NME.com
In 1996 the NME started its website NME.COM under the stewardship of NME editor Steve Sutherland and NME publisher Robert Tame. Its first editor was Brendan Fitzgerald. Later Anthony Thornton redesigned the site, focusing on music news. In November 1999 the site hosted the UK's first webcast, of Suede 'Live In Japan'. In 2001 the site gave away a free mp3 of The Strokes debut single "Last Nite" a week before its release.
The website was awarded Online Magazine of the Year in 1999 and 2001; Anthony Thornton was awarded Website Editor of the Year on three occasions - 2001 and 2002 (British Society Of Magazine Editors) and 2002 (Periodical Publishers Association).
In 2004, Ben Perreau joined NME.COM as the website's third editor. He relaunched and redeveloped the title in September 2005 and the focus was migrated towards video, audio and the wider music community. It was awarded 'Best Music Website' at the Record Of The Day awards in October 2005. In 2006 was awarded the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine and the first 'Chairman's Award' from the Association of Online Publishers awarded by the Chairman, Simon Waldman in recognition of its pioneering role in its ten-year history.
In 2007 NME.COM was launched in the USA with additional staff.
In October 2007 David Moynihan joined as the website's fourth editor. In 2008 the site won the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine, plus the Association of Online Publishers' Best Editorial Team Award, the British Society of Magazine Editors Website Editor of the Year and the Record Of The Day Award for Best Music Website. In June 2009 NME.COM won PPA Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year (Periodical Publishers Association). In 2010 it won both the AOP and PPA website of the year award. That same year, NME.COM expanded its coverage to include movies and TV as well as music.
Luke Lewis took over as Editor of NME.COM in March 2011, bringing a new focus on video content and user engagement, bringing comments to the fore and introducing user ratings on reviews. In 2011, NME.COM had over 7 million monthly unique users (source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, 2011).
In May 2011 NME.COM launched a sister site dedicated to video, NMEVideo.com, and released the NME Festivals smartphone app. Sponsored by BlackBerry, it featured line-ups, stage times, photo galleries and backstage video interviews, and was downloaded 30,000 times. The following month, NME launched its first iPad app, dedicated to Jack White.
In September 2011, NME.COM organised and live-blogged a real-time Nirvana, 'Nevermind' Twitter listening party to mark the twentieth anniversary of the classic album. The site also launched a new series of self-produced band documentary films, entitled The Ultimate Guide.
In October 2011 the site celebrated its 15th birthday by publishing a list of the 150 best tracks of NME.COM's lifetime. The number one song was Radiohead's Paranoid Android'.
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