Music Magazine Industry

There are more than 8000 magazine titles published in Britain alone and only 3 in ten of these titles survive more than 4 years this shows that the media industry is very volatile. These titles can be categorised into 7 different groups: Consumer (general and specialist) - sold local newsagents as well as often being available online, Business/Professional -for people that work and the trade that they work in, Customer magazines - usually created by big organisations to give to customers, Staff magazines - to keep staff informed in a company, Newspaper supplements - which come free when you buy a newspaper like Sunday Newspaper gives it's readers S Magazine, Part works - a series of magazines which you can collect to create a set like an encyclopedia etc and Academic journals - for university-level talk about specialised topics.

However, Consumer magazines make up the majority of titles that can be found for sale in local newsagents. There might also be general titles that try to entertain and inform such as Cosmopolitan or Consumer Specialist like the Horse and Hound which target an audience who have an interest in a specific topic/hobby like gardening or knitting.

There are four major consumer magazine publishers which are Bauer (owns around 25% of sales revenue in newsagents), IPC (20%), BBC Magazines (7.8%) and Hearst (7.3%), these figures are from the 2008 sales revenue in newsagents. Due to consumer magazines sales revenue being dominated by a few companies it is called an oligopoly. The world of commercial media is characterized by a high degree of concentration of ownership. A similarity of these magazines is that Bauer, IPC and Hearst all have several womans gossip/lifestyle and tv orientated magazines.

Although circulation of the magazine is important so that the magazine is distributed effectively advertising is also very important as the advertising revenue provides between 10% and 50% of the magazines overall revenue. This is created by advertisers buying advertising space in particular parts of the magazine. Some advertising spaces are bigger than others which is why an advertiser will pay more for an advertising space on the back cover or inside front than the middle of the magazine.

Due to having an interest in music magazines I looked to see which publishing company owns what music magazine that I often see on the shelves of newsagents and supermarkets.
NME, Teen Now - IPC Media
Q, Kerrang - Bauer
As you can see, the majority of succesful music magazines are either published by Bauer or IPC Media.

My Media Kit

Primary Photos used for Contents Page (Unedited)

Process of Construction - Front Page

DPS Article

Chuck your Kelly Clarkson CD’s in the bin as American starlet Allie is already crashing head first into the UK charts and some say she may be a better version of Kelly’s killer vocals. She’s still relatively new to our music scene but her new single “Mysterious” is already lined up for the number 1 spot in the charts next month, and with her rock chic dress sense and the support from her band she’s definitely ready for war! 

If you walked past her on the street you’d probably think she was just an average girl but now we know all her secrets it’s hard for her to hide with a magnifying glass from the press dangling over her head. So how is she coping with her new found fame? “I honestly don’t know how I feel about that (Laughs) it’s INSANE! Like, I seriously get people walking up to me for photographs!”  

With her debut album coming out in March us at Stereo Magazine don’t think the fame will be stopping anytime soon. But we feel like we have to ask; what inspired the song “Mysterious” and what theme does the album follow?

“This year I’ve had sooo many secrets kept from me from the people who I was really close with and when they all got revealed I felt like I didn’t know that person anymore. That’s what “Mysterious” is all about. Finding out the truth...even when it’s hard. And the album follows the same theme.”

 Allie had a tough time breaking into this industry, no found on YouTube stories for her, no. Allie was discovered the old fashioned way - by busking and gigging till she was well known. Although that may have been exhausting, it’s definitely paid off! With a several million dollar recording contract for 3 years already signed. She’s gonna be sticking around for a while! So keep on watching the charts to watch this star rise to fame. Friends with Taylor Swift and Katy Perry already, she’s not wasting any time. Just last week she was photographed with Taylor backstage at the finals of the US XFactor laughing “like old friends” seems to us at Stereo that she has everything she needs to be a power figure in pop’s crumbling industry. You never know; she could be the new Madonna!! But no pop star would be a success without a dedicated band and so we ask for more...

“I love my band, I spend so much time with them that they are becoming my closest friends”. It’s mostly girl dominated though with only one guy in the whole band (Corey - the drummer). “We all write the songs together, I write the vocals and have an idea for the melody and they try to help me create it. We all add our own stamp to the song, even if I’m the one who writes it”. The other band members are: Laura and Allie herself who both play guitar. The band is writing so many songs so fast that they have even got songs lined up for a second album and are preparing a dream tour of both the US and the UK.  Support rumours for the UK tour are running riot and vary from Little Mix to Ed Sheerhan who is also becoming a fast friend.

Because of all these new friendships, it should be no surprise that there is even a new song on the album called “Devil in Blue” which describes the moment when you see what a friend’s motives and gifts at manipulation are. I’m sure most of you will have experienced this and will relate but even if you don’t, it is a great song with a powerful bass line and catchy lyrics that everyone will want to dance and sing to. Think along the lines of “We Are Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift as an example.

