MAIN TASK - Research and Planning

To begin with my research, I decided that it would be useful to gain a wide range of background knowledge on what the music press actually was and how it was effective in magazine production and distribution to their target audience. Here are a few questions and answers on the music press which helped me understand more about the relationship between the music press and the music industry.

In order to create a successful magazine cover I produced a list which would remind me of all of the necessary codes and conventions that I will take into consideration when designing my music magazine front cover.

• Clear/bold/large masthead (positioned at the top of the page)
• Consistent house style
• Text boxes and box outs
• Varying font size/anchoring text, correctly positioned text (such as around images and to the edges of the page)
• a balance between text and images making the magazine informative but still attractive
• content specific to music
• Linguistic devices - use of declaratives! rhetorical questions? play on words, alliteration, use of onomatopoeia, ellipsis/imperative verbs/personal pronouns
• Price, bar code, issue number and date
• Top Strip/Strap line/Skyline/Sell line/Bottom Strip
• tag/hyperbole/slogan/puff/pug/stand first/feature/cover mount
• Main image/direct mode of address/celebrity endorsement

Bauer and Institutions

In preparation for the construction of my music magazine and also for my exam sim Section B question, I decided to investigate the conglomerate that owns Kerrang!, Bauer media group. I researched many aspects of Bauer such as ownership, target audience, synergy and convergence. Below are my findings on Bauer Media and the impact that institutions such as them have on products and their distribution. It is essential for me to understand institutions and the digitalisation of media products in order for me to produce a realistic, marketable magazine for a modern day audience. It has also showed me the importance of having convergent links.

National readership figures

Having investigated Kerrang! I then thought that it would be a good idea if I analysed and researched another Bauer owned media product.  I decided to research FHM one of, if not the biggest Bauer media brand.

I also decided to research the readership figures in order to gain an understanding of the relationship between genre and demographics.

FHM has a much larger male audience than a female audience as it specifically targets them and they are a niche group.

Linguistic analysis of 3 Kerrand magazine front covers and contents pages

Here is my linguistic analysis of 3 Kerrang magazine front covers and contents pages. I needed to complete this analysis because Kerrang was my specific case study. Such as when I have previously analysed magazines I have identified all of the key features, codes and conventions of the magazine. As these magazine were industry standard I found analysing them easier than when I analysed magazines created by school students.

 

Example double page spreads

Analysis of two different genres of magazines

Here is my analysis of magazines of different genres to that of school and music. I decided to complete this analysis in order to see what the different codes and conventions are in varying genres of magazines. An example is that I now understand why men's health have chosen a sports star as the main image for the magazine, in order to attract spots and fitness fans in general and people who view them as an icon.  The reason I decided to analyse these two magazines in particular was because I was intrigued by how they both simultaneously looked attractive with their layout and design yet very differently Men's Health was full with text/information and Vogue was not. I was trying to identify and next implement any of the key codes and conventions found in these magazines into my own magazine creation.

Extract from my Exam Simulation- What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the media area you have studied?

"Bauer media is a conglomerate institution that is based in the UK. Bauer media joined the Bauer media group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emap plc’s consumer and specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital business. Their magazine heritage stretches back to 1953 with the launch of Angling Times and the acquisition in 1956 of Motor Cycle News. Bauer is the largest media institution in the UK and also the largest privately owned publishing group in Europe. 6 out of 10 of the top 10 magazines in the UK are produced by Bauer. At any time 4 in 10 people are reading a Bauer product and 22 million adults per week have used a product which highlights the influence and clout that they obtain. Bauer is an oligopoly meaning it is one of the top 4 media producers nationally which is identifiable within the fact that they employ over 6400 people. The Bauer media group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries. The group employs a work force of approximately 11,000 employees in 17 countries with revenue of 2.4 billion euros (2013). Bauer targets niche audiences such as sports car fans, and gossip magazine fans along with many more which they have brought over time. They interact with these niche audiences in order to keep their products relevant and desirable. As Bauer is a conglomerate institution they can interact with these niche groups through the print magazines that they produce and also television, radio and the web. These techniques give consumers platforms to express opinion which has helped Bauer maintain its role as an "influential media brand with millions of relationships and many multimedia platforms" as they themselves believe. Their large scale communication reinforces that they apply their "strategy of connecting to audiences through broad multi touch point, broad platforms". An example of a Bauer product that has many different multimedia platforms is Kerrang magazine.

