Monday 18 November 2013

- interactivity

Interactivity is an important aspect to include within music magazines; this is where readers are able to be included and take part. There is a variety of ways to include readers, from having them take part in the making of the magazine to holding competitions. I think it is necessary to include interactivity because it makes the reader feel more involved, therefore making them more likely to buy and enjoy the magazine. I am creating questionnaires which involve target audience which is allowing them to have say in the making. This is a good thing to do as it then shows me that the audience will actually enjoy the magazine since it will be based by their choices. Magazines normally always have links to social networking sites now such as Facebook and Twitter;it isher huge popular way to interact with the audience.(e.g twitter- letting people tweet a question to ask an artist, then the mag will ask some in one of the interviews), competitions, voting and many more options. Due to the technology today, lots of readers can easily stream videos of gigs they have attended and such very quickly for other people to see and comment on.

Some music magazine websites such as NME.com allow users to reate accounts and get a larger access to the insight of the magazine. The users are allowed to do things such as leave comments/opinions on posts and photos, join forums and debate about certain topics and have potential to decide on which is posted each week (due to popular demand, etc). This sort of allowance is what keeps a magazine being successful as everything will always be what the reader wants.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Uses and Gratifications




I will try and incoporate these points into my making of my magazine, I think it's important to think of these things while creating so the readers are content with what they are reading.

Thursday 7 November 2013

ArticleFlatPlan


I based this layout from looking at various Kerrang! articles since that magazine is the one I get a lot of my ideas from. I just quickly thought up that pose for the models so I am not entirely sure if it will stay like that in the end. I think for the actual text part I will do a small article before an interview. I think an interview is appropriate for this new band as readers get to know opinions and views from the actual members.

ArticleIntroductionFlatPlan




I decided to place a double page introduction to the article, this is so there is more room to introduce the band since in this case they are quite new. The text section will tell the readers more about them and start the actual the article which will then continue on the next page. I made up that casual group pose for the band, it should fill up at least that side of the page so people get a look on who they are. However, since these are just rough drafts, the outcome could end up looking different; It all depends on the models I use, if it works, or if I change my mind.

ContentsPageFlatPlan


 
I want the contents page to look quite busy since that is a common thing to see on the other magazines I studied. There will be various pictures across the page, that of which I will take myself, to make the page more interesting and appealing. I added a subscribe advertisment at the bottom since that was also something i regularly saw.

FrontCoverFlatPlan

 
 
This is a very rough draft just so i can get my first general ideas for the layout of the magazine, I will create more accurate detailed versions of these flat plans once I develop my ideas further.
 
From my research, questionnaire and own ideas, I have further developed plans for my magazine. I have figured that the target audience for my magazine will be people around the ages of 16-20. My secondary audience will be people of around 21-28. Although I am not sure on details such as title name.. I have decided the genre of my magazine will be rock as it was the most popular choice of music in my first questionnaire and I prefer it too. I think I will base the article on a band so I will also add a band on the front cover consisting of around 4 members. I am going to create a few flat plans for my front cover, contents page and article so I can get a basic idea of how it will end up looking like. After that, I will start details on title name, article, etc.

Monday 4 November 2013

I decided to hand out my questionnaire to a variety of 30 people, this is so I'm not being too ranged within one age, i.e if i just handed it to a class of students. I collected all the results and presented them into Pie Charts which I will post shortly. The reason I created this questionnaire was to get a better idea on the basic wants for my magazine, I may create another questionnaire soon focused only on my target audience asking more in depth questions.

Questionnaire for Magazine and Audience


Please tick each that applies.

Gender:
Male ( ) Female ( ) Other ( )

Age:
12 and under ( )  13 - 15 ( )  16 - 18 ( ) 19 - 21 ( ) 22+ ( ) 30 + ( ) 40+ ( )

What is your working status?
Education ( ) Job ( ) Unemployed ( ) Other (please state ) ____________

How often do you generally buy music magazines?
Once a week ( ) Once a fortnight ( ) Once a month ( ) Every few months ( ) Never ( ) Other (Please state)_________

How much do you usually spend on them?
Less than £1 ( ) £1.01 - £2.50 ( ) £2.51- £3.50 ( ) £3.51+ ( )

What is your favourite genre of music?
Pop ( ) Rock ( ) Classical ( ) Metal ( ) Jazz ( ) Other (Please state) _________

What do you use to listen to music?
Phone ( ) Radio ( ) CD player ( ) Computer ( ) Ipod ( ) Other (Please state) ___________

Do you prefer to download music or buy a CD?
Download ( ) CD ( ) Other (Please state) __________

Do you regularly use social networking sites?
Yes ( ) No ( )




What would make this new magazine stand out to you?
Storylines( ) Price ( ) Colour scheme ( ) People on the cover ( ) Other (please state)

How often would you like it to be released?
Once a week ( ) Once a fortnight ( ) Once a month ( )

What's the most you would spend on this magazine?
Less than £1 ( ) £1.01 - £2.50 ( ) £2.51- £3.50 ( ) £3.51+ ( )