1. Oliver Skelland
Music Magazine Market Research
The purpose of this market research is to find out what people like about music
magazines. It also aims to find out what content most people want in magazines and how
much they are willing to pay for it. With the development of Web 2.0 and the invention
of smart phones and tablets, it’s now possible to view magazines on your phone and
tablet and also buy them from your app store. I have asked in the questionnaire
whether people would rather prefer to buy physical copies of a magazine or download a
digital copy to their phones and tablets. I conducted primary research using
questionnaires and collected quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data is
data that is I numerical form such as statistics and percentages. Qualitative data is
data gathered from asking broad questions and is in the form of words.
Employment Status
Out of the 10 people that I surveyed 50% of them are employed. This can have an
effect on the survey because the people in employment may be willing to spend a bit
more money on magazines as they are earning an income. The 50% that are unemployed
may have to budget there that they get to last the month, therefore they may not
want to spend that much on a magazine.
Employment Status
Employed
50% 50%
Unemployed
Gender
Out of the 10 people I surveyed 70% were Male and 30% were female. The importance
of this question is that gender may have an effect on what type of music people listen
to e.g. more females will listen to girl bands than males and this will affect the content
that goes into the magazine depending on who it’s aimed at. This doesn’t mean to say
that males are not allowed to listen to music aimed at a female audience etc. because
anyone can listen to any genre/type of music they like. You could even question the
music itself saying is it specifically aimed at a certain group of people or aimed at
anyone to listen to.
2. Oliver Skelland
Gender
30%
Male
Female
70%
Magazine Format
With the development of Web 2.0 and the invention of smart phones and tablets, it’s
now possible to view magazines on your phone and tablet and also buy them from your
app store. Again out of the 10 people I surveyed 50% would rather download the
magazine in a digital format and 50% would rather buy a physical format. This could link
into the employment chart saying that employment could affect how you want to view
you magazine e.g. Employed people may prefer to pay a little extra to subscribe to the
digital copy so they don’t have to walk around with extra items and they may have more
disposable income. Age can also affect how people view the magazines. People of an
older age group e.g. 40+ may prefer to have a physical copy of the magazine because
that’s what they are used to and it’s a traditional method. People of a younger age
group e.g. 16-30 will have grown up with the advancing technology and could be more in
tune with digital media such as viewing magazines and books on tablets.
Magazine Format
Buy (Physical)
50% 50%
Download (Digital)
3. Oliver Skelland
Monthly Income
Monthly income can be liked with employment as those with a job will have more money
for the month than those who without a job (on average). People with employment may
have more disposable income to spend of items such as magazines. This will affect how
much they are willing to pay for the magazine and could also influence the content
inside it. It may have effect on the preferred medium of the magazine e.g. physical or
digital but this could also be down to personal preference.
Monthly Income
30%
£300 or Less
£300 - £400
£400 - £500
0% 60% £500+
10%
Age
Age can be a major factor in how magazines are produced. Firstly age could affect how
much money you earn monthly e.g. a teenager will most likely have a part time job and
earn a small wage whereas middle aged adults will most likely have a full time job and
will earn more money monthly. This links in with monthly income and how much
disposable income a person may have to spend on the magazine. Secondly it can link in
with magazine format as an older person could prefer the tradition physical copy of the
magazine as that’s what they are used to. A younger adult e.g. teenager will probably be
more up to date with technology advances therefore may prefer to view the magazine
on a tablet as it’s easier and you don’t have to carry multiple magazines around with you.
Finally age can affect what styles of music people listen to and this will affect what will
be in the magazine e.g. young people mainly listen to modern styles of music whereas
older people may listen to the music they grew up with and not much else.
4. Oliver Skelland
Age
20%
16-25
26-35
10%
36-45
0% 46+
70%
Music Genres
The most popular genres of music are shown below in the table. The top 3 styles appear
to be Rap, Indie and RnB with house not far behind. This will affect the content of my
magazine because these will need to be included in it to attract a wider audience. The
reason that Rap, Indie and RnB are popular is because I mainly surveyed 16-25 year
olds. This music is mainly aimed at that age group. This links in to age because age can
have an effect on what genre of music people listen to.
Genres
7
6
5
Number of People
4
3
2
1
0
Rap House Dance Pop Indie Rock Metal RnB Hip-Hop
5. Oliver Skelland
Ways of listening to music and downloading it
Younger people today listen to music through iPods and iPhones and get their music
from iTunes and YouTube. Older people will still use other methods such as CD and
Vinyl. There is also the growing number of people that are downloading files illegally
from file share sites such as the pirate bay. This has an effect on the income of
artists. Secondly with the majority of people using digital methods of listening to music
such as iPods, this could link in with viewing magazines in a digital format.
Ways of Listening to and Downloading Music
9
8
7
Number of People
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Ipod/Iphone CD or Vinyl Itunes YouTube Spotify Fileshare Sites
e.g.
ThePirateBay
In conclusion this research has given me lots of information from various different
sources. This will allow me to create a magazine that people will be attracted to. It will
also satisfy their needs based on the research for example, not too expensive, available
as both physical and downloadable format and attract all age groups.
