Target audience for my magazine

Who are they and age?

My house magazine will be aimed at males and females aged 15 - 30 years. The target audience will be focus on people who are a mature age but still like to party and have fun. The reason I haven't put my target audience any younger is because I feel that house music is a more mature genre and wouldn't be deemed appropriate for under 15's.

What do they do in their spare time?

A average 15 - 30 year old would be socialising with friends, having fun, having a good balance between working to make a income and home life and like sing their social medias.

House music artist they would listen to?

My target audience would probably listen to mainstream house music artist such as Calvin Harris, Duke Dumont, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Oliver Heldens etc.

Consumers and users of social medias?

My target audience most likely would be consumers and users of social medias, consuming social medias to listen to House music and users of social medias, to look at their favourite house artists and celebrities.

House magazine conventions

• House music magazine tend to have light colours for the background such as white and then bright, striking colours for the cover lines such as bright pink, yellow etc, the bold striking colours bring attention to the target audience.
• The main image of the magazine tends to have someone that is a well known artist for house music on the front cover to attract a large audience.
• Cover lines usually contain things to do with the genre of music, house music artist, festivals and concerts etc, this may apply to the artist on the front cover or other artists in the magazine.
• Mainly the space around the main image on a house music magazine is taken up with cover lines to show to the target audience that there is a lot of contents in the magazine.

Music magazine publishers

Any type of magazine needs to have people who publish the magazine to be able to get the target market to read the magazines.



Bauer media manages over 600 magazines. Bauer became very successful and now has expanded out to radio and TV.  Bauer publishes magazines such as Kerrang, Grazia, Closer and many more. Bauer's magazines cover all different types of target audiences for example Kerrang is a rock music magazine that is focused on a target market of males and female s17+ years who are into rock music whereas magazines such as Grazia are a womens magazine for females from the age of 18+ who are interested in fashion and make up. These two magazines are complete opposites to what they show for contents to their target audience.



Another large publisher of magazines is IPC media. IPC media and sell millions of copies of their magazines worldwide and have also spread their magazines onto different medias such as tablets and phones. Magazines such as NME, TV times, Instyle and many more are published by IPC media. IPC media have magazines that cater all different types of target audiences for example, Instyle which is a fashion magazine for females, to NME which is a music magazine which target females and males  aged 17+ to Amateur Gardening which targets males ad females etc.

Knowing about magazine publishers will help me with my music magazine.

Colour triangles on magazines

 

 

I have chosen a magazine cover that is a house music magazine, I am going to use the function of colour triangles to show the similar and different colours within the front page.

 

By using colour triangles you are able to identify the things that stand out, so for this magazine cover the bold colours of red, white and black are striking against the background and draw the reader in. The white colours also link with the face of the artists. The face is outlined in white which is also the logo of the band, the colour triangles help to identify that this is a main aspect of the front cover and is important which will draw the reader in to the magazine and want to read further on.

 

On this front cover again the bright colours of pink contrast with the black making it striking, Most of the colour triangles on this front cover are central which makes you focus more on this that a near the centre. The white of the trousers and suits of the artists link with the writing as they shown highlighted this must be to show important information. The bright pink also does the same and shows the most important information, the colour triangles show the important colours and makes you focus on them.  

 

Masthead breakdown of magazines

Kerrang is a well known rock magazine whose target audience is 17+ for both male and females.
The masthead is iconic as it has stayed the same for many years, the iconic black and white is what is so recognizable for the target audience and for people who don't read the magazine but knows what the magazine is. The writing has a crack on it which is meant to look like glass, this shattered glass affect relates with the genre of the magazine which is rock to maybe show the tough stereotypical side of rock.

 

 

 



NME is a rock, indie and alternative music magazine, the bold colours of white, red and black are iconic for the target audience as it is the first thing they see, the colours are block colours which are simple and striking so this will make the masthead striking and bold on the front cover of the magazine, it will also make the recognizable to the target audience.

 

Top of the Pops is a pop music magazine that target audience is females aged 9-14. The girly colour of light blue attract the target audience because it relates to the target, the stars are also a girly touch which shows that it is a magazine focused for females. The blue is very bold which will also attract the target audience  and will be the first thing the target audience sees.

