1. Music Magazine
Music Magazine
EvaluationEvaluation
AS Media
Lauren Taylor

2. Who would be the audience for your media
product? (Demographic)
An Indie music
fan who likes an
equal amount of
text and images.
She would like to see
sophisticated colours
and read interviews as
well as having the
chance to win prizes.
They are from a working
class/middle class background
so my magazine should be
priced between £2 and £3.
The average buyer
She is a musician
herself and so
reading about
people her age who
have made it into
the music will
interest her a lot. She goes to a lot of gigs
and would like to have
the opportunity to win
free tickets or meet her
favourite bands/artists.
Because she goes to
a lot of gigs,
including upcoming
gigs/festivals will be
really useful for her.
Music means a lot to Kayleigh and she’ll probably want to know as
much as she can about Indie music and similar bands to her
favourites so that is why I included a top 100 Indie album segment.

3. Who would the audience for your media
product? (Psychographic)
I would say that people who fit into the Belonger and
Emulator categories would buy my magazine because
belongers like to fit in and my magazine has colours that
don’t stand out and are quite simple. Emulators would also
buy it because they are ambitious and my double page
spread is about a girl who started with nothing and made it
big which would appeal a lot to them. There are also bold,
eye catching colours which stand out, so ultimately anyone
would buy it if it caught their eye.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
I took inspiration from NME for
my front cover as I wanted to add
something extra but I wasn’t sure
what until I noticed that the NME
cover had a sticker on the front
to switch it up a bit. I liked this
idea and added some alliteration
to the text to add some more
punch to it. To include some
extra colour and information
without making it overcrowded, I
listed bands/artists in the footer
in a red block to make it stand
out. I chose to do this like NME
because it’s very straight forward
and tells readers what
bands/artists are included and
they’ll need to buy the magazine
to find out exactly what is
written about them.

5. Q’s contents page really stood
out to me because I liked how
there was an equal balance of
images and text as some
contents pages have a load of
information with only a few
pictures. I also liked how
everything was in columns
and very neat so I based my
contents page on the Q one
and put my photos in blocks,
making the cover story image
the biggest. Another thing
that stood out was how the
page numbers are quite big,
making it easier and quicker
to find what page has the
story you’re interested in.

6. I really wanted to do something different
with my double page spread. I wanted to
include quite a few images but I didn’t
want to make it seem messy. Vibe’s
double page spread used 8 photos and it
looks exciting and interesting whilst
staying organised. I took this idea one
step further and turned my photos into
polaroid pictures to throw in some fun
amongst the sophisticated, plain colours.
I like how there is a main image in the
midst of other smaller images which puts
emphasise on the bigger picture.

7. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My magazine is priced at £2.50 as my research showed
that my demographic was made up of working class
and middle class teenagers. The majority of people that
answered my questionnaire were 16 years old and
requested sophisticated colours. I did this as well as
throwing in a splash of colour with my use of red to
keep the young minds interested. Socially, 16 year olds
are seen as nothing more than kids but my
questionnaire begs to differ as they answered quite
maturely so my magazine will appeal to teenagers and
young adults of all ages.

8. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
I think IPC Media would distribute my product as they
distribute magazines such as NME which has influenced
my magazine and I feel there are similarities between
the two so IPC would probably be more likely to
distribute my magazine.

9. Magazine Drafts
When I first started making my music magazine, I had no idea how to use Photoshop and so my
first draft looked more like a poster than a magazine front cover. I then started to look at other
magazines and I realised that making it simplistic is sometimes more effective and can make it
look professional. After re-planning my front cover, I scrapped my initial idea and toned down
the colours. I changed the name to ‘VIBES’ because it had a music feel to the name until I realised
that there was already a magazine with the name ‘VIBE’. ‘JAM’ seemed more appropriate as it’s
something a group of musicians do, they just chill out playing whatever comes into their head
which I thought was more fitting with the Indie theme.

10. Contents page drafts
I was always going to have my images arranged like this and have this
many images as I felt it was a good balance between text and pictures.

