Prezi on the LIIAR analysis of existing music magazines

LIIAR analysis of the brief for the music magazine

Typical music magazines have a large mast head at the top of the page. Conventionally, it is the top left hand corner, however a few magazines use the mast head to the full width of the page. Well established music magazines may have their model on the front page covering the mast head slightly. They can afford to do this as the magazine and institution are so well known, the reader will know what magazine it is just by looking at the house style and font. There is also an obvious lexical field of words used in music magazines to make it specific to that one group of people interested in it. Each music magazine will have their own style of writing but ultimately, all the language used will fall under the same obvious heading of music.

An 'exclusive' headline is often a convention of a music magazine as that is how they promote their main, most important story. This sells the magazine as readers can't help but read the headline, which makes them want to read the magazine.

Most music magazines are published monthly as the music industry doesn't change drastically enough to be written about weekly. Also, to be published once a season there would be far too much content, which would make it more expensive too. The price of the magazine mainly depends on how often it is published., If a magazine is published weekly it is likely to be around £2.00 to £2.50. This is because it wont have as much content. Weekly magazines are more like newspapers rather than magazines, such as NME. Monthly magazines are around £3.00 to £4.00 purely because of the content. There isn't many music magazines published once a season, but those that are in excess of £5.00 because they contain a lot of information, meaning their publishing costs will rise dramatically. The institutions also have to make a lot of money to keep their company going between issues published, so they put the price up to cover the costs and ensure they have money to spend on the issue for the next month.

There are many different genre's of music magazine, the largest being pop. The age range for this is huge as children can be interested in pop music such as Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. These artists are largely admired by those from around 5 or 6 to about 12/13. However older teenagers and even some adults can also be interested in these artists. This means that there needs to be a range of magazines for all age ranges to buy as pop music can be listened to by people of all ages. There are other genres such as rock and indie which are mainly listened to by older generations from about 25 to 35 but also some teenagers are interested in these genres. Both of which in fact are very popular amongst teenagers.

The target audience for music magazines largely depends on the genre of the magazine. There are loads of different age groups that music magazines are aimed at,  but the biggest group is 15 - 24yrs. This is mainly because these are the unemployed people that have more time to read magazines and also the majority of them go out to clubs and other various parties and listen to music. This group also includes college and university students. These students are more likely to have a spare bit of time to read the magazines while resting before exams etc, as opposed to a business man or woman who generally doesn't have a great deal of free time.

Music magazines conventionally portray a positive image of the music industry and also of the readers. They do this by using positive language and focusing on the positive aspects of the music industry. However, the institutions know everybody likes a bit of gossip, so they will sometimes feature a few negative headlines of certain artists to engage the reader and make them think the gossip is 'exclusive' to that magazine.

Music Magazine Brief

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

Final Front Cover and LIIAR evaluation

I chose to use the mast head 'Wyke Knowledge' as it is catchy and refers to education. Also, 'knowledge' sounds a bit like 'college' which is the word it has replaced. I chose to use the logo as a part of my title as it is familiar to students and also advertises the college as well as the magazine. It also shows the institution of the magazine, although it isn't in the bottom right hand corner where the institution is normally advertised. I have used purple, blue and green for my house style as purple and green are the college colours and blue has connotations of calmness, representing the college as a calm and therefore relaxing place to be. The title mast head out as 'knowledge' is the only piece of writing on the page which is white, there is no other white on the front cover. It also stretches to the full width of the page, making it the first thing the reader will see. I have used a question just underneath the title starting 'what's your opinion.' This will draw the readers in as they think that the question is actually being asked to them. I added in the strap line ‘be in the know’ underneath the mast head to relate to the word ‘knowledge’ and to tell the reader what type of magazine it is (a college magazine).

I added in the picture frames in green on the images to keep within the house style and to make it look more professional. I also put the word ‘successful’ into the colour green as green has connotations of positivity, therefore relating to the word successful. I used mostly black text to make it easier to read and see against the background.

I’ve taken a medium close up image of my model with a folder. The folder represents college life i.e studying, again showing it’s a college magazine. I used the college as the background to advertise the college campus and to reinforce the fact that it’s Wyke college magazine. The background image represents is a bright and colourful image, giving off a positive representation of the college and its students.

