Research

What this project is;
The concept is to create a brand for a rock music magazine focused on the North of England,
using social media to advertise the product as well as distribute it’s content, heavily relying on
photography. I’ve chosen this as it’s a subject that genuinely interests me and will allow me to
make a product that would benefit the target audience more than the main British music
magazines as it will focus on more niche community than the whole of the country. The
magazine will cover interviews, articles, gig reviews, tour dates and other relevant news from
artists and venues across the North. For the Instagram page I’m planning on making I want to
record an artists cover of a song, as it expands the content I’m making from print based to video
as well, whilst creating relevant content. Something I’m considering is taking the audio and
putting it onto a physical format that can be included as a free promotional item with the issue
of the magazine, as it’d allow me to take a similar part of last years project a step further.

Rock Sound – Social Media
Rock Sounds Instagram account is maybe one of the less professional examples
I’m looking at but where that comes from is that they’re not afraid to put
relatable and comedic content on their official page that they know their target
audience would enjoy, giving their followers another aspect of engagement that
you might not get with other magazines social media. This also works as there will
be other pages that upload memes based on the artists that the magazine
features, but by cornering that part of the social media market, a follower can get
all the different kinds of relevant content they might be seeking out on Instagram
from one page, rather than going somewhere else that’s competing for the views
and likes on the same style of content. As well as this content they do also include
the kind of thing that most would expect to find there, such as advertisements for
this months issue of the magazine, showing the cover and what the focus of the
issue is as well as teasing exclusive interviews. A consistent thing throughout the
page is showing off photography either from a live show or from the photoshoot
an artist had done for the issue. They will also cover any major news that has
occurred within the rock music industry that isn’t in their current issue but that
they feel needs to be addressed, such as a band returning to the scene, the death
of an artist or any important award show wins.

Rock Sound - Analytics
From the existing products that I'm looking at Rock Sound has the biggest Instagram following of
the three, which I believe is due to their target audiences age that makes them more likely to use
Instagram, as well as their choice to include brand relevant memes on their official page as it
something that a younger audience Is more likely to want to engage with.

Metal Hammer
The Metal Hammer cover is generally quite simple in comparison to most other
magazines you might find in a shop. They try to make their main image impactful, the
focus of the page with not much taking attention away from their photography. The
mast head tends to be behind the artist/band that they’re featuring due to their layout
being already quite recognizable with potential audience members that having the
masthead be front and centre isn’t that necessary for the brand to be expressed clearly.
The cover line is simple in displaying what the issue is featuring, giving a clear indication
of what the context is. They always back sure that whatever colour they use doesn’t
clash or interrupt the photography as it would make the cover confusing visually and
potentially make it seem less professional. As for their colour scheme they aren’t
dedicated to keeping the masthead one specific colour, allowing them to adapt it to suit
the photography in a more complimenting way. Typically the cover has a darker tone
with a featured colour that is usually in some way associated with the feature of the
issue, to make it more recognizable as something a reader might be interested in if they
are fans of the current artist.

Metal Hammer
This double page spread is based on asking the artist
questions that have been asked by fans on twitter,
ahead of the issues release. This is an interesting use
of social media as a way of connecting it to the
physical issue and could potentially be something that
I try to recreate in my project. The uniqueness of the
cover line is highlighted by how bold it is, as well as
filling in the layout as the small amount of text in the
article leaves a lot of empty space otherwise, making
the content more eye-catching to the reader. The
right side of the spread is a very professional image
taken during a photoshoot for the issue, a tab making
it clear what band the artist is from for readers who
may not be as familiar with the people involved
visually. They’ve included a pull quote that might be
considered slightly controversial to more engaged
fans, bringing more attention to the article.

Metal Hammer
This double page spread is dedicated to reviewing live
shows that have happened between the current issue
and the last that the magazine found relevant to send a
journalist to, to take pictures and be able to give a first
hand review of what their live performance is like
compared to their studio work. They’ve chosen to keep
the reviews relatively compact keeping them to a page
each that is mostly imagery as although readers might
want to know what the experience is like potentially
wanting to a show themselves, it’s hard to stay
interested in a piece of writing about an event you
didn’t attend. The typography layout is something I
really like on this page as it takes advantage of the
smaller amount of text to experiment with different
shapes that suit the photography in the best way.

