1. My Music Magazine
Evaluation
Finishing the making of my music magazine, I have come across certain things that I
have learnt and could have improved in my planning and my final product, and factors
that I am now aware of for future tasks. In this evaluation I will discuss my making of the
product, how I achieved the outcome, including some of the difficulties I faced.

2. To attract my audience I first did research to understand what would appeal to them.
When doing some of my research, I spoke to people that I thought would be in my target
audience and asked them questions about what features appeals to them most in music
magazines.
My media product was designed to represent the social groups of indie and rock. It
represents these groups by following ideas and likes of my target audience. I think this
genre represents quite a laid back style, and something more grungy for example, LP
record covers from rock-like bands of the 80’s and 90’s. This style would present social
groups possibly interested in fashion but only particularly in arty, vintage fashion that is
displayed, and obviously considering my product is a music magazine, they would have
to be quite interested in the music I’ve displayed in my magazine. The style and the
music of my magazine complement each other well. Also the age of the social groups I’m
representing is young. My magazine seems to reveal a social class as well, however I’ve
tried to vary it through classes as I feel that it should appeal to most nowadays, not only
due to the price but the way it is presented. Although I do feel it is less likely to sell to a
higher-class audience as it presents an edgy style of the city.
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3. My media product uses the forms and conventions of real media products yet at the same
time it develops these. Trough the images and certain features, I have used the
conventions and forms for pages like my contents because that seemed slightly more
difficult to make it look individual without making the page difficult to understand or
read, so I took inspiration from other music magazines I had looked at in my research
(NME and Mojo) because their target audience is similar to the one I am aiming for, so I
used some of the techniques used in those magazines to make the finish more
professional. With my photography I think I did develop these common conventions as
my images were quite a-typical for magazines, as they are usually quite simple, however
my photos had to appeal to a more individual audience so I had different shot types and
quite bold colouring, I also used more extraordinary features for example the
background-when most typically in renowned music magazines they are taken against a
white background-I tried to make my background more interesting therefore I took
photos against a worn down building. But I would say I only developed the conventions
because I did also stick to ideas that are very common in the imagery in magazines. For
example, on my front cover one of the band members is staring down the camera to
create a more direct bold image. In some ways I may have challenged the forms and
conventions of real media products because my style is quite unordinary less formal in
presentation, but perhaps, I could have done more to make my magazine more original
and therefore do better in the magazine market.

4. Because my music magazine does seem like it would have a slightly niche audience I
think it could be distributed in places that are more specifically suited to the style. As my
magazine is indie-rock I feel that it would sell well in areas like Brick Lane and
Shoreditch, because it is something that suits those areas, as it resembles the retro, indie-
rock mix. This is shown through different features in my magazine-and particularly my
front cover-for example; my photography, styling and backdrop represent the current
brittle styles often seen in these areas. Also the mix of font styles on the front cover
highlights the eccentric Shoreditch fashion. However when doing my research, I found
that big, renowned shops like WH Smiths did sell certain niche magazines that only
appeal to one type of audience. For example, ‘Kerrang’ a music magazine purely targeted
at rock fans, which isn’t an extremely popular style of music, as apposed to something
like pop music. From seeing such a niche magazine on the shelves in a common shop,
gave me the idea that, although my magazine is quite alternative, it could potentially sell
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5. My audience is quite a niche group of people because I’ve chosen to mix two less popular
genres. When in the process of forming ideas for my music magazine I chose a genre that
I tried to stick to throughout the making of it. This was indie-rock which then gives me
the type of audience I’d like to attract. I think by mixing the two genres together it will
hopefully make the target market slightly wider and more varied. Because I’ve mixed two
niche groups what wanted was to make the magazine appeal to either both the styles or
allow one to appeal to rock or the indie genre. However this may cause problems for my
product sales as my audience may only like one of the genres featured, such as indie and
they may dislike the rock features. Therefore it becomes difficult to appeal to both the
styles of audiences without including too much of one style. This would cause me
problems because it would leave me with fewer buyers, which would be a huge crisis in
the current magazine market, considering magazine sales are plummeting.
With the research from interviewing my target audience, I was able to establish what type
of music they would be interested in hearing about, the features that appeal to them most
in a magazine (such as, interviews, upcoming events, and reviews) and how to attract
their attention. I feel that my front cover is quite arresting and would be able to attract the
right audience because it seems like an effective representation of the music genres I
chose, without replicating anything too much it’s still original. Although my front cover
image is quite bold and appealing, some people may not like it. Therefore, I tried to
include features that would appeal to my audience on the front cover. I also incorporated
images in my article and contents page. The images in my article contributed to the style
of the magazine through the choice of clothing and attitude. The attitude is portrayed in
the text with my knowledge gained from research of meta-analysis I was able to use the
language that my reader can understand without patronising them with unfamiliar
terminology. I used language that would be commonly used by my readers to make them
feel comfortable when reading the magazine.

6. I have learnt quite a bit about the technologies in the construction of my product. I think
they are very useful and allow ideas to be presented more professionally, not only for the
final piece, but also my planning. I often used Prezi, which was an interesting way to
present ideas, and planning rather than showing all ideas in a dull format. I enjoyed using
all these technologies because of the possibilities they provided. Most things were fairly
simple and straightforward. However I did face certain difficulties within the
technologies we used. Some of the technologies were quite limiting and difficult to use
and therefore had a negative outcome for certain tasks, like, the presentation of some of
my images-which I would have preferred to look more sophisticated. Overall the
technologies we used did give us more advantages than disadvantages and I feel they
taught me about new, different and interesting features to try to complete my product to
the best standard.
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7. Looking back at the preliminary task I feel I have made quite a drastic change in the
effort I put into my work. The outcome of my first task now seems very amateur to me. I
think I tried very hard with the second task and I suppose I could have put more effort
into the first but I think that it only appears I put less effort into the preliminary magazine
because when doing my second magazine it seemed more realistic and professional
therefore a lot more difficult to get right. Although I felt my first magazine included some
effective features, I improved everything I could to make it look more professional and
sophisticated. I also learnt more about the possibilities at hand when creating the second
product because I had the knowledge from the first task and was then able to advance that
knowledge for a better outcome for second time. It has now become apparent to me that
the preliminary task was more about learning and then being able to progress in whatever
areas were necessary.
Overall I feel that the outcome of my music magazine is just a representation of the effort
I put into my work. The work we have done has seemed quite difficult and challenging,
but very useful and my final product seems to me a fair portrayal of that. Throughout the
process of my making and planning, I have definitely learnt about the industry of
magazines and how to achieve something up to the standards of today’s media and how
important it is to do as much as you can appeal to your audience. Otherwise there is no
chance of the magazine surviving in the market today.
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