Research the Market Place

Today I will research existing music magazines that are similar to the magazine I will be creating. This will give me a chance to compete in the marked through product research. I will specifically look at areas like: Genre, Price, Age range, Regular content, Size and Feature articles.

I chose Kerrang, Alternative Press and Rock Sound as they are all competing in the same specific market that I will be entering with my magazine Accolade; having similar alternative bands and all having the similar codes and conventions of magazines typical of this particular genre.

Kerrang Magazine is a devoted rock magazine created in 1981. In 2000 this WEEKLY magazine became the UK's best selling magazine and still holds that crown. It it priced at £2.20 from the shops and £35.20 on a twelve month subscription and has an average size of 70 pages unless its a special edition where there could be a few more. Regular content includes reviews ( CD, radio, TV and gigs ), new album releases, up and coming show information and tour dates, new bands to look out for and fan sent letters to the magazine. The regular content also includes a satirical comic strip that makes fun of stars during events in the rock world. Feature articles consist of Band or band member interviews with bands like Fall Out Boy, Paramore, You Me At Six... The age range of this magazine is predominately from 13 - 19 though it is also versatile enough to sell to people older.

Website: http://www.kerrang.com/

Publisher: Bauer Media Group

Alternative Press is an apparent non-profit organisation based in the United States of America. This magazine is distributed on a MONTHLY Basis selling at $1.49. They also have provide a 12month subscription at a price of $15. The size of this magazine is 112 pages and conforms with the codes and convention of a music magazine in the genre. Regular content includes band reviews, music news, band fashion and finally gig schedules which includes there involvement in major record label tours; the main tour being "Warped Tour". Feature articals consist of a well known band or band member (who usually is the front cover model) interviews. They also feature more underground music; having interviews and photoshoots with up and coming bands about to break the barriers into the mainstream of this particular genre. This magazine sells predominately to an age range of 13-19. They are less versatile than Kerrang and don't tend to have any sales from older people.
Website: http://altpress.com
Publisher: Private company in Cleveland Ohio

Rock Sound Magazine is a MONTHLY issued alternative rock magazine. This magazine was first published in 1999; holding a lot of respect in the music world as one of the best alternative magazine available. It publishes 13 issues in a year at a price of £3.99 per month. Regular content consists of interviews on less commercial bands, commercial bands, band of the week, gig guides and album reviews. The feature article is usually an interview with the band/band member who is models the front cover. This magazines age range is larger than Alternative Press as its age range is from 13-24, which shows there position in the music magazine world as being versatile, informative yet also appealing to the younger viewers. It complies to the codes and conventions of a alternative rock magazine as the bands they interview are always of a alternative nature. For example in this photo the model is in a alternative band and this is further shown in his appearance showing his tattoo's.

Website: http://www.rocksound.magazine.co.uk
Publisher: Rock Sound LTD

Music Magazine First Plan (may change during questionnaire evaluation)

Name: Accolade
Price: £3.00

Genre: Alternative Rock Magazine
Target Audience: Alternative band fanatics, Teenagers, Band promoters & Adults aged 16-24

How often will it come out?: I will publish my magazine weekly for the first 6 months to try and gain a solid fan base, then if profits grow I will move it to a larger Monthly edition.
How big will the issue be?: 60 - 70 pages
Weekly Regulars: Vans Warped Tour updates during the entire tour, including bands of the week and any side stories that may occur
Main Feature: Interview with the worlds biggest up and coming band/ gig reviews/ Warped tour update+band of the week/ Photos of bands out partying & small interviews/ up and coming gigs and festival

Music Magazine Plans

Firstly I have decided to call my magazine Accolade. After researching a wide range of magazines in the genre that I have chosen (rock/alternative) I was firstly looking for inspiration on a good catchy name that isn't to long, like "Kerrang". Accolade has a musical definition of "a brace joining several stave's" which so it works being a Music Magazine title, and also its most popular meaning of conquer and honour fits in with the genre of magazine I have chosen. In buying this magazine of a alternative genre I want it to come across as you are conquering others by expressing yourself so this name fits perfectly and I am going to try and put this across also in the Font of the front cover.


Secondly, I did a photo shoot of the band that will be covering the magazine. I took various amounts of photos, unfortunately I have lost my computer connecting cable so will have to wait till the weekend to upload them! In the mean time I will use my other camera to take more shots till then and post them up as and when I take them.

Contents Page Plan

This is how I would go about starting my contents page with this breif plan.

Front cover of College Magazine

This is my finished copy of the preliminary exersize.

Preliminary Task

To begin my work I looked on the internet via google search to find British College booklets or handbooks to try and find a professional piece that I could base my work on. This however became difficult as I could only find American University Magazines so, as a way of finding out how to go about creating the handbook, I found an existing Isle Of Man College handbook and implemented the same style into my final piece. I also looked over past students work to gain further knowledge into making my piece.

I decided to go with a winter theme from the start of this project mostly because the time of year we are currently is winter. I figured I would not only be able to find a model who would be wearing specific clothing that identifies that it is winter, but also because I found it easier to represent winter in a subtle way whilst integrating it in with the standard things you would see on a school/college magazine.

I decided to keep the colour scheme relatively simple, but had the main colour of pale baby blue run throughout the entire piece to correlate with the winter theme. I added little circles across the blue background to further represent the theme whilst also creating something that looks good on the eye.

The title "St Manxie College" is wrote in white over the blue background and all the fonts were done in a chalkboard style which gave the impression it was drawn out of snow, whilst also having something eye catching for students to actually pick up and read! (which is the main goal)

I used generic titles at the bottom of the piece of " free competition" and "new canteen menu" so it is obvious to students picking this magazine up that it IS in fact a magazine, not something to just be thrown away. Also in my research I found that on all pieces there we're titles on the bottom of the page rather than covering the model.

The model was chosen due to his clothing. I wanted to go with the winter style of wearing warm clothing, though being really happy to be at this college. The background I chose was similar to the colour I used and this works really well in the final piece. I took a lots of medium close up shots of this model and picked this picture due to his actions of having his "thumbs up"


The contents is relatively standard, using the same colour scheme as the front cover and keeping the same font. I have space for relative images and descriptions of whats is going to be on each page.

Introduction

Hello, I have just created my blog and will commence adding to it!