My Plan (Main)

My Plan

Cover Picture (Look Out):
· Shot of a band looking into the camera with attitude. Band of four members. Guitarist and bassist are holding guitars, the drummers is holding his drumsticks and the singer is holding the lead of the mic and the mic itself is dangling down by his leg.

Coverlines:
· LOOK OUT: Most anticipated bands of 2010
· ALEX McDONALD: We’re lovin’ him
· MUSE: ‘How we made it big’
· WIN Tickets to Orange Unsigned Act
· Top 50 Unsigned bands of 2009

Contents Page text:
· Alex McDonald –
· Inside the Groove – How Muse made it big
· Unsigned Act? Unsigned Fact (tell us your most interesting fact and you could win tickets)
· Open Your Eyes – Snow Patrols who-to-watch
· Unsigned Guitarists – the best unsigned guitarists of 2009
· Chase & Status’ top underground D’n’B artists

Contents Page Pictures:
· Alex McDonald – Promo shot of him and his guitar
· Unsigned Guitarist – Picture of a late teen to early twenties man playing guitar
· Unsigned Act? – Picture of an unsigned band playing on stage
· Free Posters – Picture of the posters used
· Inside the Groove –
· Chase & Status’ top artists – two teenage boys sitting at a mixing desk with music production equipment. Both boys are looking into the camera.

Article for DPS:
· Alex McDonald on his past, present and future.

Publication Plan (Main)

Title: UNSiGNED (Bauhaus 93)

Positioning Statement: Discover New Music

Frequency: Weekly

Price: £2.20

Distribution: Newsagents, Supermarket, Music Venues

Rationale: My magazine will be fully centred on unsigned bands. It will regularly feature mainstream bands (i.e. Muse/Foo Fighters) being interviewed about how they made it big. The magazine will also have gig reviews and guides for the week.

Style: The magazine will address the audience in an informal style. It will use humour in parts but also voice its opinions on the music. It will not be afraid to print foul language used by bands who are interviewed.

Regular Content:
· Contents Page
· Gig Guide
· Gig Reviews
· MySpace Song Reviews
· Posters of New Bands
· Editors Pick – the editors favourite new band this week
· Top 5 unsigned bands of the week
· Fans new bands
· Mainstream bands favourite new bands (Kasabian)
· Competition: Win Tickets to Orange Unsigned Act
· Music news
· Fan gig reviews

Feature Content:
· Interview with Muse about how they made it big (and how Tom Morrello influenced Matt)
· Interview with Alex McDonald and what his plans are
· Top 50 unsigned bands of 2009
· Bands to look out for in 2010
· Top venues to see unsigned bands in your area
· Biggest new genre of 2009
· Best unsigned guitarist of 2009
· Festival Reviews: The best bands off the Unsigned stages
· EMI: What we look for in new bands
· Chase & Status’ best underground D’n’B acts
· Madonna on what she wants in new pop singers
· How MySpace has changed the face of music
· Zane Lowe and how he discovers new music


House Style:
Coverlines: IMPACT + ARIAL BLACK
Headlines: TW Cen MT (Bold)
Standfirst: TW Cen MT (Bold) 14pt
Captions: TW Cen MT (Bold) 8pt
Features first paragraph: Drop capital in TW Cen MT (Bold), 5 lines deep, first word in bold.
News first paragraph: First word in bold.
Body text: Arial 11pt
Colour scheme: Light Blue, Red, White/Black

Questionairre Results (Main)

What is your favourite colour?


From these results I can see that the most popular colour is blue with six votes out of twenty followed by green and red with four each.



Do you prefer weekly or monthly magazines?


From this bar chart I can see that most people prefer magazines to be released weekly instead of monthly.



How much do you pay for your magazine?


From the results here I can see that most people pay £2 - £2.50 for a music magazine.



Which magazine do you prefer?


From these results I can see that the most popular magazine is NME. This means a lot of people are interested in new music and this means that my magazine is likely to sell.



How frequently do you buy music magazines?


This graph shows that most people buy music magazines every week which means that if my magazine is weekly then there are people who would buy it.



How often do you attend gigs?


These results show that most people attend about 1-3 gigs every year. This means it may be a good idea to include a gig guide for the week in my magazine.



Who is you favourite band/artist?

Atari Teenage Riot
Paramore
Queens of the Stone Age
Arctic Monkeys
Blink 182
The Blackout
Hadouken!
The Killers
Transmit Now
Kasabian
Say Anything
Muse
Kings of Leon
Cage the Elephant
Radiohead
The Who
Pendulum
The XX
Kasabian
Rolling Stones

From this data I can see that a lot of peoples favourite bands are relatively well know. This means, although I am doing an unsigned music magazine, I will have to include articles on mainstream bands as well to keep my audience interested.



