The document discusses the results of a survey conducted to help determine key aspects of launching a new indie music magazine, such as the target demographic (15-25 year olds), price point (£2), publication frequency (monthly), cover design (focus on interviews), page count (31-50 pages), inclusion of puzzles/games, balance of photos and articles, and popular existing music magazines (NME, Rolling Stone) that could serve as models. The survey responses informed decisions about how to design the new magazine to appeal to readers and be commercially successful.

1. I asked this question because I
wanted to find out what age
range the people that are
interested in a new indie music
magazine would be. This would
help me to understand who my
target demographic are.
20
18
16
14
12
10
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6
4
2
0
below 9
10-20
21- 30
31 -40
above 41

2. I asked this questions because I
wanted to know how much I
should sell my magazine for. I
obviously want to make a profit
and give my magazine
credibility by not making it too
inexpensive, however, I don’t
want to alienate my reader who
may not be able to afford an
expensive purchase due to the
age range I am targeting (15- 25
year olds) as most of them are
likely to be either school
aged, students or working for a
low income. Most people chose
between £1.51 and £2.50 so I
decided to average this and
make my price £2.00.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
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3. I asked this question to find out how
often people buy music magazines so I
could research the most popular
options and decide how often I should
publish my magazine. I was interested
to see that most people buy music
magazines less than every 2 months so
I decided that in order to maximise my
profit and ensure that I had enough
interesting content to appeal to my
reader, I would publish my magazine
once a month. By doing this I feel that I
will provide desirability as there are
already many weekly music magazines
on the market and my readers won’t
get blasé about my magazine.
14
12
10
8
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6
Series2
4
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2
0
less than
every 2
months
every 2
months
once a
month
every 2
weeks
once a week
or more

4. I asked this question because I wanted
to know what to feature on my front
cover page to drive readers in. Most
people chose interviews so, with this
in mind, I will have more cover lines on
my magazine cover page to interest
readers by advertising the topical and
relevant interviews I will be including
in my magazine.

5. 6
I asked this question to find
out what colours I should have
on my cover and throughout my
magazine. I have noticed that with
indie and rock music magazines, the
colours red and black predominately
feature. It was interesting to see that
these two colours scored highest on
the graph. I personally feel that the
colours red and black have been
overused within music publications so I
will use my own signature colours
instead that people will hopefully come
to associate with my magazine.
5
4
3
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2
1
0
red
black
green
blue
purple
pink

6. I chose to ask this question
because I wanted to know
how many pages I should
consider using in my music
magazine. I would not like my
magazine to be too short as I
feel that this would devalue
and cheapen my
magazine, however I
wouldn’t want it to be so
contained with information
that it becomes less
appealing to the average
magazine reader who may
just want to buy something
light to read on the bus or in
the canteen during their
lunch hour
12
10
8
6
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4
2
0
below 10
11 to 30
31 to 50
51 and more

7. Many magazines from
lifestyle magazines to TV
guides include crosswords or
puzzles to provide a break
from the articles and as a
form of interactive
entertainment. Crosswords
can often serve to test
readers about their
knowledge, in the case of a
music magazine, about artists
and songs. Although the
majority of the people who
participated in my
questionnaire said that they
preferred a crossword, there
wasn’t much difference
between those who would
prefer to see a crossword and
those who would not.
12
10
8
6
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4
2
0
Yes
No

8. I was interested to know how
much photography my target
reader expected to see in a music
magazine. Fashion and lifestyle
magazines such as Vice and Vogue
are heavily populated with
pictures, often taken as part of a
photoshoot. I feel that it’s
important to represent fashion
within music and include photo
spreads within my magazine and I
believe that young people are
more drawn to images than to
pages of text, however I think it is
essential in a music magazine to
focus on the interviews and
reviews so I can provide an
informative and credible
publication.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
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Pictures
Writing
A mixture of both

9. I asked this question because I
was interested to find out which
magazines were popular with
my target readers. I was aware
that some of my questions may
be idealistic and
hypothetical, for example
“Would you prefer to see
pictures in a music magazine?”
so this question provides more
realistic information as it
focuses on purchases that my
target reader has actually made
rather than just what they
would like to see. As the graph
shows, the most popular
purchases were NME and
Rolling Stone which leads me to
believe that the more
mainstream music magazines
are more popular than the more
specialist magazines such as
Kerrang!
8
7
6
5
4
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3
2
1
0
NME
Rolling Stone
Kerrang!
Q