Audience Research

Why do music magazines do research? Music magazines do research on lots of different things. They do research on things such as their audience type. The audience type consists of a lot of things such as what gender they want to aim there magazine at and also what age do they want to aim it at. They do research on this so that more people buy their magazine and that it becomes known popular and worldwide. By doing research it allows the magazine to be bought by more people and allows the maker of the magazine to get a bigger profit. This is because if you work out which age group and which gender likes each different of genre then they will like the magazine and buy it. However, if you don't research the audience properly the public won't be interested in the magazine and therefore won't buy the magazine. If you made a magazine based on Rave music and you aimed to sell it at women who are old you won't get many people buying it because old women won't be interested in this genre of music. However, if you sold this Rave magazine to young boys the maker of the magazine will gain more money as this type of audience is the type which is likely to buy the magazine. Therefore, you could also say that when thinking about what type of audience you are selling your magazine to it requires common sense too.

Rock and Roll research

Rock and Roll is a genre of music which was originated and evolved in the United States in the 1940's to the 1950's. It has a mixture of African American genres such as blues, jump blues, jazz and gospel together with Western swing and country music. This music has developed from Rock and Roll in the 1950's to now becoming popularly known as Rock Music. A lot has changed within this genre over the last 50 to 60 years. One example of this change is that a piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument. However, now a days the main instruments are drums or guitars. This consists of two electrical guitars one which is rhythm and one which is lead, below is a photo/ example of a classical rock band.

 

The term rock and roll now has two meanings: referring to the first wave of music that originated in the US in the 1950's and developed into "rock music." In the late 1940's to 1950's either piano or saxophone tended to be the lead instruments used, now a days however Classical Rock and Roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars: one lead and one rhythm, a string bass or an electric base guitar and also a drum kit. As seen by the media in movies and television Rock and Roll has influenced a lot of people's lifestyles. These factors include things such as fashions, attitudes and language. The term 'rocking and rolling' used to be often described the movement of a ship on the ocean, however in the earlier 20th century it is used to descrbie people's movement towards the music of Rock and Roll.

Unfortunately, some people argue that there has been a decline in Rock music over the years and this has been influenced by the amount of deaths that have sadly occured to famous Rock artists. Famous Rock singers such as Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens had all died by the 1960's and this is when people believe the genre started to decline. Also, Rock and Roll declined when Elvis sadly passed away, because he was popluar for both his music and his looks.

Test Shots

This is a photo of a One 2 Shot, as by the name this is a shot of 2 people, however Tom's pose isn't very good.

 This is a long shot of Tom, by doing this it allows people to view his whole body.

 This is a medium close up of Tom, this shot is used to show more detail of his upper body, in particular his face. This shot type usually captures from the waist up to your head.

 This is another medium close up of Tom, however unfortunately the framing is poor. As you can see there is equipment in the background which shouldn't be there. Moreover, the background colour's are multi coloured which wouldn't look good as a magazine front cover.

This is a pose shot of Tom, I believe this could be made better however if he was more central. But by leaving a gap on the right hand side it would allow me to put sell lines there.

This is a group shot of my media classmates including props. I don't think this is a good photo because the framing is bad, there is a light used what you can see in the photo and moreover, the photo looks poor regarding quality.

Conventions of a Music Magazine

Front Magazine: The main image is of a singer who is 'the future' and his name is Tobias. This replicates that he is going to be the main person involved inside the magazine. Sell lines are also used on the Front Cover to show you what is inside of the magazine and to persuade you to buy the magazine, the Sell Lines are featured on both sides of the Front Cover and these include artist's what are already famous and includes lots of types of genres what people will be attracted too. The front cover also has basic thing such as a Barcode which is scanned to show how many products have been bought and it also has a price tag to show to the public how much the magazine will cost. A masthead is also placed at the top of the magazine to try and influence the public to buy it. They usually do this by showing interesting things what will be inside the magazine for example on this magazine it says FREE DOWNLOADS INSIDE!



This is the Contents Page for a music magazine. The main image is the main convention for a contents page in a music magazine. This is because the main image informs you who the magazine is mainly about. The main image is of a band called the Courteeners, this replicates that the main story (which is another convention on a contents page) will be about the Courteeners. Another feature of a Contents page is Featured Stories and these are shown on the left hand side of the magazine for example it shows their will be Oasis Specials and it also informs you there is a cash prize inside if you answer questions correctly. Also the contents page shows previous editions what have been in the previous magazine. This is used to show people what was in last weeks magazine incase they didn't read it.

