results+defined target audience

After going through each questionnaire I recorded down each closed questionnaire and also the comments written. Here is what I found:

When looking at the results it was clear that both male and female both had an equal view on music magazines so gender didn't matter.

Ages 16-29 were mostly interested in music magazines. On the other hand every 10-15 year old person I asked weren't interested at all, so this will effect my target audience.

For the genre of music people of that rage group were interested in there were also quite similar results.

This age group clearly like a wide range of different styles of music and aren't just interested in one particular genre. This has helped decide what genre I will focus on. Instead of just focusing on rock or pop I will make sure I cover a lot of genre's of music in my magazine.

After asking whether they read music magazines this is what I got back.

So most read or at least sometimes read music magazines. This means that creating a music magazine for this genre is appropriate as my audience are interested in that sort of thing, so if made correctly my magazine can attract these readers.

I then asked what magazines they do read; and here are the different answers that I got;

Four Four Two

Total Guitar

Q

Kerrang

Rock Sound

NME

These were the only magazines stated so it became clear that there weren't actually many magazines that are produced which people of this age range are interested in. So there is a place for my magazine in the market it just has to be different from all the others.

When asking why if the person put no in reply to why they dont read magazines here are the different answers that I got;

There isn't one available that looks at all ranges of music; they are all aimed at pacific genres

I look up music stuff online instead

I just never buy them, they dont appeal to me

Because they took melody maker away

I dont have time

I prefere reading about celebrity gossip

They aren't very interesting

I am not interested in what they have to say

Gossip magazines are better

Its a waste of time

The reason that people of this age group maybe dont read magazines are mainly because they dont find them interesting and the genres are too specific in the most famous magazines. So this supports my idea of making a magazine that includes different genres, and making sure that my magazine is interesting, and attracts not only the ones that already read magazines but producing something that would appeal to the others, which is possible if i take into account this feedback.

Other music related media resources listed:

radio

itunes

last.fm

youtube

pitchfork

cd's

band websites

ticketmaster.com

gigsandtours.com

gigjunkie.com

limewire

vinal

ipod

play.com

amazin

ticketweb

spotify

music channel

nme.com

seetickets

pinglewood.com

There are a lot of other media resources that this age group use. They won't change to just reading my magazine so I will have to compromise with the vastly growing internet. In order to attract them into a magazine I will have to relate my product to these other resources such as having competitions to gigs, as well as visiting those sites, free downloads on itunes, have a website linked to my magazine and make money on advertising. There are many different ways that I can still attract my audience even if they do use other media products.

Here are the results as to what radio station is listened to the most.

It's clear that Radio 1 is the most listened to radio station of this age group and therefore I will make sure that I listen to Radio 1 and get some inspiration as to what style of music they mostly play and which shows on there are especially good.

I then asked how much they were willing to spend on a new magazine. here are the results.

It seems to be that £0-4 is the range of price that most are willing to pay. Taking in account that most people won't be able to afford to buy a magazine every week/month so I will consider maybe making it a monthly magazine and charging £4 and having a weekly update on my website instead.

The last question of my magazine was designed to gain an understanding as to what would attract this age group to a new magazine, here are the valid comments I received.

If all genres were looked at

lots of colour

eye catching photography

gossip as well as music news

if it was different

decent price and is in lots of different stores

exclusive ticket information

free gifts

a variety of genres

gig information

good interviews

new music advertised

new bands

competitions

humorous advise column

guitar tabs for good songs

photos of live gigs

eye catching covers

gossip was included

i want to feel cool when i buy it not embarrassed

the front picture

new music bands and to look out for

if other people said it was good

up to date bands not old rubbish ones.

So if I take into account all of these suggestions then I will be able to produce a magazine that will attract my target audience to buy my magazine.

Defined Target Audience.

GENDER: It's clear from my questionnaire that both genders are interested in reading music magazines just the same so my target audience will be both boys and girls.

AGE: My magazine is all about new different music, so my target audience will be people that are interested in that; older teenagers and young adults, around the age 16-30. As I did question people of 10-15 but they just aren’t interested in reading music magazines, so I will have quite a mature audience

EDUCATION: My audience will be educated or currently in education having at least gone through school and completed their GCSE’s.

OCCUPATION: My readers will be either a students maybe working part time or in full time work.

AFFLUENCE: My readers would be lower and middle class and maybe upperclass, but because my magazine will be diverse in the style of music it presents upper class people may still be interested as well.

INTERESTS: People that read my magazine would be really into music and go to a lot of gigs and festivals and want to be up to date on music and be interested a lot of styles of music but especially indie/pop rock and folk music

LIFESTYLE: They would have a lot of work on their hands but still make time for some chilling time in the evenings or maybe on their breaks to read magazines, search the internet etc...