Metal Hammer
On this page Metal Hammer says goodbye to Slayer as
they performed their final show on their farewell tour.
The image is great for the opening of this article as it
really captures the essence of the show and what the
band represented. The colour scheme around the page
matches the lighting from the stage, using the same
hues of red and blue for highlight colours in the text.
The start of the article is clearly not the main focus of
the spread, as they wanted the image to make an
impact, so the column is out of the way and not
disrupting the composition of the image. Something
that this page uses that the others haven’t is a drop
capital that I think I might want to use in my project as
it helps break up large chunks of text and adds
something extra to make the actual article itself more
eye-catching in comparison to a huge image.

Metal Hammer – Social Media
The metal hammer Instagram is much more concise in comparison to that of Rock
Sound, with a very well established upload style that makes it very clear to a follower
scrolling through their newsfeed what it is they’re looking at. The feed is mainly their
latest front cover, images taken from photoshoots, live performance videos taken by
their photographers at gigs and any important news about festivals or recent events
relevant to the bands and artists that they cover. Due to Metal Hammers audience
being typically much older and mature than that of Rock Sound, they’ve taken a much
more professional approach to what they post online, keeping an informative theme
throughout most of their posts and having a much darker colour scheme to give the
entire feed a certain aesthetic that is appropriate to the genre and that the audience
would respond to positively. In terms of what they have on their story highlights they
have some that are dedicated to bands that frequent their pages and are more likely
to be watched due to their high following, as well as ones that are there to promote
collaborations and deals with other companies to accommodate the business aspect.

Metal Hammer – Analytics
Out of the three magazines I'm looking at Metal Hammers Instagram following sits in the
middle, which when looking at each brands target audience age does make sense. With 191k
followers on their Instagram page to their 58k monthly readers is a pretty good ratio in terms of
outreach but still definitely falls towards the bottom end in relation to their competitors,
especially with an average of about 1,300 likes per post. I’m focusing on Instagram but the
audiences average age is really significant with Metal Hammers social media presence. It is a
very well known magazine in the rock community and it’s average reader age is reflected in
where it’s followers lie, as Instagram brings in 191k followers, Twitter with 549.8k and Facebook
with 2 million followers. With an average age of 34 it’s understandable how the majority of
followers will be coming from Facebook as it is typically used by an older audience for following
brands. Another aspect of their Instagram is the amount of relevant hashtags that they use on
their posts, with their newest issue posts having the most and posts that include a singular artist
only containing their hashtag, which then helps with outreach to users that are interested in
similar things that the magazine is covering.

Classic Rock
The classic rock cover has a much more common layout style, including a masthead,
main image, cover lines, blobs and a top banner. They tend to avoid very loud styling
in their covers, opting for a black and white image quite often or using muted
colours where there’s a bright image or vice versa. They’ve chosen a consistent and
complimenting colour scheme on this cover to highlight the black and white
photography. It’s made quite clear where the focus of the issue lies but also include
some of the smaller articles on the front cover to have a more widespread initial
interest to potential readers. Classic Rock isn’t devoted to having a white mast head
however they seem to prefer it over using colours that are linked to the features,
trying to keep their brand identity more consistent. I think in terms of fonts they
really prefer bolder styles that are quite common with the connotations of classic
rock as a louder genre of music that doesn’t want to be ignored, as well as giving an
indication to what kind of age range their audience is mostly likely to fall under.

Classic Rock
The first thing I notice about this spread is the colour
scheme and the positioning of where they’ve added the
stripped colour blocks to break up the large chunks of
white. Another thing that’s interesting on this spread is
that the middle split where the staples would be isn’t a
straight line, the image passes onto the right page to
make the article fit its space in a nicer way whilst still
giving the photography it’s own area to grab attention.
This is another thing I think I will try to implement in my
project on some of my spreads as it gives allows the
pages to flow in a nice way when there’s a
disproportionate amount of text with a large
photograph. I really like the text layout around the
images as its moved away from the typical columns that
someone would expect from a magazine and gives it
something unique.

