Conventions of Music Magazines

Front pages:

In this front page the magazine is featuring "You me at six"  this is a very well knows rock band who also share a niche market of "Rock". when looking at the colour scheme they use a limited amount of bright colours on a plain background, this is to make the headlines stand out and look more interesting, also the heading is behind the artists heads, this shows that the artists are more important than the name of the magazine. Another main feature in the magazine is the artists name which is "you me at six" which goes straight across the magazine page to show the band is more inportant.

 In this magazine featuring Metallica cover the artist also overlaps the name of the magazine to show the artist is more important., also the fact that the artist has a guitar with him in the photo shows he obviously plays it. The magazine has METALLICA right across the cover show the main attraction is the band. In this cover they use limited colours which are black white and gold which resembles classic rock.

In this contents page Kerrang use a list style of contents and use black white and yellow. They layout the page  by having photos with sub headings in the bottom left hand corner. This automatically makes our eyes read the page from left to right to make you read the more important headings first.

In this contents page Kerrang use the same techniques as they have big photos with headings to stand out before your eyes drift to the list style of contents. In the pictures there are bigger pictures of the more important artists.

 In this Kerrang double page spread the colour scheme changes slightly as the black red and white is still there a slightly blue picture is added. The layout of this pages is very easy to follow as your eyes flows from the left picture to the wrighting which is in boxes and in a easy bullet point style which makes it more fun to read.

In this double page spread the all red background is more exciting and unique and the black cross that goes across the page keeps a "Rock" theme, also the picture of the artist shows who the journalism piece is about and the form of wrighting keeps it easy to read.

USP

A USP is a unique selling point that makes your product different and more "unique" than others.
Most music magazines have front covers that have professional and famously knows musicians. To make my magazine "unique" I am going use an amateur rock band who have a different look about them, and they are undiscovered/ unsigned so they aren't heard of.
 I am going to create a piece of journalism which will be an interview with the band and I will ask a mixture of questions that look at their career and their normal everyday life, this looks into the life's of undiscovered musicians which brings a whole new look to music magazines.
Because my magazine is aimed at a niche market "rock" I am going to make my magazine "unique" by using three colours which are red, black and white but I am going to use the colour red in more things as it shows suits "Rock" more and not many other magazines use a lot of red also as well as the colour I am going to find a very unique font in which I will .
In side the contents of my magazine I am going to list all the coming up concerts of unsigned and undiscovered bands and musicians that are included in the niche market "rock". This brings a new take on undiscovered talents.

Prelim task

Here is my prelim magazine cover:

  

Here is my contents page mock-up

Olivia cp

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Here is my prelim task which I created as a practice to get used to indesign and photoshop. When looking at the outcome I think I have made a good start but I think it looks to plain with a white background, also I would have changed the name to SMC MUSIC MAGAZINE a it is supposed to be a college magazine. If i had a chance to do this again I would spend more think cutting out the person on the cover as it looks like its been quickly done and not professional enough. I think the black and white writing looks good on top of the coloured panels so I am going to look at using that in my actual magazine. 

Over all I think this is a success for my first attempt of a magazine cover. 

Initial Ideas

My initial ideas for this project are thats I am going to base my magazine on "Rock" and i love rock music and I know an amateur rock band in which i can use for my my main focus.
I am going to have a colour scheme of black and white and red as it is very simple but sticks to the rock genre.
For my front cover i am going to have a picture of a band of four with the main person on the in the centre at the front and with the other 3 stood behind so they're in a V shape.
I am going to have the name of the band in front of their picture with the name of the magazine behind their heads to show the band are more important than the magazine.
My audience is a niche market which looks at rock music fans.

Introduction

I'm Olivia Rankine and I am studying AS media.
For my project I am going to make a print music magazine which consists of a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread which will be a piece of journalism.
I have chosen to make a music magazine as I love music and often read "NME" and "KERRANG" so I think I have a good idea of how to compose my magazine.