Goodbye!

I have now finished my music magazine! and everything else that we had to do a long the way, and I also finished within deadline :)

Audience feedback

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The conventions of a music magazine are: masthead, background picture, cover lines, pictures and captions, price, website and cover stories. My music magazine has all of these things, but I think the black and white image I have used on my front cover challenges the conventions of a real media product, I think this because usually magazines would use bright and colourful pictures in order to draw people in and make people buy their magazine. Although I have done this I still think it would stand out on the shelf next to other magazines because it really makes the yellow stand out against the black and white brick wall. The key things that should be included on a contents page are page numbers, stories, pictures that relate to stories, editors note and a masthead.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is mainly aimed at teenagers of young adults that are into indie and rock music. By using the colours I have used I think it gives the viewer an idea of the genre straight away, as you wouldn’t look at it and think it was an electro or pop magazine. The acoustic guitar on the front cover also helps with the genre, as it wouldn’t be a heavy metal magazine because they would use electric and bass guitars. The picture on the double page spread is very indie, it looks very relaxed and calm and this instantly shows the viewer that it is about a chilled out artist and tells them if that’s the kind of thing they would be interested in reading. Relying on audience feedback no-one said that they would prefer a coloured front cover picture, so this is another reason I think that the black and white image works well.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think Bauer would publish and distribute my magazine, as it is a similar genre to Q and Kerrang! Also the front cover is based on the style of Q and Kerrang, as the background image is simple but then the cover lines or bold and bright like Kerrang. I would expect Audio Magazine to be sold in the obvious music stores, such as HMV but would also expect to see it in large new agents as it would appeal to quite a lot of music magazine readers.

I think my magazine would give Bauer a middle type of magazine between Q and Kerrang, and I think a lot of people that read these magazines would be interested in reading Audio magazine because it has qualities of both Q and Kerrang.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think my magazine would be aimed at teenagers or young adults that are involved in the indie genre of music. I don’t think it would have a gender as people have different preferences to their music tastes but I think its aimed mainly at the male audience due to the cover and double page spread images. In my treatment sheet I mentioned that the majority of people buying the magazine would be people who attend festivals and I think that this is still the case because of the type of articles that are included.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

I think that as it is nearing the summer the festival articles will be the ones that sell this magazine, but also there are interviews and competitions advertised on the front cover which would draw people in. I think that my magazine is busy but not over whelming, as there is only one image on the cover instead of having a main one and lots of little ones relating to the cover lines. I think the black and white picture really make the yellow mast head and cover lines stand out and generally makes the magazine look eye catching and in your face without being too overwhelming and busy. My audience feedback showed that people preferred the yellow on black and white rather than the red; I think this is because the red makes the magazine look generally darker.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used Photoshop to do all of my pages and it has increased my knowledge on using layers as there are a lot of layers included in all of the pages. I edited all of my pictures using Photoshop and took all of my photos using a digital camera.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think that music magazine is a big improvement compared to my student magazine; I have learnt to put text on the magazine without boxes around it. I used fonts from dafont.com and I made sure they were bold enough to stand out against the black and white background without boxes, as I think that my student magazine looks unprofessional because of this. On my music magazine I have also overlaid my title so that the background image was behind the mast head, whereas on my student magazine my masthead was just on a plain white background. I think the reason my music magazine is so much better than my student magazine because I used Photoshop rather than publisher to create it.

Final Pages

What do you think?

I have added a masthead, made the editors note text smaller and added a picture of the editor and a signature, changed the position of "best Equipment List" any more changes?

I have added an editors note, following some opinions on my first draft, which one do you prefer?

What do you think of my contents page?

Edits

These are some pictures that i have edited for my contents page.

What do you think of this version of my double page spread?

Contents page without pictures

This is the layout for my contents page, obviously there arent any pictures at the moment, i was just wondering if you thought i should do anything else to the layout?

This is an option for a double page spread, just wanted to know if you thought there were any changes I needed to make?

Red or Yellow?

First design

Layout Designs

Please choose which is your favourite out of the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Front cover photos

This is going to be the front cover for Audio Magazine!
Which background does everyone prefer?

Circulation figures

I got these results from http://dezji.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/uk-music-magazine-circulation-figures-to-dec-2008/

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)

These results show that the most popular magazine in this particular year was a classic  rock magazine, with Kerrang! coming a close second. Kerrang! being high in sales doesn't surprise me, but a classic rock magazine does, this is because Kerrang! includes many genres of music whereas a classic rock magazine would only contain classic rock. I think this surprising result could be due to older people buying a classic rock magazine as well as teenagers giving it a much wider audience unlike Kerrang! which  is a more teenage based magazine.

Treatment Sheet

The Magazine: Audio

Target Readership: My magazine will be aimed at teenagers that are probably in college, I think it would mostly be aimed at festival goers as there will be various information including upcoming festivals. My magazine would be aimed at the middle class, as they would have to be able to afford a frequent magazine, they would also have to be able to afford festival tickets and gig tickets. They will most likely be full time education and their parents will provide the money for the magazine. The people that will buy this magazine will possible be in a band or involved in music in some way.

Form and Style: Audio is an A4 Colour magazine, but it may include black and white images at some point. It contains festival reviews and information, interviews with famous or upcoming bands. Cover models with link to the information inside each magazine, they will probably be in the indie style as the magazines main genre will be indie, and they will mostly be popular bands that people are automatically drawn to. There will be a red and black colour scheme on the front cover and this will make it stand out but also look simple and expensive at the same time. On the strap line competitions will be advertised in order to draw people in. The magazine will sell at £2.50 and will be a monthly magazine, this will make it affordable.

