Evaluation

My music magazine uses forms and conventions of the magazines I analysed for my research and planning. In my research and planning I analysed three different music magazines which were The Word, NME and Kerrang to establish the conventions and features in them to use in my own music magazine. For my front cover I included a small ear in the top right corner box which I used from NME and The Word magazine. I have all the conventions which are seen on the front splash of all music magazines I analysed to make sure my magazine looks professional. My masthead stands out from the main image background as with other music magazines with its big font size and bold colour. My cover lines are displayed down the left hand side of the magazine so when it is displayed on a shelf the names of other bands will be clearly seen to attract a larger audience.

I designed the editors letter based on The Word for my contents page. The letter from the editor makes the magazine seem more personal and friendly as the editor is directly speaking to the reader. I also used the main image on the contents page from NME to complete my own contents page. My contents index is clearly displayed and set out into sections to make it easier to read and for the audience to find what they are looking for.

I used the idea of a main image taking up both pages for my double page spread from Kerrang and NME which is a convention of double page spreads. It was mainly inspired by NME because I used a slightly transparent box for the text as NME did for their double page spread. The article is set out in columns which is another convention of magazines.

The ideology of my music magazine is to focus on new upcoming bands so the social groups it represents are people who are very up to date with the latest music and enjoy searching for new bands. The ideology is that the music is the most important thing and not the bands image. This is made clear from the choice of bands I have referred to as they are all new bands that only people who are keen on new music will have heard of. The social group will be primarily young people as they most commonly go to small gigs and typically most interested in upcoming bands. The magazine represents this social group as passionate about music and that they enjoy going out and having fun with friends.

Smaller and more independent media institutions may distribute the magazine as bigger mainstream institutions focus on profits so want big bands to feature. Independent institutions are more likely to think of the quality of music they are covering rather than just how big the band is at that moment in time. I would choose the publisher Development Hell LTD to distribute my magazine. They are UK based independent magazine publisher who own and distribute such magazines as The Word whose genre is classic rock and entertainment and Mixmag which covers dance music. I feel like this would be the right institution to choose as they have experience with music magazines but haven’t done the indie rock genre which my magazine covers so it opens up a new market for them and potential for profit.

My main target audience will be young adults and students aged between 16-25, as students have more knowledge of new bands and are more likely to attend small gigs and concerts. This means they will be more interested in the music scenes described in the magazine and explore them further. Young adults also have the element of disposable income and as they are all mainly music fans they will spend their income on music magazines. The audience share the same ideology as the magazine that music is the most important thing with bands and artists. The target audience is for both men and women as both can be just as passionate for new music which is what the main focus of the magazine is. The magazine will help build a community around supporting local bands so the audience will feel that the magazine cares about smaller bands which will make the audience feel like they can trust the magazine. If fans care about their favourite bands they will care about the magazine which promotes them.

I attempted to attract my audience on the front cover through mise-en-scene by using bright colours which will make it stand out on a shelf as most music magazines use a lot of black and darker colours. The masthead stands out the most as it is on a white background and has a bold outlining so people will remember the name of the magazine. I think my magazine will appeal to my target audience from the bands mentioned on the front cover and on the contents page. My cover artist’s genre is electro rock which is popular within the indie scene at the moment and so this shows the magazine is up to date and fresh.

I have learnt to use Photoshop whilst making my college and music magazine which I have used for editing my images and creating my contents page and front cover. I learnt how to use layers so images and text can overlap and create gradient effects for the background which make it look more professional. For my double page spread I used Microsoft publisher as it was easier to get the right dimensions and it was more suitable as the double page spread is mainly text.

From my preliminary task I learnt that I need to plan where everything is placed on the page in advance as for my college magazine I just put all the text around the image where it would fit. With my music magazine I thought more about my main image and where it would fit in relation to everything else when I took the picture. I used my college magazine to practice using Photoshop so when it came to my music magazine I could use the tools easier and to a greater effect. I also learnt to manage my time better and not leave everything to last minute which I am not doing with my music magazine. From the preliminary task I learnt about the conventions of magazine covers and the terminology to use so it could use it more naturally when it came to my main task and was used to analysing front covers of magazines for it.