My Proposal

Type of magazine

I plan on creating an Indie/ Rock magazine, as I feel it relates closely to the type of music I already listen to so it will be easier to create a magazine based upon it. My magazine will be based on existing bands, and will feature reviews of their gigs, upcoming tour dates and articles and interviews with them to keep their fans up to date. However I will also include information about new bands, so that the audience can hear about them and maybe take a look at their music. The magazine will be written by journalists; however the audience will get lots of input with reviews etc. It will be fan based rather than academic as I feel it will be able to reach a far wider audience that way.


Content of magazine

The magazine will feature a front cover, a contents page and 1 to 3 double page spreads. The front cover will include an image of the artist that features on my main article; it will also have stereotypical features of a front cover such as a masthead, sell lines and plugs etc. The contents page will also follow a stereotypical music magazine style, featuring page numbers and article headings; it will also have images from recent gigs that audiences have reviewed. I plan on making my double page spreads as unique and interesting as possible, it will probably include 3 double page spreads with an even spread of pictures and article writing.


Competition to your magazine 

The main competition to my magazine will be NME, Mojo, Q and Kerrang! This is because the genre of those music magazines is Indie or Rock will also be the genre of my magazine. The magazines range in price, so I will make the pricing of my magazine competitive to theirs. I will look into the aspects of my competitor magazines and incorporate some of their features into mine.


Target audience


The target audience for my magazine is 15-25 year olds who are interested in music, both current and up coming, and also people who want to find out about their favourite bands and artists. My magazine will be aimed at people in the social grades of ABC1 because they are more likely to have an interest in indie music and will be able to afford the magazine on a weekly or fortnightly basis. I have chosen this age range as my target audience because they are the highest percentage of people that listen to the latest music, they are also at that age when there is a lot of pressure to be the same as others, so the magazine can be used as a way of escaping the ‘real world’ for a while. The target audience is both male and female because they will both be interested in the genre of music. However boys are usually more likely to buy music magazines, so I will try and include more features in mine that will appeal to a female audience. The types of people that will read my magazine are Aspirers and Individualists because they would have an interest or a passion in music and are likely to stand out from the crowd rather than blending in with the majority.


Business features

My magazine will cost about £2.20, I have chosen this price because I feel it is a fair price to pay for the magazine, but it will also make it fit in with an already competitive market. It is cheaper than Kerrang and NME, which makes it more appealing for audiences as it will include similar features and articles as them but for a cheaper price. A new issue will be released either weekly or fortnightly, seeing as most music magazines are released on a weekly basis it might be better to do the same to make the magazine more competitive. You will be able to subscribe to my magazine, and I will add a section informing the reader how to do this on the contents page. I will also promote us on face book and twitter by advertising this on the contents or the double page spreads. The magazine will also have a website, this way people can check out music news on a daily basis as well as buying the weekly edition. Due to all the new technology such as ipads and mobile phones were people can download apps, I have decided to include a feature promoting the audience to download the app for my magazine.

Why you feel it will succeed 

I think my magazine will be successful for many reasons. Firstly, due to the genre of my magazine being a mixture of Indie and Rock I feel that I will have large target audience that will buy the magazine. Secondly, I provide a competitive yet fair price for my magazine and feel that the features of my magazine will appeal to the readers. By making features of the magazine available on the website and on apps I think it will give the readers a quicker way of accessing information if they cannot afford or do not wish to buy the magazine that week.

 

My proposal allowed me to begin to prepare my ideas for my magazine; this is the first time I began to really think about the types of things that would be included in my magazine. Focusing on the number of pages, the price of the magazine, who my audience were and how I would appeal to them. This helped me to build the basis of my magazine which I can know use when I begin to form my actual magazine.