1. Proposal
I am going to be making a music magazine and to do this I have researched other magazines
like Kerrang, Q and Rolling Stone so that I will have a better idea of what I have to do and also
to give my inspiration. I have now completed my research and am now making a proposal of
what my magazine will be like, what will be in it and how I will make it.
The genre that I have decided that my music magazine will be is indie/punk as I think they are
quite similar and people who like one, usually like the other. I was also inspired to do this genre
as it is the genre that I prefer so I will know lots about it and I will enjoy making it and talking
about this genre so that will mean that my work will be of good quality. I have not yet decided
on a name for my magazine but want it to be one word, probably an exciting adjective or verb.
For my colour scheme, I will use black and white and one other bright colour, probably red, blue
or purple. I will test out those 3 colours when I am making my magazine and see which looks
best and then I will use that one. I want my magazine to be fairly simple and minimalist,
because I personally like that style, so I will experiment with that but I realise I can’t go
overboard because then it wouldn’t look good and most music magazines aren’t that simple
and they have lots of sell lines and things to make the magazine more interesting so people will
buy it. The tone of my magazine will be quite professional but also a bit fun and cheeky so that
readers enjoy it.
The purpose of my product will be to entertain, inform and persuade the readers of my
magazine. It will entertain as it will be quite a fun magazine that my readers will enjoy reading
and looking at. I will have lots of competitions/freebies/give aways in my magazine which will
excite the readers and make them want to get involved. l I will probably also have quizzes and
games which will be very entertaining. Some of the questions I ask in the interview for my main
article will fun and trivial questions so they will enjoy reading about the artists’ responses. My
magazine will also be informative as I will include lots of information about upcoming
festivals/artists going on tour and new albums in the indie/punk genre that are about to be
released so readers are in the know. I will also have reviews of recently released albums or
singles and also concerts so the readers can know if they really should buy a particular album or
concert tickets. I will also ask my artist some more deep and informative questions so the
readers can learn more about their favourite artist which is probably why they would have
bought the magazine in the first place. As for persuasiveness, my magazine won’t do this much
but I will encourage readers to enter competitions or buy particular albums or go to concerts as
2. the magazine will review them and if it says that it was good then the readers will probably
want to go to it.
The target audience for my magazine will be young people, teens and early twenties, both
male and female that like indie and punk music. Generally this age group are students and don’t
have a lot of money to spare so I will make my magazine quite cheap, maybe £1.50 or £2, so
that they can afford it and will maybe prefer it, or at least buy it more often than over other,
more expensive magazines. I also fall within this target demographic so it will be easy for me to
determine what they would and wouldn’t like in the magazine so I can tailor it better to the
target audience. This age group of people also use lots of social media so I will show tweets and
other things that readers have written about the magazine somewhere in the magazine as it
will be a nice way to interact and readers also feel more involved. I will include lots of
freebies/give aways to concerts and thing in my magazine because tickets are quite expensive
nowadays so they might not be able to afford it by themselves so they will buy this magazine to
have a chance to win these thing for only the £1 or £2s it cost them to buy the magazine. The
magazine will also have a website as young people spend a lot of time on the internet so they
can easily check out what is going on at any time in the world of indie/punk music and they can
also see what will be on that month’s issue so they know if they want to buy it.
My magazine will come out monthly as I think that people don’t buy music magazines weekly
because most people feel like it is a waste of time and money. In the contents page of each
issue of the magazine, I will encourage people to subscribe and tell them where/how they can
do that and give them a discount code so more people will do it and my magazine would get
more money. I will have a USP (Unique Selling Point) so that more people will want to buy my
magazine and it will be that there will be a giveaway with every issue for concert tickets to the
concert of the featured artist on the cover of the magazine that issue. It is important to have a
USP as this attracts people to your magazine over others magazines and I think that this is a
good one as my audience will definitely buy the magazine so they have a chance to win tickets
to see their favourite artist and the magazine would get more publicity/popularity.
On the front cover of my magazine I will have a close up picture of my model wearing clothes
that fit in with the genre of music my magazine is. The name of my magazine will be bold and
will either go all the way across the top or just at the top left hand side, depending on what I
choose as the name. I will have the artists name across the middle with a little explanation
below and some other sell lines at the side. My contents page will have a picture of my model
referring to the main article and also other pictures of artists and concerts each referring to
their respective articles. There will be organised sections for the articles so readers can find
what they want to look at easily. On the contents page there will also be section telling readers
to subscribe to the magazine and follow it on different social medias. There will be 2 or 3
3. double page spreads for my main article; the first one will hopefully have a picture of my model
stretching the whole double page with a gripping title. I haven’t decided what the rest of the
pages will look like but they will incorporate picture and text and I would like to have some pull
out quotes and other things to make it interesting. The actual article will include both fun,
trivial questions and more deep and informative questions as this is what people said they
would want on my survey.