What do you dislike about music magazines?

Biased
Mainstream
Too short
Not much modern music
One persons opinion
Sometimes irrelevant
Short reviews
Main articles are too mainstream
No varies opinions
Not enough live reviews
Pointless adverts
Not enough new music
Not a lot of new bands
All the new bands are really similar
No song by song reviews
Pointless previews
Too short
Repetitive
Not a wide range of genres
Bands are too old

From these results I can see that readers of current magazines feel that a lot of the magazines include too many mainstream bands which is good for the type of magazine i'm doing. Also, fans want more live reviews and a larger variety of genres which I will try to include in my magazine.



What do you like about music magazine?

Informative about new music
Gig guide for the week
Free posters
Eye catching
Good reviews
CDs
Pictures
Interviews with big bands
Top songs
Free posters
CDs
Free merchandise
Liver reviews
Rumours
Top songs
Gig reviews
Free posters
Festival information
Album and single reviews
Gig reviews

Here are some voice clips I took of some people answering my questions:


From these results, I can see that people are very fond of the free items that magazines provide including posters and CDs etc. It also shows that readers like articles associated with live shows weather its a review or a preview.

Questionairre (Main)

1. What is your favourite colour?
2. Do you prefer monthly or weekly magazines?
3. How much do you usually pay for a music magazine?
4. Which music magazine do you buy mostly?
5. What 3 words do you associate with music?
6. What do you dislike about current music magazines?
7. What do you like about current music magazines?
8. How often do you buy music magazines?
9. Who is you favourite band/artist?
10. How often do you attend gigs?

Codes and Conventios (Main)

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine:

Front Cover:

• Title = 1 word in top left of cover or full-page srpead
• Date & Price (barcode is on front because advert is on back)
• Unique Font
• Puffs (something for nothing)
• Gives an idea of whats inside
• Main image anchors main coverline
• Bold colours & consistent colour scheme
• Title has unique font (biggest text on cover)
• Picture on cover conveys attitude, no smiling
• Images directly address reader (looking into camera)
• Main coverline = two lines
• Coverlines = 2/3 lines of information about contents, intrigue the audience/provokes interest
• Typography = style of letters (consistent throughout)
• Connotations of font reflect audience in mood/subject
• Image is framed (usually left side)
• Strip at bottom/top of cover. Lists bands/subjects in the magazine
• Buzzwords = 'Exclusive'

Contents Page:

• Colums (2/3)
• Page numbers
• Picture/image with page number
• Images
• "In this" section. (editor letter) - editorial
• Date/issue
• Quotes
• Title in top-left
• Consistent colour scheme
• Catagorised sections (headings)
• One large image
• Smaller images
• Subscription
• Plain - simple backgrounds
• Contents
• Actual arrangment: Page number, then text 1 or 2 words as the main line e.g. BOLD or LARGER text, subline in smaller text.
• Regular contents (every issue)
• Feature content (one-off)
• Bottom of page (page number, title, issue data, website)
• Contact details

Evaluation (Preliminary)

My Front Cover and Contents Page follow the codes & conventions of a magazine quite well. The front cover has one main image and one main cover line. The Title of the magazine is one word which stretches all of the way across the top of the cover. It has cover sub-lines showing the customer what else is in the magazine and an banner along the bottom with more information. In the bottom right-hand corner there is a bar code and a price and also the date that the magazine was released.

The Contents Page has the word 'contents' along the top of the page and is the same font as the Title on the Front Cover. The list of contents is in the left-hand column and has the page numbers before whats on the page. It has photos of some of the feature contents with page numbers on them. It also has a competition on the contents page to show the reader what can be won by reading the magazine.

For the Front Cover of my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop and for the Contents Page I used QuarkXPress.


For my front cover I followed the guidelines set and used a medium close-up. I think my product is strong because the title is strong an recognisable and the cover lines grab the readers attention. However the photo I used for the front cover has too much head room which doen not leave enough space beneath the head for the cover line.

Production (Preliminary)

I used this picture to show the new ties.

I used this image to show the new sports hall.

This is he picture I used to show the new lunch cards.

Below are the three photos I took to show the enrichment success. I decided to use the top image because the other two had too much room above the head.

I used this photo to show the success of the school band.

This is the photo I used for my front cover.

Planning (Preliminary)

This is my sketch for the contents page of my magazine.
This is my sketch for the front cover of my magazine.