I have included issues about the college within my front cover, showing images of the college facilities. I have also included the current topic of the second year where the new oak building is has been used. This will draw the readers in as they will want to know more about college life particularly the new AS students.

I have included the issue number, bar code and date my magazine was published in the bottom right hand corner which makes the magazine look more professional. My magazine is also free, as I don’t think students will pay for a magazine with information in it that they can find out on their intranet.

Mock up of my college magazine and feedback

I asked a number of people what they thought of this as a college magazine compared with the final magazine. I asked them about the background, the text (if it's clear or is related to the image), the image of my model and the mast head. The results are below.

Do you like the background of this magazine?

Yes – 32% No – 68%

Would you prefer an image of the college as the background?

Yes  - 98% No – 2%

If no, what would you prefer?

All 2% said they liked the background

Do you like the house style of the magazine?
Yes – 12% No – 88%

Do you like the mast head? Does it stand out?
Yes – 4% No – 96%

Do you like the captions of the images?
Yes – 7% No – 93%

Is it clear and easy to read?

Yes – 0% No 100%

Is the main image relevant?

Yes – 14% No – 86%

Does it stand out?

Yes – 73% No – 27%

Are the extra images well presented?

Yes – 17% No – 83%

Would you say adding a boarder around these images would improve it?

Yes – 100% No – 0%

Overall,  all the participants said they preferred the final magazine cover as this didn't hold many conventions of a magazine and also doesn't look very professional.

Marketing my college magazine

To market my magazine, I could create a website for my magazine which all college students from all colleges including Wyke and secondary school year elevens, interested in the college. It will have the current front cover and contents page available to look at and also information of where to get one within college. I could also advertise it around the college campus, putting up posters with the current front cover on it. If i were to create a website for this magazine it will also have a link from the college intranet making it easy to view. I asked a number of people in and outside of Wyke if they would visit a website for information about the current magazine and 76% said they would. 94% if the students within Wyke said they would find it easier if the website had a link on the students intranet. If my magazine wasn't free, I would show competitions and free stuff on the website or posters which would be an easy way to persuade people to buy it. For example, an idea for the current magazine would be the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and so on, magazines to be bought would get a free ticket to the upcoming Wyke Halloween party.

This is how my magazine would look if it were posted on a wall within the college.

If my magazine website had a link on http://www.wyke.ac.uk/ it would be up here with the rest of the sub-headings of the magazine.

This is where the link to my magazine will be if it is advertised on the student intranet, either next to the library subheading or within it.





Front Cover Development

Firstly I started off with this image of my model. I like it as it's a medium close up of my model and she is looking directly at the camera. This draws the reader in as they make eye contact with the model, making the reader feel the model is looking directly at them.

I cut around my model using the quick select tool in photoshop. I then copied the image and pasted it onto my background.

I chose my background as the college as it shows which college the magazine is for. I took a sample of the sky in the image to colour in the white space left at the top of the page. I then blended the painted colour into the image using the smudge tool.

I then added in my mast head "Wyke knowledge." I did this by choosing my font from dafont.com and downloaded it. I then cut around it again using the quick select tool and parted it onto the top of the page. I did the same for the Wyke logo.

I then added the strap line "be in the know" using the text icon and changed the colour to purple to keep within the house style of my magazine.

I added images onto my magazine by opening them in photoshop and copying and pasting them. I added the boarder round the images making it green to fit into the house style and also 50% transparent so you can still see the image behind the boarder making it look more professional.

I added text above and below the images to describe the images using the text icon, telling the reader what is in the magazine drawing them in. I've used the same font as the strap line, using black, green and purple to create the house style. I used the colour green to emphasise the word "successful" as green has connotations of strengths. Images and captions are very conventional of magazines, including a lot of information of what is going to be included in the magazine.

I then added the bar code, issue number and date in the bottom right hand corner using the bar code generator.  I used free transform and scale to make the bar code just the right size to fit on. This adds to the conventions of the front cover as all professional magazines have a bar code, issue number and date.

I then added the Wyke website to the bottom of the page n green to make it stand out. This adds to the professionalism of the magazine as it shows the institution off to the reader and it is also a convention of a magazine.

Overall, I am pleased with my magazine as it has many professional, conventional features. However I could have included advertisements on the front cover as that is a massive convention of all magazines.