Finished Product, New Music Magazine Front Cover, Double page spread and Contents Page

Response to Audience Feedback

After the completion of my front cover, contents page and double page spread of my new music magazine 'Chart Tracker', i decided to print some copies of all thre of these off and distribute them amongst some of my friends asking them for their feedback. When selecting the friends to distribute them to i decided to include two of my friends who are music lovers and regularly purchase copies of music magazines, i believe this gave me vital feedback as these people would be my magazines target audience and as they are music lover who constantly read music magazines they have a wide experience and so their feedback was extremely important. I also selected a few of my friends who are studying things such as ICT and Media, again i felt this gave me some relevant feedback on the structure and overall production of my magazine. Finally i decided to hand out some copies to just random people so that i would get a fair and broad range of feedback so that the results could help me to make my magazine bigger and better. I also decided to add a poll on blogger where my work is presented asking for people to evaluate my magazine and answer me some basic questions such as; Would you purchase my magazine? i believe the response from these questions was very positive and most people seemed to agree with the basis of my magazine.

Evaluation of Music Magazine Production Task

In what way does your Media Product, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Media Products?

After spending a few weeks researching the many different types of music magazines and discovering their different types of codes and conventions i took on the information and interpreted it in my final design for my front cover, contents page and double page spread of my music magazine ' Chart Tracker.' I generally decided to stick to the main conventions typical of any music magazine. These are the Masthead, the sub-headlines which introduce the other articles, the main image which dominates the cover of the magazine, some smaller images relating to other articles in the magazine, however these are less important then the main article, the plugs, barcode, price and issue number. I incorporated these conventional aspects into my magazine. For example i chose to have the main image of my two artists dominate the front page as the main article was centred around them. I also chose to have some sub-headlines like ' your all new free CD' these introduce the audience to new articles and draw them into the many other different stories within the magazine. I also chose to stick with the conventions nad have my barcode, price and issue number all in the right bottom hand corner as after researching music magazines this is where they where normally placed. I also chose to have my masthead 'Chart Tracker', towards the top of my magazine, because the likelihood is my magazine is going to be stacked on a shelf, it was necessary to have my masthead close to the top so that it is still visible and isnt hidden away by magazines possibly being stacked in front of it. Because my magazine is new and is just breaking into the industry it is vital that my main title can easily be seen so that people can notice it, so that the audience can become familiar with my magazine. For this same reason i have chosen to have nothing blocking my title on my front cover as i want it to stand out and be clear for all to see, to help promote my magazine and catch peoples eyes. I also chose to place the offer of the free CD close to the title as the audience could immediately look at the title and should straight away notice the free gift included with this issue, this was extremely important as this can influence potential customers to purchase my magazine.

In doing this i felt that it helped to give my magazine a more professional edge. For example in most of the music magazines i looked at, i discovered that they chose to mainly have just the one main picture covering the whole front cover, i interpreted this idea in my design and i believe it worked well. I also noticed that for most of the double page spreads in the professional magazines such as NME i discovered they had one main photograph running across one and a quarter pages with the rest of the text filling the small space. I again liked this idea and thought it worked well and so i decided to base my double page spread around this concept.

I also discovered that most of the pictures of the artists in the magazines where taken it everyday, casual surroundings, eg, at bus stops, or sat on a bed. I thought about this carefully when considering my photographs and decided to follow this idea when taking my photographs, i decided to place my artists on the floor surrounded by beer cans, i thought this followed the style of photographs in magazines such as NME. I did however challenge some of the conventions of music magazines when producing mine. For example most of the magazines which i looked at had bustling contents pages, crammed full of text and pictures. I usually find myself ignoring these pages and just turning straight into the magazine and so i decided to go against this idea and decided to have my contents page set out with only a few major features running down the right hand side with some brief snippets of information and then a big picture to dominate the left hand side of the page. I believe that this made the contents page look much more clearer and would maybe encourage people to take a quick look at some of the main features included inside the magazine with their page numbers listed. Also the main features are the main selling point of the magazine and most of the readers probably only buy the magazine just for the main, big storylines and so i decided that these are really the most important ones. My magazine also challenged the conventions of music magazines as it gives away freebies. This is not a typical convention of music magazines and this helps to make my design stand out as the audience would immediately be drawn in at the prospect of a free CD with tracks from some well known artists

My magazine is also based on the ideology of uncovering new talent and promoting new bands, similar to the NME, again this would throw the two magazines into direct competition.

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?
I believe my magazine is centred towards the indie social group. However my magazine also represents young people. The main artists represented in my magazine are young as is my target audience so generally my magazine is centred around and represents the young people. However i am not ruling out older people from purchasing the magazine. My magazine represents young people as living a wild life, constantly partying, drinking and just generally having a good time and having fun. I have tried to incorporate this in all of my images. Firstly in the main image which dominates my front cover i have chosen to have my two main artists stood close in a dark alley holding each other, whilst looking into each others eyes. I believe this conotes that they are romantically involved with each other, i believe it displays the sexual tension between the two artists and again conotes the wild and irresponsible lifestyle which the young people are stereotyped as leading. I believe the young audience will be able to relate to my images and immediately notice what is going on in the picture. My second image also shows my two main artists who are sprawled out across the floor, surrounded by beer cans, holding vodka bottles and looking completely drunk. Again, young people are believed to lead wild lifestyles, constantly drinking beer, going to parties that last until the early hours of the morning before coming home drunk. I believe again this image represents the life of the young people which my magazine is targeted around. This could also influence the young people to purchase this magazine as they can relate to the things which are being represented and this gives the feeling that this magazine is made especially for them. My next image shows one of my main artists wearing a 'Hoodie', immediately young people who wear a hoodie are portrayed as being trouble and up to no good, however this is not the case and so i chose to have one of my main artists wearing a hoodie to show that not all people who wear them are up to no good, this also shows to my young target audience that the magazine is almost on their side, which could influence them to purchase the magazine.


