Front Cover (Draft) for my Music Magazine

This is the draft version of my front cover for my magazine Amped Up!. Once I have taken my own pictures, they will replace the ones I have used here. I chose blue as the colour for my magazine as it reflects the mood of it- laid back and relaxed. The contrast of the white against the 'darker' background however; pops; and adds a bit of 'fun' to the cover itself. As I mentioned in my 'magazine/publication plan' post, I wanted to include a section on the instruments itself (as well as the artists), and that's the reasoning behind the 'best electric guitars on the market' article. As time goes on improvements will be made to this (i.e. looking more professional etc.), but for now- this is what I've done.

What have I done in Media Studies this week?

In Media Studies this week we have focused solely on Photoshop and InDesign. For the two weeks previous to this we have collected data concerning the media field of... music magazines. We have formulated our ideas for what our magazine is going to look like, and details such as, "where will it be distributed?" And "How much will this magazine cost" etc. As well has that we have also been planning the pictures for our magazine. Our other concerns have been- who, where, how and why? Who is going to be in our magazine, what models will I use? What age will 'said' models be? (in conjunction with the magazines specific target audience). Where will I shoot? And what location is best for my magazine? How will the pictures be taken and what kind of shot type will I use? Bird's eye view, mid-shot? Close-up? Full body shot? And lastly, why? Why am I choosing to position them in that way? What would this represent/symbolise? All these things are points that I've thought about whilst planning the pictures I've wanted to take for my magazine. Before the 'picture taking' itself we've practiced on Photoshop and InDesign, formulating a first draft for the music magazine (either cover or contents page). It's taken a bit of getting used to, and slowly but surely, it'll get there.

My Questionnaire Analysis

This is the PowerPoint presentation containing the analysis of the Music Magazine Questionnaire that I created, here are the results:

Questionnaire analysis from katieduttonmedia

Pictures I'm planning to take for the Music Magazine

For the cover shot, I am going to take a picture of my 'model(s)' against a white background. I believe this will look professional, and will not take too much attention away from the headline, tag lines, and the text relating to the article. As it is a double page spread (cover and contents page), other pictures will be needed. To add more interest to the contents I ideally want to take pictures of the 'model(s)' in a location aside from the white back drop. The poses I want my models to be in is standing, doing the typical "rock" poses. To add some drama to the shot, maybe some hair flips would be appropriate for the 'vibe' I'm going for, as it is fun and energetic. As props are concerned, I would like to get hold of some real electric guitars, and have my model(s) use them, as I believe it will add authenticity to the magazine if I feature instruments used by people in bands themselves on the front cover.

Double Page Spread Essay

‘Q Magazine’ and ‘We Heart Pop’ are two opposite magazines, in terms of the target audience. ‘We Heart Pop’ is targeted more towards tweens and people interested in pop/chart music, whereas Q Magazine is aimed towards people who enjoy the rock n’ roll type music and are (generally) of an older age. Taking this into account the language used in both differs, with Q magazine taking a more serious tone, you could say this is due down to the target audience.

The language used in the two different magazines vary, this is all dependent on the age of the readers. In Q Magazine the interviewing style is more ‘chatty’ and ‘relaxed’, almost like a conversion between the interviewer and the interviewee’s. The subject material in the interview is mainly based around alcohol and other controversial issues, which you could say links to the chatty approach to the interview itself. The language in the interview also links with the article title, with Q Magazine opting for ‘A Round with Biffy Clyro’. The word ‘round’ could link to the subject of alcohol throughout the interview, with the saying ‘a round of drinks’ often being used when describing alcohol. In ‘We Heart Pop’ the lexis is more specific. In order to understand the language, you need to know the relevant information associated with the genre. They also pulled quotes from the article itself such as “People are so judgemental” and “There was nothing creepy about Harry and Caroline at all”. This would only ever appeal to people who like the genre, and know the ins and outs of the pop culture, which makes ‘We Heart Pop’ more specific in terms of language.

