Target audience

· Female and Male

·         16-19

·         Lively

·         Very sociable

·         Shop at Topshop and Topman

·         Buys 2 music magazines each month

·         Buys albums and singles

·         Very into new music

·         Interested in vintage styles

·         Interested in acoustic music

I will make my magazine suitable for 16-19 year olds. I have picked this age group as I will know more about them because I am that age. It also means it will be easy for me to get feedback, hold focus groups and give out questionnaires because all of the people in my 6 form fit in with this group.  I will make my magazine young but also mature. I will do this by using colourful images and featuring artists, like Ed Sheeran ,that are popular with young people.  This is because acoustic music is normally listened to by people at parties or people who are getting together to socialize. This is something that older teenagers tend to do more than 13 or 14 years might do, so the magazine will appeal much more to the 16- 19 age group.   I have also got lots of style and design ideas from reading NME. This is a magazine that is mostly read by 16 – 25 year old so it means the look of my product will instantly appeal to them more. I wanted to aim my magazine at both men and woman because it will widen my target audience and make my chance of success greater. I also go to a mixed six form so I can get feedback from both boys and girls.

 I imagine that my average reader is very fun and lively so I’ll make the magazine very chatty and sociable so the readers can feel like they are involved with the magazine.  I will also do this by including competitions and links to the magazine’s website,  twitter page and facebook page. I’ll advertises  shops like Topman and Topshop and new albums and singles because I imagine that my typical reader will be fashionable and interested in new things. Because of this my magazine will come out weekly so it will seem up to date, I will also make sure that the pictures include people in casual but fashionable clothes.

I will also try and make my magazine seem quite light hearted so I will use jokey and chatty language. I will also try and write jokey attention grabbing headlines so the magazine doesn’t seem too boring or serious. 

Synergy

Synergy means “working together” in Media synergy is the way different magazines try and make a link with different products and pages. It is like branding as certain colours or images can be used to remind us of a certain magazine and make us realise they work together and are part of the same thing.

I have looked at NME and I have realised they use synergy as the logo is used on both the cover and contents page. This keeps reminding the audience of what they are reading.  They also use the red, white and black colour scheme on also every page. These colours are powerful as they are gender neutral and will appeal to a big group of people.

I decided not to use synergy because I think it seems cheesy, I want  every page of my magazine to seem to  like a new experience so people keep being interest and keep wanting to buy the magazine to see what new style and design ideas we have.   The only bit of synergy I decided to use was including the same shade of light blue on my cover and contents page. This blue is used in the writing of my title on the cover  it is also used twice on my contents page. I felt this was a good way of reminding people what they are reading without making the branding seem over the top. 

Cover plan's for magazine

Questionnaire number 2

1.        I’ve looked at 3 different brands which would you most like my magazine to be like?

NME
Top of the pops
Vibe

2.       What colours would you prefer my magazine to be?

Bright colours
Dark colours
Earthy colours

3.       What would you prefer the name of the magazine to be?

Lego House
Rebel
Our Time

4.       What type of artists would you like to be seen in my magazine?

Acoustic
Rock
Rap
Pop
R&B

5.       Do you want to hear about recent festivals and get and insights from pictures?

Yes
No

  Would you prefer to have live or posed pictures of celebrities in my magazine?

Posed
Live
Both

8.       How many images would you like in my magazine also which photo do you prefer as the main image on the front cover?

4-6
7-12
13-18

9.       What genre of music would you like this magazine to be?

Folk

Pop

Rock

10.   How much would you be willing to pay for this music magazine?

£2.99

£3.99

£4.99

Pitch

For my music magazine I plan to make an acoustic style magazine because I enjoy this type of music and I think this type of music is big at the moment which will make my magazine more popular and will sell more.  I will also be able to research this genre of music as bands like Ed Sheeran are in the media a lot at the moment. I think I have the potential to appeal to a very big group of people as both men and woman seem to enjoy acoustic music equally. I can also appeal to a wide range of ages  as this type of music does not seem too kiddy or old. I think a 27 year can enjoy Ed Sheeran as much as a 18 year old. This means some people might still want to buy and read my magazine even if they are not in my specific target audience of 16 to 19 year olds.

Also these songs are easy to cover so it would be nice to watch different covers of acoustic songs by different people because they have different styles. If I was to really create this magazine as a business I would link it with an online website and I would regularly update the website, this would make my brand seem exciting and fashionable because we would seem like we are up to date with everything. This would make my print magazine and the magazine website more popular and interactive.

