Music Magazine :Colour Schemes

Using the results i got from my survey, i picked the most popular answers and used them in a second survey, asking which of the 4 color schemes they preferred. 

The most popular answer was colour scheme was both 1 and 3. I will try with both of these in drafts, then choose which looks best then. 

   

Music Magazine Production Plan

Date: 7th January 2012
Locations: Areas around March,Cambridgeshire

Equipment: Nikon D3100

Models/Band:

Quit to Main Menu:
Emilio Robertson
Keiran Cole
Rory Anthony
Simon Rouse

One foot in the Grave:

Kieran Young

Others:

Luke Bradshaw
Stephen Marjoram

Props: Instruments

Costumes: Dark colours, along with colours of the colour scheme

Music Magazine: Draft Text

I needed to choose a name, and font style for the masthead of my magazine. I chose loud, as its a word related to music, and the bold font suited the word. I chose revolution, based on a popular music club that is local, with a tagline relating to music to show that its a music magazine.

I chose these two as possible drafts for my magazine. To see how it applied to my target audience, i asked them to vote on which they preferred. Revolution came out on top, and this is the one I will use for my Magazine.

After looking at the conventions of rock music magazines, I know I need, a bold, clear, in your face type font to fit this.

Example text one is very bold, and clear to read. This could easily be suitable for my magazine.

Example text two is terrible. It looks too  girly and isnt clear, so is no way suitable.

Example text three has the grunge feel, as well as being bold and clear to read, making it suitable.

Example text four is also clear and bold. And could be suitable.

Due to some of the magazines having a mixture of fonts, i think i will use a mixture of font types one three and four

Music Magazine: Research Into Institutions

Due to my Kerrang target audience research, i found out the institution that produces the magazine. I have researched them on the internet, and have found they produce many other magazines such as Closer,Empire,Q, and many other magazines. The company owns other media, such as radio stations and television stations related to some of the magazines.

I found this information about the sales for 'Kerrang'
Single copy subscription sales are 5,523 (5,062 in UK and republic of Ireland) - 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.
Total circulation sales are 52,272 (50,128 in UK and republic of Ireland) - 01-Jul-2008 to 31-Dec-2008.

Kerrang Target Audience Research

I researched into Kerrang, as it seems to be one of the main rock magazines. I managed to find this information including the target audience.


- The target audience is 16-25 year olds and specific towards rock music fans. However in recent years, the age of the audience has dropped and it is more 14-17 year olds who tend to buy and read it due to its featured bands being more poppy. (Elliot Minor, We Are The Ocean, 30 Seconds To Mars etc)


- The publishing company is Bauer Consumer Media (Emap sold 2/3 of the company to Bauer)


- Cover price is £2.20, which is cheap for the target audience (students, young people with low incomes etc..)


- Weekly music magazine of the rock genre.


- First Published June 6th 1981 with Geoff Barton as editor.


- Is famous (and criticised) for repeating the process of discarding bands when new musical trends become popular.


- The Kerrang! empire has it's own awards ceremony, TV music station, Radio station and website.


- The magazine gives out occassional free gifts to satisfy the viewer such as calenders and CD's, however posters are included in every issue.

Music Magazine Survey

Survey Results

I wanted to see what would draw people to a music magazine, what they would expect/prefer to see in the magazine. I created a survey, and asked people to fill it out.  24 people answered the questions.

The aim of this, was to be able to reach a large audience, and be able to collect a large amount of data quickly. By using multiple choice questions, i could put forward ideas i already had, and get people to choose ones they believe to be most suitable. I could find out my target audience and some key information i needed to include due to this. By using open questions, i could get peoples opinions, rather than making them choose from mine. This allowed them to give ideas that i may have not thought of, and show what the target audience is thinking.



The first question i asked was how old are you, as a multiple choice question. This was so i could establish something about the target audience. the most popular answer was 16-20, with 17 results. This will be the age range
I will target with my magazine.

Next i asked if they were male or female, 18 were male, and 6 were female. Though i want to
create a magazine for both genders, this does tell me that most of my answers will be more
appealing to males than females.

I next asked them what music genre they listened to most, giving them options. The top 3
results were rock with 17, metal with 16, and alternative, dubstep and pop punk with 9. I am
going to focus on a rock/ pop punk magazine, as this as a genre i know more about, and also
with rock being the top voted, it is appealing to my target audience.

The next question I asked was if they read music magazines, and if yes, what attracts them to
music magazines as an open question. 6 said no, but others said they were interested in magazines for bands they like, feature articles, free gifts and posters. these are all points to consider when constructing
my magazine.

I asked how much people would be willing to pay for a music magazine as a closed question. 14 said that they would
pay from £2.1 to £3, and this was the most popular answer.

Next i asked what colours people would like to see on a magazine, making it an open question
so that i could get a variety of results. Most suggestions included black and red, and alot of dark
colours. I will consider this when it comes to planning my magazine.

I asked what size font they would like most on a magazine,as a closed question, and medium was the most popular with 18 votes.

I asked what music related image would draw them to a magazine ,as a closed question, as this needs to be considered when taking the photo for my main image . The most popular was an all male band.This should be considered when it comes to casting.

And lastly i asked how many images would they like to see on the front cover,as an open question. The most popular suggestion was a main image, with two or three smaller images.
Im going to use the results, and take them into consideration when it comes to planning and layout. I will take a second survey on which layout they prefer.

Music Magazine Research: Conventions

Looking at the rock magazines as a whole, a few conventions stick out which are repeated through most, if not all of them.

Typography

All of them use very bold, in your face fonts, which connote the idea of rock music. This seems to be a must in rock magazines, which is something I will consider and most likely include in my magazine.

Language


Like the typography, the language used is very 'in your face' using aggressive, swearing words, and being demanding. Again this is something i need to consider and possibly include in my magazine.

Colour

The colours red, black and white, were used very commonly in the magazines. These are usually associated with, and are used to represent rock music.

Mise-en-scene


The look and casting of the people in the images seemed very important for the cover. Men where shown with long, if not dark hair.  They were shown in the expected colours of black, red, and white, with few variations.