What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

I believe my 'Chart Tracker' could be distributed by an institution such as IPC. This institution is highly sucessful with magazines like NME which is one of the biggest selling music magazine probably the most recognisable in the music industry. NME is such a big magazine that they even have their own awards ceremonies, this highlights the fact that their name is constantly in the public eye. Due to NME's huge success and fanbase it is obvious that IPC are extremely good publishers and that they know how to market and promote a magazine. NME however is too similar to my magazine and is partly what the concept of my magazine is based on and so i do not believe that IPC would be a good institution to publish my magazine. This is because NME is a long running, reliable and highly profitable music magazine. IPC are not going to introduce a new music magazine as it would be too much of a risk for them. Firstly they have the NME which is probably the most popular music magazine at the moment, IPC would not want to risk introducing a new music magazine which could possibly take fans and the success away from the NME. Also IPC know how successful and popular the NME is, they would not want to invest too much of their money and time, promoting and marketing my magazine as it would be too much of a risk introducing a new product to rival their own product the NME, as the NME is extremely popular worldwide and my magazine nobody will have even heard of and so my magazine would probably go unnoticed and just slowly die away as IPC would not want to keep spending money on it, they would just concentrate their efforts on promoting the NME. Therefore for this reason i would want my magazine to be published by Bauer, who where previously known as EMAP.

I would say EMAP as my magazine Chart Tracker could then rival the NME and constantly get promoted in the battle between the two companies, this would mean more people would hear about my magazine and this could boost sales. Also again EMAP are a sucessful publishing industry with many sucessful music magazines such as 'Kerrang' and 'Q' and therefore i know the company would know what to do with my magazine in terms of promoting and marketing my magazine and getting it out there to the audience. Also NME have many websites, In todays technological society nearly everybody worldwide has access to surf the web and therefore my magazine would be promoted world-wide, this would increase the publics familiarity of my magazine and would help to create a bigger fan base, this could then lead to people passing the name of my magazine on which would result in more and more people buying my magazine. A website of my magazine could also be set up, like the NME's allowing people to read stories, subscribe to the magazine, purchase items and generally feel more like they can get involved.

Who would be the audience of your media product?

The main target audience of my magazine would be mostly young males and females. I believe my magazine targets a male audience more, however i am not ruling out older people. In this edition of my magazine i believe i am generally targeting the younger generation more.
When producing and coming up with the ideas for my music magazine my initial thought was that my target audience was going to be young, aimed at around 16-30. However now that i have completed my magazine i believe it is centred more around 14-40, however i do believe that some even older or even younger music lovers would be interested in the magazine, however i do believe this would be the main age range. I also believe the target audience of my magazine will probably be mostly boys interested in indie music. This is because my magazine is similar with the NME and their main audience is 70% male. I do believe that girls will purchase the magazine too, however after I had researched I discovered that girls mainly bought magazines based on real life etc. I also believe the genre of rock and indie which my magazine represents is liked by males more than females who tend to like pop and R&B music. Also after thoroughly researching different magazines, I discovered that Males purchase magazines more than females.


How did you attract and address your audience?
I attracted the audience to my magazine firstly by basing it around a certain genre of music. In this case Indie. Staright away the type of bands and music featured in my magazine would attract any Indie music lovers. I then also attracted people to my magazine with the bold title which dominates and stands out against the dark background. It instantly snatches peoples attention and holds it, i also believe the main photograph which i chose for the front cover of my magazine was quite interesting and would draw the audiences attention in. Another way in which i attracted people to my magazine was by placing offers such as subscriptions and free cd's. People like a good deal, saving money and freebies and so i included some in my magazine to try and influence people to purchase my magazine for the free things and the savings, hopefully once my audience has seen things such as this they may be encouraged to purchase the next issue of my magazine to see what deals and free things may be included, it also highlights the magazines generosity and cheap, good for money value for the ordinary workin man. I think my magazine also attracts the audience by the prospect of the magazine finding the next new big thing. 'Chart Tracker' magazine is individualistic in the way that it targets and promotes bands that no one had heard of and helps to promote them. With my target audience also being young people I believe my magazine represents this age group and their ideas and lifestyles, i chose to place many pictures of young artists partying and enjoying themselves for other young people to be able to relate to. As the magazine is mainly centred around the younger generation, i'm hoping that this will be another way to encourage my audience to purchase my magazine. I am also addressing the young people out there by placing issues such as drinking and references to sex that they feel they can relate to and issues that they may be experiencing as this would make them feel as if the magazine is addressing them directly and because the issues are referencing to them, this will make them feel almost as if the magazine is for them and this could encourage them to purchase the magazine.