Kerrang is a rock magazine that now has its own radio station, TV channel and webpage in order to increase accessibility, improve interaction with audiences and in turn reach wider audiences. Kerrang has a massive following which at one point was not the case; the introduction of new platforms recaptured this. The NRS for Bauer Media tells us that 345,000 people purchase copies of Kerrang magazine in the UK alone. The most popular age range was 15-24 which was responsible for 56.1% of all users of Kerrang. This is not necessarily a surprising statistic as that particular age range (teenagers to young adults) is the most likely to have access to all the different platforms Kerrang are available on. Synergy has helped Kerrang become an individual super brand as it itself creates many different types of merchandise and then advertises them across all of its platforms reaching every Kerrang follower all under one brand. By giving themselves brand identity and having everything begin with the iconic K such as KTV or KRadio people can easily identify that it belongs to Kerrang and are therefore encouraged to read or listen to that particular branch of content.

Convergence and digitalisation in the modern-tech era has allowed for the introduction of multimedia platforms and the ability to synergies products for advertisement. The improvement of technology means that media institutions like Bauer that have huge financial backing can constantly evolve their products increasing accessibility to Kerrang through mobile phones and tablets connected to the web where consumers can download the mobile app and follow Kerrang on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This makes products available all the time and on the go. This diversion in how media products are distributed and made available to the public once again gives consumers the ability to have their say on products allowing them to communicate with the institution. This form of interaction develops the brand." 

Any of the images from this point onwards with black boxes around them were taken and uploaded using my phone and then sharpened and re coloured using power point to make them look professional.

Having completed our studies on media audiences and institutions I decided to complete a G321 Foundation Portfolio Marking Criteria chart which would highlight the areas I was confident in my abilities in but also the areas that I needed to improve before planning the design of my final media product.

Music magazine genre and title

My original case study was Kerrang which is a rock and roll magazine. I have chosen to cover pop music for my magazine as it is such a popular genre of music it has a large variety of audiences and niche groups. Pop music will also appeal more to the modern audience. If I had decided upon covering rock and roll music it would have limited the extent of my knowledge of codes and conventions used across all genres of magazines. It was extremely difficult to choose a name for my magazine as I had to consider both attractiveness and relevance so that the magazine was instantaneously recognisable. I eventually decided to call my magazine POParazzi.

Alternative Titles

Despite being pleased with my initial name for my magazine, I decided to come up with three more names in order to give myself a wide variety of options to choose from which could potentially change my mind on my final magazine name. Here are the three alternative titles I came up with prior to deciding upon my final magazine name: 

-The Popcycle

-Pop Here Pop Now!

-Make This Your POPerty!

Possible main images

A key feature of any magazine needed in its quest to attract an audience is the main image attributed to the front cover.The main image is the first thing that the reader sees therefore how attractive it is will be pivotal in the readers decision on whether to buy the magazine or not. To help with choosing a main image for my main task I have researched and detailed three possible main images that I could use for my magazine. I believe that these images are relevant as they comply to some of the codes and conventions of a magazine main image such as celebrity endorsement, mode of address and the use of mise en scene. They would be extremely relevant to my magazine target audience as the images are of significant people within the music industry and in the particular genre of music that my magazine will be focusing on. All of the images consist of plain backgrounds allowing plenty of room for my cover lines and other key features to go on. Here are the three images along with my analysis of them which highlights how they are relevant to my target audience.

Flat Plan for front Cover

As when I created my school magazine I needed to create a flat plan for my front cover and contents pages. My flat plan will provide a basis that I can follow in order to produce a magazine in the style that I have decided upon from my research of other magazines. I do not have to stick to it completely as I may see room for further improvement. Creating a flat plan will give me something to adhere when creating my final contents page.

Flat Plan for Contents Page

Having constructed a flat plan for my cover page, I then did the exact same for my contents page. As with my flat plan for my cover page the flat plan for my contents page will only be a guideline for me to use when creating my finalised contents page. This means that it will be an improvement upon the flat plan and not instead a complete replica.

Before I began to construct my contents page I decided to look at one more contents page from Kerrang! in order to be clear on what the key codes and conventions were and whether or not I could emulate and implement some of the ideas that they have used. Below is my analysis.

Having looked at some Kerrang! contents pages in order to get a good perspective of contents pages and personally what it was that  I need to do, I decided to annotate my school magazine contents page to look at it from a critical viewpoint and see what codes and conventions I didn't include last time and to make sure that I included them this time.

Below is a draft of my contents page that I constructed to give myself a basis to work from. Although only very basic it was still very helpful as it acted like a flat plan in terms of allowing me to follow a clear structure.

