Research and Planning: My Target Audience

Age

The main age for my target audience will be between 15-20 years, this is because my genre of music for my music magazine is R&B so people around these ages will be more interested in R&B music and the artists. R&B is usually seen as more of a teenagers genre of music rather than an older person's, therefore I am making my magazine for teenagers as they will buy and read it more than other people will.

Gender
Both male and females will be interested in my magazine as R&B music is suitable and enjoyable for both genders. Male and female stars will be involved so both genders will like this. R&B music is popular with both genders too so I am making my music magazine for both genders rather than make it suitable for one gender, so it will be equal and not singleing out one gender.

Occupation

I think that students will read my magazine more because it is for teenagers mainly and most teenagers are either students in college or university. Even those teenagers who have got jobs will be interested as it is going to be made for the interest of all teenagers who may be interested and enjoy R&B music. It would even be suitable for teenagers who may be in their last year at school as I have made my target audience between the ages 15-20, therefore some school students may want to read and buy it. It will still be suitable for people who may be starting university as it is up to the age of 20 which the magazine is targeted at.

Class

For class of people, my target audience is for socio-economics grouping E, which is students and the unemployed but also for socio-economic grouping D which is for unskilled workers. I have chosen these social classes because students are in these socio-economic groups and teenagers are my main target audience.

Wealth

When it comes to wealth, my target audience will be for mainly working class people or students. I will be selling my magazine fairly cheaply so then students or people who have little paid jobs can easily afford it.

Interests

My target audience when it comes to interests will be for people who are interested in music in general especially R&B music. It will be for people interested in R&B artists such as Tinie Tempah and new artists/albums/songs. The target audience will also be people who are interested in stories to do with R&B artists and interviews with R&B singers.

Outlook For The Future

The people who read my magazine will usually be in college so their outlook for the future would be to either go to university or go and get a job once they finish college. As my magazine is mainly for teenagers then if some teenagers already have a job then their outlook for the future would be to either get a better job or gain all their qualifications.

Research and Planning: My First Podcast

This is my first podcast for my media studies in which to say what I have done so far during the production of my college magazine and moving onto my music magazine.

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Availability

Music magazines can be bought anywhere. Here is a list of where music magazines can be bought from.

• Supermarkets Eg. Asda, Tesco
• Music stores
• HMV
• Official websites
• Internet
• Newsagents
• Small supermarkets Eg. Co-op

Research and Planning: Barcodes

For my magazine I have to make sure that I have a barcode on there. This is to make it a more official and realistic magazine as all magazines that can be bought either in shops or over the internet have barcodes. I will have to look up a picture of a barcode off the internet on Google Images in order to find one and place it onto my magazine.

Research And Planning: Music Magazine Analysis

On this Rolling stones magazine, Lil Wayne is on the front cover and Lil Wayne is a R&B artist so this would interest people like R&B and rap music more.Lil Wayne is also a popular artist so people will be wanting to buy the magazine if they are into R&B and rap music.The colours of the magazine are kept fairly simple but using a yellow colour as the title colour to make it more noticable yet it is still in the same font writing so that people know which magazine it will be if they can't see the whole title. The main picture of Lil Wayne is a medium close up to show his face proper although he is looking down. He also has no top on so this shows off his tattoos and most modern R&B artists and rappers have tattoos. The fact that Lil Wayne is wearing that type of hat shows more sophistication. All of the other features in the magazine are on the left hand side of the magazine, even the main story although the main story is in a bigger font to make it stand out more. The features being on the left make the magazine look neater and organised. Each of the features are separated off well from the others so there is no confusion about the stories.

For Q magazine, the logo has stayed the exact same so that people will be able to realise and see that it is Q magazine. The colours are kept dark and plain with blacks, greys and whites however the colour red is used to make certain parts stand out a lot more. The main picture is of Cheryl Cole who is wearing red lipstick to show femininity as well as the fact that she is considered an attractive star. In the picture it looks like Cheryl Cole is in the rain as her hair and face are wet as well as the background looks like rain coming down. This could just be to attract the readers and make them want to see the feature of Cheryl inside the magazine. The other features are more scattered around on left and right side of the magazine, this may be because there are too many features to stay onto one side or Q magazine may do this on there other magazines so people know it is Q magazine and makes it more recognisable. The titles of the other features are kept with the main colours of the cover but the main story is located at the bottom of the magazine and used in a bigger and bolder font even though the colours are kept the same to keep with the theme.

Research And Planning: Music Magazine Questionnaire Results

Here are my questionnaire results for my music magazine.
I gave out 10 questionnaires, 5 to boys and 5 to girls to make my results equal.
I found out that most people would prefer an R&B magazine as this was the genre that got the most results.
I got an idea of other music magazines that people might purchase as well as people's favourite artists and I looked at what genre music them artists were.
I looked at age and gender too to compare what boys and girls preferred when it came to music as well as looking at the most common age and what was most popular with that age group.
I also found out what music channels people prefer to watch to see which genre of music channel was the most popular. my results showed that Kiss was the most popular music channel and Kiss is an R&B channel.
I asked what people would like to see in a music magazine and looked at the features that people chose and what was most popular so I know what to include in my magazine.
I looked at peoples favourite genre too and R&B was the most popular. I also looked at whether people read stories on magazines and every person who took part in my questionnaire said they read stories in magazines.
I gathered my results in tally charts and then went onto Microsoft Powerpoint and added my results onto pie charts as it was easier to look at and compare my results. Some of my pie charts have doubled up for just one question as there have been quite a few options for answers and there are a few results.

Research And Planning: Music Magazine Questionnaire

Here is an example of my questionnaire for my music magazine.
I asked questions to do with age and gender as well as questions about favourite artists and favourite music genres.

Research and Planning: Evaluation Of College Magazine

Evaluation

What I like about my magazine:
I like the way that my picture has been done like it would on a proper magazine, however it was difficult to get a proper mid-shot as the height of some of the people in my picture made it hard to put any text onto one side of my magazine.
Another advantage of my magazine is the the masthead. I feel like I chose a good font and colour for my masthead as it is attractive and noticeable to the audience. It is also a good size so that it is bigger than the other writing use and it shows the title of the magazine and it attracts people. I used the colour red as it is bright and attractive.
I also like that I used different colours to use for the main story title and for the other stories. I did this so that it would put more attention onto the masthead instead.

What I dislike about my magazine:
The fact that it was hard to get a proper mid-shot is a disadvantage of my magazine and the fact that it was hard to put text onto the right side of my magazine was due to the people involved in my picture having very different heights so if I put text on it would have covered the picture too much. I also dislike that I think I have used too many colours in my magazine rather than sticking to three colours like other magazines do. I have chosen the colour orange for my main story title and other titles included on the cover of my magazine but I think at times it may be a bit difficult to read.