In ‘Q’ and ‘We Heart Pop’ use pictures in different ways. Both use posed pictures, but ‘We Heart Pop’ uses more conventional model pictures whereas ‘Q’ uses more controversial and “out there” pictures. This is reflective of the target audience, but also the magazines ‘mood’ as a whole. The pictures also link in with the article; as the band pictured (Biffy Clyro) are drinking and displaying massive amounts of alcohol, which relates to subject matter of the interview. In ‘We Heart Pop’ the pictures don’t directly relate to the article, but add to it. I believe that this magazine only uses the pictures for effect rather than for relevance.

In conclusion, I have looked at the linguistic and visual conventions of both magazines and decided that I want the pictures (that I will use in my magazine) to be relevant to the article in some way. I am going to take more inspiration from the picture in ‘Q’ magazine rather than ‘We Heart Pop’, as I think it would be more fitting in my Rock/Alternative style magazine. And linguistically I want it to be, again, like ‘Q’. The chatty style of the interview itself is more relatable in my opinion, which is one of the characteristics that I want to uphold throughout my magazine.

Publication Plan

Name of magazine: Amped Up.

Font of name: This is the kind of font I want to use for the headline. 

Positioning statement: "For the rocker in you..."

The frequency of the publication will be every fortnight (2 weeks). I believe this is the perfect time between issues. It won't over whelm the reader, making them want to buy a new copy every week, but it isn't too long a period of time. This would prevent the reader getting bored waiting for the next issue to be published.

The price for my magazine will be £2.99. This is neither too expensive, nor too cheap. And for a regular reader (and purchaser) of the magazine, it would equate to just over £5 a month if you were to buy both issues monthly. 

I believe it should be distributed widely around shops/supermarkets/newsagents. I want it to be readily available to people who are interested. I also think a good place to advertise the magazine would be in retail chains who use the rock/alternative style of music through speakers in their stores. This would invite a new audience into looking at the magazine, as it might bring in casual shoppers who weren't thinking of buying the magazine initially- but like the background music that was playing.

The rationale behind it is that it is a fun magazine; aimed for those who like listening to rock/alternative styles of music, and who like to be informed on the latest tours and "things" going on in the rock/alternative music scene. I also think, that in every issue, there should be an extra 'gift' which would be guitar chords (or something of that nature) to a popular song of that genre. Not only would it be of interest to people who play instruments themselves, but it may be of interest to those who want to take up playing an instrument (that would be used in a rock band). As it would be released with every issue it would motivate people to try and learn a new song every fortnight- developing on their musical skills.

The style of the magazine will be fun and eye catching, but also professional looking. As my target audience ranges from the ages of 15-30, it would cater to the younger and the older part of my age bracket. 

Regular content would be that of the extra gift (that was mentioned in the rationale part of the publication plan), section (which will be regularly updated) on tour dates of relevant bands. 

Feature content of my issue will mainly consist of the pictures of the band/artist that will be referred to later in the magazine. 

I believe it is important to keep the font consistent throughout the magazine, as (at least to me), it looks more professional. 

Preliminary Task - Picture and Analysis

This was my sixth form magazine cover titled 'The Sixth Form Enquirer'. This is the first time I have ever used the Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop programme to produce anything like this (a magazine cover). I found it fairly straightforward to edit the photographs I had taken on Photoshop, mainly due down to the geometrical shapes of the objects/items that I ended up using on the cover itself. One of the pictures I found hardest to edit was the photograph of the student, as her hair needed to be intricately worked on, and this proved tricky and fiddly, but once I'd got the grasp of this task it progressively became easier to edit and I could tell I was becoming more efficient in terms of Photoshop editing pictures. The one thing concerning editing photographs that I could have done better is to concentrate on the outlines of the various pictures, as it doesn't look as proffesional as it could be capable of being because of the rough outline work. When stepping back from the editing itself and critically evaluating the preliminary task it is clear to me that I need to control my space management, as there is a lot of blank space visable and the font isn't very big.

Essay for Contents Pages.

Essay on the contents pages

Although these 4 different contents pages; are from different magazines; and are targeting different people as a whole- they all hold the conventions of a typical music magazine. In order to draw in the attention of a perspective reader the contents page needs to be attention grabbing, with attention grabbing article titles, to make someone want know the rest of “the story”, and in turn this will (hopefully) result in the purchase of the magazine (which is the main aim).

