The Uses and Gratification Theory suggests that media consumers play an active role in choosing media to fulfill their needs. The theory identifies four main needs that drive media consumption: diversion or escape, personal identity, personal relationships, and understanding the social world. The document then provides examples of how these needs can be fulfilled by magazines, such as using music magazines for diversion, learning about celebrities to explore personal identity, staying connected with music news and gossip to build relationships, and keeping up with current events through reviews and articles.

1. Uses and Gratification Theory
The uses and gratification theory suggests that consumers and prosumers (audience) play
active roles in choosing and using the media we consume. The theory says that a consumer
seeks out the media sources that best cover the needs of the consumer.
According to McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) the consumers has 4 needs:
-Diversion
-Personal Identity
-Personal Relationships
-Surveillance
Diversion:
A change from every day life, an escape and something to relax to.
Personal Identity:
Using media to explore yourself, maybe by someone you can relate to or is presented and
sounds like you/what you relate to.
Personal Relationships:
To form a relationship, be part of a social group.
Surveillance:
Using the media to find out what's going on in the world around us.

2. Applying to magazines
Diversion:
A magazine like METAL HAMMER is good to sit
back and relax with and have a calm time of
reading, and helps you escape from everything
around you.
Personal Identity:
In magazines such as METAL HAMMER they offer
articles, and with some of these articles you will
relate to what is being said or to the person, the
letter from the editor also.
Personal Relationships:
A magazine like METAL HAMMER has all the up
to date news so you can stay on top of the gossip
with your friends.
Surveillance:
METAL HAMMER helps us get the insight into the
latest news in our music celebrities lives and
what they’ve been up to with reviews.

3. Research into Magazine
Institutions/Companies
IPC Media produce over 60 iconic media
brands, their prints alone reach almost two thirds
of women in the UK and 42% of men men in the
UK – making almost 26 million UK adults – while
their websites in total reach over 20 million users
every month (Omniture).
Emap specializes in the ‘b2b’ (business to business)
publishing space. It has publications for a variety of
genres and these are quite different and contain detailed
content relating to an industry, such as nursing, retail and
media. By having this a wide audience is attracted
through magazines and on-line versions, including rss
feeds.
Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately
owned publishing group. The Bauer Publishing Kerrang
Group is a worldwide media empire with over
230 magazines in 15 countries. They also
feature heavily online, TV and a wide range of
radio stations.

4. NME Smash Hits Kerrang
(Mainstream) (Mainstream) (Niche)

5. Ideal Publisher
Future PLC
Future, is an independent company with a
portfolio of magazines aimed at niche market
sectors.
“We base everything we do on enthusiasts
who are passionate about their interests.”
Future PLC are my ideal publisher, they run
METAL HAMMER magazine, and are perfectly
made to fulfil niche markets. As they’re used
to dealing with smaller markets it’s easier to
give the consumers what they want.

6. Questionnaire
What type of music do you listen to?
1) Metal/Hard Rock iiii
2) Mainstream iiii What do you expect from a music magazine?
3) Dubstep, Drum & Bass, etc. iiiiiii 1) Interviews iiiiiiii
4) Country i 2) Release Reviews iiiiiii
5) Classical i 3) Gig Guide/Reviews iiiiiii
6) D’n’B/ Hip Hop iiiiii 4) Festival Reviews/News iiiiiii
6) Other iii 5) Other iiii
How do you prefer to listen to your music?
What price would you pay for a music magazine?
1) Radio iiii
1) > £1 ii
2) TV/Music Channel ii
2) £1 - £3 iiiiiii
3) Itunes iiiiiii
3) £3 - £5 iiiii
4) Spotify ii
4) < £5 i
5) Personal device: MP3/Ipod/Mobile iiiiiiiiii
Which of these would you prefer to read? What tribe are you? (Findyourtribe.co.uk)
1) Kerrang iii
2) METAL HAMMER ii
3) NME iiii
4) Rolling Stone iii
5) Q iii
6) Other iii
Which of these would you first look at
before purchasing a magazine?
1) Free Cd’s, Posters etc. iiiiiiii
2) Front cover image iiiiiii
3) Special Edition ii
4) I purchase a music magazine regularly iii

7. What type of music do you listen to?
Results These results show that
Dubstep, Drum & Bass
Metal/Hard etc. was the most
Rock popular music choice.
12% 17% Mainstream Although as I let this
question be multiple
21% Dubstep, Drum option, while collecting
17% my results I found that a
& Bass, etc.
lot of people that chose
Country
this option chose
4%
29% Metal/Hard Rock as
0% Classical well, the third most
popular choice.

