My Music Magazine Layout

 

 

My music Magazine planning

Target audience of my music magazine would be teenager and young adults ranging from age of 16 to 22 which would be interested in rock genre magazines, additionally due to lack of people that buy music magazines (as shown from my questionnaire results) I will have to consider all possible ways of attracting the audience. Possible things which would attract the audience would be freebies seeing as this option got the most votes in my questionnaire or CD’s would be another option seeing as it got the second highest votes, however the dilemma with this is that the CD would have to be relevant to the magazine which would require allowance from the owner of the song. I am planning on making a hybrid of genres for my music magazine in order to attract the audience’s attention and the genres will be gathered from my questionnaire results seeing as I got a variety of genre choices. Furthermore my magazine is planned to be released two times a month which would mean the price of the magazine would have to be around £4.99 in order to get the best profit. This would mean that I will have time to prepare my articles. Additionally my magazine will use bold, contrasting colours in order for the audience to be able to read through the whole magazine with ease. Possible colours I will use would be red and black or blue and yellow etc. In addition I will also have to consider the background of my images, if they are relevant to the genre of the magazine or even match the whole house style of the magazine, the main idea would be to remove the original background and place the images in a white (or other colour) background in order for the audience to see the image clearly.

Audiences and Institutions

The ‘Bauer Media’ publishes a range of different genre magazines aimed at different type of audience. The website even sorts the magazines it publishes in different categories in order to make it easier for the audience to find a specific genre they are after and do further research of the magazine. For example ‘Men’s Entertainment’ category has a list of different magazines which follow this category, allowing the target audience to make further research of the magazines like ‘Empire’ ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Mojo’ which however can also be read by the female audience which would be interested in the genre of music the magazines may provide. Furthermore the website lists gossip magazines under the ‘Women’s’ section which is stereotypical suggesting that all females are interested in magazines like ‘heat’ and ‘more!’, however there is a range of magazines this institution provides giving the audience a variety of choice which is always good. Furthermore the simple layout of the website provides the audience with information of what type of entertainment the magazine has to offer for example TV or radio broadcasting. Brand image gives an impression to the audience of being a bold and serious company seeing as its mainstream and represent different types of media not only magazines.

IPC Mede publishes a huge range of magazines and websites across many different sectors. This institution provides a large variety of different genre magazines suitable for different target audience and the website provides a search engine available for the audience to look for specific type of magazines. In addition to this clear information is given to the audience on the website along with the price of the magazine which is helpful seeing as that is the most important factor which will either result in the audience buying the magazine or not buying it. Furthermore IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands which make this institution very well known and it has gained a reputation of producing good magazines which please the target audience. Also the music magazines would usually feature advertisement of other magazines which are published by this institution and vice versa and that give other magazines more popularity. The brand image is very bold and simple; suggesting to the audience that the institution is serious about what it does and presents the magazines to the best standard.

BBC Magazines

The following institution produces well known magazines like 'Top Gear', 'Radio Times', 'BBC music' etc  and is a mainstream company in the UK with a wide range of target audience seeing as they don't only specialise in magazines but also in media like the radio and TV shows, for example 'Top Gear' is a TV show in itself and that gives the company a very well known name and popularity between a more mature target audience age of which range between 5 to even 40, seeing as the media it provides is suitable for different ages, 'CBeebies Weekly' would be an example of media provided for the younger audience and 'Top Gear' is an example of media provided for the much older audience.  In addition to this the website does not have a brand image, this could be due to its familiarity with the audience and it being well known across the UK.

Development Hell is an independent niche institution with main focus of three magazines which have their own websites, this allows them to put more effort into those magazines and make them to the best standard which is a benefit of being a niche company which is based only in the UK. However the drawback of this would be a lack of variety in choice for the target audience meaning the institution will only have a certain amount of target audience which are interested in the magazine which they publish. Also on the website for different magazines each one promotes the different magazine which is release by this institution, providing the audience with information about other magazines the institution has to offer.  Each magazine which they have to offer has its own website with a wide range of information and other options like listening to an interview online and this makes the magazines internet friendly. The Brand image 'Development Hell' written in bold red letters suggests that the magazines they produce are more of mature and 'grown up' type target audience of which would be people ranging from 24 to 35.

Title block analysis

NME (New Musical Express) is a music magazine with a rock/RNB genre which from the title suggests how it gives the latest news to the audience about the music industry. Furthermore from the use of colour we can tell that this music magazine has a formal layout and the house style would be the colour present on the title. Colour use of the title block makes it stand out due to use of contrasting colours, in addition to this the title block is never covered by the central image in order for the audience to see the title straight away and the colours used help it stand out from the magazines house style. Use of font for this title block is bold and straight forward which helps the colour contrast in addition to this the title looks like a channel title for example MTV or such which the audience would be familiar with. The title itself when spoken out sounds like ‘Enemy’ which evokes that the magazine is different from other music magazines and offers something entirely different in addition to this the word ‘Express’ suggests how the magazine delivers the latest news in short time seeing as most news papers would be called ‘Express’. Furthermore ‘New Musical Express’ sounds like a news paper which evokes how the magazine delivers the latest news like a news paper would do every morning. Target audience of the magazine would be people which are interested in the latest music news aging from 16 to 25, however even older audience could be interested in this music magazine if it suits their interests.

From the title of the magazine we can see that the genre would be rock based due to the use of dark colours and affect of shattered glass, in addition to this the sound ‘KERRANG’ evokes a noise caused from a guitar being smashed which also suggests how the magazine is non-formal meaning the audience would be of the same type. Use of colour in the title block makes the title very easy to read and the shattered glass effect makes it more interesting and standing out from other music magazine titles in addition to this the title look original due to its non-formality. The font used for the title block is different from other fonts you would see on music magazines and from it we can see that the main focus of the magazine is rock music where as other magazines like NME or Q have more range of genre to offer. The title itself suggests ‘rebellion’ or even violence due to the shattered glass effect and how the noise ‘KERRANG’ sounds like a smashed guitar, implying that rock is an expressive type of music. Target audience of the magazine would be people that are mainly interested in rock music aging from 16-25.

Due to simplicity of the title it is unclear of the genre of music it would provide, however the use of bright and contrasting colours best guess would be pop/RnB music or any relevant genre. Furthermore use of colours makes the title stand out and very eye catching compared to other music magazine titles, this would be the main target of the title to catch the audience’s eye. The font use is very simple and straight forward and very easy to read using a simple letter ‘Q’ which could stand for ‘question’ suggesting how this is a ‘question and answer’ type of magazine, providing the audience with interviews of their favourite music stars, the title itself does not tell a lot to the audience due to its simplicity meaning that the main focus of the magazine would be on the articles themselves and other information it may provide to the audience. Furthermore the title would suggest that the possible target audience of this magazine would be people that are interested in latest news in the music industry and raging from 16-25 years.