(evaluation question) looking back at your preliminary task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have to learnt in the progression from it to the full product

When I compare my preliminary task and main task side-by-side like this I realise how much I have learnt over the course of only a few months. I had to take into account that while models, props and backdrops were easy to come across at school for the preliminary task as i was doing it in school and just grabbed any student i could find, however this would not be the same for the main task. so as soon as we got our real task i went home and organised the photo shoot which was in a studio so there were instruments and other music equipment i could use as i had in mind what i wanted as the main headlines however, I didn't think it would be as hard as it actually was to get good photos first time, however i took a few photos the next day so i didn't loose out.Comparing the front covers of my school magazine and my music magazine, there is a lot more content in my music magazine this is because the front cover is the most important in bringing in an audience and all space should be used effectively. I decided to see how my music magazine cover would look if it had roughly the same amount of content on it as the school magazine cover. but it did not work it looked more like a CD cover than a front page of a magazine.

Another thing I learnt in the progression from my preliminary to my main task was how modes of address differ in different types of magazines. In my school magazine, despite there not being much written content, it is obvious that there is an innovative tone with the slogan 'we ant your work on our walls'. On my music magazine's front page, however, there is the slogan 'we have everything on our radar'. this difference brings in the target audience that wants to find out about music news.

another thing i learnt in my preliminary task was from feedback by my classmates we did a video response on their likes and dislikes of our front pages. through this we could take notes on what to improve and what to keep the same and through time i found the perfect way to effectively attract the demographics and phsycographics of what should be my target audience.

Overall my progression through this project has taught me a lot. I learnt that just having a magazine that looks visually like a real product isn't good enough as there are many other factors to take into account e.g mode of address and codes and conventions and more included in this post and previous posts to reach my target audience. I am pleased with my music magazine and it is a lot better when compared to my school magazine. If I were to go back and re-do my preliminary task I am confident that, using what I have since learnt, I would be able to make it to a much higher standard.

(evaluation question) what have you learnt about technologies from the progression of constructing this product

before i took the pictures i sketched some images to give myself an idea of what i wanted in my picture and how it would affect the theme for my target audience it was my first time using a digital camera taking a photo shoot, i had to think about shot types, angle, framing and lighting i chose a mid shot eye level to show equalnes. i then had to put it on the computer and choose the ones i thought were best for the magazine. i had to think about the back ground for example if there were lots of trees then it would be a lot harder to crop if i didn't want them in the magazine.







the hardware used for my front page and my content page was on a mac computer and using photoshop i have learnt how to edit the smallest details and make an image i took with a camera look real by using the crop tool rubber and effects for example changing the contrast or brightness. i also learnt how to change a text for example changing the colour or making the outline glow to make it look more special.
i also used a program called pages, i used this for my double page spread it was easier to use for my double page spread  as it was easier to work with for the amount of writing i was using. safari i used to get special text to suit my audience. the site was dafont.com.






 
overall i learnt alot about all these programmes especialy photo shop.

(evaluation question) how did you attract/ address the audience for your music publications

my music magazine front cover instantly attracts all kinds of audiences and the bold red letters catch peoples eyes. but what makes them want to read more and what brings my target audiences is the text, i want people who are interested in the indie/rock/pop genre of music which is why i named it 'indie radar' it says in the name radar this is because i want my viewers to instantly know that my magazine is a radar, and a radar represents knowing everything, and my tag line backs it up.
makes the point stand out even more that 'everything is on our radar'. my readers want to know or find out about new bands or news on existing bands  and my magazines radar catches everything. in my viewers spare time they want to be up to date with music so my magazine brings all of these needs to the table. on my front page i put in a bubble album of the week, this is a good way of anchoring the reader in, they ask themselves question and want to know but to know they need to open up the publication. the contents page has gripping headlines in it and also has  every subject the reader wants to know. and has 'the UK's no 1 gig guide'. so obviously y target audience being the kind that like to go out will want to read this to get information on the latest events.

(evaluation question) who would be the audience for your magazine

by my research of Q magazine they describes their readership as being "Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to unlike nme. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film the statistics are shows in previous posts to prove this." This seems to be showing that Q is aimed towards a mass audience rather than a controlled specific one, as opposed to a magazine like Kerrang! which focuses almost entirely on rock.my audience are young people and if they had extra cash they would probably go out and spend it at the cinema, things to do with friends e.g amusement parks, food, clothes shopping and music. my audience are the kind that would save a bit of money for festivals and gigs which is why i keep them up to date with the latest and most popular events, in my magazine. all this information is shown in my magazine i have based my magazine on nme as they are similar. my target audience are the sort o people who will use it as a diversion from everyday pressures or read it for surveillance, even personal companionship. diversion is an obvious aspect as my advert is about festival tickets which is a diversion from every day pressures.

double page spread for my music magazine

my double page spread

contents page for my music magazine

my contents page

front page of my music magazine

my music magazine

(evaluation question) what kind of institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

after researching emap i found it would not be a good idea to use this as my distributor because it works with business magazine and my magazine is a music magazine.

