Bethany Barrows conducted a survey to help inform the creation of her new music magazine. She asked questions about music preferences, desired magazine extras, social media usage, subscription preferences, and what drives magazine interest. For music genre, R&B was most popular followed by pop. Concert tickets were the most desired extra. Snapchat and Instagram were the most used social media platforms. Most respondents preferred to buy issues individually rather than subscribe. Better extras and online access were cited as things that could increase magazine reading. Interviews and quizzes were the most appealing article types.

1. SURVEY RESULTS ANALYSIS
BY BETHANY BARROWS

2. My first question was, ‘what genre of music
are you most interested in?’ which was to
help me find out what would be the most
popular type of music to include in my
magazine, as I am unsure of what genre I
want it to be based on.
The options wee indie, rock, pop, r and b, or
other.
50% of people said hey preferred r and b,
which was the largest amount, which I was
surprised by as I thought pop music would be
more of trend with teenagers, which the
majority often people I asked were. Pop
music came in second with 37.5%, and indie
was behind that with 25%. Rock was the only
category that didn’t get a single vote, as it
isn’t a very popular mainstream genre.

3. I then when on to ask what sort of
freebies the audience would most like
to be included in a music magazine.
Concert tickets were by far the most
popular, with 66.67%, which I think was
expected as concerts can be enjoyed
by anyone and can be quite pricey. I
would have expected posters to be the
least popular as they are not as exciting
as other things, however, gadgets
came in last with just 8.33%.

4. Social media is important to promote
magazines, or include within the
magazine, therefore I thought it would
be a good idea to ask what social
media is the most popular. Snapchat
was the most popular with 66.67%, as
snapchat is very popular with
teenagers, and the majority of people I
asked were teenagers, therefore this
result was expected. Moreover,
Instagram was close behind with
45.83% and facebook and twitter were
also quite popular. Tumblr fell behind a
lot, so now I know what social media I
should include in my magazine.

5. My 4th question was, ‘Are
you more likely to
subscribe to a magazine
or buy the issues
individually?’ and most
people responded to buy
them individually. I think
this is because not many of
the people I asked are long
term magazine readers and
therefore wouldn’t want to
commit to a subscription.
Therefore, 79.17% wanted
to buy issues separately.
Subscriptions can be
expensive, but it still think
they are important to
advertise to the readers, as
they bring in a lo of profit.

6. I then wanted to research further
into subscriptions to see what would
persuade people o buy them more.
The majority of people said that if
they were subscribed, they would
expect freebies, which not many
magazines offer, so I could include
in my magazine to make it more
appealing. People also said they
would want money off, which I could
also potentially include.

7. I understand that not many people
are regular magazine readers, and I
wanted to find out why, therefore I
asked, ‘what would encourage you
to read them more?’ 8 people said
they would want better freebies,
and a further 8 said they would
want an option to read it online,
which were the highest marks.

8. Out of the 24 people who
answered this question, 20
people said that they would
prefer a variety of artists
rather than just a few. Music
magazine tend to have lots
of artists, therefore I will try
and include a few on my
contents page, but still only
base the double page
spread on one.

9. 12%
21%
13%
4%
17%
25%
8%
What makes a magazine successful?
Exclusive information Famous artists Good content Advertising
Colours and fonts Lots of celebrities Interviews
This question needed the personal
taking the survey to type in their
answer so therefore I made the
data into a pie chart. 25% of
people said that celebrities make a
magazine more successful,
colours and fonts were also quite
popular, with 17% voting for them.
Now I know what I need to focus
on to make my magazine
successful. Only 4% said that
advertising works well in
magazines, which is something
that I will consider including but
isn't crucial.

10. I thought it was really important to
ask what most attracts the readers
to a magazine front cover. 58.33%
sad that a famous artist most
draws them in, which is
understandable, and as my artist
will only be a rising-star, I will have
to make them look really
professional to still get the
audiences attention. The colour
scheme also proved really
important, which I agree with and
will spend some time looking into
different options.

11. My final question was, ‘what would
you most like to see in an article?’.
The most popular response was
‘an interview’ which I was planning
to include in my magazine, so this
survey has just confirmed that this
would be a good idea. A quiz was
also quite a popular option, which
is something that personally, I
don't find important, but can be
appealing to younger readers.