Classic Rock
Classic Rock included a live show review from three
different bands that were celebrating their 30 year
album release date anniversaries in London's Shepard
Bush Empire. As these aren’t massively well known
bands they chose to include all three on one page,
taking the best photos from each show to create a
really interesting collage of highlights. I like the layout
and the attention to make sure that none of the images
would be distorted in a physical print copy. As for the
article they’ve taken different parts from their
interviews with all three bands to make sure that each
gets their fair share of the spread. i know I want to
include live show reviews in my project and I’m going to
experiment with this style of photography layout.

Survey Questions
1. How old are you?
2. What is your gender?
3. Where are you most likely to get information about music, bands, events and so on?
4. Out of Rock Sound, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock magazines, which would you find yourself most likely to interact with?
5. Do you think you get enough information from social media captions or is having a magazine that goes into more detail beneficial?
6. What kind of content would you like to see on a magazines social media?
7. What is a topic you would like to read about from a featured artist during an interview?
8. What kind of advertisements would you expect to find in a music magazine?
9. If a magazine was to be focused on the north of England, what kind of content would you like see specific to the region?

Question One
How old are you?
I was able to gather twenty three replies for my survey by reaching out to groups i knew had some level of interest in
the genre, posting the link in facebook groups for local music events and asking people to pass it along to anyone else
they thought might be able to give relevant insight to some aspects of this project. Although i wish i could have
gathered results from a wider age range, especially in the 35-54 range as that’s a considerable percent of the
audience members from the existing products i looked at, i am happy i managed to reach at least in part outside of
my own age group and the people you would find in college, as the desires in a product could potentially be very
different between a seventeen year old and a thirty seven year old. I did find that it’s much more difficult to get a
response from people that don’t know you, as the survey is taking time out of their day and they don’t see how it is
beneficial to them, which will also impact the age range i was able to get results from.
The biggest thing that the first question is able to tell me is where the different responses to later questions came
from. i am interested to see if there will be any answers that are very similar to one another despite the age
difference in the individuals.
There’s also the certain stereotype with younger rock fans as only being there to seem alternative and not having any
respect for the genre and its history from older members of the audience. The ideals of rock is that it prides itself on
authenticity and whilst i understand the frustration of someone pretending to like a certain genre or artist purely for
the connotations that come with it and not the actual music, it shouldn’t be so easy for older fans to assume that
teenagers don’t appreciate the music for what it is, making it much more discouraging for them to become fans of it,
and ultimately bringing rock closer to being a dead genre as the influx of new fans grows smaller and smaller due to
the age discrimination. I want to take suggestions from both ends of the age range i got responses from, making sure
that there will be something for anyone that might pick up the product. As for artists and how much they reach into
“classic rock”, i think that it’s important for music magazines to talk about the achievements and hard work of older
bands, as well as giving new artist a place in the spotlight where it’s deserved. There's many new bands that haven’t
reached their full potential due to some older listeners being very set in their ways when it comes to rock, having
found their favourite bands by a certain point in their lives or time, and failing to continue to discover any new acts
that might suit they’re listening style.
Another thing is that obviously for readers who are underage some advertisements might not apply as much, due to
what they are able to do, such as some festivals or shows might not be attainable because of distance, age
rating/appropriateness or price. So i will try to include advertisements that are suited for most adults, as well as
making sure that some of are under 18 friendly.

