Music Magazine Analysis

Original Ideas Statement

Original Ideas Statement

The original idea behind the magazine is that it is just a music magazine, there will be no content relating to anything else, such as fashion. Its focus is on rock music, similar to that of Kerrang. The intended target audience is teens and young adults and just anyone who has an interest in rock music to be honest. It will be a monthly magazine, therefore it will be more of a larger, glossy magazine than a smaller magazine with lower quality paper which would be more suited to a weekly release that would have less content and be a bit cheaper than the monthly magazine that I’m creating. The magazine will feature a gig guide, news, updates, articles, reviews and interviews. These are the conventions of many music magazines, and just magazines in general. This format is familiar to the reader as they will always know what to expect when buying a magazine. My magazine will be no different.

Font Moodboard

The fonts for my magazine need to be quite intense and out-there as it is a rock magazine. I feel that the majority of these fonts fit both of those criterias. That is why I have chosen to place these fonts on my moodboard. The fonts must be Sans Serif to fit the theme of the magazine as a serif font could be seen as too playful for the genre.

Advertising Moodboard

Analysis

This moodboard represents advertisers for my magazine. They are all brands and companies that will appeal to our target audience detailed in the target audience moodboard. They are all popular brands in today's society and they are very big in the media. The Arenas on the moodboard represent the music aspect of the magazine as they hold concerts very often, which will appeal to the music fans who read the magazines.

Target Audience Moodboard & Analysis

Target Audience Analysis

The Mood Board shows that the Target Audience are into modern, popular technological brands such as Apple, Samsung and Android. They are also fashion conscious with brands such as Zoo York, Converse and Vans on the mood board. They are obviously interested in rock music. This is represented by the bands A Day To Remember, Fozzy and Bring Me The Horizon on the mood board. They are also people who enjoy going to concerts as shown by the images of crowds and the download festival logo. They are people who also technologically advanced and who use a lot of social media. This is shown by many social media logos on the mood board. These include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Periscope. All of these factors suggest that the overall target audience is quite young. They suggest that the target audience can be male or female with no limits of ethnicity.

Case Study of NME

Complete Analysis of a music magazine

NME

NME has been in existence for 63 years having published the first issue on the 7^th of March 1952. It is widely associated with rock, alternative and indie music. 66% of its audience are male with a median age of 23. This matches their target audience. 61% of the readers are a part of the ABC1 demographic as well as 35% of their readers being students. These readers also have similar interests in music as NME write about so they are even more so from their target audience. 77% of their readers attend at least one gig in a year. A lot of these gigs would be for bands featured in the magazine and the gigs were probably listed in the gig guide. NME was a newspaper until 1998 when the issue published on the 21^st of March was printed on glossy paper. In 2015 they began releasing a free magazine, with 300,000 copies given away on the first week. Sales of the paid title have slipped to just 15,000 in 2015, down for 19,431 in 2013. Sales in 2003 were at 72,442 so a huge decline had taken place. This is a part of the general trend that magazines are not as popular as they once were. NME.com was founded in 1996. The current editor is Greg Cochrane. He took over from Luke Lewis in 2013. The website is still proving quite popular despite its decline in readers so in the future, they should focus on their digital content. The NME readers are quite tech savvy so the website should be faring quite popular. 93% of their readers have a computer and 96% of their readers have internet access. 56% of the NME readers visit the NME website at least once every few days. Some of these people visit NME.com every day. There is also an NME radio station, an NME gig tour and an NME awards show. All of these help the magazine and the website as they are both promoting the product to more people.

Information on Publishers

Information on Publishers

Time Inc. UK – Time Inc. UK are one of the biggest publishers in the UK with over 60 “iconic media brands” in the UK such as NME, World Soccer and the UK’s Most Popular magazine, What’s on TV. NME is undoubtedly one of the biggest names under the Time Inc. UK banner and is one of if not the biggest music magazine in the UK. NME has won awards for its publishing from Time Inc. UK, who were formerly known as IPC Media. They work with a lot of companies to help them promote their businesses in their various magazines and on their other products. They have a project called “BrandYou” which is helping people build their own personal brand and to present themselves better to other people. This programme has ambassadors such as Katie Price and Janet Street-Porter and has been presented at events such as Advertising Week Europe in London. Time Inc. do not only run in the UK. Time Inc. are a global brand as they represent over 90 media brands around the world. Some of the brands they represent outside of the UK include Sports Illustrated, which reaches 18 million sports fans a week, and People magazine, which is the most popular “celebrity and entertainment” magazine in the US.

Future PLC – Future PLC are the sixth largest media producer in the UK and an international company. They publish over 30 magazines in markets such as video games and sport. They were founded in 1985 in Somerset with just one magazine about the Amstrad. This magazine ran for 10 years. In 2015, they create two of three magazines for major gaming platforms. They have now expanded to the USA under the name Future US. Like the other two, they have also won awards for their publishing and they are bringing in among the highest profits in the magazine industry in the UK as their gaming magazines remain popular. They’ve also produced in the TV world, albeit, without much success as they brought the Games Master brand to TV. They ran the show on Channel 4 and it ran for six years before being cancelled in 1998. Despite this, they remain very successful in the magazine world to this day.

Conde Nast - Conde Nast produce magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, Wired and GQ, some of the biggest selling magazines. They are headquartered in the Freedom Tower in New York City, but they expanded to the UK when they became popular in the USA. The former headquarters has been named the Conde Nast building after they were there for so long. As well as these magazines, they own some more media giants, including Reddit and Ars Technica. They are considered to be the originators of “class publications” which are magazines aimed at a certain social class. Several of their magazines have shut down over the last few years. This is probably due to the current trend of magazines being quite unpopular due to the rise of technology making it easier to get news as soon as it happens, rather than waiting for the next issue of a certain magazine to be published.

Overview of the Magazine Industry

Overview of the Magazine Industry

The two most popular magazines in the UK are “TV Choice” and “What’s on TV?” respectively. This shows that TV guide magazines are proving to still be as popular as ever, even with TV listings easily available on the internet and programme guides on the TV. Other magazines in the top 10 include “Radio Times”, “Slimming World” and “Closer”. Radio Times is partially a TV guide like the top 2. “Closer” is a women’s magazine.  Women’s Magazines are proving to still be quite popular as other magazines are also in top ten, including “Take a Break” which is the third most popular magazine in the UK with over 602,000 copies sold per week. A single page advert in a top women’s magazine has been known to cost £250,000 in the past. Niche magazines cost about £10,000 for the same advert, for example, a gardening magazine. Adverts will generally be cheaper if the advertiser makes a long term commitment to the magazine. Magazines in general have a much smaller audience than they used to. This is obviously due to the rise of the internet as news can be found on the internet as soon as it is released, and magazines can only report news when they are next published. Articles can also be found online so there is not really any selling point for magazines in 2015.  There is no reason for the consumer to buy magazines, therefore there is no reason to make them. Some magazines have a place in 2015 though, many niche magazines have what is almost like a cult following and are very successful because of that. They know their fans and play to their desires. This is why these magazines are successful but mainstream magazines such as NME have died out in recent years and are currently at their lowest buy-rates since the magazine began.