The document summarizes the results of a survey about music magazine preferences conducted by a student to help design their own music magazine for an indie target audience. The survey found that: - Respondents were mostly aged 16-25, fitting the target audience. - Responses were split on buying music magazines, but most read them online. - Black, white, grey, blue and red were the most expected magazine colors. - Respondents preferred a mix of articles and photos in magazines. - Exclusive interviews and new music info were the top reasons to buy magazines. - Advertisements and competitions were not as important to the audience.

1. How old are you? (Tick one) Here you can see that the majority of the people who answered my questionnaire were between the ages 16 and 25 – this is a good thing because this is the age group of my target audience and I can use the information I have gathered to create a magazine which is suitable for my target audience. However, having the opinion of people who are 26 and above is a good thing because it gives me a thorough understanding of other audiences.

2. Do you buy music magazines? (Tick one) Asking my participants this question meant that I could truly understand how much of my audience actually bought music magazines and who didn’t. As you can see from the pie chart, the responses are almost equally split, although most people said ‘No’. I asked some of the participants who said no, and they told me that they kept up with their favourite music magazines online – this is something to consider when creating my own magazine. I need to make it as appealing as possible so that target audiences will want to buy my magazine.

3. What colours do you typically expect to see in an Indie music magazine? (Tick three) There are five distinct colours that my participants have chosen here, black, white, grey, blue and red. From this I can take into account which colours I should use the most in my own magazine so that I can ensure my magazine fits in typically with other magazines of it’s kind. Knowing which colour schemes to follow is important so that my target audience can easily identify with my magazine and know that it is an Indie magazine, simply by looking at it and spotting the typical codes and conventions. These colours are very minimalistic and easy to use and apply to a magazine.

4. What do you prefer to see more of in a music magazine? (Tick one) From asking this question, I can gain a clearer understanding of what my target audiences likes to see in an Indie magazine and clearly, you can see that most of the participants decided that they liked to see a mixture of both magazines and articles in a music magazine – this allows me to ensure that I include a mixture of both in my magazine. When taking the double page spread into account, I now need to make sure that there is an equal balance between the amount of text and the images I use so that my target audience can enjoy my magazine.

5. What are the main reasons you buy music magazines? (Tick two) It is clear from these results that the vast majority of my target audience like to see exclusive interviews in a music magazine and so this is something for me to consider when creating my double page spread. If my target audience like exclusive interviews, then I should take this into account when creating my double page spread – I can make my double spread an interview, which is conventional of a music magazine to do so anyway. However, this doesn’t mean that I should ignore the other things that my audience like to see in an Indie music magazine, and I will try to input as much as I can onto my front cover and contents page.

6. Do you like music magazines to include competitions for you to enter? (Tick one) The majority of the people who answered the questionnaire said no to this question, as you can see on the right. I should try not to include a lot of competitions in my magazine because it is clear that the majority of my target audience do no like them – I should focus on including more of the things they do like.

7. Do you like the number of advertisements in a music magazine to be limited? (Tick one) The vast majority of my target audience do not mind having advertisements in the magazine. This is probably because advertisements are included on the last few pages of a magazine and they go unnoticed so this is not something I necessarily have to worry about in terms of my magazine, but the information is useful nonetheless.

8. What attracts you most on the front cover of a magazine? (Tick one) As you can see, the main image is generally what attracts audiences to the front cover of a magazine and so I need to make sure that the main image on my front cover is one which stands out and draws readers in so that they are made to want to buy it and read it. The front cover is the main selling point of a magazine because it is what readers see first I must make sure that the main image on my front cover stands out.

9. 20% chose this masthead 15% chose this masthead 50% chose this masthead 15% chose this masthead

10. How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine? When considering how much IPC Media and Bauer Media magazines cost, the majority of my target audience hit the average price range. I plan to input the price of the magazine on the front cover and aimed to have it in the £1.50 - £2.49 price range.