Questionnaire

I sent my questionnaire to people via email, facebook and handed some out to people close to my specific age range. I did this to ensure a wide variety of results which would help me to obtain a clear overall result. Here is the questionnaire:

Music Magazine Questionnaire

I have produced this questionnaire in order to gain an understanding of what types of music media products people of your age range are interested in, in order to create a music magazine that would best suit all your tastes. Please could you fill out the questionnaire below including as much detail as possible? Thank you.

(replace underscore with X where appropriate)

Which Gender are you? Female _ Male _ prefer not to say _

Which age group do you belong too? 10-15 _ 16-21 _ 22-29 _

What genre of music appeals to you the most?

(please mark all that apply)

_ Heavy rock

_ Soft rock

_ Acoustic

_ pop rock

_ Pop

_ R&b

_ R&b/soul

_ Opera

_ Folk

_ Electronical

_ Club

_ Classical

_ Alternative rock

_ Punk

_ jazz

Do you read music magazines?

Yes _ No _ Sometimes _

If yes/sometimes, whats your favourite magazine?

If no, why is this?

Are there any other music related media resources that you use/listen or visit?

Which of these is your favorite radio station?

_ Radio 1

_ Radio 2

_ Radio 4

_ Radio 5 live

_ Kiss

_ Heart

_ Red dragon

_ Classic fm

_ nation

_ other

How much would you be prepared to spend on a music magazine?

_ Under £3

_ £3-£4

_ £4+

If a new music magazine was produced what would make you want to read it?

I distributed this out to 25 girls and 25 boys and awaited results.

Plan Of Action

After deciding that making a music magazine was the route I was going to take I then had to decide what genre of music I would set my magazine around; after doing some research on magazine sales it became apparent that mainly rock/indie magazines succeed long term in the music magazine market.

Classic Rock 70,188 (66,632 / 67,399)

Kerrang! 52,272 (60,294 / 76,937)

Metal Hammer 50,269 (48,540 / 45,809)

Mixmag 30,159 (34,073 / 35,817)

Mojo 100,507 (106,367 / 106,218)

NME 48,459 (56,284 / 64,033)

Q 103,017 (113,174 / 131,330)

Rock Sound 20,011 (22,527 / 23,021)

Terrorizer 13,786 (14,952)

Uncut 87,069 (86,925 / 91,028)

Word 34,280 (33,775 / 33,217)

However, due to existing competition I feel that there is little room for just another standard rock magazine in the market; readers will not be interested in looking at another magazine if it was just be the same. It would be hard to get dedicated readers to stop buying their regular magazines and change to mine with no particular enticement.

I want to target my magazine at people between the age range of 16-24. I am going to design a questionnaire to give to a random sample of 50 people around that age. The questionare will allow me to get an idea of what my target audience wants to read about and what cover stories would be best suited to attract the readers; in turn this will then enable me to produce a music magazine that includes everything that my target audience would be interested in, in one package.

Questionnaire:

I will have to make sure that my questionnaire provides a degree of personal information about the people. Age and gender will be important information to collect to access which age group and gender to target the magazine towards. (i.e. If it's only boys that would be interested in my magazine then I will target my magazine to boys.)

I also need to know what genre of music my target audience are interested in as well, so that I can choose a successful genre. Asking the actual question 'do they read music magazines?' would be crucial because if no one ticks 'yes' then it wouldn't be a good idea to target my magazine at people that aren't even interested in reading music magazines. On the other hand asking why they don't would also be a good idea because they might not read any music magazines because at the moment they just aren't interesting enough to them.

Finding out where people of this age group look to find out music news would be good; whether they go online, read magazines or just watch music channels such as MTV. I would then be able to adapt my magazine to fit their general interests; i.e. if they go online then making a website for my magazine might become a viable option.

By obtaining a knowledge of which radio station they listen to would also be constructive. When I find this out I can listen to that radio station and make myself familiar to the style of this radio station; and add some of these ideas as features of my magazine.

I will directly ask the target audience what they would like to see in a new music magazine; and this will help to ensure I include content in my magazine that appeals to my audience.

Early thoughts

front cover analysis

After deciding to produce a music magazine for my media studies coursework, my first thoughts were to decide on how I was going to construct a product that would be distinct from all its competitors. So to begin my research I started looking at a variety of music magazines and their front covers and focussing on the different techniques used and analyzing what effect this has. In doing this I was then able to really look at certain ideas and conventions of the front covers that I could possibly improve and use for my own, in order to produce an equally as professional looking magazine but also making it stand out.