During the process of producing my Music Magazine i heave learnt many new skills. Firstly i learnt a about photography and how to make a picture look more interesting, for instance by getting people to dress the way you want them to, and to stand or look a particular way to get the look you want. This really helped when i was taking my pictures for my magazine. For example it helped when i was imaging the different types of photographs which i could take and the type of look which i wanted. This helped my imagaination as it enabled me to think of the type of pictures which i wanted to represent the young people, this is where y graffiti, walls, ally-ways and general urban setting came from. I also learnt about how to manipulate photographs after they have been taken on Adobe Photoshop. This is an image editing software and with this the possibilites are endless and this helped me to create the exact style and look which i wanted my photographs to have. This software allows you to remove things such as blemishes or red-eye and even spots using the drop tool. This takes the sample of the colour of the persons skin around the area close to the spot so that you can paint over the spot or blemish with the same skin tone so that you cannot tell the image has been edited. It also allowed me to alter the backgrounds on my photographs, for example it allowed me to darken the photograph which i have chosen to place on the front cover so that it gives the ally-way a dark and suspicious feel to it, i believe this helps to add the story to the photograph. It also enabled me to fade way the corner parts of my photograph which i didnt want so that i could surround my photograph with the black background, i believe this helped create a dream like effect around the photograph which made it look more interesting. The programmes allows you to get the look you want. I have also learnt how to use Microsoft Publisher more effectively than i could before. I have learnt many more skills on Publisher which has helped me to produce my magazine to make it look more realisitic to a professional product. For example i discovered how to split my text on the page into columns so that i could set it out exactly like a proper music magazine. This helped my extremely when i was producing my interview on the double page spread, as it allowed me to set my text out to meet the conventional standards expected of professional music magazines. I also learnt about the drop cap tool. This allowed me to add a bold and bigger letter at the start of my piece of writing. This technique is used in most music magazines and this gave my magazine again, a more professional look. I have also learned how to edit the wrap points on your photographs so that you can edit out the background and almost cut the figures out of the photograph. I have used this technique on my contents page.

I also learnt about how you can publish your work up on the internet into a structured blog, so that you can look at it and display it.


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

I feel like i have learnt a lot and come a long way since the preliminary task of producing the college magazine. I feel more confident with what the codes and conventions of music magazines are and can include them in my productions. I also have learnt a lot more about taking photographs and how lighting and stance or props can get you the look you want. I have also learnt how to edit pictures on Adobe Photoshop to remove things such as red eye, spots or blemishes to make the photograph look more professional. I have learnt a lot about the different media institutions such as EMAP and IPC after researching the two companies and some of the magazines which they have distributed. I have also discovered what types of things go into magazines, such as adverts to help finance them and also the process involved in producing the magazine and the different jobs of the people involved. Finally i have learnt how to work hard independently and to keep yourself motivated to make sure the product is completed to the given deadline.

In conclusion i believe that i have made vast progress from the preliminary excercise of producing the college magazine. I believe the magazine which i have produced looks professional and meets all of the required codes and conventions of a real media product.

New Front Page and Double Page Spread Design

This is my contents page final design. After researching the different music magazines i decided that i preferred the style of contents pages in Rock Sound magazine. I therefore decided to interpret this idea in my magazine. I believe this contents page is easier to follow and people can easily spot the main stories and their page numbers without having to try and find them and possibly just giving up even looking at this page and just flicking through the magazine.

I decided to place a picture running down the left hand side of the page, the picture which i have chosen is of the artists who are on the front page of my magazine as they are going to be one of the main features. I have placed many pictures on them and talked about them quite a lot to promote the story and to influence people to read it. By seeing the constant pictures the readers automatically know that this is a big story, this may encourage them to read the story even if they do not know the band.

After looking at different music magazines, i discovered that most music magazines decided to list some of the features included in their magazine down the right hand side of the page. Although this was not the same for every music magazine which i looked at, i did seem to be a common convention in most magazines and so i decided to interpret this idea into my magazine contents page. I have also chosen to place the story about my main artists who are on the front cover, first in my list, directly across from their picture on the contents page. I believe people then only have to look at the picture and then can easily find the story which is about them, the small paragraph of writing underneath also gives more insight into the story for the readers. I have also chosen to add a section called 'Tracker Awards'. I believe that this almost makes the magazine a type of awards business as they are giving awards to artists who are voted by the public. This idea also lets the audience become more involved in the magazine and gives them more of a say as to what happens, again this could encourage them to carry on purchasing the magazine to see if the person they voted for wins, and to carry on voicing their opinions.

Subscribe to us. This is a small section which i have placed, however it is probably the most important. This is how the magazine is going to make most of its money and therefore i have chosen a small paragraph underneath to talk about special offers. People will immediately like the idea of saving money and getting something for cheap and this could again influence them to turn to this page and consider subscribing to Chart Tracker magazine.

I placed three blue lines around the border of my magazine. I did this as my title before i chose Chart Tracker was going to be 'Tune' and i was going to design this writing in blue with three lines running narrowly together almost like the idea that someone has written it with three blue pens all taped together. However i couldn't get this idea to work and i decided that this title wasnt really going to look good. the reason i chose to have the three blue lines was to match with the title of my magazine, however i decided to rethink my title and changed it to 'Chart Tracker' however i still decided that i liked the three blue lines running around the page and so i decided to keep this feature.

I also had the title of the magazine 'Chart Tracker' at the bottom right hand corner of the page, again i have chosen to do this to continue promoting te magazine and advertising it's name even whilst the readers and viewing it. The more they see the name the more that my audience will remember it. Hopefully if they like the magazine, they will remember the name and recommend it to other people, they may also be encouraged to look out for and purchase other issues.

