Music Magazine front cover potential mock ups

Music Magazine Masthead Ideas

Music Magazine potential titles

Here are the potential names I looked at for my magazine

Ensemble – The term Ensemble means “a group of items viewed as a whole rather than individually” This would suggest an all-round magazine that looks at many different genres equally it’s also a simple and well known music term. However Ensemble magazine already exists as a termly music magazine for music teachers.

Medley – The term Medley means “a varied mixture of people or things” this suggests a magazine that looks at many aspects of music while also being a music related term.
Sound – The term sound relates to producing noise however it can also be used to define something well-structured. I think this will be the name I will use for my magazine as there is not a magazine just called SOUND.

Colour Schemes

Audience Research

I found this information on Q magazines audience here
Q is the ultimate guide to modern music, distilling it down to the good stuff. Well respected by artists and labels, we have unrivalled access to modern music’s biggest names.
Employing the world’s best music writers and photographers, we deliver our features with the depth and craft only a monthly music mag can – taking the time to get to the core of a story and producing a magazine you can truly luxuriate in.
ACCESS
Q’s unrivalled access to the biggest names brings music’s most exciting characters to life. We put the reader in the room with their favourite artists, helping them understand what the stars are like to be with, what they stand for and how their own journeys have shaped their music.
AUTHORITY
Our reviews section, Q Review, filters modern music down to the best and most important records and gigs every month. We investigate more music each issue than any other magazine and employ the world’s best music writers. In-depth but never intimidating, Q prides itself on accessibility and warmth.
BREADTH
Our readers are serious about music. They’re proud of their record collections, playlists and music libraries and are a broad-minded bunch – in the infinite choice world of streaming, they don’t confine themselves to single genres.

Music Magazine sales UK 2015










Music Magazine Questionaire Analysis

I missed some important questions in my first questionnaire so I conducted a secondary questionnaire with a few important questions.

The artists chosen where Ed Sheeran, Gorrilaz, Little Mix
Rag N Bone man and Take That

The most popular colours where Green and Gold so I might consider this when
choosing my colour scheme

Music Magazine Questionaire

I used Google Forms to create and distribute a questionnaire to gather some information on what my audience wanted from a music magazine here are the questions I asked.

Plumtree

Lots of good analysis Harry. Look at how little blank space there is on the cover of Q magazine and compare/contrast this with your prelim task. What can you learn from this?

Music magazine analysis

I looked at three issues of Q magazine as this is the kind of music magazine I would like to make
it also allowed me to see how to get a consistent house style and how colour schemes work.

Analysis of front covers from Q magazine editions DECEMBER 2010 and MARCH 2017 

Analysis of contents pages from Q magazine editions DECEMBER 2010 and MARCH 2017

Analysis of a double page spread from Q magazine editions DECEMBER 2010 and MARCH 2017

Front cover analysis Q music magazine - March 2015 Edition



Analysis of a contents page from Q music magazine - March 2015 Edition

Analysis of a double page spread out of Q music magazine - March 2015 Edition

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

Evaluation

• Did you plan your magazine? If not, what have you learnt about the importance research and planning?
  • I did not plan my preliminary magazine this hindered me and slowed my progress down as I did not know what I wanted my magazine to look like so I kept restarting. I also did not do any research for my magazine this meant I might not have used all the codes and conventions that are associated with school/college magazines and instead used the codes and conventions associated with music magazines.
• What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?
  • I used Serif Page Plus X9 and Serif Photo Plus X8 to complete this task. I used Serif Page Plus, the most, to put the magazine together and position the objects. Meanwhile I used Photo Plus to crop and edit the photos I used.
• Did you encounter any difficulties? If so what were they and how did you overcome them?
  • I did not encounter any difficulties while making this magazine this was because I had made sure to get proficient at using the programs so I did not struggle when attempting to create my magazine
• How successful was your magazine? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?
  • I think my magazine worked quite well. I believe I had some creative ideas and managed to keep a consistent house style and colour scheme. However, if I was doing this again I would need to work on the size of my text and the quality of my images.
• What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
  • From this task, I have learnt many things for example how to keep a consistent style and positioning of objects when designing a magazine. This will be useful for the rest of my coursework as I will know how to create a professional looking music magazine that follows the codes and conventions of music magazines

Preliminary Task - Magazine

Front cover for a school magazine



Mock up of a contents page for a school magazine