I began by looking at "Q" which stands for 'cue the music'. They describe themselves as being 'the UK's biggest music magazine' which includes music news, reviews and 'world exclusives with the most important bands on the planet.' This front cover is actually the winner of The Maggies: 2009 best cover winner. I like the simplicity in the design. It has little text, but what text is included is bold and instantly readable within a couple of seconds summing up what the magazine includes. This is a clever way of selling a magazine to the reader, especially for a new magazine needing to capture the attention of potential new subscribers. It is essential then that my magazine should likewise stand out and be clear as to what sort of magazine it is to attract the reader and for them to feel it is worth buying and having a read of. Additionally, I like the way that "Q" have used the top right third of the cover for their cover lines, instead of the standard, more usual, left third underneath the title. This is a subtle but also quite clever way of presenting their magazine. It's different from other magazines and you notice that as soon as you analyse it. A final point that I would like to raise about this cover is of course the main

image. Its simple background harmonises with the simple layout but the figures themselves are bold and eye catching. They have used a well known artist, Lilly Allen with some quite dangerous and wild big cats which is in itself quite risky but exciting for the reader to look at. It portrays a somewhat rebellious and quite "wild child" vibe whilst suggesting a quite sexual and attractiveness one. Also, the framing and composition of the picture is spectacular.

Here is the September 2009 issue of "Q". This striking image is yet again the main focus of the front cover. By using digital technology "Q" have manipulated the image to make it look like Keith Flint is stood there making the earth crack beneath him. This highlights their symbolic grooves and their unique style. It also makes the magazine itself look more exciting. The whole layout of the cover is eye catching and stands out. The photograph and the way the logo presented behind Keith and Maxim really gives the magazine more depth and creates further interest.

The second magazine that I decided to research was NME. It doesn't necessarily focus on rock music but features a majority of genres of music from R&B artists like N-Dubz to more punk rock artists like My Chemical Romance. It's more up to date on music than what can be found in the current charts, and also features events that are happening at this present time, such as the Brit Awards 2010.

This front cover although somewhat similar to Q in it's layout has some distinguishing features that set it apart from it's competitors.

Cover lines and mast head are placed around and behind the featured front man but the text has been placed between the focal point and the background hence creating a depth of field.

The featured cover man is set slightly outside what would appear to be the natural boundaries of the cover; his feet and the top of his head are out of the background enhancing the already established depth of field. The combination of the typeface, use of colour and positioning of the cover man is designed to instantly catch the eye of the reader. The colour scheme of the three magazines discussed thus far have similarities; the covers feature in mainly black and white contrasted with the striking red text and cover lines. Based on the above i believe that to stand out on the news stands one would have to have something that looked less the same and more edgy.

A good example of an alternative colour scheme and composition is Clash.

No red highlights, picture is put at an alternative angle and the logo of the magazine is done in an alternative typeface very similar to a graffiti tag. The picture has far more extensive use of the soft grey scale as opposed to hard black and white. The combination of the colour scheme and photo composition gives a 'surfer' feel as opposed to a more gothic, dark feel, which I believe would appeal to a wider market segment. A similarity between all the covers reviewed so far is the way that the pictures are set beyond the natural margins of the magazines.

An interesting feature of clash covers is how they use the artists branding and typeface to sell the magazine. Just under the mast head in bold is more information telling the reader which other bands are featured.

kerrangs cover is crowded in comparison to the previous covers reviewed. the cover includes more pictures and larger texts. This gives the impression to the reader that the magazine as a whole is packed with information and features. However this also leaves the impression that it has not been carefully edited. One of the most striking and effective features of Kerrang is their mast head.

I really like the mast head, it's a strong brand image, instantly recognisable and... you know its Kerrang.

I will have to decide carefully the design of my text and make sure that it fits in well with the style and name of my magazine. The free poster special is also a good way in selling the magazine especially when free is bold and clear, it makes the reader feel that they are getting something out of buying that magazine, so i will keep this in mind when deciding what features i will put on my front cover.

Although i am not a reader of Mojo i thought that it would be a good idea to analyse the magazine because of its success, it must be doing something right. Even though it focus' on old school bands the cover is very well put together. it normally uses old pictures taken from back in the day of very well known rock bands and uses retro colour schemes and texts, because of this the whole magazine then has a 70's 80's rock feel to it, which attracts its target market. I think that this is an important technique that should be used when creating a magazine and thats making sure that it is styled to attract the specific readership of the magazine. For example a girls pop magazine wouldn't have an olive green and orange colour scheme like this mojo magazine here.

After analysing these magazines i now have a better idea on how i am going to layout the front cover, what colour schemes to use, what images to use, what style of text for my mast head and also what to include in my cover lines in order for my magazine to look professional and also attract readers. This has now enabled me to take all the great features of these popular and successful magazines and inspire me for my magazine.