Audience Research Results

After uploading my survey on http://www.freeonlinesurvey.com/ I asked my classmates and my teacher to complete it.. I have made some graphs with results of the survey :

The "other" type of music included:

- House/ Electro Question 8 What bands or artists would you want to see in a music magazine? The answers were: - Lil Wayne Wiz Khalifa - the most popular artists e.g rihanna, beyonce - Latest and Popular bands. Bands that I that know and some new bands - A band that I have not heard of. - new teenage band which has g8 song like simple plan etc. - Katy Perry Snow Patrol The Ting Tings - Eminem N-Dubz 50 Cent - Kasabian, Placebo - Skepta - Swedish House Mafia Eric Morillo Avicii etc. Question 10 What appeals to you when buying a music magazine? (e.g. Front Cover, Masthead or Double Page Spread) The answers for this question were: - Front Cover - front cover - Front Cover - What is said in the magazine; the doubla page spread. - the image in the front cover and the cover lines - Front cover - if the magazine features people I like, I'll buy it - Front Cover - Front cover - Masthead - The front cover- has to be colourful and eye-catching

After going through the survey's results I found out a lot about what people prefer and like in music. The results I have will help me to understand in which direction to create my magazine and what people would want to see in it. Mainly people who were asked to complete the survey were 15 - 19 years old. As far as I know teenagers prefer everything about superstars' lifes, their albums and interviews, how they dress (fashion) and what they do when they stuggle. However, I wanted to specify my magazine therefore I picked a genre for it by asking others. The genre I picked was hip hop & rap, which is mostly liked by all teenagers. As the purpose of the magazine is to gain some money I asked people how much would they be willing to spend and the price people picked the most was something between £3 - £4. Also by asking people to complete my servey I found out that everyone prefers to be getting some freebies and mostly it is free tickets, cd and posters. I had a think over that and decided that as people mostly buy music magazines every month or sometimes I will be putting some free tickets or cd's with posters every month into my magazine in order to attract people to buy it. However, I found out that people don't like participating in any kind of activities such as questionaires, so I am not going to add them or I will but very rarely. Also by going through the results I found out that people,mostly, get attracted by the fron cover and that's what leads them to buy a music magazine. Therefore, I will be working very hard on my front cover by adding a lot of colours to it with a very nice masthead.

Textual analysis of a music magazine

Front page analysis

"The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998." - the information is taken from wikipedia.org

NME magazine is one of many music magazines, competing with other music magazines on sale, such as Kerrang and Q magazine.  ‘The XX’ are the cover stars of this issue; this is because they feature in an article in the magazine. The magazine stands out with its eye catching hot pink and white text against the darker areas of the front cover, in attempt to grab the audience’s attention along with the direct address of the band image. All members of the band are dressed in black, making it contrast against the lighter background colour; this may suit the genre of their music with their relaxed but serious facial expressions. Romy Croft is positioned between the other band members and is the centre focus point, showing she is the lead member of the group. Most of the image is covered by text “so what’s next for Britain’s new favourite band?” however the word ‘favourite’ is only an opinion but wants to reach out to the fans and to people who haven’t heard of them yet. There is also a quote from one of the band members “There’s no plan to do a second album...” this is to give people an insight into the article and to draw in the audience to discover more about the personal image of the band and to find out what they might have planned to do next.

The target audience is probably of the mid teens for both sexes, as the magazine is youthful with the types of genres they would be interested in and the wording is short and snappy. The masthead and the cover lines are presented in capitals and the text with ‘THE XX’ (centred) is the biggest typeface (besides from the masthead) is also in clashing pink and white, so the audience’s eyes are drawn to this.

‘Revealed: the best bands, the biggest let downs’, this makes the audience feel part of a secret, and there is something they can discover. The next subheading ‘New Manchester RIOT’ the word ‘riot’ is bigger than the rest, this grabs the audience’s attention and they will see this on the shelves when they buy it. Also on the bottom, left hand corner the text ‘+ more...’ attempts to hook the audience’s curiosity, its aim to get them to want to take a look inside at the rest of the contents of the magazine.  ‘Festival Poll 2010’ is something the audience can get involved in.

The cover doesn’t look crowded but the publisher has made good use of space and the text and layout is clearly presented. More bands such as Arctic Monkeys are listed down the right hand side, so the audience can see what else they will find inside the magazine, the ‘+’ as a symbol, not the word, plus. 

