Analysis of Survey Responses Collected Regarding Music Magazines

1. Survey Analysis
By Oliver Midgley

2. Gender The majority of respondents were male
(around three times more than females).
This means I will aim my magazine at them
seen as they were the most willing to
complete the survey and therefore more
likely to try a new magazine. Furthermore,
the rest of the answers in this survey will be
coming from them too, so it would make
sense to target males if the other answers I
will be taking guidance from are answered
by them. Having responses from a
predominant gender also allows me to use
gender stereotypes and conventions to
influence the kind of stories included in my
magazine. Focusing on males also means I
will have a better understanding myself of
the target audience being a male.
Age The majority of the respondents were aged
between 16 and 18. This is a crucial piece of
information for me as I can now concentrate my
content on that specific age bracket so it
appeals to them. 16-18 is a young audience so I
will try to avoid more mature, complex writing
techniques and styles but still retain a certain of
degree of sophistication as it is a transitional
period to becoming an adult so they will want
to read mature, challenging articles rather than
be patronised as they still have a good level of
education. There will however, be a big
difference in interests between teenagers and
children or adults. Therefore I will have to be
vigilant with what products and brands I allow
to advertise in my magazine. The second most
common range was 22-25, slightly in front of 12-
15. This makes me think I should lean to a
slightly more mature attitude to appease this
second most popular option.

3. Social Class Modes of listening to Music
Asking this question helped me to first of
all find out if young people actually do
listen to music- it was clear that all who
took the survey did. The real purpose of
the question was to understand how
young people listened and possibly tailor
my approach to the results. The most
popular mode was listening via music
streaming apps. With Spotify being one of
the most popular in its field (especially
amongst the younger generations) I have
decided I want to use this as a selling point
for my magazine and create some kind of
deal with them- we advertise one another
and offer discounts/ freebies. For example
a month of free Spotify membership when
you buy the magazine. I will also include
an article of Spotify’s top Indie picks for
the month from their regularly updated
playlists. Downloads was the second most
popular way to listen so that is something I
don’t want to neglect.
I asked which social class they belonged to
because it gives me an insight into the
finances available. 16-18 year olds may
already have a part time job alongside
their further education so they will be
earning a wage for themselves.
Furthermore because at that age they
often have minimal responsibilities
(grocery shopping, home insurance, bills,
etc.), a fair proportion of their wage will
be disposable income to spend on a
commodity like a magazine. These duties
may rise as the social class falls and vice
versa with children from better off
backgrounds under less of an obligation to
help provide meaning a bigger percent of
their income is kept disposable. Social
class will likely effect the willingness and
ability of parents to contribute to their
child’s interests- a higher social class
family can usually more easily pay for such
things. Although, because the product in
question is a magazine, a lower class
family may be more keen to provide what
could be considered an educational item.
The most prevalent class was Technical
Middle Class. It means my average client
will have a good disposable income to
spend which may influence my final
decision on my pricing. However, this
could again be affected by the runner up
being Traditional Working Class who might
not be able to afford the publication if I
raised the price.

4. Favourite Music Genre Current Subscriptions
The most favoured genre
was Indie/ Alternative.
Furthermore, if you
analyse the results
individually, people who
haven’t voted Indie as
their favourite have still
ranked it fairly high
showing not only is it the
most favoured but of
interest to an even wider
audience thanks to its
sub-genres like Indie-Pop
and Indie-Rock. This is
where music genres like
pop and rock suffered,
having many keen
followers but often if it
wasn’t your favourite it
was one of your worst
meaning it would have a
smaller audience to sell
to. The Indie culture is
growing in popularity so
there is certainly a gap in
the market.
This helped me to identify
whether young people still
actually purchase music
magazines because if they
didn’t and instead just turned
to the internet for
information on their
favourite artists, then there
would be no logic or
justification for making a
product when there is no
demand for it. Thankfully
around half of the people
who completed the survey
did read music magazines. It
is also positive that some
don’t as well because it
means there is an untapped
market that I can exploit.

5. Frequency Price
This helped to determine the
maximum price customers
would consider purchasing a
magazine for. Price is a crucial
factor in marketing- too
expensive and you deter
customers from buying the
product. Too cheap and you
won’t be making any profit.
The majority were willing to
pay £3-3.99 at the most. I feel
this would be a fair price as
the massively successful, Q
magazine charge around the
same. It is also more
justifiable to charge a higher
price for a monthly magazine
compared to a weekly one.
Obviously, a large
proportion were unable
to answer this question
as it was dependent on
the last. From those who
could answer, monthly
was the most common
response. Having a
magazine published
every month rather than
week or fortnight means
it will have a lot more
content in it but also I
would expect that
content to be of a higher
standard (or at least
more interesting and
exclusive features).
Producing more content
per issue of course
effects the retail price-
with more resources
going into supplying the
information, more needs
to be charged to recoup
the expenses.

6. Features of Magazines Style
When inquiring about the
preferred style, there was a large
array of answers- this is to be
expected on a qualitative
question which should have, on
reflection, instead been a part of
my interviews.
However it is clear from
browsing through my answers
that people would prefer an
organised and simple design
which gives implications of
sophistication.
This question identified
which features of a music
magazine were valued
most. It is clear to see that
competitions and freebies
were not important to the
audience and they instead
cared more about raw,
informative content.
Interviews were vital so I
will be sure to include
many to satisfy my
readers. They will also
have to be of a high
quality if they are so
instrumental- this could
be achieved through
columnists knowledgeable
about the topic, exclusive
reveals and a generally
interesting tone. Music/
Product recommendations
and photo-shoots are
similarly important so I
will include an equal
amount of them.