I also decided to do further research into the varying layout of contents pages to see whether or not I could develop upon some of the ideas that I had originally came up with.

Music Magazine Mock Up Front Cover

Similarly to my school magazine for my next task I needed to produce a mock up version of my front cover. Just like my flat plans this mock up cover is a guideline for my final magazine and not instead a replica of the finalised piece.The construction of a mock up front cover however, is a crucial part of the Research and Planning stage. Below is my mock up magazine front cover along with its linguistic analysis.

I chose POParazzi because it is witty being a clear use of play on words.

Brand Eye Planning

Here is my brand eye planning sheet that I constructed that allowed me to de cluster my work into separate categories that I could work on individually. I have chosen Sam Smith as my feature and the main cover line as Sam Smith winning 4 Grammy awards because he is an artist of which I know a fair bit about which will allow me to have much more content at my disposal. This will gift me with the ability to make the interview personalised to the audience. I have chosen 'a cocktail of sound' as the slogan for my magazine.

The image below is the comments that my teacher made which can allow me to act upon the action points to improve my work.

I decided to hand out my mock up to my peers so that I could see their feedback on how to improve for when I make my final music magazine front cover.

Music Magazine Mock Up Contents Page

Cover lines

Main Cover line - Sam Smith wins 4 Grammy awards including - record of the year, song of the year, best new artist and best pop vocal album

This story will drive home that Sam Smith is the feature of the magazine as this is the second cover line endorsing him. Here I will cover the incredible news that Sam Smith stole the show at this years Grammy awards taking home an astonishing 4 awards for his work throughout the year. This will mainly interest British people as I will attempt to highlight the growth of British dominance in the pop charts and the music industry as a whole in America. As well as this I will seek to capture the attention of music fans in general with this article.

- Exclusive interview! with chart topping, pop sensation Ed Sheeran about upcoming songs and much more!

In this cover line I seek to carry out an informal formal yet also slightly personal interview with pop star Ed Sheeran in order to show a different side of him to his fans that you wouldn't attain from reading any other interview with him. I will research some trivial things about Ed Sheeran's life just to add some humour into the interview for the reader. As this interview is exclusive the emphasis will be put on unorthodox questions in order to dig out the deepest information on the singer, indulging them into a juicy yet honest chat that will give the star a chance to change public opinion whether good or bad. By having such contrasting topics discussed in the interview I will keep the reader engaged and keep them entertained throughout the interview.

- Our top 10 Pop music newcomers

In this rankings list of pops top 10 new comers I will try to incorporate the most talented and trendy bands with growing fan bases in order to target niche groups and to add further diversity to the magazines demographic.

- Sam Smith announces North American arena tour!

Sam Smith is who I plan to be the feature story of my magazine as he is currently the fastest rising pop star. Here I will include a competition which will give he readers a chance to win tickets to the tours that I have explained on the double page spread. I have chosen Sam Smith because he is relevant as he actually has an upcoming tour making a chance to win tickets to his tour an incredible lure/selling point to readers.

- Pharrell Williams wins best solo performance in the 2015 Grammy's Happy (Live)

Once again with this this article I will attempt to attract niche groups by involving recent number 1 artists such as pharrell Williams in the cover lines.

Double Page Spread

One of the requirements in me creating my magazine was the construction of a double page spread so I drafted an article with Sam Smith to use for it. Just before completing this article however I researched some double page spreads from Kerrang magazine and analysed them in detail so that I would know what a double page spread is expected to look like and what type of content it contains.

I constructed a brief plan for my double page spread so that I would have some sort of flat plan as a guideline when creating it.

Previously I chose Ed Sheeran to interview but I decided to change it to Sam Smith instead. As Sam Smith is my magazine feature and I know a lot about him so I felt compelled to have an interview with him on the double page spread other than Ed Sheeran because it would contain more juicy gossip and personal content that you wouldn't find anywhere else.

Main Article - Interview featuring Sam Smith

Poparazzi  spends a short time with Britain's best talent in the music business Sam Smith to discuss the 4 grammy awards that he recently won, his announcement of a North American arena tour in the US and Canada, his recent collaboration with John Legend for red nose day and the news that Rhianna will preform a song with him in the near future.

 Q: "So Sam Smith, welcome, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here with us at Poparazzi magazine. First of all, how are you and what have you been up to recently"?