Question Two
What is your gender?
The gender results are pretty statistically accurate to what you would expect from fans of the rock genre, as it’s a male
dominated scene, so it makes sense that the majority of the people that saw my survey and though it applied to them or
were approached to take it due to their known interest were male. I’m glad I was able to collect data from female as I think
that there is a large prejudice towards women in rock that deems that they do not belong in the genre, and it will be useful
to see where replies to questions are very similar between men and women. There is one reply from someone who
labelled themselves as other, and although I wish I had managed to get more people from that group to take the survey, it
is again representative of the rock genre audience.
There was an influx of women trying to make themselves seen in rock during the 80’s and it was during that time that it
became more accepted to see a woman on stage. However, the men dominate the genre in a massive scale and there is
still a large portion of rock fans that deem themselves as “purists” who believe women have no place in rock as it’s not
“women’s music”, a comment i have received myself in the past, and is too violent for it to be appropriate for them to
listen to it, let alone perform it. The results of this question lead me to wanting to include more female artists in my
project, not so much that it’s the predominant gender in the magazine, but at the very least close to equal. I think that if I
was to focus primarily on women, the product would lose readership from males, especially of an older age as it would
likely be seen as a feministic attack on the genre. Rock historically isn’t something that focuses on being politically correct,
it’s a genre that thrives on the shock factor and being unabashedly true to itself. I think that it’s important to include
women in the magazine and make sure that they’re represented as it’s something that’s been devalued in the past, but I
want the product to make them seen as equal, not prioritising either gender in hopes of gaining a certain following.
An issue I have with the gender ratio in rock music is that a lot of the time in order for a female artist to be able to reach a
higher level of stardom, it has to be done by selling sex. You could the same article about a male and female artist online,
and the primary comments for the females interview will be about her appearance. What i really want to do is to make
sure that the female artists i include are there for their talent and stage presence, the things that should matter in rock
music or any genre for that matter, not for how well they are able to sell themselves to a male audience. Even if the artist
has had to sexulise themselves in order to to become a more prominent presence in the rock scene, if i was to include
their act i wouldn’t want to comment on their appearance because that’s not what should matter when you’re enjoying
someone's music.
The main point for me is to make sure that no matter what the artists i represent identify as, they are
there for their skill and hard work. I think something i want to consider for one of my interviews is a female
artist that has been sexualised despite not making an attempt to make that a core piece of their marketing,
and how that affects them and other women in the industry. I’ve written before about how the stigma
towards rock music especially in young people can affect mental health and i would want this to be along a
similar line.
As for the one result i got from someone who identified themselves as other, i think that if i’m trying to
make this magazine as inclusive as possible it would be worth trying to find someone who is in the rock
community and having them sit down for an interview in how they feel they are represented and
potentially what experiences they’ve had, positive or negative.
Overall the people who claim to be the purist rock fans that don’t feel like anything that goes against their
version of the community doesn’t belong there, are actually going against what rock fundamentally stands
for, which is authenticity and talent. Being an authentic artist has been a constant theme in acts that have
risen to the top, and having to change yourself and your performance to suit the expectations of anyone
shouldn’t be what it’s about.

Question Three
Where are you most likely to get information about music, bands, events and so on?
I asked this question kind of expecting the answer i was going to get, knowing that we are moving into a more digital age and that print was becoming less popular. The largest percentage came from social
media or another internet source, which tells me that the social media account im going to be making for my publication is going to have to be something i really focus on, ensuring that the content is relevant,
informative and entertaining, as well as making sure that there is a consistency to advertising the magazine to the followers. If i am able to gather an interest in the page it will allow me to interact with the
audience directly, finding out what kind of content they would like to see or what they might feel is missing from the publication they typically purchase.
One of the existing products i looked at showed a twitter interview, where Metal Hammer asked it’s followers on twitter what questions they have for one of the artists they were featuring in the next issue, and
were able to pick out the ones they thought were the most interesting. The questions they picked out were attached to the followers username, which meant that if they wanted to find out the answer they
would have to buy the article. I think that this is a really nice way of merging the online and physical content together and getting the two to interact. It also means that for me having to write all the copies for
every article will be made a slightly easier job, as i would be receiving suggestions for the contents of the interviews and articles. Other things i could ask the audience directly is which bands they think should
be featured and why, article topics with different artists, any shows they think would be worth attending and reviewing. The best way to make sure you’re giving your audience what they want is to ask them.
Other than social media the highest response was another internet source, which could potentially mean a newsletter or email subscription that gives the reader the specific kind of news that they want to
consume, filtering out all the things that might be relevant to them individually. I don’t know if this is something that i would be
Able to include in my project as of now but i think it might be worth looking at during planning. It means that the readers who might
Not have a social media account or don’t want their feeds filled with the publications posts can still be kept informed, potentially
Meaning that when they receive a notification about a topic that interests them they are more likely to visit the social media page or
Purchase the relevant issue.
Word of mouth is one i find interesting because for information to circulate between people someone must have found out about it
From somewhere, suggesting that it’s the articles and content that are the most current and important at the time that make their
Way around through people. I think this could be a way of using social media to increase the distribution of the magazine, posting
About brand exclusive content online but not including the details, so that for that first person to spread the content through word
Of mouth they would have to have the physical copy of the magazine.
The responses to the physical magazines, purchased or free, where the least common, which i think means getting creative with
Ideas as to how to get someone to get a hold of a copy, and to continue doing so. Something i remember from when i used to buy
Issues of kerrang on a weekly basis, is that they would feature a page over a period of time, let's say two and a half months so ten
Issues, that would give the reader a Kerrang logo specific to the issue of the week and something to keep track of them on, for them
To cut out of the issue. The idea was that if you collected, i can’t quite remember so lets say seven out of the ten weeks logos, you
Could send your logos to kerrang and receive merchandise of your choice from a number of included bands. This would encourage
Readers to continue buying consecutive issues in order to get merch of a slightly higher value. I think something like this would be
A really useful way of getting people to engage with the issues and getting a consistent readership for a span of time.