Content Page analysis

This contents page of NME magazine is clearly titled ‘INSIDE THIS WEEK’ in bold black serif font, in the top centre. The audience do not need to be told it is a contents page; they can easily tell by the page numbers and can see what they will find in the issue. The contents page is laid out in three columns; the reader can easily find what they are looking for quickly if they are looking for something in particular.  Some of the page numbers are presented larger than the rest along with a picture that is related, so the reader does not have to look through a list of pages numbers to find what they are searching for and gives the impression they are more important. There are also a few quotes and a description so the viewer can get an insight of what they will find on this page. There is plus columns, which has the rest of the page numbers, this is easy to spot and the page numbers are in bold.  In the right hand corner of the page there is a red box, the white text against the red looks eye catching, it is simple and does not over crowd the rest of the page.

Double Page Spread analysis

At the top of the double page spread, there is a quick description about the article to entice the reader, it is separated to act as a title but is only to give a glance for the audience.  There is also a subtitle underneath this which gains the reader’s interest before they read the whole interview. All text is in black some parts like quotes are in bold to highlight specific interests; the way the quotes cut into the article is effective as they are the most interesting quotes from the interview and they will want to read on. The use of the large ‘I’ and ‘F’ draws in the reader’s attention to the paragraphs. These paragraphs are organised into columns so, in my opinion, is easier to follow and looks neat. The first picture on the left page is related to the subtitle, the top picture on the right page gives the impression of the band more laid back and shows the bands normal behaviour, and what the band is like day-to-day. The quotes are close to the pictures which link them to the article and make them seem friendlier. The language used in the article is informal in order to find a better connection with the audience.

Textual analysis of a music magazine

Front Cover Analysis

The masthead is in lower case and capitals. It is also in sans serif which shows that it is current as well as the text colour. It is a light ‘young’ blue which makes it appealing to its audience. The masthead is fairly small in size compared to the other texts on the page and it attracts its target audience because it’s simple, yet cool and the way the text ‘presents’ is rotated at an angle gives it that edgy look. The main photograph is a medium close up of the artist Bow Wow in front of a grey backdrop which is lighted softly. The facial expression on the artists face is natural with a slight smirk on his face. Bow Wow’s photograph is positioned to the left of the page as opposed to the other images which are aligned to the right; this shows that there is a main story inside the magazine of the chosen artist (Bow Wow). Because the target audience of this magazine are black teenagers, readers can easily identify themselves with the photograph.
The texts on the front cover are in sans serif and predominantly in capitals. They are all of a medium weight and size. The colours that have been used are: black, blue, yellow, white and pink which represent energy and fun, this creates a youthful effect. Some of the texts are rotated at an angle which gives the front cover an edgy and cooler look and feel. There is a sketched image on the top right hand corner of the magazine. Another interesting element of the photographs is the way they are presented. Some photos have no background (e.g. Chris Brown & Rihanna), and the others that are used have a background (e.g. Jazmine Sullivan and Kelly Clarkson). The cover design establishes a house style with the word ‘black’ incorporated into the word ‘beat’. This is unique to the magazine company. This magazine cover will influence me in many ways, especially in the way the texts are positioned. I like the way this magazine has slightly rotated the texts.
Contents Page Analysis

The purpose of a contents page is to inform the reader of what is inside the magazine. The reader is able to navigate to the different sections of the magazine because the sections are in different colours for example, ‘Fashion and Beauty’ is in pink and ‘Music’ is in purple so it is easy for the reader to select specific parts of the magazine that they want to read. Also, the page numbers are very clear and the most important page number of each section is larger than the rest.

In the contents page, there are photographs of various images that relate to each category or the page. It also adheres to the overall house style of the music magazine with use of carefully selected images and audience friendly language. The page reveals that the reader is interested in fashion, music and celebrity entertainment.

 Double Page Spread Analysis

The main image is of the rapper Bow Wow. He is wearing casual clothing; this would be worn by the target audience. The interesting thing about the photograph is that it looks as if it has been torn. This is very smart as it reflects against the title BEWARE OF THE DOG’ seeming as if something dangerous has happened. The whole article is in sans serif font style, using a bright colour scheme (orange, green and blue). There are no columns in this feature page, neither is there an article, just two simple paragraphs.

Music magazine textual analysis

Magazine - "DJ"
Publisher - "Thrust Publishing"
Published Since - 1991
Front Page

