Music Magazine Analysis

Magazine Publishers Overview

Questionnaire Analysis

For my audience research I created a questionnaire to ask my target audience what they would like my magazine to look like and what they would want featured in it. The first question asked was, ‘What would you like featured in the magazine?’. From my response I can see that 100% of people asked would like to see ‘Tour Dates’, 67% would like to see ‘Recent Releases’ and 56% said they would want celebrity ‘Gossip’. This makes it easy for me to determine what my magazine should included in order to engage my readers.

To help my with the look of my magazine, I asked what type of image they would like on the front cover. The results show me that 78% of my audience would like a Band to be on the front cover, whilst 22% said they would prefer a new upcoming band/artist.

When I asked what colours should dominate my magazine there was a variety of answers. However, majority said they wanted ‘black’ and ‘white’. For the third colour, there is a mixture of ‘red’, ‘blue’ or ‘green’. This gives me an indication of which colours are likely to attract my target audience.

I also asked which bands/artists should appear in my magazine. This was to give me an understanding of what type of people my audience wanted to read about. There are numerous of different bands like ‘Fall Out Boy’ and ‘Panic! At The Disco’.

The other questions I asked was about how much they would be willing to pay, which, from my questionnaire I can see that 56% said £3. My response also shows that my audience would like the magazine to be published fortnightly but they would not be interested in an online version.

Questionnaire Results

Colour and Font Mood Boards

Music Magazine Drafts

Advertisers Mood Board Analysis

The companies that are featured on my advertisers mood board are featured because I believe that they can be associated with my target audience. I have included companies like McDonalds, KFC and Nando's to show the types of places my target audience go to socialize with friends. I have also included online shopping websites like Ebay and Amazon because these websites are useful for my target audience to buy merchandise for their favourite bands and artists. 

There is a variety of social network sites that I think my target audience are linked to for different reasons. For example, they may use Twitter to keep up to date with their favourite bands/artists. But they will tend to use Tumblr to interact with other fans and make edits. This is also one of the main ways my target audience make new friends as they work together to create things. Facebook, is used to gain information about tours and new album releases that my target audience may be interested in.  

There is a number of products featured on my advertisers mood board. These are products I think they might purchase or use. The hair dye is included because many of my audience tend to dye their hair unnatural colours and they tend to drink Rockstar Energy Drinks. I have also put a few shops I think my target audience may shop like Boohoo.com and Asos. There is also a couple of musical instrument manufacturers as many people tend to play guitar or drums.  

Target Audience Mood Board Analysis

On my target audience mood board I have included some of the bands my target audience may listen to, to give me a clear view of the type of atmosphere my magazine should have. It also shows me what type of images my magazine should include. There is also a variety of social media shown on my mood board as this is the way my target audience connect with each other and keep up to date with what is going on in the music industry. I have also included products like hair dye as many people tend to dye their unnatural colours like: red, blue and green. This may be because they have been influenced by the bands/artists that they listen to, as many rock bands like to be adventurous when it comes to their appearance. There are also some T.V. shows shown on my mood board which I think my target audience are into. For example American Horror Story is known for being 'creepy' and 'dark', which are also words that are used to describe my target audience so I think this might help me with the mood of my magazine when I am creating it. Also included on my mood board is typical places where my target audience tend to go to socialize with others to help me think of the types of personalities they have.  

Original Ideas Statement

The magazine I am going to be making is a rock/punk magazine. My intended target audience will be female teenagers between the ages of 14-18 years old, who are interested in this type of music. The reason I have chosen this type of magazine is because I am fan of this type of music, so I feel I have more experience with this genre of music then I do with others. Also many of the people I spend my time with are interested in this type of music so I think I have more of understanding of the types of things they like and the types of personalities they have which links to the type of music they listen to and I believe this will make it easier for me to create the magazine. The magazines which represent this particular genre of music are very distinctive compared to other magazines on the market. I thought that this might help me to make my magazine more distinctive and help me to attract my intended target audience more sufficiently. Another reason I have chosen to do a rock magazine is because it is easy to distinguish between rock magazines and pop magazines as rock magazines tend to come across as stereotypical to their target audience so it easier to see exactly what group within society they are trying to attract. Whereas pop magazines do not make it as clear as to who their specific target audience is. 

