This is an existing music magazine contents i am using to analyse.
Showing posts with label I. Appendix: Main Task Planning Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I. Appendix: Main Task Planning Work. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Existing Double Page Spread Analysis
This is an existing music magazine double page spread i am using to analyse.
Rejected Product/Alternative Version.
This is a version of my front cover which I was going to use but rejected it and improved on it to make a better product.
I did not like this front cover because of the main background. Whilst making the draft, I used a colour gradient to make the colour green change over the page however when I had done this the layer locked and I was unable to change it until a later point when I found out that I could duplicate the layer (which would not be locked) and then edit it. The reason I did not like this was because I thought the colour green would only appeal to a percentage of the audience and it needed to be slightly different rather than being simple and plain throughout. A wider range of colours would connote something more to the audience such as fun and coolness and would appeal to more people, boosting the sales.
I also did not like the title as the letters were very far apart from one another and the font colour again was very plain with a black outer glow. I think the general look of it made the magazine cover look very spacious and boring. The bottom end of the magazine had the opposite problem and I thought that it looked slightly cramped with the three larger coverlines together, taking up the left and right hand side. I thought that the coverline on the right was slightly random and was not nessecary, therefore I wanted to get rid of that one; leaving most of the right hand side clear.
When I had improved this version and made an alternative front cover, I compared the two together to see the changes and what worked better.
Target Audience Research
For my audience research, I needed to find out a lot of information in order to get an idea of the most popular features and characteristics of magazines. This is so that more people would be willing to buy my magazine, due to being happy with many aspects such as price, contents and genre. I thought the easiest way to do this would be to write a questionnaire and get a large number of people to do it, therefore i would get a fair sample and more reliable results. I wrote a questionnaire and asked 20 people the following questions...
Questionnaire
1-What is your preferred genre of music magazines to buy?
General/Pop, Rock, Metal, RnB/Hip-Hop/Other
2- How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?
£1-2, £2-3, £3+
3- How often do you purchase music magazines?
Every Week, Month, Few Months, Year, Never
4- What music magazines have you read before?
NME, Q, Smash Hits, Blender, Other, None
5- What artist do you most like?
Lady Gaga, Eminem, My Chemical Romance, Ne-Yo, None At All
6- What colour scheme would you most like to see?
Pastel, Florescent, Black + White, Bright, Other
7- What would you most like to see in the magazine?
Interviews, CD + Band Reviews, Competitions, Freebies, Gossip
8- Would you prefer a magazine based on one genre or a mixture?
One Genre, Mixture, Dont Mind
9- Do advertisements in magazines appeal to you at all?
Yes, Sometimes, No
10- Do you think the market for music magazines is too small, the right size or too large?
T
oo Small, Right Size, Too Large
I also held an interview with a media student from another class, Jordan Brett.
"Do you read any music magazines?"
- I used to, but not anymore. It cost me too much in the long run because i bought them quite often and they werent worth the money.
"What ones did you read?"
- NME mostly, i used to get a different one each week so i could see what was available in the market but i found NME was the one i liked most because it had a lot in and what it contained appealed to me and suited my tastes in music.
"What is your taste in music?"
- I like a lot of the rock and indie bands that the magazine features, such as The Last Shadow Puppets and The White Stripes. Im very versatile.
"Do you think it would be a good idea to have one genre then or a mixture?"
- I'd quite like a mixture really, it'd be different to most of the magazines in the market at the moment because none of them really do that, it would be a unique selling point.
"What would you expect to find in a music magazine?"
- Interviews with well known bands, information about upcoming bands and music and albums to buy, tour information and recent photos. Maybe competitions sometimes to meet a band or something.
"What sort of colour scheme would appeal to you most?"
- Something bright i think because it connotes fun and cool, it lets you know the magazine isnt going to be boring. I think graphics give across this message aswell, people our age like a bit of colour.