Character profile for double page spread

The character for my double page spread, will be a female artist and her name is Kinsley.

Kinsley Bloom is a 23 year old  female artist from Milton Keynes who produces house music. She was originally a pop music artist from the age of 18-22 years, who was knee deep in all things pink and pop. As she grew older she became tired of being a pop princess and wanted something different from the pretty pink life she was living. When she was 21 she took a year off to go traveling and landed in Ibiza where she met house artist James Smith. James Smith who was currently touring and was having a concert in Ibiza met Kinsley and asked her to sing on some of his tracks, then he asked her to sing live at his concert and had made her voice perfectly suited to the house music. As Kinsley heard her voice on a house track, she soon had a passion for house music. As she turned 22 on her birthday she released a new song but not as a pop princess but as a house sensation thanks to James Smith.

I am relating my character to Propp's theory by linking my Character Kinsley to being a hero and a princess.

Codes and conventions of a magazine

This is the meanings of the terminology for the codes and conventions of a magazine cover.



A masthead: The title used on the magazine, usually always at the top of the magazine cover, this is the first thing the reader looks for.



A main image:  Image of a person or object associated with the magazine.



Strapline: A subheading that is below the masthead, normally has something that relates with the magazine.



Tag: A phrase that is meant to engage the reader into a article.



Splash: Main story of the front page along with a headline and a photo.



Secondary lead: A preview of a article inside the magazine.



Spread: A article that normally covers more than one page.



Barcode: Used to state the price and to show the item. Always shown on the front cover.



Puff: A Phrase or word that attract the reader in.



Date: States the date the magazines issued.


Colour Theme: The theme colours of the magazine, usually matches the genre and is the same colour throughout the magazine.



I will use some of these Codes and Conventions in my magazine.

Propp's theory

Vladimir Propp came up with this theory; Propp's theory which shows the different typical characters that are mainly found within media.



The hero
The character that is good, that is shown to fight against evil.

The Villain
The evil character, mostly at war with the hero, hurts the princess and the character that we are made to dislike.

The princess
The character who needs help from the hero.

The helper
The character that helps the hero on the task normally known as a sidekick

The dispatcher
Send the hero on their task/mission

The donor
The donor helps give information for the hero, to help the hero in their task

The false hero
The character who is believed to be good but is actually evil.

Using Propp' theory I can relate it to the characters for my magazine.

Magazine name ideas

For my magazine I came up with some names for it, the types of names I came up had a relation to the genre house. These were the names I came up with;

• Bass:
• Chicago:
• Spike:
• Live:
• Time:
• Harmony:
• Rhyme:
• BPM:

I asked a group of people what they thought to the names of the above and to pick which names they liked or thought which name would go the best with a house music genre.
The results were that BPM was the most favoured name for the magazine, so I shall use this name for my magazine.

Photo shoot ideas

For my magazine I came up with an idea for my front cover image, double page spread and the locations, that I thought would be good for the for my photo shoot. I am going to have two characters featured on my magazine. There will be a Male artist; James Smith, who  is a house music artist which will be on the front page, the double page spread  will have my female artist; Kinsley, that was a pop princess turned house sensation.



The front cover

For the front cover I have decided that I will either do a long shot of the artist or a medium close up of the male artist; James Smith, I shall show the image with him having possibly some headphones around his neck. This character of the male artist will also be on the double page with the female artist as they both know each other in a certain way, so I will take a picture of them together. I will take a few shot to see which one is my favourite to put on the front page.



The double page spread

The double page spread will have the female artist Kinsley on the page, I will have a picture with her as the pop princess on stage and then another picture as her in her new image of a house artist. I will also have another picture of her with the male artist James Smith together. I will take about 3-4 pictures to put on the double page spread.

The types of locations I want for my photo shoot are ones that look like a festival or concert stage, a plain black so you are able to bring the features of the artist forward and then another background that looks like the female artist is on a fashion shoot so maybe a plain white background.

layout ideas for magazine

I thought a good idea would be to make a layout of my front page, double page spread and contents page. I decided to do a first draft to see what I thought would look good on each page and to see how I would want my layout to be like.
 These pictures are my layout for my front page, contents page and double page spread. This is my first draft so I shall try and attempt to make a prototype of these pages, I shall ask my target audience what they think to the prototypes and see the likes and dislikes of the prototypes or if I should adapt to improve or whether I should leave the layouts as they are.

colour scheme for magazine

After getting feedback from my questionnaire for my magazine, one question was about the colour scheme and suggestions such as neon colours, monochrome and strobe came up so I researched which colours fit into those category's, here is what I researched.



