1. Amy Brackenridge
Music Magazine Market Research - Report
The main aim of this market research was to gather information about the type of people that will read my
magazine and what magazines they enjoy reading in order to help develop my own ideas and planning, to
determine what features will be included. In order to collect results I used a primary research technique and
created a questionnaire containing 12 simple tick box questions, which gathered quantitative data. All of the
people that participated in the questionnaire were under 18, therefore the results collected are largely
based on a younger persons views on music magazines, which is who my music magazine is targeted for.
Gender
Male
Females
As you can see from the chart above out of the results I collected there were an equal number of males to
female participants. Therefore there should be an equal balance in tastes and interest, making the results
more valid and not biased towards a certain gender.
The bar chart below shows the various music genres the participants listen to regularly. This will help
determine what content will be included in my magazine, specifically the genres of music that will be
featured, mainly on the cover as this is what will attract potential readers and it is important to know what
genres of music young people are listening to. As you can see the most popular genre is R&B, as 70% of the
participants said they listened to it. Equally popular genres were Alternative and House music (60%). From
this questionnaire, it is clear that the three main genres of music that younger people listen to is R&B, House
and Alternative, therefore these will be the main focus of my magazine, in order to appeal to a younger
demographic.
Music Genres
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7
6
5
4
7 Music Genres
3 6 6
2 4
3
1
1
0
Pop Classical R&B Alternative Rock House

2. Amy Brackenridge
I also asked participants how they accessed
How do you access your music? their music, other than via music
magazines. The options available were
Music Blogs Radio Itunes/Spotify through music blogs, the radio and software
such as ITunes and Spotify, demonstrated
by the pie chart below. The most popular
method was via ITunes and Spotify (60%)
1
which I expected as the participants were
from a younger demographic. However,
6 4 40% of the participants still use to radio to
discover new music. I can use this data in
order to find out the type of artists and
bands that people are currently listening to,
which can then be included in my magazine.
Participants were asked what other music magazines
they enjoy reading. This was so that I could get an idea
Other music magazines
of what type of music magazines younger people enjoy 10
reading, so that I could get an idea of what style my 8
magazine would be. The bar chart below shows that
6
the most popular music magazine that young people
read is NME (80%), which mainly features the rock and 4 8
alternative genre. This gives me an indication of the 2 4
3 1 2
type of content that will be included in my magazine
0
and what music will be featured in order to appeal to a
NME Kerrang VIBE Rolling Q
younger demographic. Stones
Another question which I asked
Magazine Content
participants was what type of content
7 they enjoy reading in music magazines. I
6 listed a range of typical features and
5 allowed more than one option to be
chosen. As you can see from the
4
following results, 60% of people said
3 6
5 they enjoyed photographs when reading
2 4 4 magazines and 50% said latest music
1 information, therefore from this
1 1
0 research I concluded that a high
frequency of music related photographs
must be included on both the contents
and double page spread, along with
some latest music information.

3. Amy Brackenridge
Another important question within the
questionnaire was ‘Would you buy a Would you buy a magazine based
magazine based purely on who was on
the front cover’, this was important
purely on who was on the front
because the front cover is an extremely cover?
large element of a magazine. The results
show that 70% of the participants do
base their decision on who is on the
cover; this is a fairly large proportion Yes
which suggests generally people do care No
about the cover. Therefore, it is
important that my magazine front cover
instantly attracts people’s attentions to
engage them.
Which masthead do find most appealing?
6
5
4
3
2
1
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Q NME Rolling Stones Kerrang
Participants were also given a range of current examples of masthead from popular music magazines and
told to choose which one they find most appealing. 50% choose NME as their favourite;this masthead is
extremely bold and bright, with a black and white border to give it extra definition. This will help me in the
process of designing my own masthead, as I can use a similar style to this one.
What price would you be willing to pay? The final question I asked was how much
they were willing to pay for music
magazines. A clear majority of 80% said
they were willing to pay less than a £1,
which I expected as the people asked
Less than £1 were of a younger demographic;
therefore it is likely they do not have a lot
£1-£2.50
of money to spend on magazines.
£3-5

4. Amy Brackenridge
To conclude, from this primary market research I have collected a wide range of useful information which
will help in the development of my music magazine. I have discovered the genres of music 16-25 year olds
currently listen to (R&B, alternative and house), this will help me when choosing the magazine content, as it
is important the magazine appeals to the younger demographic. I also found that the features people are
most interested in are live reviews, latest music information and photographs, this will help me determine
what to include in the double page spread. Another important thing I found was that the majority of
participants buy music magazines based on what is on the cover. This means that I will need to make the
cover stand out to a younger demographic, so that they will be interested in buying it. Overall this research
has helped m determine the style of my magazine and the content that will be included, in order to appeal
to a younger demographic.