Magazine design

Here is a picture of my magazine design. This is before i have added my main photo which will be taken soon. The photo will largely cover the white background and bring forward the black column.

Target Audience

All music magazine have their specific target audiences. Many of them target one specific type of audience, instead of all different groups. I will having a target audience that I will aim my magazine and hope to get my sales from them. My target audience will mainly be males aged between 15 and 30. I have chosen to target these as Indie speaks to the younger generation. I am looking to target young and stylish students who go to gigs and live events. Therefore my magazine will be available at a cheap price, enabling my target audience to be to afford the magazine quite comfortably. To make extra revenue from the magazine I would sell additional pages for advertisements. These could possibly include product placement and also gig advertisements. This would again bring in extra money which could be put back into the magazine. It will also be a major advantage to us, as it will be another factor that would attract my audience. As the majority of the audience go to gigs and live events the advertisements will be important information. I am also planning to create a music website. I believe this could be another persuasive factor as the majority of my target audience with either own or have access to the internet. This would again promote the magazine on a huge basis and attracts customers. In the magazine I will include listings of new and up and coming bands. This will help promote the bands and also inform the reader. I will also include exclusive interviews with band members and also bands from the past. To attract possible buyers further I will include free demo discs of new bands.

Music magazine

Music magazine research

For my assignment I have been asked to produce a front page, double page spread and contents page of a new music magazine. The magazine can be on any music I choose and also the audience.

First of all I need to identify the music genre that my magazine is going to represent. There are many music genres such as Metal, R&B, and pop. These are all represented by different aspects of cultural and musicale elements. However for my magazine I am going to do the Indie Rock genre. I have chosen this because the music comes from different elements of British music history and has developed to become extremely popular. The genre is my particular favourite as it is raw and tells the harsh truth about the world we live in. It is produced by real people and is not tampered with by big music companies. The artists are usually unsigned or have resigned to independent record labels. The bands rely on touring, word-of-mouth, and airplay on radio stations for mainstream promotion.

All genres have there own individual appeal to their target audience. Aspects like clothes, hair and actions distinguish the genres. Indie Rock is very recognisable as the majority of the bands wear similar clothing and hair. The traditional skinny jeans, pointy shoes and tight fitting tops are all aspects of the Indie life style. It promotes freedom and expressing yourself however you like. The music produced is raw and rebellious, giving a sense of passion throughout the music. The bands are not to bit pop stars looking to make a quick buck, but are interested in music and producing truly great records. They express there feelings and aspirations within the music, and show us that they are just ordinary people not mega stars. Bands that represent this type of genre is Artic Monkeys, Bloc Party and The Libertines.

There are a few magazines that cover the Indie Rock genre, however only one dominates the market. NME has become a house hold name since its launch in 1996. NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. The magazine has also recently added the award winning www.NME.com , which has grown to be the biggest commercial news site in Europe. As well as this NME has a very successful TV channel, NME TV. The station offers all the new and up and coming bands. The magazine itself is very popular and attracts large audiences. The magazine has exclusive interviews with all types of artists. It reveals the ideas and thought behind the music and artists. The magazine has exclusive pictures as well, which cover most of the pages. It also has dates for gigs, new bands and reviews on the latest albums and single releases. All in all the magazine is packed with articles worth reading. In my magazine I am going to implement all these thoughts and ideas.