I have chosen to ahve the title FEATURES at the top of my contents page, after looking at many different examples of contents pages some said 'Inside' and 'This Issue' I decided on having the title of features as i believe firstly this sounded more professional and i also believe that it sounded more like what was included in the magazine was special. The word features made the things inside my magazine sound exclusive and interesting whereas i believe the title 'Inside' was boring and made my magazine sound a bit dull.

I have also decided to change the colours to red and black. As after researching many different music magazines i discovered that the colours tended to be dark, bold and loud to stand out and grab the readers attention.



This is my final design for my Music magazine front page, double page spread and contents page production task.

Firstly when thinking of an idea which i could do for my double page spread and having researched many different examples from magazines such as NME and Q i decided to take my photograph in a typical, natural setting which shows the artists in everyday life. For this i decided to have my artists pretending to be drunk, surrounded by empty beercans and bottles. This gives the effect of the artists of been on a night out. I also added a blow up guitar as i thought it added a bit of humour and uniqueness to the picture as most of the pictures in the magazines which i had seen showed the artists holding real instruments. I thought this technique really worked well. Then, using my research i interpreted the ideas of the other music magazines which i had looked at and decided to have my main picture running over one full page and a littlle bit of the next page, leaving a small room for some text to run down the side. This is a technique which i noticed in the NME magazine which my magazine is similar to.

I then chose to add a police do not cross sign, across the picture. I thought this gives the impression of a wild night out, with the artists getting drunk and partying. I thought this captures the wild lifestyles of the music artists and the police sign highlights the fact that it is dangerous to cross as they have had a wild time. This links in with the 'Heading Home' text which i chose to place directly underneath the police sign. I believe the font in which this is written makes it look almost like the bars of a police cell which again indicates the wild night which it looks like my two artists in the photograph has had. Even though this is exaggerated i believe that this technique worked well and highlighted the point which i was trying to make. I also chose to have the words 'Heading Home' in red as i thought the colour had connotations with danger which again linked in with the wild party scene shown in my photograph.

To the right hand side of my page, i have chosen to have the text, which in this case is the interview between my two main artists which form the band 'The Voice.' I have chosen to do an exclusive interview as people are immediately drawn into a story by this and i thought that it would attract people to my magazine. Underneath all of the text on the right hand side of the page, i have the title of the magazine written in the bottom right hand corner. This technique continues to promote my magazine and continues to alert the readers attention to the title of my magazine, so that it sticks in their minds and will hopefully encourage them to buy it, if they are fans 0f the magazine.



I had many different ideas for the front page of my music magazine. After i kept re-drafting my many different ideas i decided on this one to be my final front page.

Firstly after researching music magazines i discovered that only a few of them offer free things inside the magazine. I believe people like freebies or good deals and this can sometimes attract the audience to a magazine and influence them to purchase it. Therefore i decided to include a 'Free CD' offer in my magazine to try and hook the readers attention and encourage them to buy my magazine. I have chosen t0 place an advert for the free CD in a bright yellow box in the top left hand corner of my magazine. I believe the bright yellow box and bright red font stand out against the black background, this is eye-catching and immediately draws peoples attention in. This is one of the first things which i want my audience to see as this could influence them to buy my magazine.

I have again chosen to place the same bright yellow box highlighting the free cd further down the left hand side of the page where the magazine displays a few of the artists who are going to be on the CD. I thought that this would help to direct the readers to where they could look to find out more about the free CD. I wanted to put some of this information on the front page, as many people would not bother to spend time flicking through the magazine to find out what artists it featured. Therefore i placed some of the well known names onto my front cover as these again would catch the readers attention in the same way which the prospect of the free cd would. I believe people would see some of the big names on the CD and immediately purchase the magazine just for the CD, if i was to design the full magazine i would explain some of the smaller acts on the CD towards the back of the magazine as they aren't going to encourage people to buy it, if it is a small band or artist which not many people have heard of.

Running along the top of my magazine, to the right of my free CD offer i have placed the text '15 New Tracks and Remixes.' i believe that the number of tracks on the CD would again be another selling point for the magazine. I have chosen to place this near to the offer,as it gives the audience a bit more information as to what is included on the CD. I have chosen to write this in a lively font as it stands out and catches the readers attention.

For the main picture of my magazine i chose to have my two main artists standing in an alleyway. I believe that this technique worked well. It stands out and instantly shows the relationship between my two main artists in my group. I also edited this image and faded the wall and background out to black so that it blended in with the background of my magazine. I believe that this technique worked well and almost give the photograph the impression that it is a paparazzi shot and that the audience are almost spying on them to see what they get up to. I believe the closeness between the two also highlights the intimacy between them and hints that they have feelings towards each other.

For the title of my magazine i decided to have it in the font of 'Welton Urban', I believe firstly that the urban font links in with the streets and society.This again highlights the fact that these two artists grew up on the streets and have made it big. It also highlights the fact that anyone can become sucessful no matter where you are from, as long as you have the talent.