i chose ipc media because it is the perfect distributor for my magazine as it works with the media and music which is what my magazines content holds.

to find an institute to distribute my magazine i had to research my audience which is; of a younger age and young people are addicted to computers in this day and age so therefore downloading music would probably be the most popular way of listening to music for example downloading off itunes because then they can put the music on there ipod/mp3. sites such as YouTube are popular as you can access all kinds of different songs and watch the music videos. TV channels such as viva, mtv and kerrang are all music channels this attracts young people as it has chart shows so the viewers can see the latest top bands. radio is not the biggest hit with young people so i wouldn't work a great deal on that so i would make a site and they would be able to download music, there would be links to YouTube  and to bring in more people i would give away free song with there first download.
hmv will be a main company wanting to advertise in my magazine as they sell music cd's, mp3's and more music related stuff.
orange is an advertiser in my magazine they give my readers a chance to buy tickets for a festivl or gig one day before the release date.

(evaluation question) how does your music magazine represent particular social groups

my magazine is similar to NME it has the same genre of music and the same sort of news represents social groups such as. my readers are passionate about music and as a result they like going to gigs so i have an event and gigs section and they are far more responsive to advertising in that area. they want to aspire so they read my magazine. Whether they are more positively disposed towards brands that they see as supporting their favourite magazine or accessing advertising that they see as particularly relevant to them and their lifestyles they are more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement in my magazine. my target audience is a younger audience from around 16-30 because that is the audience that support indie genre of music.
quite a lot of my readers are still at education but the older ones are hedonists they like to enjoy life and may play an instrument or support bands.
it shows people that want to go out, have fun, go to festivals, gigs and that is what my audience want to aspire to  and some can relate to.

(evaluation question) in what way does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?

There are a wide variety of types of music magazine, and therefore a wide variety of different conventions to which the different magazines abide. Earlier, in my magazine analysis and masthead analysis, I had a look at the different music magazines and decided that Mojo, Uncut and Q constitute as the quality magazines while NME and Kerrang!. I chose to make my magazine as a quality publication, which is why I shall be referencing more the codes and conventions of magazines like Mojo and Uncut, though I shall still look at NME and Kerrang! to get a better idea of the codes and conventions of music magazines as a whole.
my magazines mode of address has a colour scheme of dark purple back ground and bright red text. the dark purple background suggests a difference and mystery this makes the reader think about it and want to read it. the bright red text suggests urgency, this makes catches my audiences eyes by the bright colour and draws them in. the two colours combined make it easy to read. the genre of my music magazine is clearly indie as the title is indie radar. indie radar instantly grabs my target audiences attention as it says everything about my magazine in two words. my tag line serves the purpose of reiterating the title in a different way so the audience fully understand what my magazine is about its also a diversion, an escape from everyday pressures.
the front page image is an artist playing a guitar his costume is one that an indie artist would wear and his facial expression is serious which shows how serious music means to him according to my research most people can relate to it therefore brings more readers in. the use of language underneath the image is a quote which carries on to an inside story this leaves a mystery and makes the reader want to buy it and read it. the main image represents a lot of people the way they dress and their music they listen to so it grips them and makes them want to look at them for personal identity so they can compare there lives. i added in circle bubble a cover line with text saying brand new album inside this makes the reader want to know more as the research clearly states about 90% of people are interested in new bands.

gender representation in the music press

NME - 65% male
uncut - 96% male
kerrang - 64% male
classic rock - 93% male
mojo - 76% male
mixmag - 84% male
Q - 68% male
these statistics show that most males read music magazines. and that the majority of males listen to rock and classic old songs. it shows that women are not as interested in music magazines as men are, which could suggest they fancy the gossip mags more. however there is not 'top of the pops' magazine which is definitely a stereotypical representation of femininity.

NME Research

In the last 12 months NME readers bought in average

45 CD singles- 135 each reader
39 CD albums- 430 for every reader
55% buy most of their music for a major music gain
46% specialist record shop
15 tracks download in last month
18 albums burned to computer

GIGS AND EVENTS
91% go to gigs
2 gigs per month
48% of readers have been to nme gig
at least 1 festival per year
92% agreed music is an important part of their lives
75% agree that they liked listening to new bands.

with 30 adverts on average per magazine, keeping in mind that some adverts take up more than 1 page, and about 18 small adds take up 1 whole page also the back cover holds an advert that means there are about 15 page with adverts inside. the percetages above help companys advertise and what product most suits the genre of the target audiences needs

Arctic Monkeys - 'Fluorescent Adolescent'

this is the genre of music my magazine is!

Audience feedback

what i learnt from my audience feedback

i learnt that i had a good front page as it was eye catching and especially grabbed the attention of my target audience which is indie music fans. 

my title basically says what my magazine is about and the feedback certainly shows that and the tagline give the viewer something extra to hold on to. the tagline  'everything you need is on our radar' shows that it is not just news on music but on individuals 

i also got good feedback for the use of colour and how i carried on the colour scheme, which was a purple back ground, from my title to the contents.

i got also got good feedback for the image i used, the boy with the guitar at a mid shot shows what my magazine is about and therefore pulls my target audience in.