Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Music Magazine Evaluation Task 7 from ievaasnina

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

(front cover)

(contents page)

(double page spread)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have looked at a series of music magazine reader profiles. From this I have gained the knowledge that music magazines in the industry know their audience inside out. I looked at the reader profiles for NME. They have included information such as the percentage of the readers that are male and female, the average reader age, average income, percentage of readers that are married/living with a partner, how much the audience spend on music a year – in different forms, what technology readers have access to, what the reader relies on the magazine for, whether the readers have a passion for music, films etc and I tried to follow the same form of it in order to get an accurate reader profile. 

The Ideal Reader.

My ideal reader would therefore posses these qualities:

• enjoys reading.
• hard-working.
• outgoing.
• independent.
• shops at forever21 and topshop.
• music plays a huge role in their life.
• likes movies.
• believes its important to be informed about new things; whether that be in the music industry or not.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Although I have based some of my layout that is similar to Billboard, I don’t think that I would be able to distribute my magazine under their media institution (Prometheus Global Media) because it is an American company based in New York. I would first like to distribute my magazine to only British readers and therefore that company would not best suited for me.  Also, the magazines that they do publish are very much linked with one another and therefore my magazine would appear out of place.  

Due to the fact that PGM is out of the question, I had to look for other magazine institutions which I think could cater my needs in order to make a successful magazine. I then had to look for a distributing company which would be easy to access and based in the UK.

I came across IPC | MEDIA which distributes a variety of magazine genres, and has experience in targeting both the male and female demographic. I noticed that it published NME and is the only music magazine that they seem to publish, it also caters more for the male demographic, though there are plenty of other magazines that do this too, NME is the only male music magazine by IPC, (66% of NMEs readers are male) which makes it stand out from the other magazines.

With this in mind, I think my magazine would make a good addition to the company because its a music magazine, which is different from most of their content, and its leaning more towards the female demographic which is, by what I see, their primary demographic to cater for.
When it comes to my demographic, I think that its more like 'Look' magazine's and since IPC have experience in catering for that specific target readership, I think they could handle Louder magazine too.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As mention in the video, one of my main aims was to challenge the way music magazines represent women in their front cover, which is usually of them posing provocatively, as shown in my collage below which is a selection of music magazines portraying women in that way.

The reason I think that it is a common 'convention' to have women pose in such a way in music magazines is because "sex sells," meaning that the more provocative they look, the more issues the magazine firm is going to sell, which is obviously what they're aiming for.

However, I decided to take a different approach to my magazine: rather making my model dress provocatively or making her have a seductive pose and look a lot more "grown up" than she actually is, I opted for the complete opposite. I find that women in the music industry are more known for what they wear/look like rather than what they do with their music career and I tried my best to portray women as hard-working and youthful in my photos, as shown below.

I believe that it is important to challenge that stereotype of women to prove that they aren't all the same and a "sexualised prop" to society, but rather that some actually take their job seriously, while at the same time allowing themselves act their own age. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (cont.)

It was quite hard to find a double page spread of Billboard magazine, I think that this was because it is an American brand and the people there rarely put up feature articles online. I then had to opt for other music magazines. I looked at some feature article in NME and found some of them to look really good while others looked a bit messy and not as appealing to the idea. I then stumbled across a Q double page spread of Lady Gaga. I liked the idea of having one big picture on the left hand side and the other to be filled with text and therefore followed that convention.

1. Image: The reason why I decided to have a black and white image is because of a quote I read online which said that in a coloured image, you focus on the clothes ect and the mise en scene in general, but in a black and white image, you see emotion. Although she is not looking at the camera, the high angle shot gives off an intimate feeling between her and music, and therefore the use of a black and white image is effective in that sense. I chose to have a violin and music sheets in the mise en scene because it suggested a more musical vibe to it rather than the image of Lady Gaga in Q. I wanted their to be a focus on the music in the image rather than the model because I wanted to represent young women as hard working rather than the way that they represented Lady Gaga. I used a high angle shot  because it challenged the common conventions of  close ups or long shots in double page spreads that you see in magazine, such as the above of Q.

2. Image #2: I thought it would be interesting if I had a cinema strip of images on the side because you could  see the personality of the model and that would make the reader warm to her and perhaps want to read the interview to see what she is really like.

3. "The Making of Ava: I Haven't Made It Yet": I didn't realise this before, but on the front cover and contents page, the title of this article is "The Making of Ava" and the puff taken out of the body text is "I haven't made it yet." I therefore unintentionally added continuity through the three pages.

4. Body Text: I was originally going to have the body set out more like a story rather than an interview because I think having questions and then answers makes it look uncomfortable in my opinion because not all the questions are in line with the text underneath it. Due to that, I think it is probably the weakest point out of all three pages. 

5. The last line: A convention that is commonly used to show the reader that the article is finished is by either  having a ‘by-line’  or promote the interviewee, I have chosen the latter option and decide to promote her. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (cont.)

