Specific Identification of Readership Profile- PLANNING

Readership Profile (target audience)

My main target audience for my music magazine will be aimed at both genders between the ages of 15-25. In terms of income, there will be younger individuals (aged 15-19) who will earn a small/low disposable income- this may be from either a part time job or allowance received from their parents which they will spend on the latest music tracks (iTunes/CD's) music magazines and gigs of a small scale/local unsigned music events. The slightly older individuals (20-25) are beginning to enter 'adulthood' meaning they're entering full time work/established employment (and would have either completed a university course in art and design, fashion textiles or a course related to creative media). This also means they're either showing a particular interest in moving out of their family home or have already done so. Their disposable income will be higher than the 15-18 year olds due to being in full time employment - in terms of demographics they would fall into the A, B and C1 category suggesting they're affluent/heading in that direction. My target audience will consist of individuals who share a passion for music but in alternative, distinctive styles- they are huge fans of indie/indie rock and obtain a lifestyle devoted to their love for music - this includes attending gigs, festivals and concerts.

 My mood board reflects the type of teen/young adult I will aim to appeal to within my target audience- I have paid particular attention to fashion and festival life. The reason I pay close attention to fashion is purely because these individuals are incredibly fashion conscious in the respect that they want to look unique/stand out in a crowd; these people don't want to wear mainstream trends, they want individuality. I have deliberately featured the Topshop, Topman and River Island logos to emphasise this target audience's interest in fashion, they won't buy from cheaper brands/stores such as New Look purely because everyone else is wearing the same. The aspect of festival life demonstrates how their passion for music can be fulfilled in a positive atmosphere with amazing vibes. The text "I can't go a day without listening to music" emphasises their penchant for the music world and the music itself. I feel the target audience as a whole can make emotional links to song lyrics in the sense that they can become relatable to social situations or relationships.

Willow Oakley, 18

Willow is an eighteen year old sixth form student; studying art and design, media studies, textiles and English Literature. She’s keen on fashion and is always seeking out quirky yet individual trends. Her spare time is spent battling her never-ending heavy workload, shopping in retail/high-street stores with the likes of H&M, Topshop, River Island and occasionally Urban Outfitters when she has saved up enough money for a day out into London, getting there via the tube (public transport), with a few of her close friends. Willow works part-time in a coffee shop earning £6.20 an hour- on her breaks she quenches her thirst with a cuppa (one sugar) whilst reading magazines like Kerrang, imr and Q to keep herself up to date on new upcoming artists and also what's going on in the music world/industry. Willow would easily choose music artists with a distinctive style over a more popular artist such as Rihanna or Beyoncé. Her favourite music genre is indie(alternative)/indie rock. Willow prefers to arrange a social gathering in a coffee shop such as Costa then get absolutely paraletic at a house party which gets broken up by the police due to ‘noise complaints’. Willow is on several social media sites- Instagram, where she shares pictures of her and her friends at various gigs/concerts, Twitter, where she embraces the opportunity to voice opinions/follow her favourite celebrities/artists such as Bowling for Soup band members and Artic Monkeys and Facebook, where she shares links of YouTube videos of her favourite songs and keeps in touch with family members who live abroad and also long-distance friends she met whilst holidaying with her mum, dad and younger brother in Mexico, Barley, Thailand, Africa, Costa Rica,  etc. Willow is well travelled and due to this has a penchant/passion for culture. Willow isn't much of a fan of partying and consuming unhealthy amounts of alcohol but will happily attend Reading Festival and Truck religiously with a close group of friends- seeing both upcoming artists and well established, popular artists such as Jake Bugg. With regards to psychographics I feel Willow would be considered an 'explorer' due to the simple fact she is still a student- but also because she has experience with travel and a penchant for culture; also being hungry for adventure. Willow is an explorer in the sense that her individuality allows her to be the first to try new products/new brands which fuels her social currencies. I also consider Willow an 'aspirer' because she is materialistic, acquisitive and oriented to extrinsics. She has charisma, persona and fashion. In terms of items that Willow purchases or orders off the internet attractive packaging is more important than the quality of the contents. To her, presentation is key.