 My target audience is older teenagers (16 to 19). My readers will be interested in this music because this music relates a lot to teenagers. I also asked around school to see if my classmates where enjoying this type of music right now and they agreed. I plan to speak to my class mates a lot through this project because their feedback and opinions will help me check that my ideas are good. They can also tell me what they like and that might give me new ideas.

I am inspired by the music magazine NME because they don’t cover much mainstream music NME is a lot more indie and my magazine is acoustic. These are different but I could not find an existing magazine on the market that is just about acoustic music.  I think this will make my magazine more popular as it will stand out and it is my USP. I researched Ed Sheeran  on Wikipedia and his music is described as nu folk. When I have looked at folk magazines they have been aimed at older people and have cover traditional older folk music. This wouldn’t appeal to my target audience but NME would, this is why NME has inspired most of my ideas.

My magazine has many features in it such as a live section and an interview with Mumford and sons about when they won a Brit award and how they are getting on. We also have an article that 17 year old teenager girl wrote for us on when she went to see Ed Sheeran live. I think this is a good selling point because the target audience can relate to a 17 year old writer more. I would also like to give my audience the chance to write in the magazine as well so I would run a competition were people could write about concerts they had seen.

 We also have silly articles like acoustic pie off. We get all our acoustic singers to see how many pies they can eat without being sick, that is a two page article. I would include this because it seems funny and light hearted, silly things appeal to teenagers. This will also give celebrities the chance to appeal more normal, this will help increase their popularity as it will show fans that they are not always posing.  We also have Karaoke hall of shame we find the worst covers of songs and list them up from that week/month. This is another example of a feature that will make my magazine seem fun and lively.

I’d like to launch my brand by festivals because a lot of older teenagers male and female go to a lot of festivals in the summer. I would also like to post my magazine on billboards and on its website because most teenagers see billboards everyday and they use the internet nearly everyday it also makes it more interactive.

Brand study

 Brand Study

Q magazine does most genres. I think this magazine sticks to more credible music. I don’t really think the magazine represents just one genre. I think because so many young people have such different tastes in music and don’t just stick to one genre, I think they are trying to create a bigger range because most young audiences are interested in all types and genres of music. They do this and show this by putting different artists on the front of their magazines each time they come out but they always seem to be from a different genre from the one before that. Some issues they do they put older artists on the cover this could also try and get the older generation involved.

The audience for this magazine is a 19 to 30 audience because this magazine does more vintage covers and more vintage articles. So artists like the Beatles, Rolling Stones. Also because it has a huge range of different music and older tend to normally listen to different types of music. This magazine also comes out monthly so the audience will be able to buy this and have more time on their hands to flick threw and read there articles.

I think the language is for an older audience, they don’t use slang or text language. They use a swear word on this cover ‘bloody’ this could show that it is aimed for older audience because of the swearing. I also think the language is quite straight forward which will make it easier for the older audience to follow because they might not have all the time in the world to read things that they need to pay more and more attention to, the text is also quite big and bold so this also takes time off their hands and makes it much more easier to read.

The image on the magazine is of a popular icon it is also a large image she is also looking at us (the audience) I think this gives us a friendly vibe from her and also a chatty vibe it feels like she wants to interact with us. They have features such as track of the day and the Q awards.

This magazine does follow conventions such as a main image is of a famous artist it also had its masthead at the top of the page in the left hand corner. The masthead always starts in the left hand corner because we read left to right. This magazine also has all the anchorage and they are in different colours so they all stand out enough for people to read.

This brand inspired my own thinking to my magazine because of how it’s different to its original style. My magazine is different from other magazines, it still has all the main conventions it’s just different in the way of its front cover image. My plan was to always have the record as my front cover images because I saw a NME cover and this inspired me to do the same but make it my own.

Lana del rey is on the cover and she isn’t an artist that hasn’t come from the xfactor or the voice she was discovered online such as on YouTube. They have also put on the top of this magazine ‘140 songs you must download now’ this can show that this magazine is quite knowable about music they have also said ’26 festivals that will blow your mind’ this also shows that they must know a lot about festivals too and they maybe the artists from there magazine turn up there and also maybe the producers from this magazine.

Evaluation for my music magazine