music magazine: GenerationPlex - Front Cover

target audience

My music magazine target audience

The basic aim of my music magazine will be to attract the younger generation, particularly those in there teenage years thus the title of my magazine, “Generation pleX” and I hope that the younger people will find this name appealing as it is obscene perhaps relating to the ways in which they live their lives. but the "pleX" also refers to a plectrum with which a guitar is strummed to create music, and as a guitar is one of the most consistent instruments within music, it shows the neccesity of plectrum, thus implying the relevance of my magazine to music. the fact we are a generation of "pleX" also defers that music plays a large role within our lives, and as well as music my magazine will to.

In addition to the relevance of the name with the obscenity , this also means I can add further articles beyond those solely based upon the music genre, and by doing so I intend to attract further audiences who will adopt my magazine as a regular purchase , with their decision to do so based upon the content I provide.

The general tone of my magazine will be one of comedy base, this is so that it does not take to stern an approach to the articles within it as I believe this will deter my audience from buying my magazine as the younger age groups read more for entertainment, aswell as keeping up on current issues within the world of music.

The music genres I wish to generally base my magazine upon will be the general mainstream as this will attract more customers, with some feature of genres such as RnB and the occasional article on Dnb or dupstep. This should make my magazine appealing to the majority of young people, as im covering a diverse range on musical genres which will contain music that is hopefully appealing to everybody within my target audience

rate card for music mag

My magazine rate card

name of magazine –Generation pleX

total circulation – 77, 487

adult readership –  50,456

gender –  male (50%) female (50%)

age –   16 - 30

ABC1C2  - 10,866 – 85%

Ad price - £16,546

Overall advertisement profits -  £1,224,473

Revenue - £329673.20

Audience Lifestyle – constructing the Imaginary Entity

1.       What car/mode of transport do they use?               

    Citoren saxxo

2.       What accommodation do they live in?                      

    semi detatched house

3.       What do they drink?                                                       

   Irn bru

4.       What TV shows do they watch?                                   

   Inbetweeners and football

5.       What music do they like?                                            

  Wide variety of music, chart music and dubstep ect                                                                                                                                                                                                               

6.       What is their favourite meal?                                       

   Not particularily fussed as long as its good

7.       What sport do they watch and what sport do they play if any? 

  Football is played and watched, international rugby also watched

8.       Who is their partner or are they single?                           

  On the prowl

9.       Where do they go on holiday?                                             

 Wherever the deals are heading

10.   Do they vote and if so who for?                                 

  Not interested in politics

11.   What type of bar/pub/club do they go to?                  

    Clubs with loud music

12.   What is their favourite band?                                    

    Likes a wide variety of artists and bands

13.   Where do they buy their clothes?        

 They buy from a wide range of top high street brands and designers

14.   How much monthly disposable income do you have? 

They have roughly £400 a month which can be spent for leisure ect

This is the questionnaire that I created in order to help construct my imaginary entity, it was essential to my planning that I carried this task out as it  enabled me to grasp a basic idea of who my music magazine must correspond with but it is stil necessary for me to distribute this questionnaire in order to ensure that the public can understand my encoding, and therefore ensure that my target audience will be attracted to my magazine.

school mag contents

Tatler magazine rate card and how magazines make money

 name of magazine - Tatler

total circulation – 110,638

adult readership – 198,00

gender – female 87% , male 13%

age – 44 average

ABC1  - 10,866 – 85%

Ad price - £14,013

Overall advertisement profits - £1,555,443

Revenue - £398296.80

How magazines make money

Most magazines in this day and age don’t rely solely on their initial selling price and the amount of people who purchase their magazine.  They now tend to generally make the larger percentage of their income from their use of advertisements within the magazine, this can be proven when a rate card based upon a certain magazine is produced and we can easily identify the advertisements as the primary source of revenue. But aswell as this area of income the magazines can make money from a variety of ways, and these can include things such as running competitions based upon the genre of the magazine or even selling their own products. The final key way to make income would be offering the consumer the opportunity to register with the magazine. To this they generally would have a pay an initial sign up cost, but from this special deals, offers and discounts would then be available for the new member to take advantage of, thus encouraging them to “pump” more money into the magazine coffers

school mag cover

analysis of music based magazine

I chose this magazine cover as it has more of a laid back look to it, as the band featured within the feature article photograph appear to be enjoying themselves and  not taking the photo shoot extensively seriously thus the denotation is that the band are fun loving and not seriousness. The connotation for this could be that the magazine are featuring this cover as they wish to raise the awareness that they work in a laid back, easy and enjoyable manor making their work good to read. The would serve the purpose to catch the attention of the consumer requiring a laidback read. The background of the photo is a beach and therefore is a sign telling the consumer that its now summer, the content of the photo itself can be interpretated  to be telling people to go out and have enjoy the weather, and that can be achieved by reading this magazine

The masterhead “spin” is displayed at the top right hand corner clear, bold and easy to read, this is so that the consumer knows exactly what they are reading and the fact its so bold shows a sense of pride felt by the editors and writers about the content and quality of their magazine. The masterhead is also polysemic because as well as just being the name of the magazine, it can also be related within connotation to the spinning of a disc or lp, as the spin is what produces the music, so the magazine could therefore be implying that they are the reason for music.

The strapline of the magazine “ break ups, crack-ups and some really hot models” is a summarisation of the feature band , the red hot chilli peppers and it works expansively with the feature article photograph to give the impression that the band are laid back and take things how they are, not seriously. It also continues to give the impression that the magazine itself will be a comedic read.

The puff “music for life” entitles that the magazine is passionate about music and therefore its going to be a dedicated magazine, and anyone who enjoys music will enjoy this magazine. It could also be connotative suggesting that music is their life, so for the best news and articles you should come to them.

There is also some intertextuality on show, this is displayed with the article entitled “ I didn’t pimp Britney” which would be involved in more than one magazine, as it is based upon such a well known star. It is also extravagantly important that this is on the front cover as being such a well known music artist many people would desire to read about her, so sign is thus attracting business by featuring high ranking celebrities on their main cover. The signifier of this is the quote itself as it can be accepted as humorous and thus people would prefer to read about this issue in the manor it has been produced, but the signified meaning however is serious as the article is about “pimping” which in itself is a crime.

The designers have also expertly left the issue details, price and barcode at the bottom right hand side of the page. This is so that it is not distracting the customer is not distracted by it until they have got the entire scope of the magazine and by the time they have got to the issue details they will hopefully have already made acted upon their desire to purchase the magazine.

They have also featured and article named “ whips bondage action”. Although not of a musical ethnicity this aims to break down the essential make up of the music magazine, and therefore giving it the edge over other magazines, as it offers that little bit more which is appetizing to readers particularly of the male background, and yet women will still read it out of common interest, which is fuelled itself by the name of the article, making the magazine appear more adult and mature.

Mock Magazine cover

preliminary exercise