Evaluation of my music magazine

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products Title - My music magazine name, ‘Twang’ has been used because it is associated with music, in the way that it is a noise that is heard by a guitar or band, when people see the title they will know what the magazine is about. I added a tile to the title to show roughness. As you can see here: 011/05/music-cover1.jpg

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products I used one main front image, for every page, this adds an effect on the artist, making them seem bigger than they are, as they take up a large amount of the page. And it also is something that the reader will see first, and as they are a big music star, people will want to read the magazine.

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products Professional pageMy pageComparisons When making my front cover, I found a lot of inspiration from looking at other, industry made pieces. As you can see, I used the traditional title position, with it being at the top of the page, clear to be seen. My picture of the featured artist is in the middle of the page, for full viewing. And I have the headings surrounding it, as you can see in the industry made example.

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products Professional PageMy PageComparisons When making my double page spread I have considered, the appeal of having almost have the page made up of a main image, as you can see in the example and from my own page. This makes the artist seem much more popular and important. I also incorporated the use of increasing font size for certain words and changing the font colour, to make parts stand out and make more of an impact.

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products Professional PageMy PageComparisons Both pages, have the content title at the top of the page, and have a simple list of the magazines content going down one side of the page. Also with a feature at the bottom. A main picture is important to show the reader, what is in the magazine, which is why both pages have on of there. Although the professional magazine is much more sectioned out, my page flows more.

How my magazine, uses develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products My media product is developed from other media products, and the traditional views of music magazines. It was created from the ideas and development stages which have to be undertake to create a professional magazine at this current time. This was through, questionnaires and consumer information, and through development stages on computer aided design, and to customer reviews and tasters before publishing. My music magazine represents an ‘indie’, music group but a teenage social group. This has influenced the design and overall feel of my magazine, being aimed at 15 to 21 year olds means that the language and attitude of the magazine differs from others. Through using darker tones and stronger colours an attitude is quickly created which is one that would attract my target audience of teenagers.

How does my media product represent particular social groups? As you can see when looking at my front cover, the main image of the artist has been carefully thought about. I used an angle when taking the photo, where the camera is below him it looks as if he is above everyone, therefore making him seem more important and special. He is dressed in the way that is young and fashionable therefore appealing to the young teen audience that the magazine is intended for. He is wearing classes which adds a sense of mystery and attitude, all adding to an effect of dark and powerful music which is attracting my target audience and portraying my genre of music well.

What kind of music institution might distribute my media product? When considering what media institution may distribute my music magazine. I decide that Bauer Media. This is a mega publisher, which will be able to print the high demand of copies from my magazine that will be distributed via this company. It is very important that I choose a provider that can cope with the amount of magazines that I will need to be printed, otherwise the magazine will only be able to make little development. Through strong revision, I see that Bauer media also is the publisher for ‘Q’ and ‘Karrang’ magazines. Therefore this company is already very experienced within the magazine industry therefore, I will choose these compared to a more independent publisher, as these smaller businesses will not be able to give the demand in publishing which my national magazine will require. I could also consider, using IPC media as a distributer, however, they only have one current music magazine in the form of ‘NME’ magazine. This therefore makes the company less experienced and the distributer is not as financially backing as Bauer Media, because it is not as big of a business. I have to choose Bauer Media, for its great experienced roots and powerful financial backing that it will be able to send.

What would the audience be for my product? The audience of my music magazine, influences all parts of the magazine and project. From the price to the design. My product is in the ‘Indie genre’ of music, this is mainly a teenager, or younger group. This therefore means that language used in the magazine has to be relaxed and need little thought to understand the statements and articles. Also using darker colours and strong impacts on the pages I have created, helps to attract this younger (15-21 years old) age group that my music magazine will be created for.

What would the audience be for my product? I have created a reader profile, which shows exactly what my readers, are like, from what they eat to what they buy, a full guide.

How did I attract/address my audience? I have put the price of my magazine, as quite low, this is because the teenage audience doesn’t have much money therefore meaning that it will attract my audience. Language that I have used in the magazine, was very hardly chosen, as it is not too vocabulary strong, because a 15 year old many not understand some of the complex words that can be used, as a result I used basic sentence structure, and nothing that too in depth knowledge to understand. I have put freebies in the magazine, on the front cover at the bottom is a footer, that states there is a free poster for every reader in the magazine. This therefore attracts the reader more to buy. My products unique selling point is that there are not very many ‘Indie’ magazines around in the shops, therefore I try to use this as a marketing subject to gain buyers. Also, I have an exclusive with the featured person of the magazine, therefore I try to advertise this as much as possible on the front cover and content page, to make people want to buy my magazine all the more.

Technology I have used I have used a lot of different hardware and software in the creation of my music magazine, this ranges from: Digital camera – I used this to take all the photos of my artist, using close ups and far outs, using a good quality camera was important to prevent poor quality pictures. I used Photoshop, to develop all three of my pages, using the editing tools available I was able to create all the colouring and backgrounds in this software. I have used Wordpress, to blog all the production of my music magazine from the research to the production, this has helped to keep track of my progression. I have used to find my logo font, this was chosen from many different ones, as it portrayed the right image for the attitude I was aiming for in the magazine.

What have I learnt in the progression through the stages? When looking at my first school content page, and my music contents page, I see a lot of difference, I have understood the importance of positioning and using spaces to an advantage, for the music content, where as the school content, is very plain and uninteresting, the background in the music content, really compliments the page in whole, highlighting certain parts of the page. The importance of colour on a page, I have also learnt, the colour on a page, sets the mood.

What have I learnt in the progression through the stages? When looking at the two different front cover pages, I see a lot of improvements. In the music magazine cover I have used a much more blend of colours, making them all sink in together making it much more pleasant to look at, unlike the school magazine whereby, there are too many contrasting colours and as a result the cover is misleading as to the mood it is trying to set. I have learnt how image positioning is very important, in the music cover I have made the main image the whole size of the page, to add an effect of the feature person being big and popular, where as in the school cover the person, is small and ill placed meaning he doesn’t have much of an impact on the page.