In its latest figures covering October, comScore logs 43.4m unique visits to more than 60 sites. Gigwise ranks at 20, with 628,000 visitors, two places ahead of BBC Music with 525,000 and three in front of NME.com with 522,000.

Gigwise editor Jason Gregory, who assumed his current position in June, attributes his site's acceleration ahead of NME.com to greater coverage of mainstream artists. "In the summer we made a conscious effort to focus on news, particularly from the festivals, since ...