Audience research task (planning)

Using this information of my music magazine proposal, i then created a prezi, in order for me to use when pitching the ideas for my magazine to my class.From this prezi, I presented my Music magazine proposal to my class.

After presenting and pitching my ideas to the class, the class were then asked to comment on my pitch so far. I received feedback on my ideas for my music magazine in general, and how i could go about improving my magazine or things i should include/replace. 

I was told that i should include or think about design features and work on that, demonstrating clearly how my magazine will look and possibly a flat plan - the fonts of mastheads, the layout of my music magazines front cover, contents page, and double page spread, and so on.

Using this feedback, and comments i was then able to improve upon my plan for my music magazine by including these things which i had missed out as part of my pitch

Also, following on from my feedback and comments on my magazine proposal, i decided to create a flat plan. This is a brief table guide of what will be included on each page, and this would help me when creating my contents page/s.

Drafting and finalizing house styles, drafts and layouts

I then began on my music magazine proposal, individually, as part of my task 6. For my music magazine proposal, i had to state the description of what my magazine would be, what it would include and how it would look. i spoke about the genre of the magazine, who the publishers might be, and the audience that my magazine would be targeted at. I spoke about the generic conventions of a magazine, a music magazine in particular, and then talked about which of these i would include and the reasons why. For the look of the magazine, i went through colour schemes, fonts to use etc, adding to the appeal of the magazine in general, and something that would make people want to buy this magazine.

GENRE:

The chosen musical genre for my music magazine, would be a combination of hip-hop/rap and r&b. The reason as to why I chose to combine these two genres is because they are similar to each other, and as hip hop was my original chosen genre for my music magazine, being that it is a genre I have personal interests in and find that it would be better for me to continue my music magazine on this genre as I have previously researched and studied on thus genre of magazine previously in planning of my college magazine. Ill mention things such as tour dates, upcoming events, new releases such as albums and singles. Also I will make sure that I include a page or section which talks about the upcoming artists etc., and the latest collaborations

FRONT COVER:

The title of my publication will be named “LMNT” which is a play on the word element, being short, bold, and distinctive for a music magazine. Firstly I would include the standard conventional things for a front cover, such as Masthead, cover lines, barcode, pricing, issue number, and a medium close up shot of my artist/s for my front cover. There will be design features for my music magazine design. Firstly, I will edit my masthead, so that it fades near the bottom, and also edit the masthead around the image of my artist making them the subject of the front cover, making it appear like they are layered above the Masthead. For the Lettering I would chose a sensible font. This must be a font which is both legible, and also bold, so that my target audience can identify my magazine, and know which magazine it is. For the colouring of my house style, I would choose, a bright vivid colour in order to make the magazine stand out, making it distinctive and also meaning attracting the audience. My front cover will have a QR code allowing a younger audience to be able to interact with the magazine better, as they can view it electronically. My music magazine will be around £2.99. This is because I wanted to make it a fair price, which is seemingly inexpensive for my audience and also because the magazine will be monthly issued.

CONTENTS PAGE&DPS:

For my contents page I will make sure that I use the generic conventions of a contents page. This will include a Title saying “contents” and sub-heading based on the overall topic of the magazine, contents labelled with page numbers, and pictures besides them as a preview, and to indicate what the article on the page will be about.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

The target audience for my music magazine would be young adults, and teenagers. This would be because it is mostly between the age range of 14- 26, working class people who listen to these types of music typically, and the majority of people who are older (30+), may not listen these genres of music. My target audience, would be people who tend to enjoy going out with friends – socialising, they may keep up with the latest fashions and trends in terms of their style etc. and also they could possibly be interested in sports as one of their hobbies. They would be people who not only like interacting with friends in person, but may have social networking sites for example twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and so on as part of their lifestyle. My target audience would be mostly people, from inner cities, such as London, Birmingham, Leicester etc., mainly because my chosen genre of hip-hop/rap is based around city culture.

PUBLISHERS/INSTITUTIONS:
Groups who may publish my magazine would be those who publish a wide variety of magazines, not only music magazines. For example i may choose to use IPC media as my Publishers as they are a well published group, helping to expand my magazine, and distribute my magazine well. These publishers produce another music magazine, which is NME, a contrasting genre from my chosen genre. i feel this would add diversity to an already well recognizable publisher. Artists who may feature in my magazine would be artists such as Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Meek mill, Partynextdoor, French Montana, j Cole etc.

COLOUR SCHEMES AND LAYOUTS:

I have chosen to go with white, blue, and volt. Reasons for this is that it is unique, rather than having conventional, black white and red.

Here is the magazine proposal which i had presented to my peers in class..

