Original images for my Music Magazine.

Examples of Existing Double Page Spreads

Examples of existing double page spreads.

Magazine Demographics

My music magazine is going to be aimed at females between the ages of 15-21, who are mainly students. They are mainly going to be in the BC class band. My magazine is aimed at people who listen to quite up-to-date music, which is in the charts. This music will be a combination of pop, r&b and some rock and indie. The people who will buy my magazine are girls who are quite fashion concious and aspire to be like famous singers and celebrities such as Cheryl Cole.

Because of this the style I have in my magazine has to be quite modern and up-to-date. People who read my music magazine will be in education mostly, at either, high school or college, and some universtity students. They may also have part-time jobs as they would be quite aspirational in their fashion sense and would always want to get the new trends and new music, therefore they would probably spend a lot of money on clothes,CDs and Music Downloads.

I would say they would be quite sociable people as well, enjoying going out and spending time with their friends. They also like spending money on their appearance and looking nice, buying lots of perfume, hair products and make-up. Ipods and MP3s are essential to them in their lives as music is very important to them therefore it advertising these products in my magazine would be successful.

Audience Profile

The images on my audience profile represent the intended audience of my music magazine.

Analysing existing magazine covers

Before I start designing my music magazine I am going to analyse two existing covers, 'Smash Hits' and 'The Face' which are similar to what I want my magazine to look like, and get some ideas from them.

'The Face'

Exisiting Magazine Analysis

Content Codes
The colour scheme of this magazine is quite plain, dull colours such as beige and white, mixed with red, black and blue, which are very bold colours. By using dull colours as the background of the magazine, the main image and bold colours stand out more, the redness in the magazine on 'Kylies' lips represent her being glamourous. The model on the cover of 'The Face' magazine is a female celebrity, who is quite popualar. She is pouting her lips towards the camera which connotes a sense of sexual provacativeness although she does this in a classy way, maybe to show the reader that there are two sides of her. The fact that she is covering her eyes with her glasses suggests that she is quite mysterious, as she can see us but we can't seem them. A popstar 'Kylie Minogue' is at the centre of the frame on this magazine cover which is the image the reader would be most likely to notice first.
Technical Code
The shot distance of the of the main image of this magazine is a medium close-up. The images also seem to be quite grainy and old looking and the model is the main focus of the front cover. The lighting is low key and not very bright, and expresses an arty feel and edge. The font of the text on the magazine is sans serif and most of it is straight apart from the caption underneath the image of 'Kylie Minogue' which is going in an upwards direction.
Language Codes
There are very few words on the front cover of the magazine. The name of the magazine is placed along the top of the magazine and the caption is at the bottom. The caption is only a single statement 'International magazine of the year'. This is clever as it is not very wordy but gets to the point quickly with a fact. The other text on the cover of the magazine is over the image of the model, which says 'Kylie' and underneath, 'Who's that girl?' This is good as it fits in with the image of her covering her eyes as she is hiding her identity and the reader might find out information about her if they read the magazine. On the left hand side there is a short list of three things featured in the magazine. There is no rhetorical devices on the cover, although I will probably include some on my magazine.

Initial music magazine ideas

I am going to design a music magazine aimed towards females rather than males, as there are already quite a few music magazines on the market at the moment that seem to be aimed more towards males than females such as 'NME' and 'Q'. My magazine will be a mixture of new artists and popular music but it will not be based on one particular genre of music as it will include Rock and pop music as well as some R&B.

There are not many music magazines aimed at girls and I think there is a gap in the market for them. Also, most of the music magazines are based on a particular style of music, and there are various magazines based on rock bands and rock music. My magazine is going to be a mixture of various styles of music but they are going to be quite similar styles, as some songs have various genres in them.

When I was researching existing music magazines I didn't find one that was particularly similar in style to my music magazine ideas. The most similar one I found was 'The Face' which is no longer being made. I also found magazines such as 'Smash Hits' and 'Top of the pops' which are slightly similar although my magazine is going to be for older readers than these magazines as I think they are aimed at younger teenagers and it will be less about 'cheesy pop songs' which they seem to be about. My magazine will include bright colours although it will have a colour scheme and I want it to look quite messy, with things randomly placed on the page rather than really neat and properly placed.