Results-
My Questionnaire and interview tells me that most people would prefer a magazine about general music and pop which costs between £2-3. A large percentage of people who took my questionnaire bought music magazines monthly and the most popular was NME however the most popular artist was Lady Gaga, which brings a slight variation between the two genres of music. People would most like to see a bright colour scheme and a mixed genre magazine rather than one- this refers back to the general music/pop on question 1. Interviews and CD + Band reviews is what people would most like to see inside the magazine and the advertisements in magazines only appeal to the audience some of the time. This means i can afford to have a smaller amount of advertisements in my magazine than others do, as they take up a lot of pages and most people turn past them a large amount of the time. Most people said they found that the market for music magazines at the moment is too large, but in the interview it is revealed that people would like to see more magazines that specialise in a mixture of genres rather than one. This could provide me with an advantange.
Questionnaire
1-What is your preferred genre of music magazines to buy?
General/Pop, Rock, Metal, RnB/Hip-Hop/Other
2- How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?
£1-2, £2-3, £3+
3- How often do you purchase music magazines?
Every Week, Month, Few Months, Year, Never
4- What music magazines have you read before?
NME, Q, Smash Hits, Blender, Other, None
5- What artist do you most like?
Lady Gaga, Eminem, My Chemical Romance, Ne-Yo, None At All
6- What colour scheme would you most like to see?
Pastel, Florescent, Black + White, Bright, Other
7- What would you most like to see in the magazine?
Interviews, CD + Band Reviews, Competitions, Freebies, Gossip
8- Would you prefer a magazine based on one genre or a mixture?
One Genre, Mixture, Dont Mind
9- Do advertisements in magazines appeal to you at all?
Yes, Sometimes, No
10- Do you think the market for music magazines is too small, the right size or too large?
T
oo Small, Right Size, Too Large
I also held an interview with a media student from another class, Jordan Brett.
"Do you read any music magazines?"
- I used to, but not anymore. It cost me too much in the long run because i bought them quite often and they werent worth the money.
"What ones did you read?"
- NME mostly, i used to get a different one each week so i could see what was available in the market but i found NME was the one i liked most because it had a lot in and what it contained appealed to me and suited my tastes in music.
"What is your taste in music?"
- I like a lot of the rock and indie bands that the magazine features, such as The Last Shadow Puppets and The White Stripes. Im very versatile.
"Do you think it would be a good idea to have one genre then or a mixture?"
- I'd quite like a mixture really, it'd be different to most of the magazines in the market at the moment because none of them really do that, it would be a unique selling point.
"What would you expect to find in a music magazine?"
- Interviews with well known bands, information about upcoming bands and music and albums to buy, tour information and recent photos. Maybe competitions sometimes to meet a band or something.
"What sort of colour scheme would appeal to you most?"
- Something bright i think because it connotes fun and cool, it lets you know the magazine isnt going to be boring. I think graphics give across this message aswell, people our age like a bit of colour.
Results-
My Questionnaire and interview tells me that most people would prefer a magazine about general music and pop which costs between £2-3. A large percentage of people who took my questionnaire bought music magazines monthly and the most popular was NME however the most popular artist was Lady Gaga, which brings a slight variation between the two genres of music. People would most like to see a bright colour scheme and a mixed genre magazine rather than one- this refers back to the general music/pop on question 1. Interviews and CD + Band reviews is what people would most like to see inside the magazine and the advertisements in magazines only appeal to the audience some of the time. This means i can afford to have a smaller amount of advertisements in my magazine than others do, as they take up a lot of pages and most people turn past them a large amount of the time. Most people said they found that the market for music magazines at the moment is too large, but in the interview it is revealed that people would like to see more magazines that specialise in a mixture of genres rather than one. This could provide me with an advantange.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
My own music magazine: Initial Ideas.
After my music magazine research I decided on what kind of magazine I wanted to do and who my target audience would be. It took me quite a while to think about who I would like to aim my magazine at because I needed it to fit in with a certain popular stereotype so that I could base my designs and ideas on a particular style.
I thought of quite a few titles for my magazine such as 'funk' 'vibe' and 'RAWR' but eventually i decided on 'RAWR' as i thought it sounded different and less typical of magazine names.
The demographic status of my target audience:
Gender Female but the magazine will be aproachable to males.
Age 14-19(Females), 14-17 (Males)
Marital Status Single/In a relationship but not married as the magazine is aimed at a young audience.