Neon colours

 

Monochrome                                                                                                                   Strobe

 

After researching different colours for the colour scheme for my magazine, I will use this information to help create my music magazine.

 

 

 

Questionnaire and answers

I have created a questionnaire which I handed out to my target audience which was males and females from 15-30+ years what they thought. I asked a series of 8 questions about house music and what they thought about house magazines. Using the answers from my questionnaires I will use them to help me with making my house music magazine.

1. My target audience is 15-30+ years females and males, who like House music. I asked, what sort of articles would you expect to see on the front cover of a house magazine?

Most of the responses to this question was information about the DJ's/artists and their albums, latest bands, house songs, festivals and concerts and how they make House music, what they do outside making music.

   2. What artists would you most likely want to see featured in this magazine?

Most answers where quite well known house music artists like; Duke Dumont, Calvin Harris, Oliver Heldens, David Guetta.

   3. Can you think of a name for a house magazine for my target audience?

Although I hadn't had any actual names for the magazine, the most popular answers were names that should relate to the technology used to make house music and to relate to the genre.
  
   4. What would you expect to be on a house music contents page?

Many answers said that the contents page should have pictures of artists, articles stated and many said it should have the page numbers so they know what page things are on.

  
5. What articles would you find interesting for 15-30+ year olds interested in house?

Nearly all answers said that they would be interested in seeing articles on festival/concerts, the music and charts/ upcoming albums and gossip and articles about house music artists.


 6. If there was competitions or offer/ free items would this interest you into buying the magazine?

All answers were yes.



    7. What colours or colour theme would you think suitable for a house magazine?

I  had a range of ideas for this question, half of the answers said bright, neon colours and other answers said I should use dull, monochrome colours. One answers said I should use colours that are like strobe lights which I found interesting.



     8. Do you agree that the target audience 15-30+ years is a good target range?

Most answers said yes this is a good target range because it fits with everyone and that it is a wide range however I did get an answer that said I should target to an audience from 15-25 years because they believe that people over 25 wouldn't listen to house music.

After doing a questionnaire and receiving these answers, I shall use the answers to help create my house music magazine.

Blog progress

13/11/15

Blog progress so far ….

14 posts so far.

Success – research and analysis of house magazines.

 Research and planning

Analysis of Magazine covers, analysis of double page spread, front page, Maslows theory and the colour wheel

Evaluation

Different music genre magazines, 3 different house magazines, double page spread

What I am planning to do next?

Next I will be making a questionnaire to find out what my target audience would expect on a house magazine, I will try and take pictures of characters for my magazine as well as doing more research on contents pages

Double page spread example analysis

I have decided to make a double page spread to go with my magazine that I am making, so I decided to research and analyse a double page spread. I chose to analyse a double page spread that was a house magazine which is the same genre that I am doing for my magazine.

This is the double page spread that I chose to analyse.

The title of the page is in the same font and the same colour, which represents goodness and a neutral feeling to the page.
The background of the page has the artist who's being interviewed; Duke Dumont in the picture and shows him in a regal house, this links with the artists name 'Duke Dumont' a duke is stereotyped with being a higher status so it links with the setting of a regal house. Half of the background is dulled out by the colour black to let them see the writing.
The main image is of the artist Duke Dumont which helps attract fans to buy the magazine because he is featured in it, another reason for half of the background to be dulled out is to bring the features of the artist.
The cover line helps to anchor the title, the coverline helps to show his success.
The interview itself consists of questions that are about the artists success, family, music and music career.
The line of artists next to the interview advertise other artists to try and get fan too buy the magazine.

3 House magazine evaluation

http://www.slideshare.net/Edenis-media/evaluation-of-house-music-magazine-mixmag

I have made a presentation that shows three different house music magazines and I have evaluated each one to show the techniques.