My Ideal reader

By using sites such as yougov.co.uk and from my own questionnaire analysis I have created Emma as my ideal reader. This would be used in my magazines media pack which I would send to various companies for them to place advertisements in my magazine if they were interested. 

Emma is a 17-year-old girl who loves being the first to download the latest tracks. Herself and her friends centre their social life around music by attending local gigs of new and upcoming bands/artists but also love to save up their wages from their Saturday jobs to see mega stars such as their beloved guilty pleasure One Direction at stadiums and festivals. She also loves keeping up with the latest trends in fashion and is not afraid to show her unique sense of style, which is contemporary, cool with touches of chic bohemian elegance. A regular at the gym she loves keeping fit and meeting new people and when she has the time to cosy up on her sofa and log on to Netflix.

Her greatest music love is 8tracks.com which is an Internet radio and social networking website revolving around the concept of streaming user-created playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks. This allows her to find the best and latest music to buy off iTunes at the touch of a button. Emma is a student who has a part-time job; by working hard she is able to pay her way to different music events as she loves educating herself on different genres of music by exploring varied styles of different bands and musicians. With no passion to a particular genre she displays extreme passion for all music as she is appreciative of “quality sounds and lyrics.’ Emma is a loyal fan of Pulse magazine as she says "my friends and I would be lost without it, it is so useful to find out the latest music but also bring us back to some of the greatest hits! Not forgetting about the great exclusives they have to offer with such a wide variety of artists." Emma would be lost without her Apple gadgets and her friends have said that you never see her coming without her earphones in! 

Music Magazine Quesionnaire Analysis

Music Magazine Research Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

I was able to put my SurveyMonkey questionnaire on my personal Facebook page to get wider audience feedback. From this I was able to get 35 responses in a short period of time. 

Extra Research in planning creation of Magaizne

These are some links and extra sources I have found useful in preparation for creating my music magazine: 

http://www.magazinedesigning.com/magazine-spreads-good-bad-practices/

Readers eye direction

When influencing on the reader your design should have meaning. Readers concentrate on the top parts of the spread. This is the first place where their eye will stop when they skim through the pages, so you cannot start your story by placing headline on bottom right page. This is not natural starting point.

I have seen this in so many examples, but try to avoid it. It is not good design if the reader has to search through the page to find most important thing (if there is no image on the page), and that’s the headline. It is even worse if you put the headline at the bottom and you put beginning of the story on top of it.

This is not a natural way of reading the story. Everything should have flow. You should work your way from the meaningful top left and then continue to the bottom. Headline, intro copy and then the main copy. That should be your guide.

In this case it is OK to place the headline at the bottom. Reader will have no problem following the story, besides, it would be awkward to place the headline on top of the model’s head.

This is the natural way of viewing things, unless designer pulls his attention away by placing elements on the page that will attract the reader’s eye. Sometimes headline can go on the bottom part of the page if this pages has full-page image that bleeds out of the page.

This is an example of bad text flow. You can see how the flow of the story is not natural and the reader will have hard time following the text.

The Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Artist Albums of 2014 so far!

02/10/2014

By Rob Copsey

Ed Sheeran’s X and Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour lead a very British line-up in the biggest-selling artist albums of 2014 so far, OfficialCharts.com can reveal.

Ed Sheeran’s X has overtaken Coldplay’s Ghost Stories as the biggest selling artist album of 2014 so far, according to Official Charts Company data.

This success means the acclaimed album has now been certified 2x Platinum by the BPI - the music trade body that represents the UK's record labels.

Ed said: “I’m so happy people have been enjoying my album so much - great to hear that it’s still the biggest seller of the year and has now gone double Platinum too. Looking forward to playing it live to my UK fans when the tour starts next week!"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

http://www.magazinepublisher.com/startup.html

The Planning Phase:

With the technological advancements in magazine printing presses along with the ability to design magazines in digital computer programs has made for the ability of magazines to become more profitable in smaller circulation numbers.

