be listening to. It has stimulated the whole market," he said.
"And rock music is back. There is a swathe of new bands appealing to male and female teens and a new generation of rock fans are getting into the music earlier than before... The last two covers of Mojo were The Who and The Kinks, which appeal to 16-year-olds and 46-year-olds."
Future's Classic Rock and Metal Hammer both posted double-digit annual growth.
Classic Rock was up 19% year on year to 50,027 copies, its best ABC result since its 1998 launch and its third successive increase.
Metal Hammer celebrated its 20th birthday with a fourth successive sales hike, up 15% year on year to 44,047 copies. Its circulation has risen by 50% in just two years.
The outlook is not so rosy for dance music title Mixmag, which recorded a 8.5% drop in circulation to 42,234 copies year on year. The result can be attributed to the decline of dance music as rock enjoys a renaissance.
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