Cookie Notice - Policies

This Cookie Notice explains how NME Networks Media Limited and its group companies/brands use cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies. These brands include, but are not limited to, those set out below:

NME
Guitar.com
MusicTech

We use, and allow certain other companies to use, cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies on, including on the website you are using, our other websites, applications and communications (our “Services”).

This is to understand your use of our Services, improve your user experience, enable personalised features and content, optimise advertising and marketing and enable us and third party advertising companies to serve you advertisements specific to your interests across the internet. The technologies we use do not collect any information which directly identifies you in the real world, such as your name, email address, address or phone number. Please take a moment to read and understand this Cookie Notice. This Cookie Notice should also be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy.

Contents:

What are cookies or similar technologies?

A cookie is a small text file or piece of code which often include an anonymous unique identifier, We, and in certain circumstances third parties, will request to store this text file on your device in order to remember information about you when you visit our sites or open some of our emails. Cookies are useful because, amongst other things, they allow us to recognise you each time you re-visit one of our sites. The entity that places cookies on your device can then read the information on the cookie that it set.

We also use similar technologies to cookies known as “web beacons”, “pixels” or “tags”. These technologies do a similar job to cookies, allowing website operators to count page views and understand how visitors interact with and respond to certain content on a webpage or email.

For the purposes of the remaining sections of this Cookie Notice, we refer to all cookies and similar technologies using the above features as “cookies”.

How long do cookies last?

Cookies are typically classified as either “session cookies” which do not stay on your device after you close your browser or “persistent cookies” which will usually remain on your device until you delete them (see How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies section) or they expire.

How do we and third parties use cookies?

We use “first party cookies” and “third party cookies” in connection with our Service. First party cookies are cookies placed by us to collect information about you. Third party cookies are cookies placed by third party website operators. Information about you collected by those third party cookies will be shared with the relevant third party. Please refer to the relevant third party website operator’s privacy notice for more details about the information they collect and how they use it.

Please note that our site may link to third party websites which are not operated by us. Where you follow links from our Site to the website of a third party, that website may place different cookies on your device. You should check the relevant privacy notice and/or cookie notice for more information about how that third party uses cookies.

You should be aware that applications you use to access our site, such as your website browser, may also place cookies on your device when visiting our Site, or other websites. An example of this would be where you sign in to Google Chrome using a Google Account (see What about Google Chrome or other browser cookies? section for more information). We do not have control over these third party cookies, so you will need to manage these cookies in the settings of the relevant applications.

For more details on cookies and similar technologies, please visit All About Cookies.

Is consent needed to use cookies?

Essential Cookies – Please note that we do not need your consent to store and access essential cookies on your device, although you can still block or delete them. Please see How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies below for further details on your choices.

Non-essential Cookies – Certain cookies, however, whilst useful, are not essential, and we require your consent before we can use these cookies. Please see How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies below for further details on your ability to accept and reject cookies.

Which cookies do we use on our sites?

Different cookies are used to perform different functions which we explain below. A visit to any of our sites could generate the following types of cookie:

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies are those cookies which a website could not operate without. We use cookies that are essential in order to enable you to move around our sites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas. Without these cookies, features that you use, like shopping baskets, cannot be provided.

Site performance cookies

We use cookies to remember your selections on our sites: These cookies allow us to remember choices you make on our sites and provide enhanced, more personalised features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They can also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other sites.

Analytics/Performance cookies

We use cookies for performance and analytics purposes: We use our own cookies and third-party cookies and other identifiers (such as web beacons) to see how you use our sites and services in order to enhance their performance and develop them according to the preferences of our customers and visitors. For example, cookies can be used to: test different designs and to ensure that we maintain a consistent look and feel across our sites; recognise repeat visitors, track and provide trend analysis on how our users interact with our sites and communications; track errors and measure the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.