Still every magazine success comes down to this simple fact:

What are the costs associated with publishing?
vs.
What are the total revenues earned?

The two tests that you need to prepare are:

#1 Evaluate your projected revenue#2 Analyze your magazine operational costs

Sources of Revenue:

Magazines are still driven by three main sources of revenue:

#1 Advertisers - (who buy ads) #2 Subscriptions - (people who pay to receive the magazine)
#3 Newsstand Sales

There are a wide range of different kinds of magazines incorporating various combinations of revenue sources- local, free pick up magazines that rely totally on ad revenue to the niche subscriber magazines that carry no advertising and rely totally on subscriber and ancillary sources of revenue. Ancillary income is any additional source of revenue gained by marketing or selling products or services associated with a magazine title. An example would be t-shirts with the magazine's logo.
To be successful publisher's need to address the following:

A. Is there a market big enough to support the magazine?
B. Are there subscribers willing to pay for such a magazine? and how much are they willing to pay ?
C. Are advertisers interested in reaching this market and willing to pay for ads to do so?

Determine the costs associated with publishing your magazine title and then you will have a good barometer of how much revenue you will need to cover those costs...the average magazine can take years to become profitable - so you need to be prepared to have plenty of financial resources to cover the costs during the start up period of building your magazine brand to profitability.


https://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/charts/songs/

Billboard Magazine Double Page Spread Examples

I have gathered examples from both magazines double page spreads to be able to see what house style appeals to me more, and also how I can choose elements that I do and do not like to help me decide on how to layout my own double page spread. I am able to easily compare house styles and layout to give me inspiration on how to create my own double page spread.  

Billboard Magazine Double Page Spread

For this task I took a double page spread from Billboard magazine which featured Breakthrough act of 2012 - The Lumineers an indie folk band who sold over 6 million albums that year. This issue with the band on thier sucess within that year. I have included a collage of what the article looked like on my iPad, I simply was able to screen shot the article and examine it in detail for this task; it includes a cover image of the band which takes up 100% of the page with their name in bold writing following the acutal double page spread.

The article features the band "The Lumineers", I can tell the genre off this band by the way they dress in the images. In a traditional quirky, casual bohemian look which consists of dark and simple colouring, I am able then to deduce that the band has an indie folk flair, indicating to me that the target audience are of similar preferences so that this style and genre of music will appeal to them in particular.  The spread includes the introduction of the band members, there rise to fame, their critically acclaimed albums and production of music ladi and spoken in a way which is clearly relaxed and chic, which again compliments there bohemian vibe. 

Beginning with a large drop cap "T" which takes up majority of the page, our eye flow allows the reader to be instantly directed to the beginning of the article. The interviewer has written this text in a story like manner, using sometimes actual quotes from the band but keeping it in such a way that seems almost like a nostalgic thought, again inkeeping with the band unique chilled vibe which their fans appreciate. The writer explains how they rose to fame "The 5th of Dec episode of the CW's "Hart of Dixie" was going to be the first place much of America would hear their single "Ho Hey."' This is quite formal language with no real colloquial terminology perhaps to portray an element of professionalism on behalf of the magazine; however there is nothing really that would not be accessible to read for all walks of life, therefore would not just appeal to fans of The Lumineers but for all to enjoy and read. This article can be seen as the inside scoop for readers to find out how this band came big, by sharing their story people will feel apart of it too - like they have been told it directly. This then gives a personal relationship between reader and feature.

Much white space is used in this article to portray that the most important elements within the article is within the text. However they do use a slight collage on the right side of the second page to illustrate not only an aural understanding of what the band are about but also show what they look like and gain a visual understanding. The typeface is New Times Roman which is black and stands well out against the pure white background, this is a very plain and simplistic as the magazine does not need vibrant colouring to distract the reader from what they see as important information. The article is extremely to read and navigate as there is only one column on each page with everything spilt up into different paragraphs. However I would like to start off each of my paragraphs within my music magazine maybe using a smaller drop cap than the first in perhaps different colours to emphasise each one more prominently.

