The current industry for the production and selling of music magazines is very competitive, and is becoming harder and harder for the success of music magazines to be prolonged for a great period of time. As of the beginning of 2011, these are the circulation figures for a selection of music magazines:
- Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
- Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
- Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
- Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
- Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
- New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%
These figures clearly show that there is a lot of competition between the magazines. You can also see that not one of these magazines have managed to increase their circulation, most notably Metal Hammer magazine, whose circulation has dropped by 15.7%. The music magazine market is quite clearly fragmented and separated into magazines by the music genre they cover. I wanted to find a space in the market where I thought that my music magazine would be able to become dominant, whilst still basing it around a genre of music that I enjoy listening to. Through research I found that there is a relatively small number of music magazines that focus on the genres of dubstep and drum & bass, so this is what I decided to focus on.
The lack of other magazines within this genre of music meant that I had to find a way of relating the design and layout of my magazine to my target audience with no real identification of what it would expect. Therefore there are some features of my magazine that I have thought up myself and added to the design, and other features and ideas that use and develop the conventions presented in other types of music magazine.
Through further research (here and here) of the dubstep and drum & bass music genres I found out that the majority of my target audience would be males between the ages of 16-25, who regularly go to clubs and festivals, are heavy users of the internet, and are into the electro/dance/drum & bass/dubstep genres of music. This meant I knew what sort of headlines and artists I could feature in my magazine, and also gave me an idea of what colour schemes I could use in order to grab the audience's attention.
In popular music magazines, the way the titles are laid out are very different. Some magazines such as Q have their title as a logo in the corner of the page and some such as Vibe have the text written across the top of the page. Each of the titles follow a very clear structure, being positioned on the page in one of two ways, and I think that the title of my magazine follows the conventions of music magazines based on this. The title on my music magazine is laid out across the page, similar to Vibe, and this gives the impression that it is a serious magazine and will appeal to readers. If the title was placed somewhere that is different to the conventions of a music magazine, such as at the bottom of the page, the audience could see it as being something totally different and may not want to pick it up. The target audience would want to be picking up something that looks appealing to them. The positioning of the model on top of the title is another convention that I have continued on from real music magazines, and I think this makes the magazine look more professional.
Another feature surrounding my title that follows the conventions of music magazines is the strapline above the title. In some magazines you can find a strapline above or below the title. You can see that magazines focusing on a genre similar to mine (dance music) mostly all have straplines above or below the title, so to I decided to use the conventions by having this on my magazine. The contents pages of most music magazines seem to be laid out in similar ways, with stories listed under different categories such as 'news' and 'features'. Some magazines also feature a band index, which lists all of the bands featuring in the magazine. I tried to carry these features over into my magazine but ended up developing them. For example I have the headings down two columns of my music magazine instead of on, which seems to be the norm in the industry, and the picture taking up less of the space on the page, with information about more articles being dominant. I felt that this shows my magazine is slightly more serious and focused on getting good articles consistently throughout the magazine, and less about just having one main article.
I have however followed the convention of the main article being highlighted by a picture on the contents page with text on top of the picture. I feel that this makes the stand out more than the other features in the contents page and draws the readers attention to the main article. The band index feature of music magazines is used in quite a few music magazines, but I decided to change this to 'Reviews' so that the readers will know what is being written about the bands, in this instance reviews of their music, and is better than having just the names of artists on the page with no indication of what has been written about them in the magazine. I think that I have developed the normal conventions of music magazines for the better in mine.
Another feature in my magazine that features often in music magazines is the option to scan a QR code to get a digital copy of the magazine, or download a free gift. I felt it was appropriate to put in my magazine as it shows a use of the conventions seen in real music magazines, and also to act as a hook for my target audience who are technology based, as seen here. QR codes are being used increasingly frequently in modern music magazines and I feel that it is a key feature that needed to be included in my magazine to give it a feel of authenticity and make it look professional.
My double page spread also follows some conventions you would expect to find in music magazine, with the first example being the over-sized title featuring as a main part of the page. This is used to ensure readers are drawn staright to the title and can get an understanding of what the article is about without fully reading it. The colours used in the title are also coherent with the house style seen throughout my magazine, which is something that features heavily in real music magazines. You can see that the colours used are also similar to the title of a double page spread in mixmag magazine, which covers a similar genre of music to my magazine. This shows that the styling of my article is similar to those in real music magazines featuring on similar genres of music, meaning my double page spread will successfully reach my target audience.Another feature of my double page spread that frequently appears in music magazines is the banner along the top of the page which includes a heading telling the reader what section of the magazine the article is from. I felt that this also gives my magazine an professional look and follow the conventions set by other magazines that have been professionally published.
Throughout my magazine I have pictures of two different models. One model features on the front cover, double page spread, and as the artist on the double page spread. I have created an album cover using the picture of my second model and have placed it in my contents page under the 'Discover' section. There is usually more than one picture throughout a front page, contents and double page spread of a magazine and I feel that using this convention of a music magazine will attract readers and make the magazine look professional. The inclusion of objects such as headphones and mixing decks in my pictures give a clear indication of the genre of music being focused on in the magazine.
One final convention from real music magazines that I used in my magazine was the use of a consistent house style. I made sure that throughout the pages that I have created there was consistency with the colours and fonts used. This would hopefully make my magazine easier to read, and also continues with the presentation of the genre of the magazine.
Here you can see each page of my magazine next to the front page, contents and double page spread of NME magazine, to present how the house style has been used.