The information collected from these types of cookies can be used in conjunction with other information we or our third party partners hold in order to record specific browsing information (for example, regarding the way visitors arrive at our sites, pages viewed, options selected, information entered and the path taken through our sites). The data collected will generally be aggregated to provide trends and usage patterns for business analysis, site/platform improvement and performance metrics and to inform our advertising and marketing strategies. Our cookies, or the resulting analysis, can also be shared with our business partners. We also receive similar information about visitors to the sites of our group companies and other partners.

For example, we use Google Analytics which is a web analytics tool that helps us understand how users engage with our sites. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to collect information about how users interact with our sites, which is used to compile reports for improvements to our services. The reports disclose website trends without identifying individual visitors. For some of the advertising features described below, data from Google Analytics could be combined with our first-party data and third-party cookies (like Google’s advertising cookies). For information on how to opt-out of Google Analytics Advertising Features, please go to How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.

Advertising cookies

We use cookies to personalise your experience and for targeting advertisements: We use cookies (and allow data management platform providers to use cookies on our behalf) to collect information about your browsing habits across our sites in order to provide personalised content, services and communications, as well as targeted advertising on our sites, sites operated by our group companies and selected partner sites. For example, we could show you advertisements for Marie Claire magazine if we know you have been browsing the fashion pages on our sites. If you use more than one device or computer on a regular basis, we can link cookies together so that you can still receive a personalised online experience. We also personalise the information you see based on what already know about you or infer about you based on your online activities, so that you spend less time looking for things. With the use of cookies, each visitor to our site can have a web experience which is unique to them.

Cookies can also be linked with other information we hold or infer about you for these purposes. For example, if you are a registered user or provide us with your name, email address, social media log-in details or other contact information (e.g. by entering a competition or signing up to our newsletter) or interact with our email communications (e.g. by clicking on links within the emails), this information can be linked with your browsing activity across all your devices to tailor content, services, advertising and offers for you.

We also obtain information from third party service providers such as demographics and interest categories created from a combination of sources that permit us to provide you with more relevant and useful content, communications and advertising. This information does not identify you personally.

You can opt out of receiving interest based advertising on our sites by blocking these cookies as described below in the section on How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.

Third party advertising cookies

We partner with advertisers, ad network providers and ad serving companies to place cookies on our sites to allow them to show you advertisements both on and off our sites that are more relevant and useful to you, limit the number of times you see a particular ad and to customise ads. We do not share any information with these third parties that will directly identify you in the real world, such as your name, email address, address or phone number. However, these third parties can assume that users who interact with or click on a personalised advertisement or content are part of the group that the advertisement or content is directed towards. The third parties that generate these cookies have their own privacy policies and we have no access to read or write these cookies.

Social media cookies

Cookies are also used when you share information using a social media sharing button on the sites. The social network will record that you have done this. This information can be linked to targeting/advertising activities. We also market our own products and services on social media and use cookies to help with this. For example, we place a cookie on our sites that allows Facebook to place cookies on web browsers. When a visitor to our site who uses Facebook returns to Facebook, Facebook can identify them as part of a group of our site visitors and can serve them with marketing messages from us on our behalf. The types of cookies used by these third parties and how they use the information generated by them will be governed by those companies’ privacy policies. For information on how to opt out of targeting advertising, please go to How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.

How we and third parties use cookies in our emails and newsletters

We use and permit selected third parties to use web beacons (usually in combination with cookies) to compile aggregate information about your site usage and your interaction with email and other communications to measure performance and to provide content and advertisements that are more relevant to you. A web beacon (also called a web bug, clear GIF or pixel tag) can be embedded in online content, videos and emails, and allows a server to read certain types of information from your device, to know when you have viewed the beacon and the IP address of your device. The type of information collected includes, but is not limited to, information relating to advertising responses, page views, promotion views and purchases made. We will include web beacons in certain promotional email messages and newsletters to determine whether the messages have been opened or acted upon and whether our mailing tools are working correctly. The web beacons can be used to recognise cookies generated by third parties and inform us and third parties of which advertisement or link brought you to our site, allowing us to monitor the efficacy of our business relationships with third parties.

