Recipe to success of a music magazine

• 100g - Target Audience
• Sprinkle of Free Gifts
• Splash(s) of Advertisement
• 20g - Interviews
• Dollop of Charts
• 50g - Latest
• 25g - Artists
• A Table Spoon of Gig Dates (Free Range)
• 10g - Readers Comments

Right, now for the cooking ... Firstly, add the 20g of interviews to the 25g of artist and mix thouroughly untill soft. Slowly pour the advertisment in until the mixture turns green, as soon you see this, throw in the dollop of charts where you should then feel the mixture becoming thicker. Just before you add the readers comments make sure to add the 50g of latest music and not forgetting the table spoon of gig dates. Now most importantly add the 100g of target audience and make sure to mix thouroughly throughout the mixture. Then bake in the oven at 165 degrees for 15 minutes, once out, let it cool for 5 minutes. Laslty, sprinkle the free gift on it and serve for other to enjoy ...

SKI TRIP ...

Sorry about the late blogging, i have been away in Italy for for just over a week. But dont worry i still managed to work on some media. Over the holiday i attempted to replicate a famous music magazine. I chose to replicate a special commemorance issue for Micheal Jackson. Although its not perfect, a lot of work went into it. I felt it really tested my image editing skills and in doing so i feel more confident with the editing program fireworks which im sure will improve my final magazine.

My Version

Original Copy

My Final Pre-Lim Front Cover

Right, i know its a bit late but this has been the only time i have been able to get hold of my final front cover from my pre-lim task and scan it into the computer. This is my outcome from four different front cover choices. It follows a Christmas theme by the way, showing how long it took me to get hold of it.

What you can see above is the result of me carrying out a task of creating a mock up of a magazine enabling me to get an understanding into typical layout and features of a music magazine. I chose the name of my magazine to be 'Acoustic Love' as i am interested in the genre of acoustic music. I used the colour scheme of brown and green as this are natural, earthy colours which suggests that the audience and artist within it are very down to earth and for the future. The mast head 'acoustic love' clearly shows the genre of the magazine and the text style is very curvy and contains peice signs within it again suggesting that the audience are down to earth. Above this I have included a strap line 'The worlds best original acoustic magazine' next to this the graphic features of stars have been used. This adds interest to the magazine and also stars represent the high status in which the magazine has, inter textual link with Hollywood. The colour gold has been used throughout the front cover as it shows how precious the magazine is to the audience, relating to the rare stone, gold. Under the masterhead to the right you can see a stamp of approval, this gives the reader the assurance of the quality of the magazine. One of the cover lines in which i included within this front cover uses the word 'Exclusive' this suggests that this information can not be found anywhere else so it is as though the reader are the only ones to know, like a secret the readers feel special. My main image was of a iconic music artist Newton Faulkner, so fans of the artist as well as the magazine will be drawn into the magazine, maximising the potential buyers. He is positioned in the centre of the page, with a very relaxed body language suggesting how he feels comfortable sharing his information with the magazine, so audience feels like they get a greater insight into the artist. Also, a quote has been used, this is like the artist is talking directly to the readers, so more personal and interactive. Within some of my cover lines i have used an ellipses, this draws the reader further into the magazine in order to find out more into the subject.

I also handed this front cover out to a couple of friends in order to get an idea to what they thought was good and what needed to be added or changed. The main feedback in which i got was positive, commenting on the colour scheme and the main layout of the front cover. However, there were things that they felt were not so good. This mainly consisted of 'to much white' so when creating my magazine front cover i will need to take this into consideration, making the most of the space i have. Another was due to the pixated image. To improve i will need to spend more time and care editing the picture.

My Generic Audience - Core Buyer caption

My music magazine will be targeted at full time students within the age range of 16 - 20. They are likely to be from a working to middle class family background and themselves have a low disposable income. It will be aimed towards both males and females in whom enjoy listening to a variety of music genres as well as open to new music artist and latest music. Due to this idea of my target audience, these are the people who i handed out my questionnaire to. This would allow my magazine to specifically interest such an audience. This target audience will be the main influence in the appearance and contents of my magazine. I will also keep asking the audiences opinions and refer to them when carrying out any form of primary research.

Questionnaire results ...

These are the results i have collected from my 30 responses. As you can see i have converted the information into a number of graphs and tables, this allows my results to be clearly shown and easily interpreted. I then went on to analyse these graphs and tables and have shown how they will be inflected in my final productions.

Final Target Audience Questionnaire

Right, this is my final draft of my questionnaire. All changes have been made and i feel happy to now distribute it out to my target audience. From this questionnaire i feel that i can successfully understand what my target audience want from a music magazine. In total i will ask 30 people to fill it in, to maximise response rate.