Main Task: Music Magazine

We were proposed to create a new modern music magazine, this included a front page, contents page and a double page spread. By choosing a genre, target audience and theme we

had to go ahead with creating a magazine with justified features and conventions.

idea 1: indie Rock

This would be a rock magazine with a combination of pop music and top hits. i have been inspired by the magazine "Kerrang" as it uses one large main image and small subheadings, the page will also be extremely busy. The main image on my front my page will be taken against a plain coloured background. Features could include unsigned bands, a competition and upcoming festivals and tour dates. Font types would be grunge looking and also some handwritten font types so that it fits around the photo perfectly and looks very youthful. Coverlines would be italicized and highlighted over with yellow. The colour scheme would consist of a mixture of dark and bright colours to give the page contrast such as Pink, orange, yellow and black. Fonts will all be Sans Serif which are fonts without strokes at the top and bottoms of letters, such as “impact” Possible titles would be: The Gig, instro, Unplugged, Music glue, Note or Toon.

Kerrang has very little space, all of the articles are all extremely compact and close together which gives the page an interesting look similar to that of NME. The page is majority black with some yellows, greens and reds which identify this magazines with youth.

idea 2: Classic Rock

This magazine will be aimed towards 30-50 year olds. The magazine would highlight famous and

unforgettable musicians, The main image would include a single singer or group with one person

holding an acoustic guitar or a microphone with stand. This photo could be in black and white with a high

contrast and lots of noise to make it look very dated and from the sixties. Features would include free

nostalgic poster, an album review with the album cover next to it (made myself). Possible colour combinations would be: Black, dark blue and grey; black orange and

grey. The Double page spread would include the interview with the singer on the front cover. Possible names for the magazine include: Blend, Audio-who, Stage, Music Central, MUK (music of UK), Rewind or

Fast Forward. Elements of the page would be rotated to make the page look a little more interesting.

The magazine “UNCUT” uses a strict colour scheme makes the page appealing to the older audience. The main image takes up the whole page in a greyscale

mode which will also appeal to the older audience. The dates highlighted around the side show exactly what

era the magazine is highlighted.

idea 3: Techno/rave

This magazine would have a very niche audience of techno lovers who go to raves which would fit into the age range of 17-25 year olds. The main image would

be of a friend with a Dj Deck in front of him with headphones on. Colour combinations would be: black, green and blue; blue, yellow and red. Possible titles:

Audiophere (Atmosphere), AMP (A Music Phenomenon), Fusion or The Fix. There are no existing

Rave/Techno magazines which would leave a gap in the market for my magazine. All text would be very clean and sharp all in capitals. Getting photos of the rave scene would be difficult so i would create lasers

and strobes using tools on photoshop. Features of this magazine would include dates of DJ’s in certain clubs, rave merchandise such as glow sticks. An interview

with a top DJ and also articles such as ‘Most embarrassing things to happen to you when drunk’

and comparisons on best London clubs to visit.

Due to there not being an existing magazine for the genre Rave and Techno the magazine would be not have anything to base itself on. This would give me

the chance to create my own target audience and the opportunity to use colour, images, font type and

layout in a way never seen before.

Decision to go with idea 2i asked 2 peers of their opinion which magazine i should go ahead with. Ryan thought a Techno magazine would look the best because techno magazines

are unheard of whereas there are plenty of Classical Rock magazines, however a classical rock magazine would be more popular with society

because there are more older music lovers than techno fans. Tom’s opinion was to go for a Classic Rock magazine as there are few existing magazines

compared to rock magazines. He said “There is less competition in the industry for Classic Rock”. He also mentioned getting photos for the rave

magazine would be difficult.

i will continue to make a classical rock magazine. Using dated musicians and similar artists of today. The magazine will be similar to “UNCUT”, “Rolling

Stone” And “Q”. the colour scheme will use 3 colours and be very dark and vintage. The font types i use will be a mixture of sans serif and serif fonts. Both of these opinions influenced me as i couldn’t take photos for the rave

magazine, i do not own any rock instruments such as guitars or drums so an indie rock magazine would not be as convincing as an indie rock magazine. i have a very deep interest in historical rock, bands such as The Beatles, The

Who, The Hollies and other bands from the Sixties influence me so creating a classic rock would be entertaining for myself while at the same time the older

generation are short on older music magazines to read.

