The document discusses plans for a new rap music magazine, including researching existing magazines, choosing a name, genres, and article ideas. It discusses the magazine Vibe as an example, notes the popularity of rap artists like Drake and Lil Wayne, and outlines ideas for market research and audience feedback, which found most interest in artists and new rappers.

1. Task 5 Research into similar music magazines on which you could base your magazine. Map out possible ideas for your music magazine including names, possible musical genres and ideas for articles. My magazine is going to be based on the genre of ‘rap’; there are magazines out on the market which have already covered the rap genre such as ‘Vibe’ and is published by ‘inter media advisor’ LLC and above that Bloomberg owns it. Vibe is a Music magazine which is there for entertaining audiences, even though it shut down for production in the summer of 2008 LLC invested in it. Vibe covers the genre of ‘Hip Hop’ and ‘Rap’ Vibe was started by Quincy Jones, however the entrepreneurs of the magazine were Len Burnet and Keith Clinkscales. The magazine also does its own awards show and also done a best rapper alive tournament which ‘Eminem’ won. Later on if my magazine is well known I will be able to create tournaments such as this which will make the magazine known much more. For my music magazine I will need to find a publisher which doesn’t publish anything to do with the genre of ‘rap’, and the publisher Bauer will fit in perfectly. I want my rap magazine to have a name which is short but appealing, some of the ideas I had were Advocate, Kings, Debut. The magazine vibe has a short and snappy name which gets the audience attention and I don’t want to choose a name which has two words as it will take up most of my front cover and wont look as good . The possible music genres I wanted to do was rap/hip hop or Folk Rock but I have already made my decision that I am going to do a rap/hip hop magazine as there are only a few of them out in the market. As main task research and planning I have had a few ideas for my article, my first idea for the article was to base it on a new comer in the rap music industry, my other idea was to talk about a rap artists new album launch in Birmingham, this is the sort of articles I haven't seen in the Vibe magazine and by doing this I could get the audiences attention that the magazine is giving something new to them, the articles that vibe magazine use are such as interviews with artists, gossip of new stars, interview with legends etc.

2. Task 6 Choose musical genre/genres to feature in your magazine. Lists the names of bands/artists that are part of this genre, a brief history of the genre and the type of imagery associated with it. Lil Wayne The Game Drake Nicki Minaj Eminem Tupac Rihanna Rap

3. The genre that i want my magazine to feature is ‘rap’ or' hip hop’. The artists that feature in this genre are Drake , Rihanna, The Game and Eminem The Sugar hills Gang Rappers Delight in 1979 is widely held as the first rap single, but other artists followed such as grandmaster flash Africa Bambaata and Kool Herc. A host of small labels, such as Def Jam, sprang up to as Rap continued to diversify throughout the 80s. The most influential figure in 90s rap music was Dr Dre but also in the 90’s there was violence between east coast and west coasts stars Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG, who were rising stars in the industry. British rap got influenced and so solid crew was born in the late 90’s. Rap music was mainly associated for black people, but the biggest rap star in the industry is a white male Eminem. The type of imagery that is associated with rap and hip hop magazines, are close up shots of the artist and they always seem to have a serious face as you can see on the vibe front cover, the artist is making eye contact with audience and a close up shot has been used. The imagery used for the rap genre always makes the artists look ‘cool’ and ’gangster’ which would get the audiences attention.

4. Task 7 Another magazine which caters rap/hip-hop music is ‘the source’, it is not well known in the U.K as it is originated from the US, but the same big artists are on the front cover such as lil Wayne and The Game. The north star group publish ‘the source’ magazine and one other magazine named ‘Jones’. The CEO of ‘the north star group’ is a well known attorney named L.Londell McMillan, however I think that this publisher will not be appropriate for my magazine as it already has a rap/hip-hop magazine published and isn't that successful as it only publishes two magazines which in the global market is nothing compared to publishers such as ‘IPC’ and ‘Bauer’. The target audience the magazine caters for are mainly youngsters who are in the rap/hip-hop genre or generally people who listen to that sort of music. The other music magazine ‘the north group star’ publishes is JONES, which is a woman's magazine, which has a lot of gossip in, and the magazine ‘Jones’ is more successful than the magazine ‘the source’ which tells me that this published will not be right for my magazine.