Aiden Flynn, 22

Aiden is a 22 year old male originally from Oxford. He finished an art and design course at Oxford Brookes University 5 months ago and is now working as an animator in London. Aiden has lived in his new apartment for 3 months with long term girlfriend Thea, who he met whilst in sixth form. Aiden moved out of his family home officially after finishing university and began permanent employment.  Aiden is within the A and B demographic as he is a professional and would earn between £35,000 and £100,000 a year.  Despite having a newfound busy career, Aiden will still make time to feed his music obsession by attending concerts with mates who share the same music taste. After a long day at work Aiden will crash on his black leather sofa, switch his 52" flat screen TV on, crack open a can of beer and relax as he becomes engrossed in music magazines that he has been buying since his teenage years, keen to keep "in touch" with the latest music news and upcoming artists. He reads music magazines like Kerrang, The Wire, Q and many more. Aiden is incredibly interested in fashion, wanting to look "dapper" when he goes to work but then again wants to tone his look down when out with mates. He shops in Topman, Aiden has attended Reading Festival for 4 years to see bands/artists like Artic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Bon Iver, The Kooks and Mumford and Sons. Aiden's passion for music plays a great role in his dress sense- wearing patterns and a mixture of colour. Aiden has an iMac, iPod, iPad and is incredibly 'clued up' in terms of technology, using it to stay in touch with friends and also to access sites such as YouTube and Spotify.  In terms of psychographics Aiden is considered a 'succeeder' meaning he has strong goal orientation, confidence, a great work ethic and organisational skills. He has stability within employment. His brand choice (when purchasing) would be based on reward, prestige - the very best. I would also label Aiden as an 'explorer' due to having strong energy and experience, welcoming challenge. Aiden would also be a 'reformer' because he has freedom from restriction, personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring.

Due to having a slightly broad target audience (ages 15-25) I felt it appropriate to go into detail of a younger member/example (Willow Oakley) and also an older member/example (Aiden Flynn) of individuals my music magazine will be aimed at whilst having psychographics and demographics in mind.

Initial Ideas AND FINAL IDEA- PLANNING

Brainstorming ideas:

Idea One

 

My first idea is based on a fashion music magazine with the music genre being based heavily around pop (chart music). This music magazine would be aimed at females from 15-25. I feel this idea (particularly the fashion aspect) for a music magazine would be proven to be aspirational toward young female readers who want to stand out as being different or keep up with the latest trends. On the front cover I would either display a male model or a female model- my reasons for displaying a male model would be because it would create female appeal, making the magazine a lot more appealing visually. A male model on the front cover who is advertising the feature article would entice female readers to want to know more due to the fact that they may find him attractive etc. My idea of displaying a female model however is an entirely different concept; I feel because this magazine would be aimed more towards fashion within the music industry displaying the dominant image as a woman in a longshot type of camera shot would a) allow her clothing to be fully seen by readers clearly, without difficulty and b) readers may find her aspirational due to her fashion sense which would make the magazine as a whole a success because of it's underlining aim to educate readers in music and fashion in an intriguing and fun way.

Idea two

My second idea is to have an indie/alternative music magazine genre. I will aim this music magazine at both genders from 15-25 with a colour scheme/palette consisting of purples, reds, blacks and whites which appeal to both sexes and wouldn't look either too feminine or too masculine. In terms of mise-en-scene, the models would be dressed in a very unique way with quirky yet fashionable, appealing clothing. The individual style would contribute to the indie/alternative music genre which would result in the perfect image for the music magazine.

Idea three



My last idea is a rock magazine- aiming at males from 15-30 with a colour scheme/palette consisting of red, white and black which are all very masculine and therefore appealing to males. I would have an attractive female model on the front cover who is perhaps a solo artist within the rock music genre or part of a band - for example, Taylor Momsen is a rock music artist in a band called 'The Pretty Reckless' but whenever they have a feature article within a music magazine, for example the magazine "Revolver" (which I'm pretty sure is an American magazine) Taylor is always the dominant image on the front cover to advertise. With this in mind, I feel male appeal would be created by having a really rebellious, attractive female model on the front cover. 

Final Idea

I have chosen to create a music magazine based on elements of my second idea of my initial ideas. I have concluded my genre for my music magazine is going to be 'Indie Rock'. My target audience will be for both male and female individuals between the ages 15-25. My target audience will either earn a disposable income- on their way to becoming quite affluent as a young adult, or having a limited amount of money due to an allowance from parents or part time job whilst still in education. My readers will be individuals who will spend money on fashion, CDs, makeup, instruments such as guitars and will attend festivals religiously, such as Reading Festival and Truck. My target audience will be fashion conscious, but enjoy standing out as being unique in what they wear with their alternative fashions. The older part of my target audience would have attended a college or uni in a creative subject in relation to arts, the media or graphic design. They will be academic individuals but know how to let their hair down to have fun. My target audience will enjoy reading a music magazine to seek out upcoming artists to fuel their social currencies, where solo artists and bands of particular genres are discussed as a matter of importance. They will enjoy reading a music magazine to take time out of their busy lifestyles or workload, looking for aspirational qualities within alternative artists featured in magazines. They will be interested in magazines that include interviews that are on more of a personal level to allow them to be able to relate to artists which in turn makes them feel a lot more involved and connected with the artists in the magazine. My target audience typically have an interest in artists who have an alternative/unique fashion sense to gain inspiration for their original looks.