            One of the things that the contents pages have in common is the headlines are all bold and in capital letters. This is one of the typical conventions of a contents page, to capture the attention of someone who is going to buy the magazine. Also the headlines are either in black, white or grey which contrasts against the background tremendously- and as the purpose of a contents page is to inform, the bold titles are needed to do so.

            The use of high quality and interesting pictures is also another technique used to capture the attention of someone wanting to read more into the magazine. The layout of these pictures is another similarity that all pages share. There is always one big (main) picture situated in the middle of the page, with smaller ones either side- directly relating to the article title beside it. The use of these pictures is to add another dimension to the contents page itself, and also to be a visual representation of the article.

            Another way in which these contents pages can be compared is the way in which all of them use vague tag lines to give a taster into a specific article. This is a technique that is widely used to engage the reader; without giving too much away, and if that interests them enough- it might be a reason for them to buy the magazine. Such examples include “Someone’s gonna have to go to the hospital” (in NME magazine) and “It’s gone better than anybody ever expected- even me.” (Q magazine), these ambiguous taglines suggest a little to the reader, but not too much- leaving them with a little bit of mystery behind each article.  

            In conclusion, each of these contents pages holds certain conventions, to inform and persuade the reader in equal measures. The use of article headlines, tag lines and attention grabbing pictures throughout the contents page itself are the main similarities that all these magazines share; regardless of the target audience-whether it be for 12 year olds or even 70 year olds. 

Questionnaire for my Music Magazine

This is the questionnaire that I created: 

I wanted to get the opinions of music in general from other people, to aid me in creating the perfect magazine for my target audience. Firstly, I needed to see whether my target audience enjoyed the rock/alternative music style. Out of the 25 people I gave the questionnaire to, 18 people preferred 'Rock/Alternative' to 'R&B/Hip hop', and out of those 18, 2 people were aged 21 and over- which leads me to conclude that the 'Rock/Alternative' style of music is popular among a wide range of ages. On Question 3 which states 'Least favourite band/artist', all of the people who answered 'Rock/Alternative' on Question 1, tended to write an artist who fit more into the 'R&B/ Hip hop' category, and people who swayed more to the R&B genre tended to write a rock band/artist for their least favourite. This shows that there isn't many people who like both polar opposite genres, and that a 'Rock/Alternative' style magazine would certainly not appeal to those who prefer pop/chart music as a whole.

Main Magazine Publishers

These are the main magazine publishers that I will be researching

-Bauer Media
-National Magazine Company
-Future Publishing
-IPC Media
-Conde Nast
-BBC Worldwide

Bauer Media is 'multinational media company', with its HQ based in Hamburg, Germany. They publish well-known magazines such as FHM, Kerrang, Q and others. Bauer Media is Europe's largest privately owned publishing group and they offer over 300 magazines to 15 countries within Europe. Their ethos, which is posted on their website; states- "We connect people and communities with compelling and quality content, whenever, wherever and however they want."

National Magazine Company was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hearst. This magazine company takes an interest in, magazine, newspaper and business publishing. They publish these consumer magazines throughout the UK 

All About Soap, Best, Company, Cosmopolitan, Country Living, ELLE, ELLE Decoration, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, House Beautiful, Inside Soap, Prima, Red, Real People, Reveal and Zest. 

Future Publishing- this magazine publisher mainly focuses on Technology, Entertainment & Video Games, Sport & Auto, Music and Creative genres of magazines. Future attracts over 38 million monthly visitors to their digital properties website. Their most successful products (magazines) include:

TechRadar (the UK’s number one consumer technology website), T3, Total Film, BikeRadar, MusicRadar, Classic Rock, GamesRadar, Digital Camera, Mollie Makes and Official Xbox Magazine.

IPC Media- has over 60 media brands over many social media platforms. IPC media engage with over 26 million UK adults and IPC's media website reaches 25 million users from across the globe every month.

Conde Nast- was founded in 1909, and its HQ is based in New York City. Conde Nast publish magazines, mainly focusing that of fashion. A few examples include- Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Glamour and more.

BBC Worldwide- is a self-funded media publishing company. Their sole purpose is to help maximise profits on behalf of the BBC. These are BBC Worldwide's leading global brands: Lonely Planet, Top Gear, Dancing with the Stars, Doctor Who and BBC Earth.