Music magazine evaluation

Music Magazine Evaluation Olivia Digger

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I believe that my ‘unplugged’ magazine does look like an actual music magazine but I have used all of the features a magazine needs, for example; on the front cover of my music magazine, I included –the date, the website, and the bar-code, the price and the issue number. On the contents page I included the social networking sites. I think that these little features make my magazine look more realistic and authentic. I have used the traditionally magazine layout, with the masthead centred at the top of the page, the central image in the middle of the page with the small sell-lines around my main image, including the bar-code and price in the bottom corner. I think this layout stands out the most and is very eye catching –which is why it works so well for all genres of magazines. After researching and analysing different magazines, I came across, Billboard, Q and Blender. These three magazines have quite a few similarities but are still very different at the same time. These magazines are where I got my inspiration from, to be able to create my magazine. I came to realise that all ‘Blender’ front covers use the traditional layout but they always use a plain, white, transparent background –I thought this made the magazine look a lot more sophisticated as it wasn’t full of colours, which made it much clearer and easier to understand –Which is why I chose to keep a plain white background on my front cover and contents page. I also liked that Blender only used 2-3 coloured text on the front cover, to get it simple but professional at the same time. On Q I liked how on most of the magazines, the background is the central image, and then then the sell-lines and text is written on top of the image –I think this makes the magazine unique and different. On Q the name of the model/celebrity as the central image, is always in bold letters, written on top of the model, so it is obvious to the audience that the central image and text is connected. My music magazine genre would be pop/chart music and I think my genre is definitely portrayed with my model for my central image as you can tell by the outfit my model is wearing.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I believe that most music magazines are generally address at a young audience of early teens to early 30’s –especially the three magazines I was analysing; Billboard, Q and Blender. I think that would be a very similar audience to my music magazine. I do not believe that my music magazine is gender specific as the style and layout would attract both genders. The colour scheme of my magazine –turquoise, black and white, definitely determines the fact my magazine isn’t one-gender based; whereas if I had used more feminine colours, like pinks and purples –it may have appealed to more of a female audience. Having a female model as my central image on my front cover, will attract a male audience purely because of the sex appeal, whereas the female audience are stereotypically more involved with reading; so that could be one of the main reason, for them buying the magazine. I also believe that on my front cover and contents page, I included real celebrities/singers which will also attract their fans to read about the article, therefore buy the magazine. Also as the music genre of my magazine is pop/chart music, it will bring in the fans who are interested in the particular genre of music also. Although my music magazine has a slight border of the who the audience is targeted at, I do not believe that my magazine would rule out anyone/social groups, for example; I don’t feel like certain religion, class, sexuality or ethnicity groups would be offended by my magazine and if there interest is similar to the genre of my magazine, then they would fit my target audience perfectly.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The publishers of my music magazine would be Prometheus Global Media who distribute Billboard music magazine as I believe my music magazine and Billboard are targeted at a similar class group –they are not just targeted at an upper-class social group or either IPC who own Vibe music magazine. My music magazine would be available to buy in large supermarkets and traditional newsagents such as; W.H.Smith as my magazine isn’t a high-class magazine it wouldn’t be exclusive and only sold in certain stores. There would also be an opportunity to subscribe monthly to an online version of my music magazine at a slightly less expensive rate which doesn’t include all of the exclusive content which will be in the printed magazine. My magazine would also be available on an app, for smart phones, for my audience to read while they’re on the go! I decided that my music magazine would be published every two weeks. I felt that publishing it every week, might be hard to find enough content as there isn’t much change in the music industry every week; although I felt that too much change happens in the music industry over the period of the month. So, I thought that every 2 weeks would be perfect, as there would be just the right amount of content for my magazine. There would also be an opportunity for a subscription for my music magazine. Statistics shows from 2013 that the percentage of circulation for indie/rock music magazine such as; Q and NME are decreasing, which is the perfect opportunity for a pop/charts genre music magazine to increase in circulation, for a better chance of my magazine be sold.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The intended user for my music magazine would be early teens to early thirties 14-35 years olds. The age gap, in which my magazine would be targeted on, is quite large but I believe the variety of content which will be in my magazine will please most readers of that age group. My magazine isn’t one-gender based and neither discriminates against ethnicity, class, religion, sexuality or physical ability and anyone from these social groups wouldn’t get offended by any of the material in my magazine; therefore the audience for my magazine could potentially be huge. The social economic group which would suit my magazine best would range from working class, skilled working class, lower middle class, middle class and even upper middle class. I don’t believe that my magazine is specific and limited to just one of social economic groups. The artists which would be featured on my magazine, would be on the radio channels, Kiss and BBC Radio1 –this is because these two radio channels are very diverse and play a wide range of genres on music, especially chart music –which is the genre of my music magazine. My artists may also appear on the Kiss TV music channels doing interviews and speaking about their latest projects, along with their music videos.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My music magazine front cover was created with the traditional layout/structure, of the masthead centred at the top of the page, the central image in the middle of the page, sell-lines all around the main image and the barcode on the bottom corner. Although I used the traditional layout for the front cover, I believe that are still some unique features included; for example –I only kept the sell-line texts on the left hand side of my central image, instead of placing them both sides. I also created lines, made on Microsoft Publishers’ auto-shape, to separate each sell-line text, to make my front cover look much clearer and much easier to understand. Having the masthead at the top of the page, means it will be the first thing the reader will see, especially if it’s stacked on shelves in the store, so I believe it has to stand out and be big and bold, to draw the reader in. As my colour scheme for my magazine was –turquoise, white and black; it isn’t a gender specific colour scheme, therefore it would address both male and female audiences, attracting them in, to then buy my magazine. I also believe that because my model I used for my magazine, was a young, pretty female, it will definitely bring in a male audience because of the sex appeal. Also, if my model was a real singer/artist/celebrity in the real world, the model would bring in a wider audience as she would also attract her female/male fans to buy the magazine also. The outfit/costume, my model was wearing in the central image, was very bright and colourful. I think this along with my masthead, makes my magazine stand out a lot more than if my model was to wear a plain outfit. I think the brightness of the outfit, will draw in more readers to the magazine, to buy it. Throughout my music magazine, I used language techniques which fitted in with the music genre and used recognisable music terms; for example ‘new album dropped’ or ‘new single released.’

