An Institution To Produce And Distribute My Product 30.11.09

IPC Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. Almost two in every three UK women and over 44% of UK men read an IPC magazine. That's over 26 million UK adults. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. Their 80 magazines include What's on TV, Pick Me Up, Woman, Now, Marie Claire, In Style, Woman & Home, Ideal Home, Nuts, Wallpaper, Country Life, The Field, Rugby World, Practical Boat Owner and Look, their latest high street fashion and celebrity weekly. Their digital properties include NME.com, the third largest commercial music website in the UK and housetohome.co.uk, the UK's first homes portal. IPC's brands are very simply at the heart of the UK's cultural life. IPC is owned by Time Inc., the publishing division of Time Warner Inc. The business is split into five distinct publishing divisions: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, IPC Ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX. Alongside these is Marketforce, the UK's leading magazine distribution business.

My USP - (Unique Selling Point) 30.11.09

As my target audience is teenage girls, i believe my unique selling point should be focused around the colour scheme of my music magazine and the types of pictures i use. I will use feminine colours such as pink orange and black, as these were the most popular three colours that were determined by my questionnaire. I will use feminine images such as a female artist, and also incorporate fashion into my magazine to give the magazine a different twist.

UK Top 40 - Most Popular Genres 30.11.09

There are certain artists/bands in the top 40 at the minute who's genre is 'indie', such as:

Pixie Lott - number 13 - 'Cry me out'

Florence and the machine - number 27 - 'You've got the love'

Kings of leon - number 28 - 'Sex on fire'

Circulation Figures For Music Magazines 30.11.09

The monthlies have done pretty well with mostly minor ups and downs. The exception being Q Magazine which had a major relaunch in the autumn and yet has shed a further 10,000 sales – nearly 10 per cent of its readership. Two titles are in real trouble. Kerrang! lost another 8,000 sales, meaning that a third of its readership has jumped ship over 12 months. NME has been hit even harder over the last six months. 8,000 sales is one seventh of the January to July figure. It’s hard to see how either will survive as a print title for very much longer with this sort of performance. Below is a list of eleven of the top titles. The bold figure is the July-December 2008 sales figure. The two figures in brackets are for January to June 2008 and July to December 2007 respectively. Terrorizer only publishes its numbers annually which is why there’s only a single bracketed figure.

Classic Rock 70,188 (66,632 / 67,399)

Kerrang! 52,272 (60,294 / 76,937)

Metal Hammer 50,269 (48,540 / 45,809)

Mixmag 30,159 (34,073 / 35,817)

Mojo 100,507 (106,367 / 106,218)

NME 48,459 (56,284 / 64,033)

Q 103,017 (113,174 / 131,330)

Rock Sound 20,011 (22,527 / 23,021)

Terrorizer 13,786 (14,952)

Uncut 87,069 (86,925 / 91,028)

Word 34,280 (33,775 / 33,217)

My Analysis Of The Conventions Of A Music Magazine

Conventions Of A Music Magazine 25.11.09

Magazines follow certain conventions, such as:

Title/Headers - these are usually at the top of the page (this logo/header will also create the 'brand image' of your magazine and will make it instantly recognisable for your audience.)

Sometimes a slogan is used under the header to explain the magazine content or to make it stand out from its rivals.

One main model/star photographed either in close up (head and shoulders shot) or medium shot - direct address, however in a music magazine it can also be a group shot.

The leading caption usually dominates the page - this is focused on your feature article (main article) and this should 'anchor' your cover story.

Subheadings - of the main stories you wish to advertise in your magazine (usually appearing on the left/right hand sides of the cover.)

Straplines - usually go at the top or bottom of the page - highlighting stars in magazines or other stories/sections in the magazine.

Magazines usually include stars or celebrities on their covers to increase sales and therefore profit, stars are admired and aspirational for the audience, also stars/famous musicians are conventionally included on music magazine covers to sell the magazine.

