Music magazine evaluation (edited)

Music magazine evaluation (edited)

• 2.
  Primary research – Questionnaire Thistells me that the majority of my audience will be females and I should play on stereotypes to appeal to them e.g.: use feminine colours like pink and pastel shades although I could use classic, unisex colours so that I could broaden my demographic.
• 3.
  This shows thatI should target the younger aged teenagers to meet the answers of my questionnaire although most things apply to all aged teenagers and not a specific age so it doesn’t need to be kiddy, it can include more sophisticated themes as well as young modern themes.
• 4.
  The results ofthis question tell me how much I should price my magazine. Seeing as the results are split between both working and middle class, my magazine should be relatively cheap. Most magazines around at the moment are priced between £2 and £4.
• 5.
  The majority ofpeople answered ‘Indie’ which tells me that my magazine should be an Indie based magazine. Other popular options are Hip Hop and Alternative although most of the options that had 2 votes fit under the same umbrella of music and so could be infused into the magazine to appeal to more people.
• 6.
  Every response isdifferent however most of the bands/artists stated fit into the Indie category so like the previous question, it tells me that I should base my magazine on Indie music.
• 7.
  This very clearlyshows me that most people would like to see a band on the cover although the majority of music magazines have solo artists on the front so I may want to consider that if I want to follow the success of other popular music magazines.
• 8.
  This is agood response as I can appeal to those who prefer images, prefer text and both so like most magazines I will include an equal amount of text and images.
• 9.
  Most of thepeople reading the magazine would enjoy reading the interviews on their favourite bands/artists as well as having the opportunity to win exclusive prizes. But all in all, I should include all of these things to grab the attention of a wide variety of people.
• 10.
  Music is obviouslya big deal for all the people that took this questionnaire and so I should try and cover all aspects of music to keep them interested and to meet all of their expectations.
• 11.
  Although mainly 16year olds took this questionnaire, they still want quite a sophisticated looking magazine which will appeal to all ages therefore securing more sales.
• 12.
  Who would theaudience for your media product? (Demographic) 0 My audience are Indie music fans who like an equal amount of text and images. 0 They would like to see sophisticated colours and read interviews as well as having the chance to win prizes. 0 They are from working class and middle class backgrounds so my magazine should be priced between £2 and £3.
• 13.
  Who would theaudience for your media product? (Psychographic) I would say that people who fit into the Belonger and Emulator categories would buy my magazine because belongers like to fit in and my magazine has colours that don’t stand out and are quite simple. Emulators would also buy it because they are ambitious and my double page spread is about a girl who started with nothing and made it big which would appeal a lot to them. There are also bold, eye catching colours which stand out, so ultimately anyone would buy it if it caught their eye.
• 14.
  In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I took inspiration from NME for my front cover as I wanted to add something extra but I wasn’t sure what until I noticed that the NME cover had a sticker on the front to switch it up a bit. I liked this idea and added some alliteration to the text to add some more punch to it. To include some extra colour and information without making it overcrowded, I listed bands/artists in the footer in a red block to make it stand out. I chose to do this like NME because it’s very straight forward and tells readers what bands/artists are included and they’ll need to buy the magazine to find out exactly what is written about them.
• 15.
  Q’s contents pagereally stood out to me because I liked how there was an equal balance of images and text as some contents pages have a load of information with only a few pictures. I also liked how everything was in columns and very neat so I based my contents page on the Q one and put my photos in blocks, making the cover story image the biggest. Another thing that stood out was how the page numbers are quite big, making it easier and quicker to find what page has the story you’re interested in.
• 16.
  I really wantedto do something different with my double page spread. I wanted to include quite a few images but I didn’t want to make it seem messy. Vibe’s double page spread used 8 photos and it looks exciting and interesting whilst staying organised. I took this idea one step further and turned my photos into polaroid pictures to throw in some fun amongst the sophisticated, plain colours. I like how there is a main image in the midst of other smaller images which puts emphasise on the bigger picture.
• 17.
  How does yourmedia product represent particular social groups? My magazine is priced at £2.50 as my research showed that my demographic was made up of working class and middle class teenagers. The majority of people that answered my questionnaire were 16 years old and requested sophisticated colours. I did this as well as throwing in a splash of colour with my use of red to keep the young minds interested. Socially, 16 year olds are seen as nothing more than kids but my questionnaire begs to differ as they answered quite maturely so my magazine will appeal to teenagers and young adults of all ages.
• 18.
