As the rest of print media struggles to stem a never-ending slide towards irrelevance, there is a particular sector that is in near freefall.

Trade press, business to business, specialist media has shown resolve and solidified its market in providing expert analysis and proving that a pay-wall can work.

However, the music press, essentially a mish mash of industry comment and consumerism, struggles to define itself in a era where its product, i.e. music, has run off the high street and onto the internet.

Latest ABC magazine circulation figures were published this week showing year-on-year double digit falls across the sector.

Despite its recent generally well received revamp, NME is now selling just 33,000 copies a week, a further 17.3% slump after years of decline.

It was news that left the PR team at publishers IPC having to get out their calculators and do some big sums to prove that "one in four of all music magazines sold every year on the UK newsstand is a copy of NME", a stat that is possible because, of course, the indie mag is weekly while the majority of its competitors are monthly.

Insiders at IPC probably took most heart at the news that the other biggy in the music press, Q magazine, owned by rivals Bauer, also saw sales drop, by 10.7% year on year, so it is now selling just 89,450 copies per month.

Of course, in both NME and Q's defence, their continued circulation slumps are more a sign of the times than anything else, though NME's closest competitor and Q's sister title, Bauer's Kerrang!, did see readership rise by 1.8%, while distribution of The Fly is also slightly up.

But Metal Hammer, Uncut and Mojo all experienced circulation slides, while Classic Rock - a recent success story in the music press domain - saw circulation stay constant.

The beginning of the year saw axe falling on the Observer Music Monthly, regarded by many in the industry to be the finest broadsheet commentator as an enthusiast of old music and promoter of new. Halfway through the year the NME, that weekly barometer of what is not and what is not, find themselves merely as the custodian of a brand and after a failed relaunch that has toyed with this, they may not even have that.