Distribution of magazines

a)

The music magazine titles available at this newsstand tended to be of Pop, Rock, Indie/alternative, and Rhythm genres of music, for example Kerrang, Nme, mojo etc. These titles were being displayed together one section of the newsstand on the bottom two rows. The way they had been displayed was in such a way that half of the magazine, was covered by the next magazine, yet you could still clearly see and identify the Mastheads of each magazine was something i noticed. one of the reasons why it is laid out like this is so that customers can find the magazine they are looking for better, making it easier for them to. also, most of the cover-lines and teasers are placed on the left third
of each magazine as well so that you could see what the issue of the magazine would be about in general. The images for most of the magazines were medium close ups of artists who would feature in that magazine, and most of these tended to be edited so that it appeared that the image was layered on top of the title, or the other way around ("Mojo" magazine, "Music" magazine etc) Additionally, i noticed that each of the magazines had their own house styles, and colour themes, especially "Kerrang" as it was a special edition issue.

b)
Some of the main distribution methods include: sale or return, using distribution networks, publishers, freemiums, and subscriptions as a way of distributing their magazines successfully, so that they can be published widely.
 Publishers are institutions that produce the magazines. They control the editorial content and design of the magazine, as well as managing relationships with advertisers who bring in between 40-100% of the revenue. Circulation figures help publishers to plan how many issues to produce and distribute. Each publisher then uses a network of distributors (distribution networks) who manage the flow of magazines from the printer to the final newsstand where the magazines are sold. Every magazine uses these two basic methods of distribution in order to get their products on the shelves of newsstands and sold to the public.
There is then the secondary methods of distribution which magazines use. Sale or return is a system used by magazines where by there would be a certain amount of copies of a magazine which are expected to sell, and any copies which do not sell are returned to the distributor, with no cost to the retailer. This benefits the retailers as there is no risk or wastage involved in the process, and this would be one of the reasons as to why many shops/newsagents agree to placing various magazines in their shops. Another increasingly popular method is giving out free issues (freemiums) as a way of distribution. These are typically given out at stations, or in other busy public locations, and because these magazines are free, they make all of their money from advertising, Regular readers particularly in niche publications, may wish to subscribe to a number of issues, whether it be postal or electronic (subscriptions). This type of distribution makes it easier for the audience, and ensures a regular core readership for the magazine.
There are also the other methods of distribution, or the tertiary methods. Institutions use Electronic brand extensions, Ezines, and Apps. Many magazines now have smartphone or apple apps, with some or all of the content available in the hard copy of the magazine. These may be linked via a QR code on the front cover of the magazine. Magazines use Electronic Brand Extensions as well extending their brand with an online presence, for example on social networking sites such as instagram, Facebook, twitter, etc. They may use trends on twitter, Facebook groups as a way of distribution, when extending their brand. Some may also use Ezines. These are slightly different from magazine websites, in that they are a virtual online magazine with similar features; being able to turn pages, adverts, page numbers etc. For music magazines "RWD" is a good example, demonstrating a magazine which uses Ezines. Ezines are usually free, and they will have electronic features such as video clips and hyperlinks.

Audience feedback and evaluation- preliminary task / college magazine

                            EVALUATUION

I think there were many things which went well when producing my College magazine. Firstly, I think that the actual photography went well, as the photos I used, had reflected the genre and topic of my magazine well, which was about the “college life” at LSC and the exam success. This was the reason why I had chosen to use somebody studying, for the front cover. Also the images used for the contents page, I feel achieved the same, and were used for the same purpose. The image manipulation on Photoshop was also something that went well; I feel that my front cover looks realistic as a magazine, as I was able to use techniques on Photoshop to achieve this. This included having edited the Masthead logo (to make the main image of the front cover overlap it) a barcode/QR code, pricing, cover lines and issue number for the front cover. The way I laid out the pages, for the front cover and contents page, was also something that went well as it looked like a real established magazine, as I had researched what contents pages and front covers of genuine magazines looked like beforehand. I felt that the use of my text was something that went well, as I made sure that the text in the contents page was consistent from the front cover, meaning that what was mentioned to be in magazine (from the cover lines) was actually put on the contents page. I chose to use a large, bold, font for the Masthead of the magazine, which went well as it means that it stands out, and because part of it was bright red it would also do this, which is what a masthead is supposed to do. The layout on InDesign was something that I feel I done well on as it consisted of the generic conventions of a magazines contents page, which made it look better


Even though there were several things which went well, there were also things which I could have improved on. For example, I could have used a date for the front cover and contents page. Another thing which I could have done to improve my college magazine is that I could have chosen to layout my cover line's better, and chose better fonts for them so they stand out more. The font, font size and aligning of the cover lines for the front cover were something I evaluated after as a weakness, and one of the things I could change in order to improve my production. For my contents page I should make sure that I do not use photos which are slightly similar, next time, but use those which are distinctive from each other, making the magazine look better as a whole. I would make sure that I include dates for the front cover and contents page. This would add to the feel of the magazine, adding additional information. I could make sure that my editing for Photoshop is, again, up to a high quality standard for when producing future tasks. By making sure I utilise Photoshop properly next time, I would be able to create the magazine properly, and making sure that it is up to a good level.

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Preliminary task: LSC magazine

For this section of our Media task I began using Photoshop, understanding the techniques used and how to use certain aspect of Photoshop. This task here would then help us prepare to the build up of producing our own magazine front cover, as we would start learning the skills required in order to do so for our own. Here i used images from the internet for the background, and the barcode and added the magazine name for my first attempt making it look more realistic as a front cover for a music magazine.

I then began the planning for the layout of my own college magazine, on InDesign, putting down blank boxes and text boxes for where headlines, subheadings, text, skyline, masthead and other elements would go on my front cover, as well as my contents page.

After completing this, i then moved on to creating the first draft of my front cover for my college magazine task. I used photoshop in order to construct my front cover of my college magazine, and InDesign for my contents page. I had to make sure that my front cover had the layout which i had planned it to be, using the plan as a guideline for what my cover would look like

For the contents page i had to do the same, but not as much, as there is more freedom with how you can layout the contents page, as long as it is clear.