Target Audience For My Music Magazine

The target audience for my classic pop/rock music magazine will be young people (from the age of 16-25) who take an interest in retro artists or bands. Due to the nature of the magazine, my target audience will be that of a niche audience, rather than a wide target audience that would be envisioned for chart music magazines such as 'Q'. However, i feel that aiming my magazine at a niche audience could work to my advantage due to the fact that the bands/artists featured would not appear in many currently available music magazines (apart from MOJO) and so i would be offering something unique to the market. For instance, bands such as 'Queen' or 'The Beatles' would not be found in current music magazines e.g. 'NME', 'Q', or 'Kerrang!', so people may be more interested in a new magazine that features the work of more classic artists.
In my opinion, i do not feel that classic pop/rock artists are celebrated even nearly enough in the current music world. This is the reason as to why i have chosen to create a music magazine entirely centered around these forgotten stars- in order to bring them back into the public eye, and in some sense to educate people about the music of past decades.
In order to make my magazine appeal to my target audience, i will have to consider many factors such as colour schemes, font and layout of the front cover. In terms of colour schemes, i have chosen to diffuse the main photograph using a filter so as to create a retro-feel to the cover, but then produce a quirky masthead in contrasting colours to grab the attention of potential readers when on a shop shelf. It is important to still make use of bright colours on my magazine due to the fact that i have a young target audience, but i would also like to base the images used both on the cover and inside my magazine on retro pin-ups (e.g. black+white photographs, use of vintage props such as 1940s/50s chrome standing microphones).
The layout of the front cover will not include countless coverlines and puffs/plugs as i feel that this can be quite intimidating. Instead, my cover will feature one main coverline (focused around the cover model) and only a maximum of four other coverlines. This is due to the fact that i want my magazine to focus solely on the readers' appreciation of the music itself rather than rely on lots of puffs and plugs to sell itself to a wider audience.
To ensure that interest in my magazine is maintained, i may include a free album or single in every other issue (every two months). In some cases, people buy magazines purely for the free gifts, and so if a new reader bought the magazine for the CD, they may find that they enjoy classic pop and rock music and could potentially become a regular reader.  The freebie will obviously be centered around the band or artist that is featuring on the cover at the time, and so will allow the reader to get a feel of their music as they read about them.
For such a specific niche audience, i will have to concentrate on very carefully selecting a main band or artist to feature on the front cover- one that will be easily recognisable so that people are instantaneously intrigued and therefore want to purchase the magazine to read more. An example would be 'The Beatles' to feature as the main photograph and coverline as they are an iconic band that are widely appreciated. I could then add coverlines about other artists that were maybe not quite as famous as 'The Beatles' were, almost to act as a supplement to the main feature.  



     

Research And Planning For Music Magazine- Annotated Mojo Cover

This front cover of Mojo music magazine has made good use of the masthead and tag line of "The Music Machine"; allowing it to fill almost a third of the front page. This allows the masthead to instantly grab the attention of the reader when it is on the shelf- the title of the magazine is the very first thing that you see.
Also, the colour scheme of the entire front cover has been desaturated with a filter; giving it a 'vintage' quality which is seemingly very appropriate for the subject of the magazine (it focuses on music from past decades rather than the present). This desaturation also allows the magazine to become unique from other music magazines being sold, and so stands out as being 'different' from the run-of-the-mill music chart magazines- therefore intriguing a wider audience.
Very little text features on the front cover due to the fact that it is largely centered around the main coverline and photograph of "The Smiths". This shows that the magazine is not trying too hard to grab the attention of an extremely diverse audience with puffs and plugs littering the cover; it is instead focusing on a niche audience that are guaranteed to pick up the magazine if they see the feature band or artist.
There is a distinct colour scheme of pink and white when it comes to the text on the front cover, which allows the audience to distinguish coverlines easily. The pink and white also contrasts well with the filtered background photograph- allowing the reader to pick out key information from the coverlines.
Extra features on the front cover include a barcode, but the layout is generally kept quite simple which gives an almost stylish feel to the magazine as a whole.
One main font is used on the front cover for both the masthead and the coverlines so as ensure an air of consistency across the page. This is done to establish an ordered layout and makes it easier for the reader to take in.
For my music magazine, i would like to take inspiration from this Mojo cover due to the fact that i would like to create a stylised magazine, intended for a niche audience- one that focuses on music from different decades rather than the up-to-date chart music that is seen in the vast majority of music magazines available.

Research And Planning For Music Magazine

To begin, i will carry out five research tasks in order to establish my ideas for my music magazine, including the target audience and the product itself. These research tasks include:

• An annotated example of a music magazine front cover 
• A prezi detailing the conventions of music magazines
• Web-based research into my intended target audience and the genre of music magazine that i want to create
• A questionnaire aimed at a potential target reader detailing what they would like to see included in my magazine
• A written report about my target audience, specifying their needs and wants in terms of a music magazine

I will also create a proposal and flat-plans for my magazine front cover and contents page. 

Student Magazine Front Cover And Contents Page

Flatplans For Student Magazine Front Cover And Contents Page