The document describes the results of a survey conducted by the author to gather information about music magazines and their target audience. 17 questionnaires were collected from people ages 16-25 in Birmingham city center. The results were analyzed and displayed in pie charts. The majority preferred R&B music and were unwilling to pay more than £3 for a magazine. Most felt magazines should be published weekly. The author concluded their target audience is ages 16-25 interested in pop, R&B and dubstep music living in areas like Hall Green.

2. For my analysis I analysed these 3 magazines. I analysed the front
cover, contents pages, double page spreads and also
advertisements.

6. For my research I went outside of school to ask the
public to fill in questionnaires I have created for my
research. I made 30 questionnaires and got 17 of
them filled in by the general public. I carried out my
research in Birmingham City centre where I went
around asking different people questions to do with
music magazines.
The people who answered them in are mainly between
the age of 16 and 25. The people also like different
types of music such as Pop, R&B, Dubstep, Rock etc.
I have converted my results into pie charts to show
my data from my questionnaires and I have analysed
it.
My questionnaire had a total of 11 questions where 9
of them required a tick in a box and the other 2 just a
short written answer.

11. How old are you? What's your gender ?
6% 6%
0-15
41%
16-25 Male
26-35 Female
59%
88%
As you can see by my pie
chart for the results of the
question’ how old are you?’ As you can see the results for
the majority of people I asked this questionnaire is that I
are between the ages of 16-25 asked the questionnaire to 7
and a smaller number of males and 10 females. So out of
people aged between 0-15 and the people I asked 41% are
26-35. Out of the 17 people I male and 59% are female.
asked 88% of them was aged
between 16-25 and 6 % of
people were aged between 0-
15 and 6% for 26-35. So my
target audience is going to be
between the age of 16-25.

12. What is your favourite kind of music ? Do you read music magazines?
24%
15% 18%
Rock
4%
Dubstep yes
R&B no
19% 19% Pop
Reggae
Other 76%
25%
As you can see from the pie chart As you can see most of the
I gave the option of Rock, people I asked don’t tend to
Dubstep, R&B, Pop, Reggae, read music magazines only
Other. For rock 18% of people 24% of people I asked read
chose this, 19% of people chose music magazines the other 76%
Dubstep, 25% chose R&B, 19% don’t. Which is quite surprising
chose pop, 4% of people chose as I would of thought more
reggae and 15% of people chose people would be more
other. So out of the people I interested in reading music
asked most people chose R&B as magazines
there favourite kind of music.

13. How much are you willing to spend on a music Do you know of any music magazines?
magazine?
0% 12%
18%
£0-£0.99
£1-£1.50
Yes
£1.51-£1.99 47%
35% £2-£2.99
53% No
35% Over £3
Nobody was willing to pay over As you can see only 53% of
£3 for a magazine as they found the people I asked know of a
that to be to much. The price certain music magazine and
people was willing to pay was the other 47% don’t know of
either £1.51- £1.99 or £1-£1.99. any particular music
Which is quite a cheap, reasoned magazines with is quite
price for a magazine and most of surprising and I would predict
the target audience would be most people would know of at
willing to pay that. least one music magazine.

14. How often do you think music magazines should be
6%
6% published ?
35% Kerrang
NME 24%
24%
Top Of The Pops 35% Once a week
Rock Sound Twice a week
Enemy Once every 2 weeks
Once a Month
29% 29% 12%
For the people that answered ‘yes’ As you can see here, I have asked
for knowing of any music how often you think music
magazines I told them to state magazines should be published
which magazines they know of and and I have gave the option Once a
the most common magazine written week, twice a week, Once every 2
down was kerrang where 35% of weeks and once a month. 35% of
the people know of it and NME people opted for once a week and
where 29% of the people write it 29% for once every two weeks
down. The other magazines the which makes up the majority so
audience know of are Enemy, Top they would like to see an issues
of the pops and rock sound. about 2-3 times a month.

15. What is you occupational status ? Out of the people I asked
24% 46% of the people were
students. Which shows more
Student that students have an
46% Part time work
interest in music magazines.
12% Full time work
24% of people were
Unemployed
unemployed, 18% part time
18% work and 12% in full time
work.
What contents would you like to see in a music
3% magazine? From my results quite a lot
3% Music updates of people would like to see
3% Concert and festival
concert and festival ticket
6%
15% tickets information and the latest
Charts charts. Also music updates
9%
Interviews was a popular choice for a
Competitions
music magazine. Other
21% 40% choices people opted for
Posters
were free items, posters,
Free items interviews and
News competitions.