I have chosen to place my main headline across the picture on the front of my magazine as this was a technique usually done when i looked at magazines such as the NME. I chose to have the main text as speech 'Were heading home'. I have chosen this text as the main story is centred around them going to their home city on their tour. I thought this text linked nicely in with the main story and the title gives a brief insight to the audience as to what the story centred around the artists on the front cover is going to be about. I have also seperately added some speech marks which i have produced in a larger font and a different colour to the speech so that th audience can clearly define the speech and that is what the two main artists have said. Underneath this i have then added the name of the band, this promotes the artists on the front cover as the audienceof the magazine will see any artists on the front cover of a music magazine as being sucessful and a good band and this could encourage them to buy the magazine to hear more about them. The name of the band underneath lets people who are interested know the bands name so that they can purchase their CD's.

I then chose to add some more storylines around my page, this gives readers more information of some of the stories featured in this issue and it also gives them an insight into what bands the magazine focuses on and what genre of music the magazine is centred around, which in this case is Indie. I also experiments with different typesof fonts to try and make the front cover look interesting and stylish as this is going to be the most important part of the magazine and is the magazines selling point. The audience notice the front cover and if that doesn't influence them to buy the magazine, they are not going to bother flicking through the magazine. I have the name 'Wilson' written in a heavy metal font. Underneath this is a conterversial story which centres around one of the artists calling the music industry. I chose the heavy metal font as i thought it looked the most controversial and firey which gives an insight into the story and into the artists personality. This font also helps as most people think of heavy metal artists as being controversial and always getting into trouble.

I have also added some text which runs along the bottom of the magazine. This starts with the word PLUS and instantly calls out to the readers letting them know that not everything which is featured in the magazine is on the front page. It also gives the impression of, theres a lot of great stuff in the magazine as shown on the front page, plus all of this other great stuff inside the magazine. This gives the magazine the feel of being sucessful and crammed full of good features and stories. This helps to constantly try and encourage the audience to buy the magazine.

I have also placed in a small white font the strapline. 'Your favourite Music Magazine'. This is almost telling the audience that it is their favourite music magazine. This could encourage people to read the magazine to find out how good it actually is. It also relates directly with the audience saying that this is their magazine and is almost bringing them into the magazine as if the readers are a part of the magazine. This technique could influence people to buy the magazine.

Finally i have placed the barcode, price and date in the bottom right hand corner. This is because after researching music magazines i dsicovered that this is where they generally tend to be placed. I also wanted people to quickly be able to see the price so that if they like it, they can find out straight away how much it is and buy it, without having to look all over for the price of the magazine.

front cover design draft

This is one of my drafts for my music magazine front cover, some parts of this have been put into my final design, however there where some parts in this design which i thought didnt work well and so i have changed my design around. For example I do not think the small picture in the bottom right hand corner, fitted in well with the rest of my magazine and it stuck out and looked out of place. I therefore chose to get rid of this in my final design. I believe this was the correct decision as my front page looked tidier after i had altered this.

I also changed the headline. Firstly I thought some of the text was hard to see across the picture, so in my final design i changed the headline to be smaller in size so that the text could be read and was clearer against the background. I also believe the headline 'The shocking truth', didn't work well and indicated that there was some shocking informationto come which i didn't do in the interview and so i thought i would change this headline to relate it to something in the interview which i had done for my double page spread.

Various different font ideas for my music magazine title

These are a few different font ideas which i looked at when trying to come up with a font type for the title of my magazine.

Music magazine analysis

Firstly for my music magazine i had to decide what the layout of the magazine was going to be like, after having researched different music magazines such as NME and Kerrang i an idea what i wanted my music magazine front cover to look like. I had to decide the name of my magazine. I had two ideas which i thought both worked well and appealed to me, these where: Tunes and Chart Tracker. I finally decided on chart tracker. I decided that i would use the welton urban font as i thought it linked in with the streets where the audience and people live and i thought it worked well and i also thought that it looked well. I choose to have the background colour of my magazine as being black i thought this colour worked well with the bright blue font of the main title of my magazine. After looking at the diferent types of magazines i also discovered that many of the magazines all had dark, if not black backgrounds with a light coloured font and text to contrast with this an stand out.

I have choosen to place my main picture in the centre of the front page. With my picture being at the centre it is straight away visable and peoples eyes and attention is drawn straight to it. The main picture shows the main artist standing against a brick wall down an alleyway, this again highlights the streets and an urban type of environment, this would linkin with the urban style of font which i have used for the main title of my magazine.

I have also choosen to have a ox in the bottom right corner which is for the competition. I have choosen to display a collection of the top albums currently in the charts and placed the picture in a box with the headline saying your chance to win all of these. Thi straight away appeals to the audience of music lovers as they can see the collection of albums which are in the charts and they have a chance to win all of them for free. This would also encourage people to buy the next issue of the magazine to see what you can win in the next competition and if they have entred the curent competition they will buy the next issue to find out if they have won.

I have also choosen to add to columns running along the top and bottom of the page. After looking at many different issues of NME i discovered that it employed this technique it many of its issues. I have chosen to fill the bars with a brighter colour so that they stand out against the dark background, it is imprtant that people see this as it is advertising what is going to be in the next issue. The column at the top alerts the audience and draws their attention to the free gift inside this magazine. Music lovers who read this magazine will instantly like the prospect of a free CD, freebies in the magazine would also encourage people to purchase further issues for the free gifts which they get inside.

The column at the bottom of the magazine lists just a few of the main stories covered in the magazine, i have choosen to put the main stories on the front cover as these stories are more recognisable to the audience and if they notice these big stories are covered inside the magazine tthey may be tempted to purchase the magazine.

