My Proposal

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.

Inspirational images

I collected these images whilst researching magazines; I liked them because I felt they were quite inspiring. I haven’t quite decided how to dress my model and these images have given me several ideas for a few themes I could try.

This image is fairly plain, but at the same time is quite intriguing. The individual in the image doesn’t have direct eye contact with the audience; this is quite mysterious and enticing to audience members. I would like to recreate this image when doing my photo shoot.

The above image caught my eye because it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, which is one of my favourite films. Since I haven’t quite chosen a theme for my magazine yet, I thought this could be quite an interesting idea. I could have my model dressed as Alice, The Rabbit and The queen of hearts which would show different personalities of my model.

This image is very eye catching due to the fact that it’s in black and white; the models eyes really stand out and captivate the audience. Her stance is also quite interesting and the angle of the shot makes her appear very mysterious. This type of image would be perfect for my magazine as my magazine is of the rock/indie genre.

All of the images above have provided me with plenty of ideas and inspiration for my photo shoot and magazine. I have now got plenty of ideas for themes I could have in my magazine as well such as the theme of Alice in Wonderland. I will refer back to these images whilst doing my photoshoot to provide me with ideas.

Whilst reading through a copy of kerrang magazine i came across a questionnaire that had been published in the middle. Kerrang! magazine have given all readers of the magazine a 'free copy of Niravana covers cd and would like something in return'. An additional benefit for filling in the questionnaire is given because you will be entered into a competetion if you send it back by a certain time.

 

The above Prezi is about my key concepts research. In this key concepts research I looked into codes and conventions, audience, representation and institution. I believe that this will help me to create my actual magazine as I will be more aware of the different types of things that are involved in making a magazine. For example I am now aware that technology is over taking magazines and more people are getting information off the internet and devices such as iPods and iPhones which means I might need to offer an app version of my magazine. I have also noticed how different genders are represented by certain genres of magazine, for example the Hip Hop genre represents men as having lots of money emphasising on the jewellery they where, whereas the women are portrayed in a more seductive way wearing provocative clothing. I now know I should represent my model fairly to how they would be represented by other magazines in the same genre.