3. Mastheads
Mastheads are the biggest font on a magazine
cover, they have a unique font that is not used
for any other text. If the magazine is an
established brand, the masthead can be
overlapped by the main image. They are also
placed at the top of the page so that they can
easily be seen by customers in a shop and
recognised. The masthead often have
connotations of music that can relate to the
genre of music the magazine is writing about.
4. Coverlines
Coverlines are the pieces of text
that go at the side of a magazine
cover, they give readers an
information on what kind of
articles are going to be available
inside the magazine and what
they are about. They must be
appealing to customers to make
them buy and read the article.
They are placed at the side of the
main image so that they don’t
cover it. Usually, the coverlines
colour scheme matches the
colours on the page, either on
the masthead or in the main
image.
5. Main Image
It is very important that the main
image of a magazine front cover
takes up the majority of the page,
this is so that it draws the reader’s
attention to the magazine.The artist
on the front cover must have direct
address with the audience as this
captures the audience’s attention.
Often, but not always the artist(s) on
the front cover can be posed in an
interesting way to intrigue
customers.
6. Barcode and issue information
The barcode information is vital to
the front cover of a magazine as it
allows customers to actually buy the
issue and provides people with a
price and the date of the magazine.
The date of the magazine can vary
from every week, fortnight or month.
The barcode and issue information is
usually located at the bottom right
corner of a magazine.
7. Positioning Statement
The positioning statement positions
the magazine in the market and it
always found near the masthead. It
gives customers an idea of what the
magazine will be like and the quality
of the brand itself.
8. Puff
A puff is a small piece of text that goes on
the front cover to attract people to buy
and read the magazine. It is usually
placed inside a shape away from the main
image to make it stand out on the page
and the text is incentive to appeal to the
audience. The text uses exciting or
emotive buzzwords such as ‘competition’,
‘win’, ‘free’, ‘exclusive’, etc. to provoke a
reaction out of a reader to persuade them
to buy the magazine.
9. Knowing the target audience and music genre from the
cover page
By looking at the layout of a magazine, the colour scheme, the type of artist on the
front, the mise-en-scene, the fonts used and the overall style of the cover, you can
usually grasp an idea of who the target audience of the magazine is and also the
genre of music. Similarly, by analysing how the artist acts and their body language
on the cover, it can give the audience a sense of the genre being demonstrated.
Some other things to look out for on a magazine to know that it is a music
magazine are:
Facial expressions, eg ‘angry rock’
Musical instruments
Real life artists used on the cover