  What kind ofmedia institution might distribute your media product and why? I think IPC Media would distribute my product as they distribute magazines such as NME which has influenced my magazine and I feel there are similarities between the two so IPC would probably be more likely to distribute my magazine.
• 19.
  Magazine Drafts When Ifirst started making my music magazine, I had no idea how to use Photoshop and so my first draft looked more like a poster than a magazine front cover. I then started to look at other magazines and I realised that making it simplistic is sometimes more effective and can make it look professional. After re-planning my front cover, I scrapped my initial idea and toned down the colours. I changed the name to ‘VIBES’ because it had a music feel to the name until I realised that there was already a magazine with the name ‘VIBE’. ‘JAM’ seemed more appropriate as it’s something a group of musicians do, they just chill out playing whatever comes into their head which I thought was more fitting with the Indie theme.
• 20.
  Contents page drafts Iwas always going to have my images arranged like this and have this many images as I felt it was a good balance between text and pictures.
• 21.
  How did youattract/address your audience?The cover stories are about artists of my chosen genre, Indie, and they are things that have happened recently and most music fans like to stay up to date with what is happening in the world of music especially if it’s artists they are interested in. This sticker stands out because it is different from everything else on the cover and it includes two music legends which will definitely intrigue music fans. This story is about Glastonbury Festival which includes bands and musicians of the Indie sort. It is a very popular festival and so everyone that listens to Indie music would love to read about it. Because this is red, it stands out and most of the time people don’t bother to look at the bottom so this is a great way to get people to look at everything on the cover. I chose to use Jenny as my model because she is the same age as my audience and most Indie listening teenagers aspire to be musicians so it would be good to have someone their age who they can look up to. My colour scheme was based on other music magazines that all seem to have a couple of basic colours with one bold colour. They were simple yet looked professional and are obviously effective due to the magazines’ success.
• 22.
  To show consistency, I includedthe grey from the front cover onto my contents page. I laid out my images in a block so that if people prefer looking at images, they can look at the image with the page number and go straight to the page. For people that like to find out about the story before actually reading it, they can read the summaries and then head to the page as they page numbers are clearly pointed out. Most of the magazines I looked at had something else other than the stories, whether it be the editor’s note or an advert for the magazine’s subscription but I chose to add a review section and count down the 100 greatest Indie albums as music fans like to read about renowned things that contributed to their favourite genre of music. Having the colour red alongside the classic black and white helps certain things to stand out for example the page numbers and titles of different sections
• 23.
  To keep withthe sophisticated theme that was requested in the results of my questionnaire, I kept my double page spread very simple yet with the use of several images in a quirky polaroid style it adds to the classy page whilst also including a fun element. It also lets the reader have an insight to the musician’s life which is one thing that most music fans would love to know about. I decided to make the first letter of the very first word stand out so that it catches the reader’s eye and after looking at the collage of pictures at the top, it will also seem interesting rather than a massive chunk of text. Whereas the front cover image was very serious and Je’nnay seemed quite reserved, this photo shows the other side of Jenny and it can be seen like as you open up the magazine, Je’nna y will open up. I added a pull quote within the article to break up the text and to give a taster of what the article is about.
• 24.
  What have youlearnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? When I first went to make my music magazine, I didn’t know how to use Photoshop (hence how my school magazine was made on Microsoft Word) so I had to get used to all of the various tools. One thing that was really useful was cutting out unnecessary parts of photos and keeping what’s needed, like I did with my front cover image and double page spread image. There were also tools to add shadows and to elongate certain words so that some words were emphasised as well as keeping each sentence aligned. Even though it was a long process getting used to all of the functions that Photoshop has to offer, it was worth it as comparing my school magazine made on Word and my music magazine I can see how more professional my music magazine looks.
• 25.
  Looking back atyour preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I’ve learnt that it’s best to make a questionnaire and see what others think as they will probably be the people that buy the magazine and so you can’t include everything that you think is best. Also, sometimes plain is better. Although I used dull colours like black, white and grey, including one bold colour makes certain things pop whereas with my school magazine I used red, white, blue and black so it was all very ‘in-your-face’. The subtlety of the grey and white make the magazine look refined and mature so it could attract other people outside of my demographic. Learning about the rule of thirds was very helpful as without it, the magazine can look messy so I used that knowledge to help create my music magazine and everything looks in place and organised. From using Photoshop I learnt that by adding small details like shadows to text or elongating words, it can really have an effect on the overall feel of the magazine and give it a professional look. Another important thing I learnt was how influential the media can be which is why you should always think of your audience before yourself as writing negatively about a band/artist can lose you readers if the majority of people reading really like them.