SS: "Yeah, Hi, it's great to be here you know after such a wonderful night at the grammy's bagging myself 4 awards for the Brits i've really just been celebrating and focusing on my music for my upcoming tour in the US and Canada. I've also been in contact with Rhianna as you may already know about preforming a track so that should be great fun and I can't wait, not just for me but the fans as well." (smiles)

Q: "As you've mentioned the tour, I'll ask you now... It's been a sell out already for the dates that have been announced, how do you think you'll cope with the amount of work and effort your required to put in because it is after all your first really big tour"?

SS: "Well you know as you've already said yourself it's my first really big tour and to be honest I am really, really nervous but i'm sure that when I get onto the stage in the arenas and I have the backing and support of my wonderful fans that i'll forget the nerves and give them the night of their lives that they came for. As for coping with the work that i'm needed to put in it will be difficult as i'm going to be on the road for about a month preforming across the continent every single night but I'm confident in my ability to stick it out to the end because that's what's got me to where I am today in music and I want to continue my hard earned success."

Q: "What was it like to stand on that stage in LA holding 4 grammy awards, I mean if any British singer can say that they've cracked America it's surely your right"?

SS: "Yeah you know it was an incredible honour to recieve those awards and it's the greatest achievment of my career but there was also Adele and One Direction flying the flag for England and their incredible singers with huge success so I'd say it's unfair to put me ahead of them in taking over the American market. But yeah being in America I have really enjoyed it and also preforming my music on the Ellen show and at many other places because I get the chance to meet great people that a year ago I myself was watching on the TV and also I get to experience a different lifestyle in a different part of the world, it's exciting"

Q: "Ok, now you've done a version of Lay Me Down your hit single in 2014 but this time featuring John Legend in it for red nose day. What was producing that like and how was it meeting him"?

SS: “It really was incredible first of all just to give something back to people and what better way to do it than with my music. I've earned a lot of money singing over the past year and my preformance with John for red nose day was for a great cause because it allowed me to use my music to help less fortunate people and raise money for them and their family's hopefully to better their lives. As for working with John it was truly incredible, he's a great singer, a great person and I learn't a lot from him. It was my first charity song as well so it was a lot of fun just to sing with such a respected artist with a voice like John, I really get a kick out of it as a performer myself and it was made even better by knowing that it was all for a good cause."

Q: "As you have just said you get a kick out of performing with other artists, could you tell us a little more about the collaboration with Rhianna that's in the works?"

SS: "Well Rhianna's an artist that I admire very much as does everyone in this industry so how could I have said no, this is one of my dreams and to be frank I actually can't believe that she, the queen of RnB has agreed to this too. I remember my manager a couple of weeks ago saying that Rhianna had heard that I wanted to preform with her and that she's accepted, I was left gob smacked and speechless (laughs). When we spoke she seemed really lovely. For the song itself we haven't recorded anything yet but I can tell you that we've agreed on a time and a studio to meet and record so yeah, I guess its a date and i'm so excited I can't wait."

Q: "Now about you, what's this past year and a half been like going from an ordinary guy to an international superstar "

SS: "What can I say it just shows you how quickly life can change and thankfully in my case its got so much better. I broke into the charts at the beginning of last year with disclosure when I helped produce Latch and now suddenly i'm giving interviews, recieving awards, hitting number one in many different countries, it's just amazing. I always thought that fame would change me abit but it really hasen't im still just the same guy with a big heart, I love my family with all my heart and no amount of money could ever change that. But truly and honestly this has been the craziest, busiest and hardest year and a half of my life but yet I've loved every minute of it."

Q: "If you could pick one stand out moment in your career so far what would it be"?

SS: "My answer to that would have to be the 4 grammy awards that I won. As I said early it's definitely the biggest success of my career and it's evidence of my hard work and determination, you know before this I never doubted myself even though I hadn't got very far in life but now I can say that inner belief payed off. If theres one other thing though it's been great to be in a position now where I can be a voice for the LGBT community." (lesbian,gay,bisexual and transsexual)

Q: "Could you please just expand on that comment about being a voice for the LGBT community because that's something that is very important to you isn't it?"

SS: "yes it's a big part of who I am and because of the platform that I have now I can act as a voice for gay people and others who still find being who they are difficult because of others around them and a lack of toleration amongst people for those of us who are different. I've been able to use my position to change peoples opinions and hopefully to make gay people in general feel more confident."

Q: "That's great to hear, now finally something I believe all the readers will be wanting to know. When your tour finishes will you be thinking about releasing a new album?"

SS: "i'd like to say yes but after the tour in North America i'll be touring for months on end across the globe so I think maybe not because I want to spend some time with my family and rest for a bit but music is the blood running through my veins and i'll never stop singing whether its preforming my songs on stage or making albums so who knows what the future holds for me."