Themes and Typical features: There will be regular features, such as question pages, and email pages and competitions. Although these will feature in every issue they will obviously vary depending on who writes in to the magazine. The language used will be music related as most readers will be involved and up to date with music.

Potential Advertisers: The main type of advertisers will be music related or things the readers would find interesting. There will be adverts about new CD’s and some examples of advertisers would include HMV, Tesco and companies that sell band merchandise

Editorial Team: The editorial team for Audio magazine will be made up of professional and experienced writers. There will be interrogating interviewers in order to give the reader something interesting to read. Readers of the magazine will also will also be asked to contribute every month in the form of emails, texts and letters giving opinions, statements and questions.

This front cover is very busy. The Masthead is being covered by the picture, this shows that the magazine is well known and popular. the colour that have been used at red, green and yellow and these are because they are the rastafarian colours and the person on the front cover is bob marley, this shows a clear and easy to understand link. although the cover is very busy, the use of the white background helps to balance out the cover, this is also emphasised by the use of a black and white image of the famous celebrity. They have used a CD on the front cover and this is a way of clearly showing what will be included in the magazine, this is also in the rastafarian colour scheme.

Kerrang

This contents page is very busy, although there is a colour scheme, it still appears to be very over whelming. The titles are made to stand out by them being yellow and black. At the top of the page there is a big block of text, which would probably deter the reader from reading it. There are 6 pictures and the biggest one, being the biggest article. The page numbers are bigger than the text, emphasising the biggest and most important articles. Although this contents page appears overwhelming it also suggests that there is alot of stuff in the magazine therefore worth your money.

Title Designs

Questionnaire

Male or female?
Age?

Would you be interested in information on band nights?

Would you like to read about upcoming bands and celebrity news?

Would you like to be interested in festival reviews and dates?

Would you like to read CD reviews?

How often would you like to receive a music magazine?

How much would you be willing to pay?

Would you actually be interested in buying a music magazine?

What genre of music magazine would you prefer?

Please vote on my poll

What should I call my music magazine?
	Wireless
	Transmission
	Echo
	Audio
	Dynamite
pollcode.com free polls

Vibe Magazine, Front cover:

The title of the magazine is partially hidden automatically giving you the impression that its quite a famous and well known magazine. The Mast head is very big and very simple, using a bold black font and a simple yet msuci base name. the background is quite busy but they have emphasised the main aspect on the page which is the celebrity in this case 'Usher'. they have emphasised this person by making part of him overlap the title because most people would look at the title before anything else and when you see the title you see Ushers face at the same time. Yellow text has been used and this is so that it stands out on the busy background which has a lot of different colours in it.
Not many coverlines have been used and i think this is to tone down how busy the background picture is. 

The magazine isn't glossy but they have used a form of paper that has a matte effect and in my opinion this makes it look expensive and classy. 

textual analysis

Q magazine:

they're title 'Q' is placed in a big red box, the white font makes it stand out and the actual size of the masthead is overly large therefore catches your eye.  The background is very simple with a grey gradient this is to make sure you look straight to the title and then to look at the picture, which is off somebody iconic. The name of the person on the cover is in a big font and covers the whole width of the cover this illustrates that it is one of the main articles of the magazine.

There arent many coverlines but they are in a big a dn bold black font that stands out on the light grey background. the coverlines that are included are about big bands and big stories, in order to make you want to buy it.

the front cover is very effective the fact they have used panthers it makes it quite a shocking front cover making you stop to look at it, and the fact that there is a topless celebrity on the front emphasises this further.

There is a colour scheme, using only black, white, blue and red making it look very sophisistacted and simple therefore making it look expensive and desirable.

Q contents page:

Although there is a lot of information on the contents page it still has the look of simplicity and this is due to there not being many colour, with a basic colour scheme black, white and red. I think that this is effective because it doesnt overwhelm  you with lots of pictures and lots of busy information. This layout would make people want to read it because its laid out in a basic and simple way, with large captions and then a bit more information underneath making it clear. The use of a large picture instead of lots of small ones makes it look classy because it is a popular and famous band, and this also adds the the effect of simplicity

Q double page:

the double page spread of q magazine, follows suit of the front cover and contents page, with limited colours and a single big picture. The picture takes up the most of the double page spread and then the writing is quite crammed into a small section at the side. the picture that is shown is on a very basic background adding to the simple effect. although this magazine isnt in your face, it is still eye catching in the way that you actually want to read it. The writing is all in one column making it easy to read because it isnt all over the pages in a random order. Usually a big block of text would look unappealing but in this case it appears to be something that is easy and quick to read.

Magazine Comparison

Action Plan

I have been asked to create a front cover, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine, using my own photographs and own information. Here is the action plan I will follow in order to do this:


3/1/11-Action Plan and Brief
           Magazine Comparison

10/1/11 and 17/1/11-Textual Analysis (3 Front covers, 2  contents pages, 1 double page spread)

24/1/11-Internet  research on readership figures
             Treatment sheet

31/1/11-photo shoot

7/2/11 and 14/2/11- drafting

21/2/11-final pages and feedback

28/2/11 and 7/3/11- evaluation