Audience Fragmentation Production & Market research

IntroductionOn the following few slides i will interpret and justify what i will do with the results i have collected from the questionnaires i gave to the public. i asked 5 people from the town and college to fill out my questionnaires. The results from these will give me an insight to what people from my target audience will want to see from a Classic Rock magazine. i will base the results and findings on the content of my magazine and also the font types, colours, house style and editorial features of my magazine. The reason i have asked people of my target audience rather than just copying the features of a similar magazine is because i will need to find out exactly what my magazine wants as it will have to compete with similar magazines. My genre has a niche market therefore i will have to be very precise with the chart analysation.Gender

To the left you can see i asked 3 males and 2 females, the reason i did this is because similar magazines to mine such as UNCUT and Mojo have a male dominated audience. i have asked more males as their results will reflect more of what males want to see in Rewind rather than women.

AgeThe bar chart to the left shows the age split between the people i asked to fill out my questionnaire. My mean age will be around 37 year olds so i made sure i found 2 people which lay in the age range 36- 45 as their results will give me an exact definition of my magazine. i also asked somebody from 16-25 years old, this will be an anomalous result but will tell me if i wanted to add content for the younger audience to attract a larger circulation.

Who likes the genre?Above shows that all 5 of the people i asked to fill out my questionnaire like classic rock ,this means i have approached the correct aged people to fill out my questionnaire based on my magazine. Because 5/5 people like my genre, the findings i get from their results will be accurate and very reflective of my target audience.

Financial information

First i asked my target audience their employment status, this will give me the basis of the average price and

issue release. 2 of the people worked full time which suggests they will be able to afford an issue of up to £5.

However for the voluntary, student and part time consumers they will not be able to afford this. Furthermore

all 5 of the people i asked said they would pay £3. if i was to raise the price i think i would have a smaller

solus readership as less people would buy my magazine. Because all 5 of my target audience said they would

pay £3 for my magazine, this is how much i will price my magazine at, the 5 who agreed to paying this much

reflects my target audience as a whole as this is a small sample of my entire target audience because they

have the same percentage of age and genders.

Finally i asked how often my target audience buy magazines. Some music magazines are released weekly,

but due to my magazine focusing on past musicians it would be easier to fill 12 copies (monthly) a year rather

than 52 copies (once a week). 3 of my audience said they would buy a monthly issue while 1 person said

weekly and another yearly. i will go with the majority decision. Related Articlesi gave my audience the chance to chose which articles to read about. i allowed them to circle 2 different answers. i have to base my magazine on their decisions other wise my target audience will buy my classic rock magazine and not be interested in its content, this means they will be first time buyers. On my double spread i will have an interview with a rockstar and on my front cover as cover lines or inserts i will mention within the magazine there will be a gig review and biography/history of a musician as they had the second highest number of votes. Lastly the articles with no votes will just get a mention on my contents page. The interview will either be of my dad or somebody who will look like a classic rockstar who has aged, or an interview from an archive with somebody very young and in their youth.

Which artists to include?i allowed my target audience to chose as many artists as they liked as this would give me a clear perspective of which artists are the most popular. The Beatles and The Who are the most popular artists, these will appear on inserts on the front cover. inside the contents page the 2nd most popular artists will appear, Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses, Queen and Hendrix. These artists could appear on the contents page on the anniversary section (Where famous dates are remembered within the same month the issue is released) or biographical information. Obviously i cannot get photos of these artists so these will only appear in the copy and headlines of my magazine.

Free Gifts

i also allowed my target audience to circle as many free gifts as they like. The gig tickets were the most

popular, most classic rock concerts are very expensive (Paul Mccartneys concerts are over £60) so

offering free tickets to each reader would be extremely expensive. But i could give out replica tickets of

famous concerts such as the Woodstock weekend pass or The Beatles concert tickets in the cavern.

These would be printed as replicas on to cheap coloured paper - similar to the originals - and will be

kept as collectables. The CD would be cheap, i could put singles on the cover of my magazine rather

than a full album. This would be because as a brand extension my magazine will release a compilation

CD at the end of each year. This CD could hold 2-3 tracks or a music video. The CD will have a custom

made design on it and come in a clear plastic sleeve. This will appear on the front cover. Lastly as

Posters were a popular choice it will be easy to give these out. i could print them onto A2 paper and fold

them into 4 so it fits into the magazine. The posters would be of a made up “Well-known” musician e.g.

a class mate or family and taken by me, put into photoshop and made black and white.

What classic rock artists do you like?

Which free gifts would you like to see in a classic rock magazine?