Magazine Covers

The front cover of a magazine is its main advertisement because of this it has to be representitative of the magazine as a whole. it should be bright, interesting and eye-catching to entice the reader to buy the magazine. The colours not only should reflect the target audience but in music magazines they should represent the genre of the music. There tends to be a variety of fonts on the cover to make it visually interesting and eye-catching (this is seen through the whole magazine.) Date and barcode - usually now with a web address provided to entice audiences to the magazines' website, also magazines are usually expensive monthly 'glossies' or cheaper weakly magazines. AIDA

Contents Pages

Contents pages should be bright and colourful - encouraging the reader to read on. Images with page numbers are included. Direct address is used in all images . The title/header usually appears on every page (usually the top.) There is a list of contents - usually under usual sections.

Feedback 24.11.09

Viki, good work so far. You need to do some actual questionnaires and produce and collate some quantitative and qualitative data and summarise your findings and how they will inform your ideas about your project. Also, outline the conventions of music mags in general and upload and analyse some egs from real mags. Discuss how they target the audience, suggest genre etc. Use theory where relevant - AIDA, U & G theory etc. See checklist in pack.

Mrs A

Research On Popular Indie Bands 17.11.09

I have asked a few female friends by text message what indie bands they listen too, the question i asked was "what are your favourite indie bands at the moment?" The ones chosen don't necessarily appeal only to females, as indie music/bands appeal to mixed genders. However these are the bands my friends listen too, and are some of the most popular indie bands at the moment:

- Arctic Monkeys - Kasabian - Klaxons - Last Shadow Puppets - The Kinks - The Jam - The Smiths - Libertines - Courteeners - Crooked Vultures - Flaming Lips - Alabama 3 - The Big Pink - The Enemey - Oasis - The Wombats - The Maccabees - Air Traffic

Preliminary Task 17.11.09

For my preliminary task i had to create a magazine cover and the contents page of a college magazine. For my front cover I chose to use a picture of a male SMC student standing outside the college, i had to edit the picture on photoshop and cut him out, however i rushed this and it isn't cut out as neat as it should have been, although when i do this for my final magazine cover i will take my time cutting out my person so that it is neat and tidy. I used bright colours on the front of my magazine to attract the attention of the buyers and i think this is quite a good idea, however when i do my final magazine, although i will keep the colours bright, i will keep them around the same, for example pinks purples and blues. I used certain things that you find on most magazines, i used a mast head, a price, a barcode, advertisements and a picture. I used bright colours because i wanted to attract the attention of my target audience, my target audience was SMC students from the age of sixteen to nineteen. I believe this would attract their attention because the colours are eye catching. I did a basic sketch of my contents page and i wrote the page numbers of my magazine and what articles would appear on them certain pages and i added squares where i would have pictures.

My Initial Thoughts And Ideas 11.11.09

The project i have chosen to create is a music magazine, i chose this option because i am interested in many types of music and i thought it would be an interesting choice to do. I have chosen to make the genre of my music magazine indie, i chose this because it seems to be one of the most popular genres between teenagers. The target audience i have chosen for my magazine is older teenage girls between the ages of fiteen and nineteen, to make sure that my product sells and is unique i want it to stand out to my chosen target audience in a way that other magazines don't, to do this i will make sure that the front cover of my magazine stands out and is eye catching to the target audience, for example i will use bold text and make sure my magazine uses colours that are appealing to my chosen audience, for example i will use feminine colours, feminine display and the types of images i use will appeal to the female population. I understand that there are many products on the market that will be similar to mine, however i believe i can better them products by asking my target audience through questionnaires what they would like in a magazine before i produce it, therefore they will want to purchase and read my magazine because it will have things in it that they want to read about. I think my product will be successful because it will stand out compared to other magazines that are written about the same genre. I am going to research other magazines on the market at the minute that are written about the same genre of music that i have chosen, i will look at how they are written, how they are set out and what types of pictures they use to capture their target audience.