The masthead of this front cover can be clearly seen because of the size and the colour of itself. The colour was used for the masthead is red, which stands out on white background. The masthead says "DJ" which allows the buyer to understand that this magazine is going to be about "dance" music and incase the buyer doesn't understand what DJ stand for, underneath the masthead it is written "living &breathing dance music" which after reading this will clearly give the buyer a klnowledge of type of this magazine.
The front cover attracts audience by using a lot of different bright colours in the masthead, coverlines and the headline and a mid-close up picture. The headline "SBTRKT the masked man speaks" is posted in yellow colour and almost as big asthe masthead and somehow attached to the picture with the colour. However the headline is still not clear for the reader as it says "SBTRKT" this could be some abbreviation which some people wouldn't understand. The picture is a mid-close up picture which has man's face covered up with a mask.
On top of the masthead there is a strapline which says "free santos multimedia CD! music and data galore!" in a non stereo typical way by using a white font colour on a white background, when ususally it is used for attracting people and would have been written in some outstanding colour. However, it could of been done like this because of the notice straight next to it that says "best of british launch issue" , which is posted on a yellow graphic and probably is there to attract more audience.
The coverlines printed on the front page of this magazine are in different colour which really attracts buyers eyes and the contents themselves are really attractive and interesting. The coverlines are positioned in some kind of an order. when as a reader, I would expect them to be spreaded around page reading this type of a magazine.
Talking about the price of tha magazine it is very reasonable and it is £3.95 as the magazine is released monthly and aimed at any age group with a specific audience "dance" music fans or people who prefer "dance" music.  All this information is situated at the bottom of the page where it is expected to be normally. There is also an iTunes logo, which possibly allows user to understand that songs of this magazine could be downloaded there.
Contents page

Now I will be talking about contents page of this magazine. As soon as we open the page we can see a similar photo to the one on the front cover, which is really interesting and unusual. I wouldn't really say this content page is different to a stereotypical one because it has section headings which are put in an order and highlighted with different colors. In my opinion, highlighting section headings is a very good idea as it is easier for a reader to find what he/she really needs to find and it makes the page brighter. The information provided in the section headings is put in different colors too which makes this page brighter and less boring to look at. All the contents are followed up with a page number, some of them even have a picture to illustrate what is the section about to help the reader to get into the magazine. There are three columns: the first one is a mix of texts and a picture,the second one contains just text and the third one has only pictures. The "features" section is kind of highlighted on this page as it is printed in bigger fonts to the other sections and is the only section on the left side of the contents page when all the other sections are printed in another column. This could have been made in order to highlight the purpose of the magazine which is feautures of djing. As I said before, there is a picture on this page which gets into your attention is printed underneath the main section and is referred to one of the titles of this section and could possible be the reason why people bought the magazine. The pictures on the contents page have a bigger font for the page numbers and it is clearly  for the people who don't like reading and just want to see at a glance.
Double page spread

The double page spread I picked was about the front cover page's picture and the highlighted title of the contents page. The picture is very big and interesting because of the mixture of its colors. Also it is very mysterious as it is some kind of a mask in a mid close up shot. You can clearly see the masthead as it is printed in an enormous font in yellow which really stands out in black. There is also a massive drop cap underneath the massive masthead which makes the page really outstanding.The background color of this page is black and it is unusual to a stereotypical magazine. However, the font colors picked are bright and easy to read. On the first page there is a mixture of a picture and text on which the picture is clearly the most important part, but the second page has just only text. However,it has small titles on it which are standng out of the text and make it less boring. Also the text is written in informal language, using a lot of slang words and has some of taboo language which makes the text very interesting and really proves that it is the main article. 

Adobe InDesign

Today I was working on my Adobe InDesign and I found it very easy. In my opinion Adobe InDesign is very similar to Adobe Photoshop and it is very comfortable and easy to use. However, there were some things it caused a little bit of trouble, but the lesson is finished and I've completed my task.

Audience research (Survey)

I need some help with creating the magazine.. I need your opinions to know what people would want to see in a music magazine.Please follow the link and complete the survey!
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=o20p4ug6kdr1xhs1019160

Comparing magazines

As I've planned, I was comparing four magazines. Stuff I was comparing from the magazines were: thier prices, numbers of pages , samples of advertising, typical articles and some more.. Here is my sheet with resutls.



Action Plan

As I posted before the most important point in performing a task is having a plan, therefore the plan was the first task I have completed for the main task.

Weeks	Tasks
5/12/11	Write action plan, Compare magazines
12/12/11	Textual analysis, Audience research
2/1/12	Internet research, plan photoshoot
9/1/12	Take photos
16/1/12	Layout design, font design, masthead design
23/1/12	Make pages/Drafting
30/1/12	Make pages/Drafting
6/2/12	Make pages/Drafting
20/2/12	Audience feedback, tweaking, evaluation
27/2/12	Evaluation
Deadline	2/3/12

HTML Tables

THE MAIN TASK

As I've finished my preliminary task, I can start with the main task. I will have to be creating a music magazine, which has to include a front page, a content page and double page spread. I am starting it today, so watch out for some updates!

Evaluating my magazine

I have just been interviewed about my magazine by my colleague Xenia and this is the interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVvQzTphx5g