16. Do you like knowing about update about music artists and A lot of people have a general
their songs and albums ? interest in music and like to
24% know updates about songs
and albums by artists. That’s
Yes why 76% of the people I asked
No said yes to wanting to know
updates about songs and
76% albums.
18% 17% Acocks Green I asked the question of’
Small Heath What are do you live in?’
Mosely and I got a load of
12% 12% Hall Green different areas people live
Tysely in, as you can see on the
Solihul graph. Most people live in
6% 6%
Kings Heath either Acocks
Sparkhill Green, sparkhill and Hall
12% 17% Green.

17. Most of my target audience are into Pop, R&B and Dubstep. As in my
research I wanted to find out what's peoples favourite kind of music was.
25% of peoples favourite kind of music was Pop and 19 % of people opted
for R&B and Dubstep. Surprisingly on 24% of the people I asked actually
read music magazines and the other 76% don’t read music magazines on
a genuine basis. I also found out areas people lived in who answered my
questionnaire by stating there area into the question. My research found
out that most people I got to answer my questionnaire lived in Hall Green
with 18% of the people living there. 17% of the people live in Acocks
Green and also 17% live in Sparkhill. Also the people would prefer to see a
music magazine published every weeks as 35% of the people I asked
opted for that. Also 46% of the people who answered are currently
students so it shows the magazine has a young target audience.

18. This is the image I have taken for
the front cover of my magazine but
I have edited it to improve it for my
front cover.
This is a picture I have taken for my
double page spread for my article. This
image will be edited with the lighting for
my double page spread.

19. I have taken this image for my
contents page. The lighting helps
to make the picture stand out
and make the quality of it
excellent.
I have taken this image for my
double page spread article. I
have used the same
background again for the good
lighting to make my picture
clear.

20. I have taken this image for my
contents page. This picture
relates to my article and is in
good quality to use.

21. This is the image I have taken for my
front cover, I have used macromedia
fireworks to edit it and improve it.
This is the edited version of my
image for my double page spread
that I will use

23. As you can see in this image I am getting to grips with the program
fireworks with editing my images and adding things to them. I have
boxed the main part of my image to show this is the main focus of the
image.

24. In this screenshot I have started to change the hue/saturation of it and it
has helped change the colours of the image and made it look more
attractive than it previously was in the previous slide.

25. As you can see in this screen shot I am using the program macromedia
fireworks. I have used the marquee tool to cut a part of my image as I am
getting rid of parts of my image that aren’t needed so I can mainly focus on
the centre of the image where my model is.

26. In the screenshots below I have compared them to show how I
can change them using the hue/saturation tool in fireworks.
This allowed me to change the saturation the hue and the
lightness.

27. In these screenshots I am showing an image I have edited in the
first screen shot and showing what I have to do to make it into
the image on the right. I did this by using adjust colour then
clicking on invert and this is how I changed the image.

28. This is an example of how I wanted my front cover to look as I
liked the colour used as I found they match my masthead and
background of my magazine. I did this by adjusting the
brightness and contrast of my image which I found out to be a
very easy and helpful tool to use in editing my images. In the
second screenshot I just increased the brightness and
contrast and this was the result

29. In these screenshots I have used the paint tool to apply a sky blue
colour in my image to outline the model. In the first image there isn't
much thickness to my brush as its only at 8. In the second screenshot
I have changed the brush thickness to 33 and then did the same to the
image by outlining it and it turned out a lot thicker.

30. In these images I am experimenting how to change and adjust
brightness/contrast to my image. In my second image I am editing the
image using the Hue/Saturation tool and comparing these to image you
can see the difference between them.

31. As you see I am using the paintbrush tool just to get to grips with how the
program works by painting around the model in the image, I did this so I
could gain an idea of what sort of brush size I needed for my image etc.

33. In what way does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
The ways in which my media product use forms and
conventions of real media products is by it being similar
to other music magazines like kerrang, NME, DJ
magazine and top of the pops. My magazine is similar to
NME because they are both in your face with basic block
text and its got a big font. Also the colours are similar by
using light blue as backgrounds and this challenges the
forms and conventions of this magazine. Also my
Magazine challenges the forms and conventions of DJ
magazine as they both have the same type of target
audience as people of a young age especially 16-25
enjoy listening to Dubstep and drum and bass that DJs
are likely to produce. Also my music magazine develops
on the masthead of DJ magazine because my masthead
it bigger and uses brighter and more attractive colours
and its more noticeable. Also my magazine develops
from the cover lines on DJ magazine as mine are in more
detail and to the left of the magazine front cover so the
reader will have more insight of what is in my magazine
compared to DJ magazine.

34. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product which is a music magazine represents particular social
groups by some of the language used on the front cover. Such as the strap
line ‘Complete Dubstep Madness!’. Social groups between the age of 16-25
would be mostly interested in Dubstep the genre of my magazine. My
magazine represents people In this age group because the style and tempo
of the music is fast and very energetic like people in the age groups of late
teens and young adults. Dubstep is seen as a good genre for music in
nightclubs etc where you are most like to find young adults so it represents
these social groups. Dubstep can also represent people from working-class
backgrounds as it’s a popular genre of music and has established itself in
the charts and anyone from any class can listen to it.

35. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
The kind of media institution that might
distribute my magazine would be IPC Media, as it
is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in
the UK. IPC Media distribute many different
magazines such as NME which is a music
magazine similar to mine. IPC Media would
distribute my magazine because it is a music
magazine with a young target audience and they
are located in the UK. As my magazine is I the
UK and my target audience are based in the UK it
is relevant for IPC Media to distribute my
magazine. Also as this institution is known in the
UK and sells over 350 million magazines a year
and there headquarters is based in London. They
may also distribute my magazine because my
music magazine could turn out to be very
popular in the UK and IPC Media would want to
distribute it because it will help there business
and they can make profits.

36. Who would be the audience for your media product ?
The audience for my media product would be people between the age of 16-
25 as music can have a big influence on people in this age group. My
magazine is targeted at this age group because of all the bright appealing
colours used and the price of the magazine is £3.99 which is affordable for
people in this age group and the price doesn’t automatically put people of
the magazine. Also the bright colours attract people especially at a younger
age as they are bright and would stand out on a magazine shelf. Also most
people into Dubstep would be in this age group as its not really an old genre
of music so is more modern and keeps up to date so this age group, which is
my target audience will be more likely to buy my magazine.

37. How did you attract/address your target audience ?
First of all I addressed my target audience by producing a questionnaire
about music magazines and asked for opinions in the questionnaire and
what my target audience wanted to see in my music magazine. By using my
questionnaires to address my target audience, I gained knowledge of my
target audience by the answers given in my questionnaire and this would
help attract my target audience because it would include content they want
to see. I attracted my target audience by the colours and language I used in
my magazine. The strap line ‘complete Dubstep Madness’ attracts the
target audience because it’s a high pitched tone and its full of energy like
young adults are so it can compare to them.

38. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product ?
I have learnt how to use different technologies such as Microsoft publisher
and fireworks. I have learnt that certain technologies in constructing my
magazine really help to edit text and images like how I’ve learned to blur
photos, add saturation and brightness. I found this relatively easy to do
which was a surprise for me as I thought it would be a lot harder for me to
edit photos and text. This has made me realise that actual music magazines
use these types of programs to make there magazine a lot better and even
use more advanced technologies like Photoshop etc. Also by using
programs like fireworks I felt they wasn’t really that time consuming as
everything was easy to find and the program was fast and easy to use and I
had no difficulties using the program.

39. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product ?
In the progression from my preliminary task to my full product I feel I have
learnt how to analyse different magazines a lot better than I could while
doing my preliminary task. This is because during my preliminary task I
analysed different school/college magazines which didn’t have that much
detail and wasn’t actual published magazines. However in my main task I
analysed different published magazines such as Kerrang, Top of the pops
and DJ Magazine. By doing this I learnt how much more detail there is in
music magazines than college magazines and how much more
professionally they are laid out. I have also learnt how to take pictures
better for my music magazine compared to my school/college magazine.
For my preliminary task I took a few pictures around school for it without
really focusing on the detail in pictures such as composition and the
persons body language in a picture.

40. In contrast for my music magazine I focused on taking pictures for it in a lot
more detail and got my model to stand in many different poses so I could pick
out which was the best pose so I could use it for my magazine. I have also
learnt how to use better programs for my text and images. For my preliminary
task I used Microsoft excel which limited me to use certain text and I couldn’t
really edit any pictures in detail compared to fireworks which I used for my
main task and this program enabled me to edit my pictures in a lot more detail
than excel.
Preliminary task …
My front cover and
contents page