Evaluation

Evaluation of Music Magazine.

These are my final pieces for my Music Magazine.

The Process: The first task was to create a college magazine which allowed me to gain an overall understanding of what a magazine involved and the conventions which are expected of a magazine. I found that all magazines had to have a large main image taking over the splash of the front page, there had to be a kicker(s) and teller(s), at least another (but smaller) image, a masthead, barcode, date, price and cover lines. This then helped me to develop and plan my college magazine easily. However, this also allowed my development of a music magazine to be quicker as I only had to look at the specific conventions of a music magazine then apply them to my final design. After I'd finished the preliminary task, I made a draft of each page of my music magazine - a front page, contents page and double page spread. This was just to give me a general idea of what I already knew about music magazines and a basic plan to refer back to for my music magazine. Then, I decided to focus on researching and developing an idea for my front page. This involved finding images of front covers of music magazines and analysing what their similarities and differences. Basing my front cover on these ideas, I took some photos of my main band, designed a masthead, thought up some band / artist names and article titles, then experimented with them on photoshop, positioning them differently on my front page. I then decided to research double page spreads and wrote an article of the cover band of Mute. After editing pictures and experimenting on photoshop again, I finally created my double page spread. As the final adjustments were being made to my double page spread, I also started to research contents pages. However, time was running short so my contents page was slightly rushed, but after experimenting slightly, I finished my final contents page. Overall, after plenty of research and experimenting, I finally finished my three pieces for my music magazine.

The preliminary task really helped me understand and practice the use of conventions in magazines before hand so that when it came to making the my music magazine I was able to do so quite easily.

Forms and Conventions of Music Magazines: I believe my music magazine is easily recognisable as a music magazine from the conventions that are familiar. For example, one of the key features of a music magazine is to have the masthead clearly positioned at the top left corner of the front page and often have red integrated within its design. The splash of the front page also needs to include a barcode - often accompanied with a date and price - as well as smaller images, a kicker (which can also be anchorage as the title of the main image - in this case Mute - is anchored by the image of the female by having tape across her mouth). There are numerous conventions for a front cover to follow, and I believe I have explained and included them all in my blog dedicated to the front page. However, I did challenge the convention of having all images looking directly at the camera. There is only the lead female of the main image looking away from the camera which demonstrates that she is wanting to defy conventions. Another difference in my front cover from a real music magazine is that the barcode is often positioned at the bottom right third of the page, whilst I decided to position it on the bottom left third of the page. This happened by pure coincidence as I found that I couldn't have my artist of Spotlight situated on the opposite side of the page due to the kicker of "Mute" and the teller of "They're not so quiet" as they would block the artist. It also made the page look too busy in the left third so I decided to swap the barcode with the image of Spotlight. To show that I have an understanding of the conventions of a music magazine, I decided upon including a skyline banner at the top of the page advertising that there are posters and exclusive interviews which are sell lines to the audience as this makes them want to buy the magazine more. For the Contents page I demonstrated that I understood that for the contents page to follow the expected forms of a music magazine, it had to include the date, a title of Contents (to let the readers know that it is the contents page), at least one image, the logo of the magazine, subtitles and page numbers of the articles/pages within the magazine. However, I did also use an editor's letter as I believe it allows the readers to feel addressed directly and included within the production of the magazine - because without them, the magazine wouldn't be successful. I found that this technique was only used in a few music magazines and (from my preliminary work on magazines in general) in a lot of other genres of magazine, such as fashion. I also discovered that the contents page is never actually the first page that the readers see inside of the magazine, due to the number of advertisements before it; therefore, I decided that my contents page would have to be on a page higher than p3. I still allowed the colour scheme to remain consistent throughout all of the magazine. This is to keep the colours consistent and to make the magazine constantly linked. The red I used because this is a standard, expected convention of a music magazine. Black was used for the text as it is easier for the reader to read a lot of text when it is black text on a white page, especially when there is a lot to read. I also integrated yellow within the magazine as I believe it allowed certain elements to stand out more from the page and also attract more attention. White is also a main colour, due to the fact that most pages are white so is a common background colour throughout, however I did use it for the text in my double page spread as well as the subtitles on my contents page to help anchor the background colour.
Target Audience: 13 - 20 year olds. This is because the artists/bands featured in this magazine are modern and young, therefore more appealing to a younger audience. Their music taste may be quite varied, but people who are more interested in pop / indie music would find this magazine more appealing. A secondary audience of 20 - 30 year olds may be possible for this magazine also, as they may be interested by new modern music. I doubt anyone over the age of 30 would wish to purchase this magazine as it is informal and almost comic which is something which you wouldn't associate with busy-working business people. To attract my target audience to the magazine, I would make sure that the magazine was readily availible in places that this target audience are most likely to go, such as the supermarket or smaller newsagents. After seeing the front page and perhaps sneak previews of the contents of the magazine, they will (hopefully) be interested as they would feel it relates more to their age group. I would also appeal to my audience by including a website address (for example: jammag.co.uk) which would show an example of web 2.0 allowing the audience to become included with their opinions when making the magazine. The front page image is a selling point for those who are interested in the fun, informal magazines with fun, informal bands. For example, the front page (main image) includes one member of the band playfully holding a guitar over his head as if he would hit the lead female singer with it. This would suggest that the band is fun and playful therefore appealing to those who would wish to be similar or are similar.

Media Institution (Distributing and Advertising): To distribute my media magazine, I would first make sure that my target audience was aware that the magazine actually existed. To do this, I would advertise my magazine on internet chat room sites (such as facebook, myspace etc...) as most people in my target audience have accounts on these internet sites and I would also rely on word-of-mouth and the shop in which it is availible from to promote it. JAM magazine would be availible to be purchased in shops such as Asda and Tesco as well as small newsagents. Perhaps to promote the magazine in the first place, I could include a free copy of the magazine in a newspaper such as The Sun or The Daily Mail. JAM would be horizontally integrated with IPC media who would help to distribute the magazine around the UK, as my magazine would be UK based.

From this task, I have learnt that the process to make a magazine is challenging! From planning, to taking pictures, to the positioning and to the final product, it involves a lot of consideration as to what the audience will want from the magazine and what they will expect to find. Sometimes there is a need for change, for something different to happen, but the magazine industry is successful due to the fact that it appeals to the audience who are interested in the content. There are many similarities between the music magazines, yet the differences make each one unique. For example, whether the text inside is formal or informal, or who the artists on the front cover are all contribute to who the magazine is appealing to. To make a magazine successful, you need to have the right people who specialise in using the correct equipment / programmes (such as cameras or photoshop) to make the image or presentation of the magazine look the best that it can.