I: "You heard it here first guys no album after the tour but plenty more  to come from Sam Smith in the future. Thank you very much for being with us Mr Sam Smith. I hope you'll be back to speak to us again in the future."

SS: "Thank you very much, it’s been a pleasure and don't worry I will be." (grins)

Target Audience

My selected target audience for my brand eye planning was a wide variety of people ageing from 13-35. I have decided to change that to people of ages 14 - 21. I chose this age range because first of all this age range of people are most connected with the current music and the artist's themselves as they are most likely to go to tours, festivals, download music from the charts, read new story's about artists on their phone and to be using the internet to follow their idols on social media. Second of all despite the age gap I believe that social media has brought this age range closer together as 14 - 21 year old's access social media's everyday which covers all the latest news about all music genres and artists, just as I intend with my own magazine. Although all of the above can be true of some 25 year old's it is only true of some and in stark contrast other 25 year old's may have families and full time jobs so I wanted to keep my target audience specific to the stereotypical majority of an age range.

Questionnaire

This questionnaire would consist of a different demographic to my previous one as I would need to hand it out to various different people and not just school students. As the content of a music magazine is varied and specific such as the case with the school magazine, it gave me the ability to ask lots of different questions and in turn receive many different answers. Below is my questionnaire. After finishing handing out my questionnaires to the general public I will produce results graphs in order to thoroughly evaluate and analyse the results.

I changed the last question to 'which of the following feature would most attract you to purchase a POP magazine' in order to make it specific to the genre of magazine that I am producing.

I handed my questionnaire out once again to 20 people but this time to people who where random members of the public.

I asked this question to understand the different age ranges that answered my questionnaire in turn showing me demographics throughout the questionnaire. I noticed that each age range chose similar answers to their counterparts throughout the questionnaire. This will help me to decide upon the content I use for my magazine when trying to attract my target audience of 14 - 21 year old's because I can refer to the reoccurring answers given from that age range.

This tells me the gender of people who took my questionnaire in turn showing me demographics throughout the questionnaire.

The answers to this question show me that I should feature news about concerts only once a month and that any more that would be wasted information and any less than that would be leaving out important and interesting concert new for my readers.

As most people chose Glastonbury, reading and v festival as festivals they would consider going to it has shown me that the music featured in my magazine should be mainstream music as that is the genre played at these festivals. Mainstream music includes pop, rock, indie, folk and many more types.

Most people spent either nothing or £1.01 - £5 on music a week. This is helpful to me when it comes to deciding the price of my magazine and the price of vouchers given as free gifts to my readers. The results show the magazine should be relatively cheap at around the 50p mark and that gifted vouchers for purchasing music would be a real pull factor if in the region of £5 - £20 as this is a lot more than people said they spent on downloading songs thus enticing them. If the magazine is cheaper it will also leave my readers with a higher disposable income than if it were £2.50 for example so by having a higher disposable income more products will be affordable for my audience as they will have greater purchasing power.

The fact that most people would choose to read Billboard and GQ Men's Magazine shows me that my magazine should be less about the music produced and musical news and instead be more focused on the performers/musicians themselves. I chose GQ Magazine as an option despite it mainly being a men's fashion and culture magazine because it shows me whether or not the readers are interested in their idols personally or just their work. In this case GQ Magazine was most popular alongside Billboard which focuses on both the artists and the charts/music news. This has helped to decide that my magazine should have a lot of attention on the artists but also in a smaller amount on musical news and charts. I believe this questionnaire result will be pivotal in allowing me to develop my magazine with my target audiences desires in mind.

This result has given me confidence in choosing a final masthead for my real music magazine. I have chosen POParazzi which I also used in my mock up design as this was the most popular magazine title.

I will have Facebook and Twitter as the convergent links for my magazine as they were by far the most popular social media's by which the people who took the questionnaire were registered with so these would be of relevance to them.

Most of those who took part in the questionnaire had an annual income between nothing at all and £5000 perhaps due to their youthfulness. This result also shows me that my magazine should be cheap and that I should try to advertise and cover concerts/festivals that are also low in price as then they would be specific to my audience and within my readers price range. Also prizes would be a great pull factor to my magazine as people on low incomes would be drawn towards free rewards.

This result shows me that I should feature prize competitions such as vouchers, monthly winnable festival/concert tickets and meet and greets for my readers. Magazine subscriptions could also feature in my magazine as I believe that this is important for readers to have consistent and regular access to POParazzi.