I found the contents page to be the hardest part of the magazine to do because there was a lot you needed to put in there but still make it look easy to read and not over do it. As I struggled with the layout  numerous times, I opted for the layout of Billboard’s 2010 issue because it had a set structure that was somewhat easy to follow.

1. Editor's Letter: In the Billboard issue I was looking at, they had their charts listed in the sidebar. I thought that was an interesting use of space but did not want to follow their conventions because charts are what Billboard is best known for so I thought I shouldn’t do the same as that’s not what I was going for and I instead used this space for an ‘Editor’s Letter.’ Furthermore, by having an editor's letter, it gives a more personal feel and the reader would feel welcome. In the letter, I tried to make it both professional but also use colloquial language because its important to not intimidate the reader. With all the magazines I looked at, I noticed that they rarely wrote editor letters. However, I thought that magazines do change their format over time so I wouldn't need to keep it there for all the issues as once I hit a specific issue number, I could change the layout (not too must though) as magazines do that often. For example, Billboard recently changed its font (see the picture on the right). It has been changed quite a bit but not too he reader would not know the magazine anymore, though I personally don't like the change because it doesn't look like a music based magazine anymore.

2. The 'By-Line' & Signature: I decided to add a signature and ‘by-line’  here because it made it look more professional, appealing and easy on the eye. It adds a sense of quality and worth of money. I did not use a font for the signature but rather signed a piece of paper and scanned it into photoshop and this gave it a more 'real' feel.

3. "CONTENTS": I have kept continuity going from my front cover to my contents page by using the same font. I also followed the same format of Billboard's because according to my research, 71% preferred it that way.

4. Issue Number: I did not have an issue number anywhere on the front cover and I thought that I should place on in the contents page to inform the reader.  Also, Billboard had their issue/volume number in the contents page too so I decided to follow that convention.

5. Pictures At The Top: I liked the idea of having images at the top when I saw the Billboard cover. I was originally going to have 3 images too but because of them being landscape, they couldn’t all fit and I then opted for the ones that had a better colour scheme. My feedback suggested that this was the strongest part of the contents page. I agree with this and think that its mainly because of the dominant colours, which also compliment the white of the numbers. 

6. Feature Puffs: Under most of the features in Billboard, some text was written beneath it. I decided to follow this convention as it was a decent use of space. However, now that I'm looking back, I think that perhaps I wrote too much text and my target audience is relatively young and would rarely read the contents page. 

7. "IN EVERY ISSUE": A common convention in most music magazines is to note the articles that appear in all the issues. I decided to use this form because it separated the features from the other things and gave it a more organised feel.

8. Pages: The magazine logo is also displayed next to the page number, which again implies a sense of consistency. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The magazine that I mainly looked to for inspiration was Billboard. I didn’t include all of their conventions as I didn’t want to replicate it but rather make it my own. The Rihanna issue is the one I was taking notes on, I wanted to both challenge and conform their conventions when creating my own magazine.  

While my main focus was on Billboard magazine, I also wanted to compare my own to another (Q) to see whether their conventions  are similar/different from not just mine, but one another.

1. The Title of The Magazine : My masthead is in roughly the same position as Billboard's is. I noticed that other magazines such as Q and NME have their masthead on the left hand side, however, I had to challenge that convention because the title of my magazine is longer than Q or NME and it therefore did not look right when put on the left hand side. I therefore opted for the center as it is a lot easier on the eye and takes up a bit of space at the top.

2. The Date: Normally the date of a magazine is within the barcode or below the title on the right hand   side, but I decided to challenge  this convention because it made it look different from other magazines. (However, I also put the date in the barcode too just in case the reader does not think to look in the title.)

3. 'Puffs': The ‘puff’ font is different to the masthead to let the reader know the difference. Just like the Billboard cover, it is in line with the title of the magazine to make it look neat and organised, which is essential because it lets the reader know that the magazine is worthy of its price.

4.  Barcodes: In general, the barcode features the price, the website and the date. I have followed the same convention, however, I have not put the prices of other countries that are outside of the UK because I would like to start off with the magazine being small because if it goes worldwide straight away, there is a slight chance of losing profit and its quite risky because not everyone will like it at first nor will they have heard of it.

5.   Advert:  I added an advert on the front cover because since in theory, it would be a new magazine,  I would need to make it appeal to my audience and through competitions, it is a likely form of people wanting to buy magazines. Also, young adults in general are interested in 'freebies' and therefore I am appealing to my target audience.

However, what I noticed is that music magazines rarely have adverts on the front cover and therefore by adding one, it is in risk of looking 'trashy' or more of a tabloid.

Kerrang! magazine does use adverts, however, its just to promote the posters in the magazine while I'm promoting a competition.

