The author learned many important lessons from creating a preliminary school magazine task compared to their full music magazine product. For the preliminary task, the author used basic Photoshop tools without considering audience, consistency, or magazine conventions. However, through research and feedback, the author learned about consistency of style, following industry conventions like mastheads and taglines, and tailoring content to their target audience. Audience research especially helped the author understand preferred music consumption methods and what readers wanted to see on the magazine cover. Applying these lessons, the author was able to create a more polished and audience-focused final music magazine product.

1. Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progressions from it to the full product?

2. Looking back at the preliminary task I have learnt so much in the
progression of the full product, particularly the key conventions
of a music magazine. My preliminary task, a school magazine,
was highly basic and I only used the simple Photoshop tools
such as inserting text and simply cropping images. Also the
images I used were of a much lower quality and didn’t follow
the simple conventions of even mid close up. I have learnt about
what is needed, specific conventions, to make a magazine stand
out to a certain audience. My school magazine was not
consistent, I now know that consistency in colour schemes, font,
text, topics etc is vital in making the magazine look professional.

3. Also I have learnt a lot more about how important audience is and
how certain media institutions actually manipulate their products
to attract certain audiences rather than just make it and hope. I
now understand different genres and styles and how differently
they are portrayed. When making a magazine you need to
consider the audience, the text, what institutions you would
attract, the conventions you need to follow etc. It is not as
simple as just adding texts and images to a page. All magazines
need certain conventions; masthead, storylines, tagline, puff, in
house trademark, main image etc.

4. Gender
Male 9 60%
Female 6 40 %
^ This told me that the males and females that would listen
to my music is reasonably equal and therefore I wasn’t
going to make it a gender specific magazine. I learnt this
also from the preliminary task, I made the colour scheme
and task a little too basic and therefore I needed to make it
elaborate yet still not gender specific.
Audience Research results: (For my preliminary task I did no audience research
which for the full product I realised was necessary)
How do you consume music?
Phone11 73%
Radio 2 13%
IPod (ITunes) 8 53%
You tube 8 53%
Other Music sites 4 27%
CDs 3 20%
Other2 13%
^ From my audience research I also learnt a lot of ways in
which people actually consume music. This helped me
when thinking about advertisement I could use for my full
product, for example advertising apple I pods. Also the fact
I needed to consider multiple consumer preferences, for my
preliminary task the content was focused too much on a
certain style and therefore did not meet audiences needs.

5. What do you think should be on the front cover of a
music magazine?
Music Artists 14 93%
Upcoming Music Concerts/ Festivals
6 40%
New Albums 5 33%
Main Stories 9 60%
ITunes/ Downloads 1 7%
Different Music Gadgets 1 7%
Offers/competitions 5 33%
Other0 0%
I also took into consideration what people would want on
the front cover of the music magazine, before for the
preliminary task I did no audience research and therefore
wasn’t sure what was best for my front cover. My results
show that artists were most popular and needed, also
upcoming concerts and festivals which I used in media
product. I also included Main stories and Competitions in
my piece.
What colour schemes would you like to see in a music
magazine?
Black, White and Red 13 87%
Black and Neon 5 33%
Green and Blue 1 7%
Yellow and Purple0 0%
Pink and White 1 7%
Neon 0 0%
Reds and Browns 0 0%
Other1 7%
Again I took into consideration audience research when
making my music magazine. Black and white I have used
consistently throughout my magazine with the occasional
blue and red, and neon colours which as the results show
were the most popular of choices. For my preliminary task
I did not use a colour scheme and therefore when seeing
the finished product I realised that it was needed.

6. I now have developed my knowledge and understanding on many
conventions and aspects through out the process of making my
media product…
• The advantages of using a digital SLR camera over a phone camera
• A developed understanding of photoshop
• Expanded knowledge on certain programs: blogger, slide share, imovie,
soundcloud etc.
• Learnt how to use a blog- update post, embedded slide share pots, creating
pages etc.
• Learnt the typical conventions needed in a music magazine and any
magazine
• The need for clarity and consistency
• Considering audiences and institutions (distributers) when making the
product