11. How did you attract/address your
audience?The cover stories are
about artists of my
chosen genre, Indie,
and they are things
that have happened
recently and most
music fans like to
stay up to date with
what is happening in
the world of music
especially if it’s
artists they are
interested in.
This sticker stands out
because it is different
from everything else
on the cover and it
includes two music
legends which will
definitely intrigue
music fans.
This story is about
Glastonbury Festival which
includes bands and
musicians of the Indie sort.
It is a very popular festival
and so everyone that listens
to Indie music would love
to read about it.
Because this is red, it stands out and
most of the time people don’t bother to
look at the bottom so this is a great way
to get people to look at everything on
the cover.
I chose to use Jenny as my
model because she is the same
age as my audience and most
Indie listening teenagers aspire
to be musicians so it would be
good to have someone their age
who they can look up to.
My colour scheme was based on
other music magazines that all
seem to have a couple of basic
colours with one bold colour. They
were simple yet looked
professional and are obviously
effective due to the magazines’
success.

12. To show consistency,
I included the grey
from the front cover
onto my contents
page.
I laid out my images in
a block so that if people
prefer looking at
images, they can look
at the image with the
page number and go
straight to the page.
For people that like
to find out about
the story before
actually reading it,
they can read the
summaries and
then head to the
page as they page
numbers are
clearly pointed out.
Most of the magazines I looked at had something else other than the
stories, whether it be the editor’s note or an advert for the magazine’s
subscription but I chose to add a review section and count down the
100 greatest Indie albums as music fans like to read about renowned
things that contributed to their favourite genre of music.
Having the colour red
alongside the classic
black and white helps
certain things to stand
out for example the page
numbers and titles of
different sections

13. To keep with the sophisticated theme that was requested in the results of my
questionnaire, I kept my double page spread very simple yet with the use of
several images in a quirky polaroid style it adds to the classy page whilst also
including a fun element. It also lets the reader have an insight to the musician’s
life which is one thing that most music fans would love to know about.
I decided to
make the first
letter of the very
first word stand
out so that it
catches the
reader’s eye and
after looking at
the collage of
pictures at the
top, it will also
seem interesting
rather than a
massive chunk
of text.
Whereas the
front cover image
was very serious
and Je’nnay
seemed quite
reserved, this
photo shows the
other side of
Jenny and it can
be seen like as
you open up the
magazine,
Je’nnay will open
up.
I added a pull quote
within the article to
break up the text and to
give a taster of what the
article is about.

14. What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
When I first went to make my music
magazine, I didn’t know how to use
Photoshop (hence how my school
magazine was made on Microsoft
Word) so I had to get used to all of the
various tools. One thing that was really
useful was cutting out unnecessary
parts of photos and keeping what’s
needed, like I did with my front cover
image and double page spread image.
There were also tools to add shadows
and to elongate certain words so that
some words were emphasised as well
as keeping each sentence aligned. Even
though it was a long process getting
used to all of the functions that
Photoshop has to offer, it was worth it
as comparing my school magazine made
on Word and my music magazine I can
see how more professional my music
magazine looks.

15. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
I’ve learnt that it’s best to make a questionnaire and see what others think as they
will probably be the people that buy the magazine and so you can’t include
everything that you think is best. Also, sometimes plain is better. Although I used
dull colours like black, white and grey, including one bold colour makes certain
things pop whereas with my school magazine I used red, white, blue and black so it
was all very ‘in-your-face’. The subtlety of the grey and white make the magazine
look refined and mature so it could attract other people outside of my demographic.
Learning about the rule of thirds was very helpful as without it, the magazine can
look messy so I used that knowledge to help create my music magazine and
everything looks in place and organised. From using Photoshop I learnt that by
adding small details like shadows to text or elongating words, it can really have an
effect on the overall feel of the magazine and give it a professional look. Another
important thing I learnt was how influential the media can be which is why you
should always think of your audience before yourself as writing negatively about a
band/artist can lose you readers if the majority of people reading really like them.