Article Research

These are the questions I have planned to ask a local band called Beat Surrender for my double page spread:

1. How did you come up with the band name? Who came up with it?
2. What made you want to start a band and who started it?
3. Who are your major influences?
4. When did you first form the band?
5. Can any of you play any other instruments?
6. How are you feeling about going to play your gig?
7. Is there any rituals you must do before going on stage? What are they?
8. Whats your favourite venue?
9. How did you feel your gig went?
10. How long have you known each other and where did you meet?
11. Where do you see the band in 5 years time?
12. Do you ever write any of your own songs? Who writes them?
13. Do you intend on getting a record label? How hard is it to attain one?
14. Would you change image if it meant you getting a record label? Why?
15. What would be your ideal venue?
16. What advice would you give to people about starting a new band?
17. Tell me about your music?
18. Who picks the cover songs?
19. Where do you practice?
20. If you became famous and got a record label, what would be the first thing you bought? Why?
21. How would you feel if you saw one of your songs get a number one hit?

The band contains 3 members: Adam McCulloch on guitar, Kieran Neville on drums and Sean Sullivan the vocalist.

Planning Production

Front cover images:

• Main image will be a female posing as an artist
• Barcode

Coverlines:

• Interview with the cover artist or band - An exclusive interview with.... 
• Breaking into the Business - how to get noticed
• The Drums on Shuffle - 25 songs most played on their iPod
• Playing Around - The places where most talent scouts look
• The 10 Best Indie Bands - 10 of the best indie bands since the 90s
• A Killer Column - Lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers monthly column

Text for contents page:

The word Contents in a bold font on a blue background, the same colour as the name of the magazine.  

Regular Content:

2   Editor's letter
6   Official Top 20 Indie Music Chart
8   Who is touring this month?
11 A Killer column – lead singer of the killers, Brandon Flowers, monthly column
12 Band of the month
13 Snap it up! – this month in pictures
23 Album Reviews
27 So last month – reviews of last months gigs
33 This month in music 
68 Music Madness! – music quiz
71 10 Questions with... (mumford and sons)
83 Say What? – letters from fans
85 Subscribe!
91 This months best international band

Feature Content:

10 Article on Kings of Leon
15 Article on Florence and the Machine
17 Loving Lissie – article on Lissie     
18 Interview with Beat Surrender
21 Interview with Yeasayer
25 Radio 1 – what’s on their playlist this month
36The Drums on Shuffle – 25 songs most played on their iPod
44 Legal downloading sites
52 Breaking into the business – article on how to get noticed
56 An interview with Vampire Weekend
69 The Best Indie Bands
77 Guitars – a feature article on guitars
78 Playing Around – places where most talent scouts look
99 The 10 Best Indie Albums

Images needed for contents page:

• Image of the front cover of the magazine
• Picture of a range of guitars
• A picture of an iPod with The Drums on it
• Image of Beat Surrender
• Smaller image of the cover artist

Article for double paged spread:

I am going to interview a local band, Beat Surrender asking them questions before and after their gig. Therefore I will need a picture of the band as the main image for my article.


Rough Sketches of front cover and contents page:

Publication Plan

Title:

Positioning Statement: Your indiependent music guide

Frequency of Publication: Monthly

Price: £2.95

Distribution: Newsagents and supermarkets; HMV; Dawsons and gigs

Rationale: The approach of the magazine from indie music fans perspective. The magazine will offer interviews and articles on bands and artists, asking about how they felt their tour is going. Furthermore the magazine will offer readers gig, festival and tour dates and information. Plus it would also contain posters as they were rated highly in my questionnaire.

Style: Informal and quite humorous. As the target audience is for 16-20 year olds the language will be quite simple but not too easy where the reader feels patronised. The paragraphs will vary in length and it may contain slang in the article or the headlines so that it appeals to the target audience.

Regular Content:

Editor's letter

Official Top 20 Indie Music Chart

Who is touring this month?

A Killer column – lead singer of the killers, Brandon Flowers, monthly column

Band of the month

Snap it up! – this month in pictures

So last month – reviews of last months gigs

Music Madness! – music quiz

10 Questions with... (mumford and sons)

Say What? – letters from fans

Subscribe!

This month in music

This months best international band

Album Reviews

Feature Content:

Legal downloading sites

Breaking into the business – article on how to get noticed

Interview with Beat Surrender

An interview with Vampire Weekend

The Best Indie Bands

Guitars – a feature article on guitars

Playing Around – places where most talent scouts look

Radio 1 – what’s on their playlist this month

Article on Kings of Leon

The Drums on Shuffle – 25 songs most played on their iPod

The 10 Best Indie Albums

Article on Florence and the Machine

Interview with Yeasayer

Loving Lissie – article on Lissie

House Style:
Coverlines - Arial Black and Arial Bold
Headlines - Impact
Standfirst - Franklin Gothic Demi 14pt and in bold
Captions -  Arial 9pt
Features first paragraph - drop capital Times New Roman, 5 lines deep
News first paragraph - First word in bold capitals then the other two paragraphs bold
Body text - Times New Roman 11pt  
Colour Scheme - blue, black, red and white

Audience Research - Voice Recordings

Audience Research - Questionnaire Results

1. Male - 8
    Female - 12

I asked 20 people what their favourite colour was and the most popular colours were blue and purple. Therefore for my indie magazine I will use those as my main colours.

The general age of the people I asked was 16 and 17. It is generally teenagers that buy music magazines which has made me think to shorten the age range of my target audience to 15-20.

My results show that people generally buy music magazines monthly, therefore I would also make my magazine come out monthly.

For this question the majority said that they would be willing to pay £2-£3 for a music magazine, therefore my magazine should be within that price range to compete with existing magazines.

This shows that people generally go to gigs therefore I would include gig and festival information in my magazine.

The results show that just over half the people I asked download music and buy CDs, this has helped me with what the contents of my magazine will include.

 

The chart shows that the people I asked like the gig/tour dates best closely followed by pictures and posters. Therefore in my music magazine I will have to include the gig information to appeal to my target audience.

 
 

On the other hand when asked what they dislike the most popular answer was the adverts. However I would still have to include adverts in my magazine so that the company can make money.

When asked what their favourite band or artist was, nearly all the answers were different. Therefore this shows that I will have to include as many band and artists as possible to satisfy the target audiences needs.

For this question people had to give a rating out of 5 to each aspect of a music magazine (were 1 is important, 5 is irrelevant). This chart shows how many 1’s each aspect received. The one with the most 1’s is interviews, therefore I will add several interviews to the contents of my magazine. 

When asked what words people associated with indie music some answers were quite similar. The most popular word was guitar followed by skinny jeans. These words have all inspired me to come up with a name for my music magazine.