Question Four
Out of Rock Sound, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock magazines, which would you find
yourself most likely to interact with?

Question Five
Do you think you get enough information from social media captions or is having a
magazine that goes into more detail beneficial?

Question Six
What kind of content would you like to see on a magazines social media?

Question Seven
What is a topic you would like to read about from a featured artist during an
interview?

Question Eight
What kind of advertisements would you expect to find in a music magazine?
Else and giving them a platform to find new customers.
Targeted advertising from outside sources that the reader could be interested in (genre centred bar nights, tattoo studios, stores with
relevant merchandise) was next in terms of interest. I think that this would be really beneficial as it’s not directly linked to the music
itself but allows readers to find out more about the overall culture and communities around them, potentially leading to a long term
interest and consumership. Being able to go to somewhere like a tattoo shop that not only provides the service you want but is also
suited to your personal style and comfort zone, whether that’s through the staff, the music they play or just the decoration, can make
any experience a much better, personal one that i think many people would be glad to see included. It also provides a way of
discovering small businesses in the area and allowing them to get a much larger customer base through widespread advertisement.
Merchandise from a specific artist was also quite popular and i think that a big part of really getting involved in a culture and
community is by expressing outwards it in your day to day life. It can be hard to find people who share the similar tastes as you but that
can be made much easier when people are aware of the merchandise they can buy to show off their personal style. It’s also a good way
to bring potential income into a publication as deals can be made to receive a percentage of sales for as long as the issue is current.
Merchandise that has been popular/trending since the last issue was the least popular and i think that comes from rock fans knowing
what they want and not being as interested in trends that don’t apply to the artists they listen to personally. It’s a common gripe that
people have when someone wears the merchandise of a band purely for the appearance, especially with older bands and with rock
being heavily focused on authenticity it isn’t as popular of an advertising preference.
I wasn’t able to collect any responses for the other option, which could mean that i managed to cover all the bases with my five options
or just that they couldn’t think of something that they would typically be compelled to follow when seeing advertisements.
The results of this question i think are really valuable as it makes it clear what the audience wants to see, as well as suggesting some potential topics for articles throughout the issue. What’s going to make this
much easier is the fact that i'm focusing on the north of england so it allows the pool of potential advertisements i have to look through to be much smaller and means i can really target it at the niche market.
The most popular reply i got was events/festivals for a specific artist, which gives the opportunity to tie in an article alongside it, as i could interview the artist/band that are touring ahead of or during the issue
about their new music and what expectations they have whilst on the road, and give them some space to advertise the venues they’ll be playing in the North of the UK and any other events they’re involved in.
Events/Festivals for a specific venue was the next most popular response which would be a good way to highlight not only more well known venues and their rock events like the O2 but also finding some smaller
cities that won’t have as much space for big concerts such as York. I think dedicated a couple pages to this will be an informative way of getting people aware of what there is in their own cities and what else
there might be further out. The idea is to make sure people are aware of what there is for them to do that captures their interests as some places don’t advertise rock events as much and it can be hard to find
something in a city without a big music scene. I know it’ll mean looking for some really unique venues that you just can’t find anywhere

Question Nine
If a magazine was to be focused on the north of England, what kind of content would you like
see specific to the region?
Response One - “Venues in that city or town”
I think that this is definitely something that I will be including, picking out popular venues in major cities across the north of England and including what acts
they have playing in the following months that are relevant to the genres the magazine is covering. Besides venues I will also try to find places that have
something like a rock/metal night during the week that might interest some audience members. This will be a type of targeted advertising that will
hopefully be considered useful and informative by the readers. In terms of placement I think towards the back of the magazine will be the most suitable as
that is typically where they could be found in a print product.

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