Front page, double page spread and Contents page - Chart Tracker

I decided when designing my music magazine to try and interpret the design and style of my font with the design and style of the magazine. For this reason i choose to have the three blue lines as a border, this is because when i had my first title idea of Tune i was going to have the word 'Tunes' written in three blue lines overlapping each other. However i later couldnt get this idea to work exactly how i wanted it and so i decided to change the title of my magazine to chart tracker which i thought was quite a catchy name for a music magazine. However i liked the look of the three blue lines running around the border of the magazine and so i decided to keep this but just changed the title of my magazine.

I added the text 'FEATURES' at the top of the magazine, after researching many different music magazines like Q, NME and Kerrang. I looked at many different contents pages and discovered that on nearly all of the contents pages there was a title at the top of the page which gave an indication that this was the page you could look at to find out what was inside this issue of the magazine. Some of these titles where 'Whats inside', 'Features' and 'In this Issue'. I decided to have the title features as i believe it sounds more professional and lets readers know what is going to be included in this issue of the magazine. Listed in a column on the right hand side directly underneath this i have listed some of the main stories which are going to be featured in the magazine, i have only listed the main, biggest stories as these are the stories which the readers will be most interested in, these are going to be the stories which influences them to purchase the magazine. I decided to have a small headline above each story to give a brief insight into what the story is going to be about and to tey and hook the readers and draw them into reading the story. I have chopsen to do this in a blue and bold font so that it stands out to the readers, whose eyes will draw to this first, read the small and catchy caption, which will influence them to read the story.

Next to the small headline i have included the page number so that if the readers are interested in reading that particular feature the know which page to turn to straight away instead of flicking through the magazine and trying to find it. Underneath all of this i have included a small written passage which gives the readers a bit more information about the story and again influences the readers to carry on reading the rest of the story.



For my double page spread i decided to base the story around an interview of my band. After researching different music magazines i discovered that the way most of them choose to do this, was include a picture which runs over a page and a half with the columns of text running down the side. I choose to interpret this technique in my design. I also discovered that most of the pictures on these double page spread interviews try to portray the artists in a modern, casual situation. For example one of these pictures showed the groups main artists all sitting on a bed surrounded by beer cans and take away boxes. I choose to interpret this idea in my magazine design surrounding my two main artists with beer cans and takeaway boxes to show their casual life. I also choose to include a blow up guitar in my shot to add a bit of humour and it also indicates their music.



This is one of my earlier drafts for my music magazine front cover. I believe this looked quite plain and bland. I didn't think the grey border worked well against the black background and it stood out. It looked as if it had been added on and didnt really look in the professional style which i wanted. I also deleted the competition as this could have featured in any magazine and it didn't really help to define the genre of my magazine. I believe this draft also needed more stories and text around it to make it look more professional and to audiences easily define that this magazine is a music magazine.

My magazine double page spread.

This is another early draft of what i wanted my music magazine to look like. I was happy with most of the design and so not much of it changed when i was producing my final design for my front cover. However i thought the picture needed a catchy and bright headline to help it stand out as the readers will look at the picture before the text, the pictures often encourage the readers to read the text with the picture is based around, and so i felt the picture had to look good and bright and stand out.

Possible titles for my music magazine

Chart Tracker:
This was my second serious idea for the title of my magazine. I thought this title sounded really good and catchy. It also sums up what the magazine is centred around. I chose to have my title in a urban font for this one as


Tunes:
This was the first idea which i had, i also had a strong idea of how i wanted it to look but i wasnt able to do this on the computer and so i had to change my idea. My original idea was to have the word tune in blue swirls like 3 words saying tune over lapping each other, however i couldn't get the look of it how i wanted and so i changed the idea. I first had the idea for tune because of itunes. Million of people across the world have itunes and know what they are, i thought the title would be catchy and easily recognisable. I also thought that it had the effect of being short and snappy and this would make it a lot easier to remember.

Contents Page (Unfinished)

This is one of my contents page drafts. I really liked the look of this contents page as everything was set out and it was easy to read and follow. After researching some contents pages of music magazines i discovered they had been crammed full of text, pictures and advertisements and it was sometimes confusing to find what you where looking for. This can sometimes put people off from even looking at this page. Therefore i designed mine around the basis of making it clear and easy to follow. Most of this i have placed in my final design.

Front page of my music magazine

This is the same first draft of my music magazine, however this one has a different title font and it is in a different colour. This is because i wanted to get a feel of how the music magazine would look with different font styles and colours. I rejected this idea because i thought the dont took up too much room and was looking out of place and messy. I also thought that the colour of the font was to dark and didn't stand out as much as i wanted it to against the already dark background.

Photographs I have taken

This first photograph which i have taken i chose to use for my front cover of my music magazine. I thought the wall around them which disappears then, into the blackness behind them, helps to give the impression that they are only normal people who live in rough areas. This highlights the fact that they are ordinary, everday people and this could help to encourage people to like them. I also think it gives the impression that they where brough up living on the streets. I think the close space between them helps to show the intimacy between the two artists.













I liked this photograph, however when i was producing my magazine i discovered that it didn't really fit in on any pages.















This is the photograph which i used for the double page spread. I liked this photograph. After researching many different music magazines i discovered that their pictures didnt tend to be artists in studios etc, most of their pictures had their artists in certain environments, such as a bus stop or in a bedroom. However the artists still had microphones and proper instruments.

I thought it would add to the joke if the guitar where to be a blown up one and have a plastic microphone with a really shiny top. I believe this had a comic edge to it and made the photograph more interesting. I also surrounded them with empty beer cans and bottles as props made the picture more interesting and added believability.