The Magazine Industry

The magazine industry is a huge market that is only getting bigger. In 2014 there was 210 new magazine launches. The top selling magazine in the UK is TV Choice selling 1,276,045 single newsstand copies and made a profit of £18 million. From my observation it seems that 6/10 of the top selling magazines are 'Women's Weeklies/Monthlies' whilst majority of the rest are 'TV Listings'. This could imply that the industry believes that woman have more free time on their hands and are probably seen as house wives and full time mothers. This also shows that majority of the population buy magazines to gather information about TV schedules. But it also implies that middle aged woman like to read about celebrity gossip and learn new household tips which are usually featured in these types of magazines. 

In 2015, the UK made 151 million retail copy sales with a value of £282 million. This proves that the industry is still profitable in today's society even though we seem to depend more on technology now then what we did 10 years ago. However the industry is evolving to suit today's society, especially music magazines. The most popular and highest selling music magazine in the UK is 'Q'. But to remain as the highest selling music magazine, 'Q' has had to adapt in order to fit in with present day. Evidence of this would be their multi-platforms. 'Q' has an online edition of the magazine to gain more readers as well as a website and many social network accounts like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. This makes it easier to connect with their readers but also to gain more readers as more people use social network to find information about their bands and artists. 

Advertisers Mood Board

Target Audience Mood Board

College Magazine Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

We asked the target audience of the college magazine what they would want their magazine to look like and what they would want included in it. The first question we asked was whether they read the current college magazine, from the questionnaire we can see that 90% of the people we asked said no. This shows that the current college magazine is not reaching its target audience or maybe they are not aware of the college magazine. This tells us that the magazine needs to change to encourage more readers.  

We then asked more questions on what they would want the magazine to look like. When we asked what colours they would want on the cover, the four main colours that they asked for was: Black, Red, White and Blue. This makes it easier for us to choose what colours to use on the front cover. From there we asked what type of image they would want on the front cover, all together 80% of the audience wanted it to be either a student or a piece of students work. We also asked what they wanted the magazine to be called. Majority of the responses included ‘East Norfolk’ or ‘EN News’.  

One of the questions that we asked was what they would want featured in the article. From the response we got, the main topics that our target audience chose were: College Events, Technology, Job Tips, Gig Guide, Film Reviews and Subject Information. We also asked whether offers and freebies would encourage them to buy the magazine. From the feedback we got 85% said that it would encourage them. From there we asked how much money they would be willing to pay for a college magazine. From the questionnaire, we can see that 75% would be willing to pay between 50p - £1 for the magazine.

One of the last questions that we asked was how often they would like the magazine to be published. The response we got showed that 70% of our audience wanted the magazine to be published every week or fortnightly. The last question we asked was whether they would be interested in subscribing to an online version of the magazine, 50% said they would and 50% said they wouldn’t be interested. 

College Magazine Questionnaire

1.       Do you read the college magazine?

2.       What would you like in the magazine?

Choose your top 3

( )  College Events

( ) Gig Guide

( ) Subject Information

( ) Technology

( ) Problem Page

( ) Job Tips

( ) Puzzle Page

( ) Fashion

( ) Sport

( ) Film Reviews

3.       What three colours would attract you to the front cover?

4.       What main cover image would you like?

( ) Student

( ) Teacher

( ) Student Work

( ) Technology

( ) Nature

5.       What should the magazine be called?

6.       How much would you pay for it?

( ) Nothing

( ) 50p

( ) £1

( ) £2

7.       How often should it be published?

( ) Weekly

( ) Fortnightly

( ) Monthly

( ) Every Half-term

8.       Would you subscribe to an online version?

9.       What fonts would attract you to the magazine?

10.   Would offers/freebies attract you to the magazine?

College Magazine Contents Page

College Magazine Front Cover