What Audiences want from a Music Magazine- MARKET RESEARCH

  Market Research

Myself and friend Melissa concluded questioning members of our class (who are of similar/close age groups that would eventually become our target audience) about what music genre's they liked and disliked, what artist's they liked and disliked etc. Investing time into market research would assist the production of our music magazines and would be an incredibly beneficial activity; this is because we would receive feedback that would give us a clear idea of what members of our age group want from a magazine – from a certain genre to a variety of artists, from what they would prefer out of the choice of more text or more images and so on.

For our first element of Market Research we decided to identify what types of music genre's appeal to members of our age group (above) - who will eventually become our target audience when creating a magazine front cover. According to the chart, indie/alternative was without doubt noted to be the most favoured music genre, with around 51% of the people questioned favouring this genre. In addition to this, heavy metal was largely disliked by the majority of the target audience, with around 64% opting for this genre to be their most disliked. From the results of this section of my market research I feel creating a unique, experimental front cover would appeal much more to my target audience/readers who are fans of an indie (individual) style. 



For the second part of our market research we viewed asking what members of our target audience’s favourite artists are as a priority. I found it incredibly interesting how majority of people asked about their favourite music genre selected indie/alternative but when asked about their favourite artist chose either a band or solo artist that fell into the “pop” music genre.
 

One direction is very much in the ‘pop’ music category, which is the artist most frequently selected by my target audience as their least favourite artist. Justin Bieber, also in the ‘pop’ music genre, had the second most “least favourites artists”. Considering both of these artists are in the pop music genre I feel discouraged to use this genre for my music magazine as the genre (as a whole) doesn’t seem as popular as I thought it would be – it has become quite apparent that a large number of people my age are more likely to be listening to indie/alternative bands such as Mumford and Sons as opposed to a solo pop artist like Rihanna.

By this chart solo artists are clearly considered the favourite by members of my age group; which is incredibly intriguing as the “indie/alternative” music genre was the most favoured as a genre – this interests me because indie/alternative music is mostly made up of bands, you rarely get solo artists who fall into the indie/alternative category.

This pie chart simply shows whether members of our potential target audience buy magazines or not, with the added bonus of what magazines people buy, and whether they're male or female. I feel finding out whether these individuals are either male or female could link to why they like certain magazines- the colour scheme/palette? The music genre? Etc. I feel this can assist me when designing and planning my house style for my own magazine.

This chart is concerned with colours that would catch certain individuals attention. Made obvious from the chart, red, pastel colours and neon colours were the top three most popular options, leaving blue, white and pink to be less popular.

This chart shows that red was the most popular colour option with a fairly balanced percentage of male and female participants - although red is mainly recognised as a masculine colour I feel this aspect of my market research could justify my choice of using red within my colour scheme/palette of my magazine. Red is also eye-catching and would entice readers to the magazine, attracting them to look at certain cover lines on the front cover and to then go on to read articles etc.

This pie chart shows that my target audience is mostly interested in the newest artists - this means that they would read music magazines frequently seeking new artists being advertised/promoted. This could also mean that my target audience will be interested in music news, such as what certain bands are focusing on and upcoming tour dates for concerts and gigs.



This pie chart shows that more than half of my target audience would prefer the tone of my magazine to be informal as opposed to formal - this means that the target audience want a more relaxed, casual tone as opposed to a serious one. This will allow them to be on much more of a personal level with solo artists/bands, particularly in feature articles. It will give readers a much greater chance of being able to relate to artists personal issues or opinions as it looks as though they want readers involved and want them to be informed.

Images was the most popular option when asked which my target audience preferred out of text and images. This means that they like to link the text to plenty of images within the content of a magazine e.g. pictures of bands. This also suggests my target audience aren't interested in reading massives of text as they may get bored.

Existing Feature Articles Analysis- RESEARCH

Existing Contents Pages Analysis- RESEARCH

Existing Front Covers Analysis- RESEARCH

Analysis of NME (The New Music Express) Magazine Front Cover. Magazine Analysis #1

Analysis of KERRANG! Magazine Front Cover. Magazine Analysis #2

Analysis of Q's Magazine Front Cover. Magazine Analysis #3

Existing Music Magazine's House Style- RESEARCH

House Style

'House Style' is when a magazine uses similar layout and structure with the front cover of their magazine. The masthead, fonts, colour scheme/palettes, logos, placement of pictures and location of barcode are all aspects of house style. House style is used by majority of magazines to give each magazine a specific look- it allows magazine's to be individual and to be recognised for their design choices/layout which will contribute to their establishment. House style is mainly used to allow readers to be able to recognise the magazine they're looking for - the familiar fonts or colour scheme may jump out to them whilst browsing for a particular magazine. House styles enable easy access in terms of finding a magazine meaning readers/audiences will find this useful due to not having to look around because they will have either a vague or strong familiarity with what the front cover looks like.