This is the double page spread of a music magazine. Like the front cover and the Contents page the main convention of the Double Page spread is the Main image. This is because it covers one full page and also it shows what the double page spread is about. This is another convention of a double page spread, the main article. On this magazine the main article is about a band called the Teenagers. Another thing what is used is the Drop Cap this is used to show the start of a new section and where to start reading. The text inside the article is used to organise the paragraphs neatly and also by using columns it allows more space for other things to be included.                          

Information of my Magazine

The name for my magazine: The name for my magazine is going to be 'R&R'. I have thought of this because there is a music type R&B which stands for Rhythm and Blues. Therefore, my magazine is going to be named R&R because my music type is rock music/ rock and roll and R&R stand for Rock and Roll.

The price of my magazine: Because my music magazine will only contain 4 pages, I don't feel that the magazine should be that expensive. For four pages worth I would put the price of the magazine, as a rough cover price of £1.29. Moreover, by allowing the magazine to be priced at £1.29 I believe that everyone will be able to afford to buy it. Even though my magazine only has 4 pages, I still think that it needs to be printed at a high quality standard. By doing this, it would mean my magazine would appeal to customers more, and therefore more people would buy the magazine.

How often the magazine will be released: My magazine will be released once a month. This is because by having the magazine's once a month it will allow a different rock band to be shown each month of the year. In addition to this, new songs tend to come out every month so by having the magazine being published once every month it will show all the latest songs and albums what are out each month, and you could include people's reviews.

Target Audience for Music Magazine

The main target audience for my chosen magazine is going to be teenagers between the age of 14 to 25 years. This is because they tend to be more interested in this genre than adults. My chosen genre to aim the magazine at will be males, and this is because most Rock music fans are males, and some males I know have started their own Rock bands. Because my magazine is being aimed at students, or people who are attending school, college or university the socio economic class for this band will be Class E. I would have expected the people who buy my magazine to have had a taste of reading magazines before. This is because if they have read music magazines before, I believe they will have more interest and will like the magazine more if they have prreviously read music magazines such as NME or KERRANG!

In my opinion, by using large pictures of popular rock bands performing, I believe it will help me sell the magazine to my audience, and therefore it will make my magazine more profitable. This is because if I include photos of popular music bands, since they are popular more people will like them so when they see the band they like on the front cover they will want to buy the magazine. Another way I could make more profit from my target audience is by including Sell Lines. These are conventions what are used on the front cover of the magazine which tell the public what is included inside the magazine. If I make these sell lines interesting I believe it will draw the public in and it will make them want to buy the magazine more often. In addition to this, for this to be effective I would also need to make sure that the front cover would need to stand out because it will be the page the public will be able to see.

To appeal to the audience I am going to put a Unique Selling Point on my magazine. The Unique Selling Point will be that you get a 'Free CD' for when you buy the magazine, by doing this I believe that my magazine will become more profitable because not only will people want to buy my magazine for the features inside the magazine, but they will also be interested in the Free CD on the front of it.

If I was a potential customer the main thing what I would want to see, is what are the latest songs or albums what have recently been sold. This is so that I would know what to listen too and I would find out more songs what I like. Another thing I would want to see would be people's reviews on these latest songs/albums what have been released. This is so I would receive feedback on the new songs and it would help me decide whether to download the latest tracks what are out or not.

Conventions of Music Magazine

Front Cover:

• Sell Lines
• Masthead
• Skyline
• USP (Unique Selling Point)
• Barcode
• Date
• Price
• Thumbnails
• Colour Scheme
• Main Image
• Headline
• Teller

Contents Page:

• Main Image
• Featured Stories
• Regular Stories
• Page Numbers
• Vocabulary
• Letter from the Editor
• Previous Editions
• Main Story

Double Page Spread:

 

• Stand First: The first paragraph.
• Drop Cap: when the start of a word Has a big letter.
• Main Article
• Text in columns
• Page Number
• Masthead
• Main Image (takes up the page)
• By Line
• Title