The Privacy button on the bottom left hand corner of our website will take you to your Data preferences which sets out more information about the individual cookies we may use on our websites and the purposes for which they are used.

What about Google Chrome or other browser cookies?

Separately to our use of Google Analytics cookies, when you access the site via Google applications such as Google Chrome, Google may collect user information for the purpose of Google serving personalised advertising across your devices. Google is able to place these advertising cookies on the devices used by visitors to the site because we use Google services to run the site. However these cookies are dropped for Google’s own purposes and as such we do not have any control over how or when they are dropped. You will need to opt out of receiving these cookies via your Google settings. For further information about these cookies please see: https://policies.google.com/technologies/types?hl=en-US. Please note that other browsers may use similar tools.

How do I manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies?

Cookies

Your options for managing your cookie preferences are set out below:

Through the Data preferences on our site

When you access our websites we will ask you to provide consent for our use of non-essential cookies. We may repeat this request on subsequent visits to our websites, for example if you delete cookies from your browser or we need to request new consents from you.

When we seek your consent, you will either be able to provide consent for all non-essential cookies that we would like to use, or you can tailor your cookie preferences (provide consent for some but not all non-essential cookies) using your Data preferences. You can also change your preferences and/or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Privacy button on the bottom left hand corner of our website which will take you to your Data preferences.

Just as a reminder, where cookies are essential to the operation of our sites, we can use these without your consent and they cannot be managed using Data preferences.

Using your browser settings or other tools

If you do not want your browser to accept cookies, you can alternatively change your browser settings. You can also delete existing cookies from your browser. However, blocking all cookies will affect your web experience and can result in parts of our sites not functioning properly. Certain cookies are designed to help save you time by, for example, remembering your contact details when you place an order.

The procedure for modifying your privacy preferences is different for each internet browser. Visit your internet browser preferences to configure your cookies. For more information on cookie management and blocking or deleting cookies for a wide variety of browsers, visit All About Cookies.

Alternatively, you can turn off third party cookies relating to interest based advertising by visiting www.youronlinechoices.eu. However, this will not opt you out of receiving adverts altogether – it simply means that the adverts will not be targeted to you. Please note that there are many more networks listed on this site than we use on our sites.

You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page. For Google Analytics Advertising Features, you can opt-out through Google Ads Settings or by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. You can find more information about how Google uses information from our sites here.

You can find more information about how to opt-out of the cookies provided by some of our key partners here:

Facebook pixel	Advertising cookie	Opt out	Privacy policy
Google Adwords	Advertising cookie	Opt out	Privacy policy
Google Adx	Advertising cookie	Opt out	Privacy policy
Google Analytics	Performance cookie	Opt out	Privacy policy
Google DoubleClick	Advertising cookie	Opt out	Privacy policy

Cookies in emails and newsletters

As mentioned in the ‘How we and third parties use cookies in our emails and newsletters’ section, any emails you receive from us may contain cookies to help us to see if recipients have opened an email and understand how recipients have interacted with it.

If you do not wish to accept cookies from any one of our emails, simply close the email before downloading any images or clicking on any links. You can also set your browser to restrict cookies or to reject them entirely. These settings will apply to all cookies whether included on websites or in emails.

In some instances, depending on your email or browser settings, cookies in an email may be automatically accepted (for example, when you’ve added an email address to your address book or safe senders list). Please refer to your email browser or device instructions for more information on this.

Does this Cookie Notice change?

We may update our Cookie Notice from time to time. This might be for a number of reasons, such as to reflect a change in the law or to accommodate a change in our business practices and the way we use cookies. We recommend that you check here periodically for any changes to our Cookie Notice.

Have any feedback for us?

If you have any other queries about our use of cookies, you can contact us by writing to Data Protection Officer at privacy@nmenetworks.com with the subject line “Privacy”.

NME Networks Media Limited – Cookie Notice