Region Any
Social Status C1, C2
The physcographic status of my target audience:
Music They Listen To Pop, RnB/HipHop, Indie
My target audience consumption habits:
Clothes/Shoes- Fashion
Ipods, music
Music festivals/gigs
Technology
They Wear:
Skinny jeans
Colourful tops
Dresses
Tunics
Leggings
Jewellery and accessories.
OR TShirts, cardigans, jeans, trainers (males)
Hair style:
Long or middle length.
Well styled and looked after.
Straightened/curled?
The ideal price for my magazine is £2.99 as it keeps demand high but also circulation income high too. The audience is more likely to think it is a good magazine if they are paying a larger price for it rather than a cheap 99p one but it also should not be too high of a price as it could discourage people to buy it due to being too expensive- and a waste of money if they buy every issue in the long run.
The content of my magazine will be artist interviews (in a question and answer format. open questions), music and band reviews, gig and tour information, upcoming bands/albums, gossip, competitions and possibly free sample CDs and giveaways.
The style of my magazine will be very bright colours, using graphics, light coloured images and rounded, aesthetially pleasing fonts. I want the style to look cool so the magazine is inviting to the audience. I also want the magazine to look quite spacious rather than cramped and not to contain too much text.
The unique selling point of my magazine will be that it specialises in a mixture of genres and music in general, rather than just one specific genre such as metal or rock like all of the other magazines in the market currently. This could provide my with an advantage as people could be interested in buying my magazine due to it being new and different or more to their tastes.
I thought of quite a few titles for my magazine such as 'funk' 'vibe' and 'RAWR' but eventually i decided on 'RAWR' as i thought it sounded different and less typical of magazine names.
The demographic status of my target audience:
Gender Female but the magazine will be aproachable to males.
Age 14-19(Females), 14-17 (Males)
Marital Status Single/In a relationship but not married as the magazine is aimed at a young audience.
Region Any
Social Status C1, C2
The physcographic status of my target audience:
Music They Listen To Pop, RnB/HipHop, Indie
My target audience consumption habits:
Clothes/Shoes- Fashion
Ipods, music
Music festivals/gigs
Technology
They Wear:
Skinny jeans
Colourful tops
Dresses
Tunics
Leggings
Jewellery and accessories.
OR TShirts, cardigans, jeans, trainers (males)
Hair style:
Long or middle length.
Well styled and looked after.
Straightened/curled?
The ideal price for my magazine is £2.99 as it keeps demand high but also circulation income high too. The audience is more likely to think it is a good magazine if they are paying a larger price for it rather than a cheap 99p one but it also should not be too high of a price as it could discourage people to buy it due to being too expensive- and a waste of money if they buy every issue in the long run.
The content of my magazine will be artist interviews (in a question and answer format. open questions), music and band reviews, gig and tour information, upcoming bands/albums, gossip, competitions and possibly free sample CDs and giveaways.
The style of my magazine will be very bright colours, using graphics, light coloured images and rounded, aesthetially pleasing fonts. I want the style to look cool so the magazine is inviting to the audience. I also want the magazine to look quite spacious rather than cramped and not to contain too much text.
The unique selling point of my magazine will be that it specialises in a mixture of genres and music in general, rather than just one specific genre such as metal or rock like all of the other magazines in the market currently. This could provide my with an advantage as people could be interested in buying my magazine due to it being new and different or more to their tastes.
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Clash: Cover Analysis
This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The target audience for this is males and females aged 18-26. There are ten issues per year and each costs £3.80 an issue or you can subscribe for £35 per year. The magazine contains interviews with popular bands, reviews of music, films and high-street fashion.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Hip Hop Connection: Cover Analysis
This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The target audience for this is mainly males aged 17-23 although there is a small percentage of female readers. There are frequent issues each month and each costs £3.99 an issue. The magazine contains band and artist interviews and song reviews.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Blender: Cover Analysis.
This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The magazine is created by the same companies who produce mens magazines, therefore the target audience for this is mainly males aged 16-35 although there is a small percentage of female readers. There are six issues per year and each costs $3.99 an issue. The magazine contains album reviews and images of females singers.
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