Bethany Barrows proposes creating an R&B style magazine featuring up-and-coming artists. She decided on an R&B genre based on survey results. The magazine will be published monthly to allow for high-quality, detailed content like other music magazines. It will target R&B fans aged 15-25 but also magazine collectors. The magazine will include interviews, quizzes, and ads to follow magazine conventions while focusing on new artists not covered by competitors.

1. Proposal
By Bethany Barrows

2. I am going to make an R and B style magazine and I am going to include lots of new and upcoming artists. R and B was the most popular genre in
my survey results, which helped me decide to do it.
R and b is also known as contemporary R&B, features elements of soul, funk, pop, hip-hop, and dance. I think this will be good to do as there are
so many world-wide famous artists such as Michael Jackson, R.Kelly, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Stevie wonder and Mary J Blige, who are
associated with this genre, and who are huge inspirations.
However, I will still mentioned established music so that it is clear of the genre and so it will still be interesting to R and B fans. This way, people
can buy the magazine according to artists that are mentioned, and they are more likely to be interested in established artist which they know of.
Genre

3. I am going to publish my magazine monthly because then it can have
more content and be more detailed. Most music magazines are
released monthly, as it gives them enough time to produce all the
content to a high standard, therefore I am going for the same
approach.
Also, this way the audience would view it as a novelty as they can only
get one a month, rather than just a magazine you can get anytime. I
want my people to be excited for the release of my magazine, which I
can do by releasing it less frequently.
I will therefore have more pages, as a monthly magazine takes more
time than a weekly one. I can demonstrate the many pages in the
contents page as the page numbers can go up higher, I have
researched and found out that a typical music magazine can have
around 200 pages.
I can spend more time on the quality of the pages, as its important
have quality as well as quantity.
Frequency

4. My magazine will be primarily aimed at R&B fans, particularly
young people aged 15-25. However, the secondary audience will
be magazine collectors, as some people collect limited edition
The demographics are ABC1 as my magazine will be of a high
standard, so will be aimed mostly at the middle class, as lower
class people probably won’t be able to afford my magazine eve
month.
R&B can appeal to both men an women, however, my front
cover will have a female on it, therefore his may appeal more to
women as it can be more relatable to them. Women can idolise
and look up to the model on the cover, whereas men may be
more interested in the actual music.
They can benefit from reading my magazine as I am going to
have lots of information on upcoming artists and popular music,
presented in an entertaining way, with high quality images, and
accurate reliable information.
Target Audience

5. Other R and B magazines that I have looked into are ones such as
VIBE, RnB, and billboard, which will be my competition. These
magazines are successful because they feature artists which are
distinctly associated with R and B, which the audience can easily
recognise. Also, they always have a really prominent colour
scheme, usually quite dark and simple, which adds to the
edginess of the magazine, and makes the artist looks more cool
and trendy.
However, this magazines don’t tend to include up and coming
artists, which is what my magazine will be focused around,
therefore, my magazine will have something that they don’t.
I really like how R&B magazines play with shadows and highlights,
and the overall colour of the photos, which is something I will
focus on in my photo-shoot.
Similar Magazines

6. My magazine is going to have a front cover, a double page contents, double page spreads, and possibly adverts.
In my survey results, I asked what people would most like to see in an article, and the most popular result was an interview, so I think one
of my articles will be an interview with the main cover artist. I think this is quite a good option because then the audience can interact
with the artist, despite her being unheard of before.
A quiz was also quite popular for a double page spread, so I will consider this.
I think an advert would be quite quick and interesting to do, therefore I have started looking into different types of adverts, and would like
to do one of these, possible based around perfume or makeup, so it will be quite feminine.
This will adhere to magazine codes and conventions as these are things that are always included in successful magazine's.
Content

7. For my magazine, I would like to include an interview with the cover artists,
who will be the main focus of the magazine.. On the contents page, there will
be more artists, who will also be up and coming. Also, I have seen a band index
on some other contents pages which I think is a really good idea and I would
like to include, therefore I have collected a variety of R&B artist at the bottom
of this page.
The images on the right are ones that I found on the internet and I really like
how dark and professional they look. I can show these to my model to show her
what I am looking for. I thin I am going to use a black background in my photo
shoot so I can play around with shadows a lot more.
The colour scheme of my magazine is going to be quite dark also, with a lot of
black, white, and grey, and then I will have one main prominent colour, perhaps
blue, purple, or gold. I am going to take the majority of my photos inside, in the
studio, but I will take some outside, and maybe use some photos I have taken
from concerts.
Ideas

8. I want my magazine to look quite serious and professional, particularly on the front cover, but also quite edgy and cool. I will
do this by keeping to a strict colour scheme, with mostly dark colours, and also by following the conventions of other R and B
magazines.
However, with my contents page, I think the tone of this will be more laid back and fun, because I can have more pictures,
and more artists featured, so the pictures can be more funny.
My models will help contribute to the tone of the magazine, which their facial expressions and body language.
Mood/Values of your
magazine

9. I will encourage readers to read my magazine by doing really interesting giveaways, such as concert tickets, which were the most
desired in my survey results. This will make people want to buy the magazine in hopes of winning something worth their while and
also, concert tickets are associated with music so they are relevant to the magazine.
Moreover, I will focus on drawing people in with subscription deals, as subscriptions are getting less and less popular, and people
would rather buy single copies in the shops. Therefore, I will really promote subscription b y having special deals and freebies
included, as they are a great way of ensuring sales each month.
Social Media is always a big part of promotion, especially as my magazine is aimed at young people, who are the primary users of
social media, therefore I will use platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and twitter to advertise my magazine. I will also make the
magazine interactive by getting people to send tweets in or tag us in their posts to be in to be featured in the magazine.
I also think billboards are a good way of promotion, as they are very large and hard to ignore, therefore they will catch peoples
attention easily.
Publicity

10. My unique selling point is that My magazine will feature up and coming artist rather than already established artist,
like other magazines such as Q, and billboard do. My magazine will be authentically British, as the artists featured
will all be British, therefore this will appeal more to UK music fans.
My magazine is going to be very hip and edgy, but aimed at both teenagers, and adults, so the target audience will
be larger, instead of keeping it exclusive like a lot of magazines do. My magazine will be made for the audience,
instead of for the competitors, so it will be more personal and have a lot of work put into it.
Instead of focusing on a variety of different artists from different genres, they will all be R&B artists, so the magazine
will be exclusively for R&B fans.
Unique Selling Point