My findings1. Anybody aged 16-55 can like Classic rock.2. Whether or not my target audience have a disposable income 100% of them will pay £3 for a classic rock magazine3. The majority of people prefer to buy magazines monthly.4. 50% of my target audience would like an interview as an article in a classic rock magazine.5. My target audience would prefer to see The Beatles and The Who rather than Pink Floyd, ACDC and The Sex Pistols in a classic rock magazine6. My target audience would rather have free gig tickets, CD’s and posters as a free gift.7. My target audience would prefer to see a darker colour scheme for my magazine than a bright colour scheme.8. More than half of my target audience would like to see my magazine being sold in local newsagents.9. My target audience are very relaxed and like to listen to music and movies as their hobbies/interests.10. My target audience prefer to read the magazines Classic Rock and MOJO rather than Q, NME and Rolling Stone

Colour Scheme4 out of my 5 audience selected a colour scheme that included black and dark grey. This reflects how my target audience prefer to see a classic rock magazine. i strongly agree with their choice as black and dark grey are both colours which you can associate with old music such as classic rock whereas colour schemes with pink and orange and yellows are all very bright and wouldn't work so well on a magazine which is based 4-5 decades ago.

Sold Where?The majority of people would prefer to see my magazine sold in a local newsagents of supermarket as this would be most accessible to them. Nobody chose an online copy, i think this is because people don’t want to merge magazines and websites, they would simply rather have them separate so they can be two different media texts.

What are your hobbies/interests?Hobbies/Interests?Most of my target audience enjoy watching movies and listening to music in their spare time. This shows the average personality of my target audience and i can summarize that they are a very relaxed audience who after work depend on music and movies to wind down with.

Where would you like to see a classic rock magazine being sold?

What colour scheme would suit a classic rock magazine?

Preferred Magazine?4/5 of my target audience read MOJO and Classic Rock, this shows that my magazine would have to be most like these two if it wants to compete within the classic rock magazine genre.

If you were to read a music magazine which one of these would you read?

Based on my conclusion and findings the following proposals will be incorporated into my classic rock magazine:

-Due to the people i asked to fill out my questionnaire all being around the age of my target audience i know that their decisions and answers are accurate as primary research. Therefore 5/5 of the people said they would pay £3 for my magazine, therefore this is how much my magazine will cost. I have taken into consideration the employment status of my audience and this will not affect the price as those who do voluntary and part time work still agreed to pay £3. Also the majority voted for a monthly release of my magazine which will be done.

- For editorial content my magazine will have an interview with a rockstar and history/biography for that same musician on my double page spread. This will be a made up rockstar who depicts somebody in the life of a Sixties musician as i am not able to take photos and interview a famous rockstar for my magazine. On this double page spread i will have a display advert for a music or movie product as these are the two hobbies/interests the majority of my audience are interested in.

-The Beatles and The Who are the most popular bands among my target audience so will be mentioned in coverlines on the front page of my magazine in the biggest writing. Queen. Guns n’ Roses and Led Zeppelin are the second most popular so will appear in smaller coverlines on the front page. Also on the front page i will have a smaller insert where it says “Free memorabilia gig tickets” as this is the free gift my target audience would most like to see. Also as something extra i could fold up a large A2 poster as a free gift in my magazine. My magazine will be sold in local supermarkets and newsagents as these are the preferred and most assessable places for my target audience to buy my magazine.

-I will look at the media packs of MOJO and Classic Rock for inspiration and ideas for my own magazine as my target audience favor these magazines. My magazine has a very similar genre and target audience so i would have to find out my own information and do case studies/analysis of these magazines to see how i could compete with them.

-Finally my magazine will have a dark colour scheme consisting of the colours black and dark grey as these were the most popular choice, among these was blue, this was the second most popular. As a personal choice i will include purple along with blue as these colours go very well and for me represent the classic rock era the best.

Conclusion

As a summary i can conclude that my target audience would like to see the conventional features of classic rock magazines such as the dark colour scheme, the price, artists featured and article types. They chose these because those features are the reason they would buy a classic rock magazine in the first place. My audience would prefer not for my magazine to be unconventional and have a bright coloured scheme, have an online copy and current affairs as an article. This shows that if i included these features the magazine would have a very small readership. i think that if i focus on the conventional features of a classic rock magazine my magazine would be a bigger success and have a large readership and would also compete with the leading classic rock magazines such as UNCUT, MOJO and Classic Rock.

Proposal