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

I have learnt a huge amount about technology by constructing my music magazine, which I can take with me in my future and use over and over again. Photoshop: I had vaguely used Adobe Photoshop prior to creating my music magazine, but by the time I started creating my magazine, I couldn’t remember a thing. I always found Photoshop confusing and I never liked using it. But after editing my images and completing my music magazine, I feel completely confident on using Photoshop now and feel like I know the main features of the program. I found the program quite easy to navigate around after I got the hang of using it. I will be definitely be using Adobe Photoshop again in my future. Blogger: Before I started AS media, I had never heard of ‘BlogSpot’ before. I knew what a blog was and I had heard about Tumblr before, but I never really understood the purpose of it and how to actually use it. But as blogger was such a huge part of media AS, I realised it was vital to learn how to use it effectively. I soon came to realise that blogger, was such an easier program to use and was very easy to navigate around and very easy to upload photos. It is a very effective way to record work. Photo shoot: The first photos I took for my music magazine, which I didn’t end up using, was done professionally, with a proper camera and in the studio. I didn’t think the photos turned out very at all and I found the camera very confusing to work. I didn’t feel like I knew enough about the camera prior to the photo shoot to be able to take photos at a good quality, therefore when I re-done my photos, using a different model, I didn’t use a proper camera, I used my Iphone5s camera; as I felt I was wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how to use the professional camera, when the image quality was pore. Whereas on my IPhone, the quality may not be as good as the professional camera, but I knew how to use my camera and I knew the photo would turn out clear and at a reasonable quality. My Blog: http://oliviadigger.blogspot.co.uk/

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think the progress I have made from my college magazine and my music magazine is huge. My college magazine was more feminine based –by the colour scheme and the image quality was very poor and I definitely think my music magazine has progressed a lot. I believe that my image quality is much better than it was for my college magazine and also my music magazine has a much wider audience range, as it isn’t just on gender based. Also, on my college magazine, I didn’t include things like the barcode, the date or the website, which gives it less of a professional look, compared to my music magazine. The editing of my images for my music magazine is also much better and more advance than it was for my college magazine. My music magazine still has a lot of improvements which could have been made if I was to have more time for my project.

When I done then initial sketching and the basic page layout for my music magazine, it is completely different to how it actually turned out. I think you when plan the pages, you never really know if it’s going to work, until you have actually tried it out and tried out different ideas, to see what looks best and fits best.

I have definitely learnt, to manage time more effectively so I wouldn’t have felt as stressed by the massive workload which needs to be completed for the deadline. If I was to re-do the project, I would ensure my time management was improved drastically. I also believe that organisation is something that I obviously knew about, but didn’t realise how organised I would have to be throughout this whole project, for example; saving work in the correct folders as I go along, screen-shot work for evidence and updating my blog. Time management and being organised will be the two main things I will remember in my future, for new projects, to prevent me having loads of work to do last minute.

I also learnt a lot about the process of a magazine and the circulations and about the publisher and distributor. I also learn what features drag the readers’ attention in and how to keep their attention fix to the magazine.

I also learnt throughout the project, how to edit a photo properly and effectively on Adobe Photoshop –which I had always had problems doing prior to creating my magazine. I already knew the main features of Microsoft Publisher, but as I was going a long creating my magazine, there were some extra features that I learnt to make my magazine and the layout, that little bit better.

Overall, I think this project tested my ability and prior knowledge to design and create a magazine and the use of online programs and software. Everything I have learnt throughout this project will stick with me, to use again and again in my future which will benefit me in many ways.