8. How do you prefer to listen to your
music?
This question had a clear
answer of Personal
Results Devices being peoples
Radio favourite choice for
listening, this shows
17% TV/Music people only want to hear
4% Channel the music they like, and
42% suits my magazine as I
Itunes want it to be genre
specific, and not have
Spotify genres that my readers
29%
don’t like. Itunes is also
8% Personal Device another big choice, which
again like Personal
devices allows a
personally controlled
playlist.

9. Which of these would you prefer to
read?
This question didn’t give
Results a very clear answer
seeing as all the answers
were pretty similar apart
from Q and Rolling Stone
Kerrang being the clear least
23% 23%
METAL HAMMER favourites, Kerrang and
NME NME came top, one
8% being Niche and one
Rolling Stone
15% being Mainstream shows
8% Q me that there would be
Other people interested in
23% Metal magazines, with
Kerrang and METAL
HAMMER together being
the biggest portion of the
results and both covering
the same genre.

10. Which of these would you first look at
before purchasing a magazine?
This question gave a very
Results clear result that people
like freebies in their
magazines, CDs being a
Free CDs, Posters special give away but
18% etc. posters a regular
Front cover Image thing, such as Kerrang
9% 46% giving away posters
Special Edition every week, and it
especially appeals to a
Metal fan base. This also
27% Regularly Purchase
shows that the front
music mag
cover image is another
important selling
point, and captures
attention, and can judge
whether or not a person
will take a second look
or buy.

11. What do you expect from a music
magazine?
Results The results to this question
Interviews came out pretty
similar, interviews on top
12% showing that people favour
Release interviews the most, but the
25%
Reviews fact that they are so similar
22% Gig shows that you can’t define
Guide/Reviews one important one, all of
Festival them are favoured and
22%
Reviews/News necessary to please
19% consumers and make a
Other
magazine with information
people will pay the price for.

12. What price would you pay for a music
magazine?
Results
This question showed that
most people would rather pay
7% 13% the price of £1 to £3 for their
music magazine
> £1 preferably, but coming in a
33% £1-£3 close second is £3 to £5
£3-£5 showing that people will pay
more for what they want, and
< £5
47% if it fits their consumer
wants, so a guideline of £1 to
£5 would be accurate and
would depend on production
costs.

13. What tribe are you? (Findyourtribe.co.uk)
The top results were Mosher
Results and Clubber, so fits my first
question quite well with
Mosher Metal and Dubstep, Drum &
5% Bass etc. being the two of
20% Emo
15% the most popular choices.
Indie Scenester
The fact that Mosher was
Clubber one of the top results shows
5% 5% Scene Kid a promising target audience
5% Townie for my magazine, and Scene
15% Indie Kid and Emo fit into the
10%
Rah Metal genre. Although a lot
20% Trendie of the people that did this
test for me, didn’t feel that
they fitted into the type that
was given to them.

14. My Find your tribe result, it fits my personal
taste, although not sure about the description, and fits
the target audience I am aiming for.

15. Target Audience Evaluation
From this research I have learnt more of what people want and expect from a
music magazine, and seen how successful Niche Metal/Hard Rock magazines
such as METAL HAMMER and Kerrang, have already applied these things to their
magazine.
By doing this questionnaire and finding out what people expect from a
magazine, it’s helped me to further realise what my magazine needs to be
successful, and has helped me to notice these things in magazines that I look at
and how they’ve applied conventions.