This document provides a pitch for a new rock music magazine called SOLO that will focus on bands and venues in North London. The magazine aims to inform readers about upcoming rock artists performing in the area through articles, interviews, and listings of music events. The target audience is primarily males aged 18-25, as they will be able to connect most with new local bands. Pricing, distribution, and marketing strategies are proposed, including a yearly subscription, social media advertising, and posters at music venues. Legal and ethical considerations around permissions and avoiding gender bias in the target audience are also discussed.
2. WHAT IS IT?
SOLO is a rock genre magazine.
I have chosen this genre because there is a growing number of rock venues in North London, and there is
also an excess in rock bands performing in these locations. I also play rock music on guitar therefore this
genre is in my interest.
The purpose of this magazine is to inform all readers of all the latest and upcoming rock artists and venues
in North London.
It also gives the target audience the opportunity to go to see these artists live at the rock venues. All
information and timings of these events will be presented in the magazine.
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3. OBJECTIVE / PURPOSE
The objective for my magazine is to inform the readers with information about North London based rock
artists and bands, along with North London rock venues too. With this I will include necessary information
about where and when to see these artists, and where the music venues are.
This allows the reader to have a full understanding of all the rock themed events that are taking place and
gives them an opportunity to go to the events too - which fulfils my objective to help and give my customers
the convenience of finding where their favourite rock artists are performing.
Our aim for this magazine is to inform, yet entertain our audience, and hopefully become one of the most
prominent magazine of North London.
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4. FONTS
My first font will be ‘PRIMETIME’
This will be my masthead, because it is big and bold. I have used a single word “solo” which makes it stand
out, therefore a big bold font will add to this aim.
Another font I will be using is ‘Didot’
This font will be on some of my subheadings. This is because it is a serif font, meaning it has an older look to it
due to the little lines on each letter. The genre rock was most popular in the past times, therefore an older look
symbolises the history of rock music.
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6. TARGET AUDIENCE
Whilst this magazine may appeal to anyone interested in the genre rock, our main target audience would be males
aged between around 18-25.
I was told that music goes beyond gender, however I feel like in this case it isn’t a strong unisex genre. That is why I
have still chosen to use this as part of my target audience.
The genre itself is more of a masculine gender, with artists being predominantly male, therefore I would definitely target
males.
I have chosen ages 18-25 because upcoming bands and artists in North London would be of a similar age to this. This
means this age group would easily be able to connect with the artists and be more inclined to buy the magazine to find
out more about them.
In addition, this age group is more likely to go out and buy a magazine, due to their spare time, and their lifestyle of
being more fit than older age groups.
Anyone who has an interest in rock music is my secondary audience. Unlike my primary target audience, this caters for
older people, because rock was a very popular genre as they were growing up, therefore they will still listen and enjoy
it. Another reason is because the older generation would be more inclined to buy a magazine as they grew up reading
these and may prefer reading from a physical copy on paper.
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7. COMPETITION
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Classic Rock, Kerrang! and Rock Sound are my main competitors when it comes to rock magazines.
However, due to mine being a North London magazine, it allows me to report on different local rock artists
or bands who may not have been seen before. Therefore, my magazine will have a unique selling point of
introducing new faces, instead of showing the audience people that they already know. This unique
approach to rock music may gain me customers that these rock magazines may not have, and give me a
competitive advantage over them in North London. My other competition are London magazines which
inform the audience about events. My magazine will be a lot about letting the reader know about rock
venues and artists playing in them, therefore this could be competition because if people want to know
where to go, this is the magazine for them.
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The price of this magazine would be £3.49. This price would be an in store or online price, as it can be
purchased on both platforms.
We would also offer a yearly subscription to the magazine. As it is a monthly magazine, there would be 12
issues throughout the year. The yearly subscription would cost £32.99 - averaging at £2.75 a copy.
Classic Rock costs £34.99 a year, which is a mostly magazine. This means my price is more competitive
than theirs, which would potentially make customers switch from their to my magazine.
As we are looking to become one of the most prominent magazines in North London, the magazine will be
around for a long time, giving loyal customers the opportunity to buy a subscription for only £29.99 a year,
after one initial year of £32.99. This not only gives a cheaper price to customers, but gives loyal customers
a priority price, which may be an incentive for new customers to join the subscription.
PRICE
10. 10
This is a sketch of my front cover of my
magazine.
It includes a mid-shot photograph of two
members of a rock band, along side
information about articles in the
magazine, for example, exclusive
interviews.
Once a month I will give away a free CD
of one of the upcoming bands that I am
including in my magazine, to give the
reader a feel for their music. Of course,
they would be able to digitally download
this music from our website -
www.solomag.com
SKETCH
11. DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING
Methods of distribution and marketing could include posters for physical advertising. This method could be
advertising at music venues or at music studios, so people who are interested in music would be able to
see the magazine. This therefore means advertising is not wasted on people who may not be interested in
buying the magazine at all.
However my main method of advertising would be done on social media. This is due to the massive reach
that would be available, and how it is free, meaning no money would come out of the cash flow, making the
magazine more profitable.
I could use google (Adwords) for this as it is free advertising and it places your ads on suitable websites,
meaning the viewers may be more interested in buying than if it was placed around randomly.
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12. LEGAL AND ETHICAL
Legal issues that I will need to think about is the using of artists and bands in my magazine. I will have to
make sure that I have been granted permission to use their faces and content in my magazine. If I do not
get permission, the magazine could get sued and it could lead to a big debt for the magazine.
The magazine would be written all by our employees, and no plagiarism involved in the content we give out.
This eliminated any issues about using other magazines or peoples content.
Ethical issues I would have to understand is the targeting of the magazine at only males. This seems to be
sexist which happens a lot in todays society. I have to make sure not to state it is just for one gender, even
if it is targeted at them.
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