I really liked this photograph. I thought the joke microphone and blown up guitar work well and really make it look like a band messing around and having fun. However i believe that this photograph would probably have looked better if the two artists where standing closer together.

Examples of Music Magazine Contents Pages

Rolling Stones Magazine Contents Page

This example of a music magazine contents page is taken from Rolling Stones magazine. Rolling Stones magazine is an American based magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture. It is published every two weeks and in the 1990's has changed it's format to suit younger readers and now often focuses on television and film stars and pop music.

Firstly the main picture which is dominant on the contents page is of a music artist Kanye West. He is well known and for anyone who like pop music which is what this magazine focuses on, he will easily be recognised and people will be drawn into the picture and want to know what is happening with him and what the story is about. Underneath the picture of the easily recognisable star who will draw peoples attention is a small paragraph of information as to what the story around him is about. The main text says Kanye's Big Return. This sums up basically what the story is going to be centred around with his return to the pop music industry. The picture also shows kanye West holding two fingers up in the air like the peace symbol. Quite a lot of the pictures which i have looked at, has the singers and bands holding two fingers up in the air. I would imagine that in each contents page of this magazine they choose to place a picture in the same place which would highlight one of their main stories, probably the biggest story as it attracts the readers attention and automatically draws them in.

Down the side of the page are 7 different small paragraphs of writing which gives a brief insight in what stories and articles can be found on what pages of the magazine. This is helpful as readers wishing to look at a particular article can straight away look here and turn straight to the page which it is on. All 0f the stories are listed down the right hand side of the page, after looking at many different contents pages for music magazine i have discovered that this layout is the same as it is in quite a lot of other music magazines and is like a typical covention of how the contents paes are laid out.

Most contents pages in magazine are title as 'Contents' or other things such as 'Coming up' or 'This Week', 'This edition' or 'Inside', however for the rolling stones magazine the main title which is in bold and black and runs across the top of the magazine says 'RS 1068/1069' The strap line running underneath the main headline which is in a smaller font, however still in black and bold says 'All the news that is'. This must be the strapline in either a lot or all of the magazines as part of the writing is missed out as the Kanye Wests hand in the picture covers over part of the strapline with his peace sign hand gesture. This makes it difficult for the reader to see what it says and what word is missing and this technique is usually used ie. In magazine titles where the reader already knows what the word says and so it doesnt matter if part of it is missing.

In the top right hand corner is the magazines main cover story. In this case it is ' Brad Pitt; The Rolling Stone Interview.' The magazine producers know that most people know who Brad Pitt the film star is and so putting his name first will automatically attract readers attention and stand out against the rest of the writing. The writing then gets smaller and more plain looking underneath as the headline is the main line that catches people. Most people who know who Brad Pitt is and like him will not probably even bother reading the rest and so the main headline with the stars name has to be bold and eye-catching to hold the readers attention and draw them into the story. The rest of the articles follow the same idea having hooking and catchy headlines to draw the readers in. This is because the small introductory paragraph many people will not bother reading, as they just scan the headlines and turn to the pages which interest them.

At the bottom of the page, the title of the magazine, the date and the issue number are printed on. This is to let people know what issue this is, it will help them to know when the next issue will be on sale if they liked this one and also reminds them of the title of the magazine.



NME Magazine Contents Page

This is the contents page of the NME music magazine. Firstly they have chosen to place their name and logo straight at the top of the magazine. Out of all of the music magazine contents pages i discovered that this is not the same in all of the music magazines. The magazine are highlighting their name so that anyone new to reading the magazine can easily see the name of the magazine. The title of this magazine is 'This week'. This is straight forward and immediately lets the reader know exactly what stories and articles are going to be in this magazine. Straight away they know that this is the page to look at to find out whats inside this issue. The date of the issue is also on underneath the main bold title. This lets the reader know what issue this is.

The column on the right hand side is all about the NME magazine awards which go out to various bands and artists depending on what the readers of the magazine decide. This lets the readers have more of a say in the magazine and makes them feel like they have a part in the magazine which will encourage them to buy and read the magazine more. There is also a 'Band Index' on the left hand side of the magazine. This is a column which runs nearly the full length of the page and lists all of the artists represented in this issue of the NME magazine and in black next to the name are the page numbers which shows readers what page they can look at to find their favourite artists or bands. Also straight away the reader can turn straight to this page, look at the type of artists represented by the NME and they can then decide if this is the type of music they like and if so it encourages them to buy the magazine. At the centre of the page is a bright blue box, with writing which says 'new noise 2009' written in a white font on a colourful boxed background. Straight away this is bright and stands out to the readers. Underneath this it says '10 Acts for the New Year'. This straight away tells the readers of the new and upcoming stars for the new year and will encourage them to look and see who the new artists are, and if they are going to like the new music which iscoming out. Below this text is two small images of pages inside the magazine with a pink arrow pointing to the inside of the magazine. 'Get Turning to find out who where backing'. People who read NME will be influenced by this as they like the NME and like the type of music and so they will be interested to know who the NME are interested in for 2009 as they are most likely to be the artists who are going to be published in the new years magazines.

