The pitch for my music magazine.

1. Music Magazine Pitch
Jelani Hines-Rogers

2. Genre
• My genre of choice for my music magazine is Hip-Hop
• I chose Hip-Hop because I can recall being a fan of the
genre ever since I remember listening to music.
• In my opinion, this is the perfect genre for me to do as I have
a wide knowledge of aspects of the genre such as the
culture, the artists, the audience and the history of the music
itself.

3. Price
The Source – $4.99
XXL - $4.99
• The chosen price for my
magazine is $3.99 (monthly).
• I decided this by looking at my
main competitors in the hip-hop
magazine industry The Source
and XXL and comparing their
prices.
• I based my price on theirs,
making mine $1 cheaper as I’ll
need to make sure my magazine
is more appealing than the ones
that are shelved next to it.

4. Audience Profile

5. Questions to Consider
 Who are they?
 What is their current lifestyle?
 What are their media interests?
 What are their buying habits?

6. Who Are They?
 Gender: Both
 Age: 15 - 21
 Ethnicity: Majority African-American
 Religion: Christian
 Education: High School/College
 Occupation: Student
 Income: US Federal Youth Minimum Wage of $4.25
 Nationality: American

7. What Does Their Current Lifestyle Consist
Of?
Likes, Interests, Hobbies

8. Active User of Social Media

9. Likes Fashion

10. Main Priorities Are Education, Sports &
Friends

11. Name of Magazine
Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/pvou1jiuomz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

12. Text

13. Font
 My chosen font is called Freshman by William Boyd.
 I chose this font because my magazine’s audience is aged 15-15 which means that they
are likely to be in some sort of education & the term ‘freshman’ is used in the US to refer to
a first-year high school student or a first-year college student.
 Also, this font is commonly recognised as a ‘college’ font as it can be seen on college
apparel such as letterman jackets.

14. Colours
 This is the chosen colour scheme for my magazine:
Title
Quotes
Subtitle
Subheadings

15. Colours
 I chose these colours because they are 4 very
different colours and so there won’t be any cases of
a colour clash when creating my magazine.
 Also, these colours seem to work well together as
several of the magazines I looked at for my research
incorporated some of these in combination.

16. Images

17. Front Cover – Mid-Shot
• My front cover image will be
a medium shot, very much
like the one on my draft
cover.
• I chose this shot because it
will show my cover artist in
detail and the audience will
be able to read the facial
expressions and emotion
showing without it being too
intense.
• Another reason is because
when we are introduced to
someone in person, we view
them from a mid-shot range
and focus on their face and
dialogue, therefore the
bottom half of the body is
not important.
• A mid-shot also allows room
for any hand gestures and a
pose as well.

18. Contents Page - Close Crouch
Pose
• My contents page will feature my artist in a pose very similar
to the one on the right but looking directly at the camera.
• I chose this pose because this is a common pose done by
hip-hop artists for many photo opportunities whether it be on
stage, during a photo-shoot for a magazine or for an album
cover.
• This pose will enable the reader to feel closer to my artist as
they will be able to see their lower body which was hidden
on the front cover as well as being able to see more of what
they are wearing.
• The text on the context page will be at the left side of the
page and there will be enough space in the middle of the
page so that there is no text overlapping onto the image of
the artist who will be placed towards the right side of the
page.

19. Double Page Spread – Left
Side
• The left side of my double page spread will be the transcript
of an exclusive interview between the magazine’s journalist
and the chosen hip-hop artist. Above this, there will be a
photo of my cover artist in the form of a medium shot.
• This page will not have an image, however, it will be
accompanied with two quotes from the interview. One
being at the top of the page, one being in the middle of the
interview as displayed on the right.
• I chose to do this because I want my magazine to be
productive and educational which means including
detailed information as well as fun and image filled.
• I also think that having an in-depth interview will work as a
good selling point to appeal to my audience.

20. Double Page Spread – Right
Side – Long Shot
• The right side of my double page spread will contain an
image of my cover artist’s album cover
• I chose this because most other double page spreads have
photos of the artist only & because my magazine is
promoting an album, it made sense for me to be different
and do this.
• The reader will see the album cover & will then be able to
relate to the interview more as they can visualise what the
artist is actually talking about.

21. Double Page Spread Outline

22. The Interview
 I will take an in-depth approach to my interview and it will be a detailed one rather than a
quick question & answer conversation.
 I chose to do this because a selling point on the cover of my magazine is ‘Exclusive
Interview’ and having short, closed questions such as ‘Where did you get your stage name
from?’ will be like any other interview the artist has already done. Instead, my questions will
be more open, for example; ‘What inspired your on-stage character in terms of your
image, name, musical style & personality?’.
 This adds a more personal tone to the interview and the reader will feel like they know the
artist more, which is the whole point of the exclusive interview.

23. Features
Inducements & Unique Selling Proposition

24.  Although the magazines I looked at didn’t have
any special offers, I chose to include:
Inducements
•
To decide on offers for my
magazine, I looked at other hiphop magazines to see what they
had to offer their readers.
•
I found that the magazines I looked
at didn’t have any special
inducements or offers to the
readers apart from a discount on
the yearly subscription of the
magazine itself.
•
This is because they have a mixed
audience profile and may have
trouble finding something suitable
for all readers, also, their titles are
well known and respected so
having offers may be seen as
‘gimmicky’ by readers.
 A discount on the subscription for my magazine
 A free competition in every edition to win a poster of
the front cover signed by the feature artist
I only chose two as I didn’t want my magazine to be
filled with free giveaways as although this will attract
readers, free giveaways are more commonly found in
teen pop magazines and I didn’t want to take away the
hip-hop feel of my magazine. However, I chose these
because a subscription service will encourage readers to
buy the magazine again and the signed poster of the
front cover is an offer that I didn’t find in any other hiphop magazines, making mine unique and therefore
enabling me to compete with bigger brands.

25. Unique Selling Proposition – Concert
Calendar
 As my magazine is targeted towards a audience in either high school or college, to
decide upon my USP, I regarded their social interests and lifestyle to decide that they’re
interested in attending concerts however, due to the minimum wage wage rate, several
would be unable to afford tickets.
 Because of this, I came up with the idea of adding a concert calendar page which shows
the dates and location of any upcoming hip-hop concerts in major cities. This way, my
readers will be able to save up their money ahead of the ticket sale date and will be able
to go.
 I did not find anything similar to this when looking at The Source and XXL which is what
makes it a unique selling proposition and will enable me to compete with other magazines
as this is another incentive to buy my one.

26. Unique Selling Proposition – Decoded
Lyrics
 Another USP I have chosen to include is a feature section where the feature artist
interprets the lyrics of a song of theirs. This feature will be called ‘Behind The Bars’. Making
a reference to the number of bars in the structure of a song.
 I decided this because it enables the reader to have a full understanding of what the artist
is talking about in their music & will then let them feel closer to the artist which links into the
same idea of the in-depth interview.
 Another reason I decided this is because the closest thing I found to this was in The Source
where they had a section called ‘Hip-Hop Quotable’. However, this only displayed a
quote from the feature artist, without an explanation. This will also make my magazine
unique.