Inspiration comes to Allie from all kinds of things from friends and family to even food and drink. YES! There is even a song about food. This is just one example of how Allie lets her quirkiness shine throughout the album which definitely makes her stand out from the other bands in the charts at the moment.    

Allie’s debut album - “Allie Exclusive” is released on the 8th of March so what are you waiting for? Go and buy it!! 

Paper Draft of Contents Page

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

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My Contents Page for Magazine (Final draft)

How did you attract/address your audience?

 Click on the images to go to my flickr analysis.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

My DPS Final Draft

My final draft of my DPS, Created using Adobe Photoshop.

Content Page Analysis 2

Music magazine content page 1, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.

Click on the image to see the analysis.

Contents Page Analysis 1

DSCN3950, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.

Click on image to see analysis.

DPS Paper Draft

Photos Used For DPS

This was one of my bracelets. I took a photo of it and erased the background using the eraser tool. I also enlarged it for the DPS.



I also created a star graphic on photoshop which can be seen on my DPS.

Photo Used For Main Cover Image (unedited)

DPS Analysis 2

DSCN1036, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.
Click on the image to see the analysis.

DPS Analysis 1

DSCN1033, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.
Click on image to see my analysis.

My Magazine Cover (Final)

My Audience Research

My audience research 3 from CWatling

My Magazine Masthead

I used this photoshop tutorial (http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/light-burst/) to create my masthead for my music magazine and this is the finished result.

Paper Plan of Music Magazine 2

For My Photoshoot

For my photoshoot of the main cover image I am using my bestfriend Amy as the main cover image model this is because, with her as my model, the photoshoot will be less awkward and more comfortable and she is the perfect example of what my audience will look like psycographic and demographic wise. She will be wearing dark clothes with a rock chic look.

I will need for the photoshoot: a microphone, a digital camera, Amy, lights, reflector and black fabric background.The photoshoot will take place in the photography room.

For my DPS photoshoot I used Amy again as well as my friends Corey and Laura as not only are we all close but they fit the demographic and psychographic of my magazines target audience. They will wear casual clothes as I want them to look down to earth. The photoshoot will take place outside on the green near the college.

Paper plan of the front cover

My Paper plan of my front cover of the magazine.

Music Magazine Mood Board

Initial Ideas of My Music Magazine

The working title of the magazine is "Stereo" as it is linked to the music industry and suggests that it is not just a stereotypical music magazine.

The target audience is a female audience from mid-teens (15/16yrs) to early twenty year olds. I decided not to make the magazine appeal to both genders as there are not many female music magazines available for the age group stated which shows a gap in the market. This gives my magazine a unique selling point.

There is no chosen social class yet as the magazine should appeal to all classes within the age bracket. The majority of the audience will probably be students but on my survey I will ask about their employment status.

The target audience psychographic for the music magazine is mainstreamers as most students can be classed as mainstreamers as a result of peer pressure etc so the right genre of music will be used in the content.

For the price of the magazine I have chosen between £2 and £2.50 but will ask how much they are prepared to pay in my survey and will be issued monthly as if it was weekly I think people would lose interest and the audience would not be able to pay that price every week due to education fees and bills etc. Plus it would be able to cover a bigger variety of music genres.

The content of the magazine will be new music, the music charts, clothing, make up and hair products, film reviews. Plus interviews with celebs, quizes and horoscopes to make the magazine appeal to a more female audience.

Music Magazine Cover Analysis 3

Music Magazine Cover Analysis 2

Music Cover Analysis

Music cover, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.
Click on image to view analysis on Flickr.

My Finished College Magazine Contents

 

My Finished College Magazine Cover

 

Original Image

Student Magazine Audience Research

In order to find out what the audience would expect and want of a student magazine I created a survey of which ten students took part. When asking my survey many said they were more likely to buy the magazine termly rather than monthly and it became obvious that girls would buy the magazine on a more regular basis than boys.

When asked which categories of magazine content they would prefer they were presented with a multi-choice question where they could pick up to three areas. These are the results:

As you can see, a music section and an events guide for the local area were the most popular options followed by sports.

A considerably higher amount of students wanted the magazine to be less information based and more informal and wanted activities like quiz's and horoscopes to be included in the content. When researching the ads that were more likely to be successful for the magazine I realised that shop adverts and tv ads were probably the more suitable choice as these would appeal to both genders unlike perfume and make up.

During the price section of the survey two more people said they would be willing to pay up to £2.00 instead of up to £1.50 which suggests we can price the magazine between £1.50 and £2.00. Despite this, the majority of students said that they would not be likely to subscribe and would not buy on a regular basis.

C.U.E College Magazine

Girl college magazine, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.
Click on image to view analysis.

Soup College Magazine

Soup, a photo by Cara Watling on Flickr.
Click on image to view analysis.