Underneath this is a section headlined as 'PLUS'. Immediately this tells the reader there is more in the magazine which hasn't yet been mentioned. It also gives the impression that he magazine is full of so many articles that it cannot talk about them all and so has added a small section 'plus' which briefly explains other articles inside the magazine. Underneath this is eight more stories with small captions of information underneath and page numbers so that readers who are interested in certain articles can turn to the pages they want.

Underneath this and at the very bottom of the page is an article about subscribing entitled 'Subscribe today and save over £45'. This text is done in a bold and bright yellow font. The yellow looks sharp and stands out against the black background and is eye-catching to the readers, who are going to be more likely to subscribe to the magazine because of the low discounted price and the great savings which they will recieve if they subscribe now, this will encourage readers to subscribe now as they will get a cheaper deal. This is also vital for the magazine as it is a great oppertunity to make sales and improve the sales of the magazine to bring themselves more money in. Therefore they have chosen to do it this way so that it stands out and immediately draws the readers attention and lets them know of the deal which is on.



Hip Hop Magazine Contents Page.

Straight away this contents page is dominated by the picture of the artists. This is because the artist who they have choosen is 50 cent who is well known and easily identifiable with the readers of this magazine. Straight away people who like R&B and Hip Hop and this type of music will recognise the artist and can straight away look at the story around him. Near to the bottom of the picture of 50 cent is abig '48' underneath this in a smaller white and bold font it says '50 cent. Curtis carps on about his 'candy shop'. Straight away people know who the artists is, and 'candy shop' is one of his big hits and so the line entitled 'curtis carps on about his candy shop' is a clever play on words as it features the name of his song.

In the top left hand corner of the magazine it says HCC230 which is a black outline with a white fill which almost blends in with the white background of the magazine. This makes it quite difficult to make out at first. The HCC stands for 'Hip Hop Connection', and im assuming '230' is the issue number. Underneath this in a black and bold font saying 'Jan/FEB 2009'. This informs the reader which issue this is and helps them to work out when the next issue will be coming out.

Down the right hand side of the magazine is a list of all of the articles and stories in this issue of the magazine. After researching lots of different contents pages for music magazines i found it quite strange tht this contents page doesn't have a title. I also found this contents page quite plain.



Rock Sound Magazine Contents Page

This contents page for Rock Sound magazine is dominated by the completely black background. All of the text on the page is done in a bright white font which stands out sharply against the black background and he words looks as if they are almost jumping of the page and stand out to the reader. The picture at the bottom of the page also looks nearly black and white.

At the right hand side of the page the main feature inside this issue of the magazine are listed. In nearly all of the music magazines which i researched he main features, stories and articles where displayed down the right hand side of the page. This is done in again, the same format as most of the other magazines which i looked at, with the main headline in a bold white font so that the catchy strapline stands out and grabs the readers attention and draws them into the story. Underneath this in a smaller white font is a small brief summary of the story, which gives the reader a little bit more information as to what the article is about. In a bright blue font to the left of the articles main headline are the page numbers. These again stand out against the dark black backgroundand highlights the page number to the reader so that if that article interests them they can easily find and turn to the page which it is on.

In the bottom right hand corner in a bold and big font which again almost leaps of the page and demands the readers attention is the title of the magazine entitled 'Rock Sound'. This is important for the magazine as it highlights their name and can boost sales and reputation of the magazine as people know the name of the magazine which they will remember when going to buy it. Underneath this they have displayed the issue number which in this case in 'no.118'. This also highlights to the audience that this is a highly sucessful magazine as it has been running a long time with over a hundred issues. It also tells the audience that this magazine is popular with its intended audience and may encourage others to purchase the magazine.

The picture at the bottom of the magazine doesnt dominate the page as the colours blend in the the dark background. The picture i think is of a band called the gallows as above the picture is a small piece of text. 'It sounds like having a glass smashed in your face for 49 minutes and then you just smile-Frank Carter on the Gallows new album. This has been placed in a bold font which stands out directly above the picture of the band and so i believe the two are linked. All of the people in the picture are all made to look tough.

Examples of double page spreads

These are just a few examples of music magazine contents pages, these helped me when i was deciding how i would set out my double page spread. They also gave me ideas about the type of text used and what some of the stories of music magazines where like, this helped me with writing my text for my double page spread.

Examples of Double page spreads

Examples from Music Magazines

Even though this isnt a double page spread, or contents page, i decided to add it anyway as it helped to give me more knowledge on how articles are written in music magazines and what sort of language (terminology) they use.

Examples from Music Magazines

Examples from Music Magazines

http://www.ipcmedia.com/mediainfo/nme.pdf

Analysis of NME Magazine frontcover-LIIAR

Language: The text is bright and bold, which is eye-catching and immediately draws in peoples attention. The background, text and even the pictures are all quite bright and stand out. This almost in a way highlights the front cover to make it stand out against all of the other magazines. The magazine also uses big pictures on the front of well known music artists to draw people in.


Institution: NME is distributed by the media institution IPC. They are a highly sucessful media publisher in the UK. They offer a wide range of different magazines to their audiences.


Ideology: The NME promotes the consumption of new indie music. Their audience is centred around 70% male. It focuses heavily on acts that are not yet comercially sucessful and aims to promote new music and artists.
Audience: NME's audience is around 70% male and 30% female. Also more young people aged between 15-30 purchase this magazine.


Representation: NME focuses mainly on Indie music and so any person who likes this type of music would be persuaded to buy it. The magazine also represents the artists which they are showing in pictures, by having them stood in a certain pose or by having them wearing certain clothes.