5. Questionnaire Template Questionnaire Circle the answer A, B, C or D which you think is appropriate for the question 1)What is your Gender? A Male B Female 2)How often would you buy a Rap magazine? A Once a week B Once a month C Would not purchase one D Other ………………………. 3)What attracts you to a Rap magazine? A Music Reviews B Artists C Magazines reviews D Other …………………… 4)Do you listen to Rap music? A Yes B No C Sometimes D Not at all 5)Do you think the market for Rap magazine is already full? A Yes B No C A little bit D Not at all

6. 6)What age range do you think will purchase a Rap magazine? A below 14 B 15-17 C 18-26 D Other………. 7)What do you like to see on the magazine front cover of a Rap magazine? A Main image of a well known artist B Colourful C Mainly Black & white D Other …………. 8)Who is your favourite rap artist that you would like to see on a rap magazine? A Drake B Nicki Minaj C Lil Wayne D Other 9)How much would you like to hear about new rap artists in a ‘Rap magazine’? A Not a lot B Yes a fair amount C Not at all D other amount 10) How big of a readership would you expect the magazine to receive? A Small B Average C Large D None

7. Task 8 Audience Research As you can see the gender that will support the rap magazine most is male

8. Consumers would buy a rap magazine monthly which tells me that I should make a monthly one as it will have a bigger readership towards it

9. What attracts the audience to a rap magazine is mainly the ‘Artists’, which tells me that my magazine should show a lot of interest in rap artists

10. Majority of the readers do listen to rap music, and minority doesn’t which tells me that I am on the right track for designing a ‘rap’ genre magazine

11. Most people said the market for rap magazine is slightly full which tells me that I should make my magazine different to other rap magazines, because this will show to the audience that the ‘new magazine’ on the market is offering something different

12. This question helped me a lot as it told me that the majority age range that will purchase my magazine is 15-17, which tells me I should focus on that age group

13. Mainly people wanted to see the colour ‘black and white’, but the other majority also wanted to see a ‘main image of a well known artist’ , this tells me what my audience would like to see on the front cover and tells me that I should focus on a black and white front cover with a well known artist.

14. The favorite rap artist was ‘Drake’ but other artist weren't that far off (Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj)

15. This question helped me a lot as my main article could be about a new rap artist entering the industry, as my audience are interested in hearing this

16. My readership for my magazine is going to be ‘average’, which is fine as I am a new magazine in the industry and I can not expect a very large readership yet

17. Task 9: Audience research using qualitative methods such as focus groups Once interviewed my audience group I got back some additional information that the questionnaire didn’t provide me. I questioned two males and two females on what the magazine is missing and what I should include on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. Interview 1 What would you like to see on the front cover e.g. sell lines? For a Rap magazine there should be pugs which will get the readers attention and also sell lines of famous rap artists. Are there any other view points you want to share that you would like to see on a 'rap magazine' front cover? I would like to see less colour on the magazine, and what a close up shot of the artist as this makes the magazine more appealing and focuses on the face more as this sets the magazine scene Interview 2 How many images would you like to see on the contents page? I don't want to see that many images on the contents page as they will look squashed, I just want to see one or two images on the contents page and then see the text with page numbers along the side as this looks more professional Would you like the contents page to be colorful or black & white? I would like to see the contents page slightly colorful but not too much, as it will not look that appealing, as this will keep the readers attracted to the magazine when they open it on the contents page.

18. Task 9: Audience research using qualitative methods such as focus groups Interview 3 What sort of language should be used on the contents page? The language should be correspondent to the audience and should include sub titles such as 'interview with the best male rapper', language used should be more formal rather than informal as the audience attracted to the magazine are going to be in the C1 & C2 category Interview 4 would you prefer more image and less text or less images and more text? I would prefer more images and less text as more text tends to drift the audience away as it looks more like a book to read and the main audience are going to be in the 15-17 age range and they prefer less text and more images What sort of images should be used? The images on the double page spread should relate to the article, and should also relate to the front cover as most magazines front cover image is what there main double page spread is about. The image should also look serious and show that the artist has a separate 'swag' to the audience