Product Placement

I have learnt what makes music magazines successful from analysing Real Media Artefacts  and I have gained a better understanding of my target audience from my questionnaire results. I now know the codes and conventions for music magazines, although this may vary depending on the genre of the music magazine there are many factors that will stay the same in all magazines. For example how the magazine is set out, as most magazines will include the same visual style and layout on their front cover, as a bold title and stand out image is important to grab the readers attention. As well as this all magazine will stick to a house style, normally changing each issue in order to make the magazine look new and more interesting. The contents page also has codes and conventions, as contents pages almost always include rows as this breaks the text up and make the page look clearer. Double page spreads have typical codes and conventions of: including a large image that often bleeds through onto both pages, as this ensures that the readers eyes move across the pages. As well as including the name of the artist featured in a bold title, or by using play on words that relate to the artist. I have also learnt from my research that images play an important role in magazines, as they draw the reader in and make the page more interesting, photographs are therefore seen as a key part of selling the magazine. The main image on the front cover tends to normally be a medium close up, for example a photograph of an artist from the shoulders up, as this shows the artists expression, without being too close up and unflattering. This is something that I have found in my research, I therefore think it would be a good idea for me to take a medium to close up image when I take photographs for my front cover, as it helps to promote the artist clearly.
I also found many other important features of a magazine by Analyzing real media artifacts such as: Maintaining the house style – as magazines tend to keep to a certain colour scheme, this usually suits the style of the name of the magazine.
The font for the name of the magazine is also important as it is used as a logo throughout the magazine, appearing on pages such as the contents helping to promote the product. The font that is used for articles and on the contents page is also important, as it is usually in the same font and size throughout, making it more consistent and easy to read.
The images used in the magazine always suit the genre, as the characters in the image wear clothes that are stereotypical to that genre, so it’s important that the overall style of the image suits the magazine.
Most magazines have a specific target audience, for example Kerrang is aimed for teenagers that enjoy rock music. Overall, I found in my research that younger teenagers tend to be the most common genre that buys music magazines, so lots of music magazines target them. I have decided from this that it would be a good idea to target older teenagers/young adults for my music magazine, as not many existing music magazines focus on this generation, as there is a niche market for this. My main competitors for this audience would be music magazines such as MOJO or NME, as these two magazines are more detailed and tend to use formal language, this suggests that they are usually read by a more educated  and older audience.
The genre of my music magazine can be quite flexible as there was not a clear preference from my questionnaire, generally people preferred the idea of an indie or drum and base magazine. Overall, I like the idea of a magazine that includes drum and base as this genre is not normally common in music magazines and I think people would be interested in buying it, however I plan to include other genres of music such as Indie as this will give me a wider target audience.

What I have learnt from my research and critical studies:I will aim my music magazine at young adults both male and female between the ages of 17-20, the results from my questionnaire show that young adults between the ages of 17-18 are my strongest audience, however this seemed too narrow an audience so I have chosen to widen this by targeting slightly older people as well.
· Including a consistent house style is important as it makes the magazine stand out and look more unique, attracting the audience.
· Colour and font also play an important role, as the right colour attracts the right audience. The font colour needs to be easy and clear to read, as well as the font type. This also needs to be consistent throughout the magazine to create a house style.
· I need to link the choice of colours in my music magazine to the genre.
· The codes and conventions of a music magazine suggests that the image on the front cover of the music magazine is normally a medium close up, as this clearly shows expression, without being too close up.
· My images need to be of decent quality, as bad quality photos will not attract my audience to purchase the magazine.
· My target audience for my magazine will be young adults of both genders.
· I learnt from my music magazine questionnaire that the most popular genre of music is indie or drum and base. I have therefore chosen to include a mix of both genres and have a wider target audience.
· Use of columns in a double page spread are key, as it makes the page look clearer and easier to read. Columns are a common code and convention of double page spreads as they stop the page from looking cluttered.
· I need to include new, up and coming artists in my music magazine, as this is what I learnt my audience would like to see from my questionnaire.
· Interviews from artists are a common thing to find in music magazines, and my audience seem to be interested in this concept so it’s important that I include an interview.
· The language that I use needs to suit my target audience of young adults, so I plan on including some slag words which are typically used by teenagers. However, it's important I do not use too many slag words as this will make my music magazine appear childish and result in targeting a younger audience.
· People would like to get freebees from my music magazine, such as free downloads so it's important I advertise this on my front cover.