On the right hand side of the first page there is a little column titled "Team Lumineers" - this is little boxes aside form the proper article which tell the reader information on their album, label, management, booking, publicity, attorney, sites and twitter account; which is done for people to be lured in to find out more about the bands music and to gain a bigger following especially on social media, cleverly done as this a multi-national magazine within America, meaning majority of American viewers would come across it everyday.  

Throughout this double page spread there is a consistent house-style which consists of the colouring of basic black and white, this is the intention to lure in more indie, alternative folk readers that are suggestive of this genre. The images used also support the dark plain house-style again in keeping with the chilled relaxed vibe of the band. Billboard magazines revamp in style is contemporary and stylish by only including the minimal number of images and a lot of text to thereby keeping readers directed on the information and not just flick through to look at the images. 

Overall this double page spread is extremely simplistic with little colouring, easy navigation and little images.  

Q Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

This is a double page spread from Q Magazine featuring Welsh singer/songwriter, actress and TV presenter Charlotte Church, in this interview she speaks of her times as a singing teen to what she looks forward too in the future. By doing the analyse's of this double page spread I am able to explore and evaluate the features and elements such as the house style, typeface, layout and colouring that I personally like and can possibly get inspiration from to add into my own music magazine. 

Q Magazine Cover Anaylsis

I have evaluated these particular covers of artists that I personally like as I wanted to write a detailed analysis of what was included in different articles of two different genres of music to get myself thinking of elements and features I would like to have in my own music magazine. In later tasks I can then look back at this and see what and how this multi-national magazine portrays its artists and features. 

Contents Page Collage For Q and Billboard Magazine

This is 10 different contents pages from Q Magazine and Billboard magazine, I have completed this so I can get an understanding of the different layouts and house styles the magazines use to differentiate from each other in such a competitive market. Also to get inspiration for when I want to design my own music magazine.  

Billboard Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of Billboard magazine and its corresponding cover page. It is clear that the cover page links well with the contents page as the same colour scheme is used throughout. this establishes a house style altered to match the features image, this is am element that readers of Billboard magazine expects and immediately defines their unique house style. The layout of the contents page is very organised, neat and sophisticated. This vibe of organisation lets the reader feel that all the features are easy to manage and access by corresponding images, anchors and page numbers. The main colour scheme of the magazine is a rich orange tinged mustard colour with a dominent black and a luminous white, this is mainly used for the text and to emphasise stories and make them the focus, however we are drawn to the deep red box which is listed second on the feature section. 

Our eye is caught on the largest photograph as it is an image of 'The Lumineers' who are the main feature artist of this issue, they are seated on a sofa looking quite relaxed and calm, this laid back feeling represents the bands aim and attitude towards their music. The other photographs of stars are rolled down along the bottom of the page, they all include a short cover title with an anchoring brief blurb on the segment included with one image of each person/artist it relates too. Using a variety of different artists such as Taylor Swift, 50 - Cent, Warren Hayes etc... allows the magazine to open is readership to a much wider audience as they are able to cover a wide range of music (Country to Rap/R&B.) 

The Magazine has three sections which are titled "Charts" "Features" and "Department" and in case of this issue a special on indie rock band "The Lumineers", This keeps the layout easy to understand 

and establishes a firm house style that the reader would expect to see running throughout the magazine.  All the images running along the lower half of the contents page are close ups so the reader can depict their facial expressions and feel a relationship with that certain artist, Billborad have purposely chosen majority of the images to not be giving direct eye contact to readers, this is only used for the image of "The Lumineers" and "Marshall Crenshaw" as the magazine see these as important sections within this magazine and deserve the most attention, so both of there images use direct eye contact to build a relationship with the reader.  

I really like the simple easy layout of this contents page, everything is chronologically ordered and this gives off vibes of clean cut and sophistication, this is defiantly an element I would like to protray in my own music magazine. I believe that having correlating images and text along side each other avoids over complication, I will however be making page numbers on my music magazine a lot larger as this is an important element.