Behind the Scenes (Photo Shoot)

Draft #4 (Music Magazine)

 

 Previous Draft (#3)

 

 

NEW DRAFT (#4)

 

 

As you can see, things are just about wrapping up now as I am in the final stages of completion; everything's alot better now when compared to the earlier versions. I considered the feedback I got from the teacher and friends and did my best to enhance it. There's something that just wasn't cutting it in the version above; Outlining the Masthead and the other conventions gave them a more bolder and authorative look. I also added a few coverlines and tried moving the text and other elements around more such as the barcode and pricing. Everything is eye catching and the conventions sit very well together which gives a more profound sense of balance.

Target Audience (Refined)

Looking back at my previous blog posts such as the Demographics Research, Reader Profile Research, Existing Products and Market Research I think now have a much vivid understanding of how marketing works. I mentioned that there are certain things an organisation has to do before a business can be established and the majority of it was research; finding out their target audience' needs and wants and using the feedback as a criteria to follow in the production process.

They obtain this information through various means like questionnaires, surveys, customer analysis and so much more. The next thing was 'market segmentation' which I described as the classification of the market or public into sub-groups with common interests which is important as this helps to immediately identify the direct needs and wants of certain audiences. The final one was following 'market trends' as this is a way of observing fluctuations in the markets over a period of time.

Additionally, I mentioned names of well known existing music magazines and researched how often they published them. Most of them publish their issues frequently (weekly, bi-weekly and monthly); its understandable as fans and readers love being informed about things and want to know what's going on, especially in the music industry.

with all of that said..............

Who will my magazine be targeting?

Since my music magazine is based on the Hip-Hop genre I will be targeting young people (typically between ages 16-30) as this form of music seems to have a greater impact on them. Statistics from existing music magazines show that readers are as young as 13 and as old as age 30 with the average age for readership between 21-24. As mentioned before, Hip-Hop is one of the most popular genres in the world today and it is growing at a very fast pace. Young people enjoy listening to Hip-Hop music due to the lyrical composition, its creative & aggressive style as well as the music videos which help to promote these songs. Alot of these artists set popular trends in which these young individuals begin to follow. This takes me back to the use & gratifications research as people have specific needs; the media finds out those 'needs' and produce things relevent to them so that they will be 'relatable' amongst certain groups.

3rd Draft of Front Cover (Music Magazine)

 

Previous Draft (#2)

 

 

Here is a draft of my third front cover mockup. As you can see, when compared to my previous mockup as shown above, everything remains the same apart from the colour of the picture and arrangement of coverlines. I decided to use my model in black & white as I thought it would be best to neutralize the subject, accentuating the font. Furthermore I gave the subject's accessories  tints in order to balance the overall appearance of the product. At the bottom right corner of the image I patched the logo that was on the artist's shirt as this was a bit distracting and by doing so it allowed me to increase the size of the 'Say what?' coverline, moving it to a more secure location.

 

New Draft (#3)

 

2nd Draft of Front Cover (Music Magazine)

 

Here is a second draft of my Final front cover for my music magazine. As you can see I have changed the colour of the coverlines from 'blue' to 'green' instead.' The Masthead is 'red' which is the direct opposite of 'green' on the colour wheel and I thought it would be a great idea to change the colour of the coverlines in order to balance the flyer because it was too 'top heavy.'

 

 

Previous Draft (#1) 

New Draft (#2)

 

1st Digital Mockup of Contents Page (Draft #1)

Here is my very first mockup for my contents page using original images which I took during my photography lessons and free time. After looking at examples of contents pages from existing products I had an idea of how to layout my contents page by carefully considering their use of conventions. One thing you may notice is that I'm using more than 1 image which is something you do not find in Hip-Hop Magazines and although they use no more than 1 image on theirs, I decided to use more than 1 on mine to make it look for interesting as it is conventional.

 

My Original Images (SHOOT #2)

 

 

 

 



 

These are some images that I took during my photography lessons and random locations around the college. Alot of consideration was put into most of the images prior to taking them and I thought they would be useful to use in my music magazine especially in the contents page as it is conventional to have at least 4 to 5 original images.

           

 

Planning Process for Music Magazine (1st Draft)

 

I initiated the process by creating a blank A4 document in photoshop at the same time I opened the image I thought would work best for the front cover. I then made a clean selection around the subject using the polygon lasso tool.

Immediately after that I converted the locked document into a layer and duplicated it, doing likewise with the image of my artist.

Since my model was on a seperate layer I intoduced the Masthead and placed it directly behind the subject, which is conventional.

I then came up with a name for the artist 'Big S' and placed a coverline in reference to him.

On the next stage I introduced some  coverlines on the left hand side of the page to balance the overall project. It's still a bit top heavy since I haven't introduced the remaining conventions but at this point it's looking almost complete.

Although the Magazine isn't complete as yet as this was my first draft, at this point it gives us an idea of how the 'final product' is going to look.

Existing Products Analysis (Double Page Spread)

 

These images above are examples of double page spreads found in 3 different Hip-Hop Magazines: Vibe, XXL Magazine and The Source. They all look fairly similar as they follow the same conventions apart from the 1st one and 3rd one as there is no continuity on both pages. However, they all have an image of the main artist positioned to the right; a headline which is placed to the top left and columns which are generally kept to the left hand side of the magazine. As seen just like their contents pages, they do not use no more than 3 colours and keep them in plain schemes like colours like black & white. Although most of these Hip-Hop magazines don't follow convetions since this is the way in which they want to represent their genre by breaking the rules, I will be producing mine in a more conventional way as the double page spread is the most difficult task to perfect.

