Florence Jordan conducted a questionnaire to research audience preferences for music magazines. The results showed that most respondents were female and younger in age. The most popular music genres were R&B, rock, and pop. While magazines are less frequently purchased now due to online content, most respondents said they would buy a magazine monthly or occasionally. Cover images and band/artist interviews were cited as the most appealing magazine features.
2. Questionnaire
• I conducted a questionnaire in which I went
around and handed out some questions to both
genders with different tastes and opinions in
music magazines. Below, I have put my results
into pie charts which makes it easier to analyse
and conclude results.
3. Gender
The first question I asked on my questionnaire
was the gender of the person answering this
questionnaire. Concluding from the pie chart is
shows that the majority of people who
answered the questionnaire were females.
However this is unlikely to effect the research
as gender doesn’t always influence taste on
music magazines. Also the questions I asked
were general and weren’t based on things that
ideology could effect, for example colours or
fonts.
4. Age
The second question in my questionnaire was
the age of the person answering it. Before
handing out the questionnaire, in my
research I planned to aim my magazine at a
younger target audience. This meant that
asking the correct age range was vital so I
could receive accurate results, which would
mean I could use these results from my
questionnaire to help produce a professional
magazine which attracts the chosen target
audience.
5. Music Genre Interest
The third question was ‘What genre of music
you are most interested in?’. This meant the
people I asked answered their personal
favourite. R ‘n’ B, Rock and Pop were the
most popular.
6. Regularity Of Purchasing Music
Magazines
Since most day-to-day things are done
online, magazines are becoming less popular
as they can also be found online, where there
are no costs to read it. The reason for asking
this question is to not only find out the
popularity of magazines nowadays but, to find
out if people were to buy a magazine, how
often they would buy the issue of their
favourite magazine. The majority of people
answered never or monthly which implies that
magazines aren’t as popular anymore.
7. Price
Seeing as though currently we are in a
recession people are cutting back on goods
that aren’t necessarily needed in everyday
life and magazines are an example of that.
This means that a few years ago people
would have had more money to spend on
things such as magazines but now the cost
of living has increased. This has resulted
in people not spending as much money on
things that can be avoided. This means
that from looking at this specific pie
chart, it shows that the average amount
people would spend is £3.00 £4.50, whereas a few years ago this
average amount would have been higher.
8. Feature That Is Most Eye Catching
Creating a magazine that catches the eye of
the reader is important as there’s a lot of
competition between magazines so to create
a magazine with the conventions of a typical
magazine is vital as otherwise it won’t stand
out to the target audience resulting in no
sales. After conducting my questionnaire, it
was evident that the cover image was the
most attracting feature.
9. Where
When creating a magazine it is important
where the magazine is sold so it would be
seen by the correct target audience. My
results show that the supermarket is where
magazines are mainly purchased amongst
my target audience.
10. Free Magazine
This shows that even if the magazine is free
of charge, they don’t always intrigue
everyone and some people may not like
reading them. Overall the people I asked
said they are likely to read a free magazine.
11. Cover Image Photo
The majority of the people who answered
the surveyed admitted that seeing their
favourite band or artist on the front cover
would persuade them to buy it. This means
that following the correct genre throughout
the magazine is going to appeal to more
than the original target audience as fans
from other bands/artists are also likely to
read the magazine as it has articles about
their favourite bands in too.
12. Subscription
The percentage of people questioned said they
were less likely to subscribe to a magazine.
Although they commented on the price.
13. Band Interviews
The majority of people said that
interviews with bands are interesting
meaning that people are more likely to
read the magazine if it involves a
personal interview with the band or
artist.