6.   Image: The image that I used is a mid shot. Its it roughly the same position as the one of Rihanna on Billboard. Music magazines normally do either a close mid shot (such as the one with Adele on Q) or a mid shot (like Rihanna on Billboard). I decided to use the latter convention because I think its effective to see  their face and body  because the audience can tell a lot about what kind of person they are, or even what genre of music they fit into. Also, depending on the body language, it would either invite the audience in or exclude them. In this case, unlike the Rihanna one, my model is fully dressed and appears more happy and inviting than Rihanna's facial expression. I believe that if the contents of the magazine is good, you do not need revealing pictures to promote it. However, a slight issue with this image is that its not connoting a music genre, if I was to take away the cover lines and masthead, I doubt readers would guess that it is a music magazine because she’s not holding anything music related. Also, the fact that she is not 'known' would make it harder to realize that she is in the music industry, however, with someone like Beyonce, it is clear where the magazine is heading.

7. Image #2: Originally, I planned to have the background colour to be plain white, however, when I experimented with that, it looked very dull so with the soft pink on the right, it brings more colour and ‘life' to the magazine. I used the 3 colour rule of black, white and pink (as seen below) to make sure that I didn’t  overdo it and that it remained easy on the eye. 

8.  Feature Article 'Puff':  I  used a different colour of font for this to make it stand out from the other puffs and make it clear that it is the feature article. Magazines use different ways to show that that particular puff is linked with the feature article and I decided to keep it simple by just changing the font.

9.  The Website: I put the website of the magazine at the top because I again wanted to challenge that convention as the website is normally in the barcode (although that's where I have placed it as well just in case the reader doesn't look there).

The following alterations have been made:

• More shadow added to the masthead.
• 'Dec 2012' in the 'L' has been made a shade lighter.
• 'Spotify' and its text has been moved up in order to make space for the tape.
• Tape has been added to fill the space.
• A wider gap has been made for the "puffs" on the left in order for it to compliment the right hand "puffs."
• The text under 'Spotify' has become longer in order for it to not go over the cover girl. 
• The 'loudermusic.com' under the 'R' has been made a shade darker.
• A more visible barcode has been added + the date, price and website all have been added above the barcode.

The following alterations have been made:

• New text under 'Editor's Letter' + change of font type.
• Issue number changed.
• A gap between the page number and title has been added (e.g. a space from '14' and 'The Making of Ava'
• Subtext font type changed.
• Text adjusted to not go over image.
• The number '14' and 'Louder | 3' is changed to black so it is more visible.
• Corner image changed - her eyes are open this time around, costume change.

The following alterations have been made:

• The left image has been changed + text has been added to it.
• The text at the top has been put on the right so that when the page gets folded, no letter disappear. 
• The introduction is the same, but laid out differently.
• Body text is now written in columns and interview style.
• 'Ava's Single LIES Is Out Now" is kept the same.
• The cinema style pictures have been shortened from 5 to 3 in order for it to fit.

The Final Products...

Front Cover

Contents

Feature Article

I wasn't too happy with the previous contents page that I posted so I adjusted some parts of it - the text has not change, nor have the images, but I found that the previous one that I posted was wider than most contents pages and therefore made it fit into a normal size page for a magazine.

I found the contents page the hardest part of this whole process, especially when it came to the layout. I didn't know how to set it out and went from one idea to another and after everything, the above is currently what I have settled for. It wasn't my first choice, but the original idea I went for looked simple at first but turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected.
The editing process this time around was a lot easier because I knew more about the different types of tools I could use from what I learned when making the front cover.

When it came to basing my front cover on a magazine, I originally wanted to go for the Billboard contents (the 2009 version) but then went for the latest NME layout but found that it didn't work because it didn't suit my target audience or genre. In the end, I went for the latest Billboard magazine layout which can be seen below.

Acting Upon Feedback...

As the previous post shows, I got a set of feedback given to me to tell me how to improve my front cover. I took all of this on board and my front cover now looks like this:

On this post, I will give a short step by step on how I improved it and why I thought some changes were necessary. 

The first issue that was raised was that the date could not be visible as it faded in too much into the letter 'L.' I decided to fix this first as it was simple, I first went for a fairly visible grey but it was a bit too visible for my liking. 

I then opted for a slightly darker shade of grey which I preferred because although it was visible to the reader, it didn't look too distracting. 

I then zoomed out of the picture to check if this time it could be seen without the need to zoom in and I think that it was relatively clear.

My next issue was the fact that the masthead was a bit too close to the top edge edge of the magazine, I then placed it down by a little bit. This made the masthead to look more clear.

The next part I edited was the colour on the subtext because according to my feedback, it was harder to read compared to the rest of the text.

I then unintentionally edited the brightness and contrast of my image but it turned out to look fine and I didn't find the need to edit any further.

One other response I got was that the pink on the right looked like the magazine was leaning more towards the female demographic. However, the males that responded said that it didn't bother them too much and baring that in mind, I didn't change the colour scheme as the content of the magazine clearly looks like its going for a music vibe rather than fashion or other genre.

Before & After Feedback

Here is an image of the before and after of the feedback that I received - there aren't a lot of changes made, but the little fixes here make it look different.