Existing Products Analysis (Contents Page)

 

 

 

Here I have 3 examples of Contents pages sourced from Vibe Magazine, XXL Magazine and Hip-Hop Connection Magazine. What I noticed that they have in common is that they include a single image of an artist and can be framed from mid range, long range or close up. This method that these publications use is ‘breaking’ the rules and that’s what most of these rappers tend to do which is the way in which they want to represent their genre. They use plain coloured text (black and white) and not more than 3 colours for their contents page; the simplicity of it actually makes the magazine reader friendly and straightforward. By comparison, their layouts are fairly similar; the single image of an artist; the features are placed to the left or right along with the title and date to the very top. Regardless of how these Artists want to represent their genre by breaking the rules, I will be producing my contents page in a more conventional way; with more artists and original images so it will look a lot more appealing.

Research on Existing Products, Marketing & Pricing

My understanding of Market Research & Planning

Above shows an image of my moodboard 

Before an organisation can set a price or value for a magazine or any form of media product a lot of pre-production work is involved which includes market research. It is basically an organised strategic maneuver implied by organisations to collect information about customers and other businesses.
The main objective is to determine the needs and wants of people and by knowing such, organisations can make a decision on what to produce; how they produce it and the value of their products. 

In order for one to establish a business there are a few things which they have to put into consideration. Through Market information, an organisation or group can know the value of certain items in the Market. Such intelligence can be obtained through different origins, formats and varieties. Another important key factor is market segmentation which is the classification of the market or public into sub-groups with common interests. This method is in other words demographic statistics on certain audiences or organisations used in order to understand their common wants & needs; what most people can relate to. It's quite stereotypical but it is important as it aids to identify the demands and wants of their targets immediately.

The final and most important component is following 'market trends.' This is done in order to observe fluctuations in the market over a certain period of time. Apart from intelligence about the target market, in order for one to be successful an organisation needs to acquire information about competitors, products and audience. This can be obtained through methods like: customer analysis, risk analysis, marketing mix modeling, product research, questionnaires, surveys, promotion and so much more. 

EXISTING PRODUCTS ANALYSIS

 How often are these published and what do they cost?

Above are examples of 3 well known music publication organisations. Vibe, a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones and predominantly features R&B and Hip-Hop music artists. As of June 2012 Vibe has a circulation of 300,943; 62% of which was paid and 38% unpaid. After being sold to InterMedia Partners in 2009 Vibe is published every other month and they are worth an average of $3.00 to $5.00.
Billboard magazine is a global newsweekly magazine which is solely devoted to the music industry. Billboard is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. Although its main purpose is to monitor the Billboard hot 100 and hot 200 charts (which monitors singles popularity and highest selling albums respectively) it features almost entirely Hip-Hop, R&B and Rock artists. Billboard is published weekly and costs around $6.00 to $7.00. 
XXL is a Hip-hop magazine published by Harris Productions. Launched in 1997, the magazine publishes an average of 6 issues yearly (bi-monthly) and costs as low as $2.00 per issue. 

How often will my magazine be published? 

I'm at the point now where I'm ready to make a decision as to how often will my magazine be published. I now have a much broader understanding of my target audience in relation to their needs and wants. As mentioned before in my previous posts, it is apparent that people use the 'Media' and content for gratification purposes. Maslow's Hierarchy of needs states that there are certain levels of needs; it is often represented in a form of a pyramid with needs of greatest importance at the bottom and the need for self actualization at the top. Humans have emotions; people want to feel 'accepted' in society or any particular group and want to be given a sense of security and love. The majority of people seek the media to fulfill the need for acceptance since sometimes they can't or rather not seek it elsewhere; people just want things that are totally relatable to everyday living. 

Hip-hop is no doubt one of the most popular musical genres in the world. It is known for its lyrical creativity, hype and fun. Artists produce interesting music videos to promote their songs; many of which are constructed in a way to convey powerful messages and have tremendous impact on the target audience. These Hip-Hop artists normally dress in the latest outfits & accessories on the Market. The majority of them tend to wear flashy jewelry; baggy clothing like hoodies and other accessories. Some are sterotypically known to be 'gangsters' as they wear their pants below their waist;  these type of people are known for breaking the rules. This is completely understandable as this is the way in which they represent their genre. They tend to target young folks (which look up to them as role models) typically between the ages of 14 and 30; young people want to have fun and make the best out of their lives and that is why they get involved in many different things because all they want to do is learn. 

The reader profile research helped me understand what is it that people want from a music magazine and how their needs can affect its publication frequency and price. In my recent NME reader profile research this is what I wrote: The majority of people that read their magazines are male (69%) and female (31%). The average age for readers is 24 which mean most of the people that read them are teens & young adults but what is it that makes them read these magazines? Clothing, footwear, drinks, games, accessories and electronics. These are all things the target group can relate to; NME statistics say 52% of them own a digital camera. Young people love taking pictures especially since they go out to gigs and concerts a lot they document their moments as they live and publish them on social networking sites like twitter, Facebook etc. 71% of them say that is important for them to look well dressed; 45% spend a lot of money on clothes which takes us back to why 52% of them work full time and 7% part time.

A typical NME reader spends £152 on footwear per year, that’s approximately £46,000,000 in total for readers. Individual readers spend £1229 on audio equipment each year tallying an average total of £325 million. Readers spent a total average of £18m on games in a year and £45 million on consoles alone. Lastly, 92% of the readers find it important to be notified about things 'in general.'

Conclusion:  

This proves the fact that readers spend a lot of money on electronics, games, clothing and food. These are things which are normally included in music magazines simply because they are of great demand and worth. Readers also find it important to be informed about things; they want to know what's going on especially in the Media since they all can relate to events, situations or things that accompany it. This is why if I were to produce an actual production company I would publish my magazines as often as week or month.