Audience feedback

I asked and recorded a fellow media student's honest opinions on my work so far and what he thought I could improve and I took his advice to heart and made a couple of changes.

Who would be the Audience for your music magazine?

My key demographic would be a young generation who perhaps go to university although there may be many people who were interested in the magazine despite the target audience being specific to 16 - 34 year olds. I have chosen this particular age group as it encompasses people right from the beginning where young people will start to earn their own money and get a job; therefore they will be able to afford my magazine. Also, they’re at the age where teenagers will begin to have a passion for music and have a strong idea about their specific interests and dislikes. Anybody younger than my target audience will not yet have a clear idea or a strong passion for a particular music genre because they’ll still be learning about the different types of music there is. Also, they may not have the money to afford magazines.

My magazine appeals to both males and females as it is not based on a particular gender however, stereotypically it is males that are into Hardcore Metal Music. They would generally be ‘metal-heads’ who constantly listen to music while travelling to work or gigs on public transport or in their cheap cars which serve no purpose other than transport.
The target audience will particularly enjoy Heavy Metal that is not over the top with screaming but with good quality Metal and singing as well as impressive guitar and drum solos.

My music magazine will be mainly aimed at the ‘ABC1’ social category as these will be the people most likely to spend money on my magazine.
They would have either a full-time or part-time job but all their disposable income would be spent on going to see their favourite bands live and would be the kind of ‘die hard’ fans who push their way to the front to be closer to their idols and in the centre of the action. Although they are successful and have enough money to afford my magazine, my target audience might also be joiners, this is displayed in the way they would buy my music magazine, to read about people of a higher status and class than them, with the hope that they might also be able to achieve this. They would already be subscribed to various other music magazines as any free time they have, if there’s no gig on, would be spent either reading the magazines or relaxing at home or at a mates with Metal playing in the background. When my target audience read the articles about these music artists, they will realise they have something in common with them and that they can personally relate to them. This will make the article more enjoyable as they will understand the content and artists being promoted. My target audience may also read my magazine in order to discuss music news with friends and family. My ideal target audience have a strong passion for music; therefore music artists, gigs, events; festivals and so on will be a huge topic of conversation in their lives. Consequentially, by reading my music magazine they will have the information and gossip to share with everybody with similar interests.

Their perfect night out would be meeting up with their mates, having a few drinks, heading to a Bullet For My Valentine gig, getting right to the front and singing along with the songs, word for word. They would also be willing to spend some extra cash to get backstage if they could to meet the band afterwards and generally have a good time.

Thanks to the results of my poll (posted on my blog) I have found that my target audience would prefer a simplistic and appealing layout, suggesting that they themselves would be simplistic people who aren’t fussy. This is further supported by the next question where the majority answered saying they’d rather have a minimalist and simple front cover.
They would prefer Interviews and General Music News, accompanied by many pictures to keep the magazine interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

More people have said that they would prefer a monthly magazine and that they would prefer that on paper form.
Of the 17 people that answered whether they were subscribed to a music magazine, 5 said yes and 12 said no but only 1 out of those 12 said they wouldn’t subscribe to one in the future, therefore I will be aiming to sell my magazine in a shop as generally people don’t subscribe but buy on impulse, again displaying the type of personality my readers have.

They also said that Black and Red are the most relatable colours to the heavy metal culture and that the body positioning and/or poses that the Band members make are the most important when taking photos whereas the second most important is their appearance, mostly clothing.

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

When I created my preliminary task, I had little knowledge on how to use a camera, how to edit images on Adobe Photoshop CS3 and generally I didn’t know a lot about magazines. 

When looking back at my front cover of “Your New-School News” magazine that I created, you can instantly see a lack of knowledge about magazine conventions and appalling ICT skills. My masthead doesn’t stand out at all, as it is about the same size as my main sell line. It is in different coloured fonts, therefore does not look correct but awkward. The actual name of my magazine also shows that I had not considered what might stand out and sound interesting to my target audience of school children and/or teachers. My page has an awkward coloured gradient which clashes with the picture and looks terrible; this will instantly make my magazine unappealing as the audiences eye will not be drawn to my magazine above other competition. Also there were barely any sell lines meaning audience would not pay for something which didn’t offer good value for money.

There is also no consistency of font, by looking at all the sell lines, all of them are different sizes, some are bold and wide, whereas some others are thin and small. Rather than displaying different skills in text editing, which was my intention, it made my magazine appear to be amateur and unplanned. As for the image, it suggests I was not aware of how to cut a photo out professionally using a colour range meaning I got a thing white line around some awkward places such as the hair. This makes my magazine appear amateurish as the cover model on a magazine would usually dominate the page and the sell lines would fit in around it. However in this case, my one sell line is placed underneath the image, which looks very unprofessional. For example: “How to avoid the wrath of teachers” is placed on top of my main image and is written in yellow, making it difficult to read. 

When looking at my contents page, it is clear I hadn’t considered a colour scheme. On the front cover, there are uses of blue, yellow, pink, black and white. Whereas, on the contents page, there is a use of black, three shades of green, pink, red, brown and white. Therefore, if audiences were given both pages separately, they would not be able to determine whether they were from the same magazine or not. Again, on my contents, it is filled with clashing colours; the fonts do not complement each other or stand out very well either, which makes the page appear unprofessional and unplanned. Also there is only one image, this would be disappoint or anger the target audience. This shows that the magazine is not worth its value as there is not enough content for the price, meaning my magazine would be severely unsuccessful in a professional market. 

Now, if we look at my finished music magazine, I have none of these issues. The texts on all pages, particularly my front cover, complement each other and fit together properly as I have tried to consistently use sharp, tight, bold fonts. This is because when studying my similar product research, I concluded that music magazines use bold fonts to conotate power and dominance and straight lettered text. It will also help to make my magazine stand out to its target audience, against other music magazines on the shelf. As for white spaces on my front cover, it is filled with sells lines, indicating to my target audience that it is good value for money. I have made my cover model a lot larger in this page, in order to dominate the space more, and to imply that this person is the most important feature in this issue. My main sell line is very different from the straight cut, jagged effect masthead I used, as I created it on Photoshop, making the red letters bold and easy to read.

My contents page is also looks much more professional, as I have split it up into different sections, with headings for each part, as well as smaller explanations to give more information. My target audience will look at this and possibly feel spoilt for choice as there is also a band index, displaying the different artists featured in my magazine. I added a Facebook and Twitter sign and a subscription option; appealing more to the younger audience, this shows I have really considered my target audience more when creating this magazine, and have thought about how to create more appeal about my magazine for them. Also, it is now clear that I am aware of how to use a colour range to professionally cut out images, to make my magazine seem more aesthetically pleasing and for the my main image to stand out more.

Contents Page Build Up

I recorded myself revealing layer by layer to the eventual completion of my final Contents Page so it's easier to see the amount of items on there and the work I put in.

Double Page Spread Build Up

I also recorded myself revealing layer by layer to the eventual completion of my final Double Page Spread so it's easier to see the amount of items on there and the work I put in.

Final Magazine Production

Diary Entry Week 22

Today we had the final deadline so we had to make sure all our work was the best it could be. I think I succeeded in doing as much as I could; tweaking tiny things on my magazine with photoshop, adding more variation to my blog with different mediums. All in all a fairly succesfull day.