Conducted Audience Research

Today I created a questionnaire to find out people's views on music magazines, their knowledge of genre and their music preferences. I asked seven people of varying age and gender to get range of results and to make sure they related to reality. I found out a lot of interesting and useful information which i will take into consideration when creating my music magazine. A lot of people answered that they didn't buy music magazines at all, so I would like to try and create a magazine that would attract those types of people. It will take a lot of careful planning to produce a music magazine that will interest people who don't want to read about music, but by adding gossip and general information, people may be more likely to read it.

Research in current states of music magazines task

Today i researched existing music magazines and how they perform. I looked into their sales and therefore the reasons for their success or failure. I found out a lot of music magazine titles which I had never heard of before, which proves how popularity in the magazine sector is heavily influenced on sales. The most popular magazine and best selling proved to be NME and I also found that Q and KERRANG followed closely behind.


I have learnt how much profit the best music magazines make and how they compare to the other magazines available. This will be very important when i am creating my music magazine and thinking about pricing. 

Analysis of Magazines Task

Today I completed a research task on the analysis of two music magazine front covers. This helped me to learn the ways in which different genres of magazines create their target audiences by the design of their front covers. I also learnt that a lot of detail has to be put into the production of a magazine front cover, because it sets the style and audience you want to attract straight away. It's vital that you understand who you want your target audience to be before you start the design process!

Reflection on Student Magazine

Software


For my student magazine I used a software called InDesign. At first I found it difficult to use, and there was a lot that I needed to learn how to use properly. However, with the help of my tutor and classmates who had previously used the software, I learnt where everything was, and eventually created a magazine front cover and draft of a contents page.


The software was perfect for the task I was given as it allowed my work to be of a professional standard and also be individual to my style and ideas. I enjoyed using InDesign and it encouraged me to be more creative in my work. It also gave me a greater understanding of magazine creation and publishing.


Advantages and Disagvantages of my Student Magazine

From my point of view, the advantages of my student magazine would be the colour scheme as it's bold and feminine which relates to my target audience of girls. I also like the layout of my text and the different types of colouring and size of fonts that I used. The advantages of my contents page would be that i carried out the colour scheme throughout, tying my whole magazine together.


The disadvantages of my student magazine would be the picture that I took because, I think that I could have postitioned the students more to the right of the picture to enable my coverlines to not cover their faces. I also think that maybe I could have put more coverlines on to make the front page, and therefore the magazine, more interesting. The disadvantages of my contents page would be the layout all together because personally I think it looks quite boring compared to my front cover.


However, I am pleased with my student magazine, even though there are things I would change, it was only my first go with the software and creating a magazine. It looks like a magazine and I tried to include as many features of a typical magazine as possible. Overall I am happy with my finished student magazine.