Music Press History

Music Press History

1950

In the mid 1950’s NME was introduced and was considered to be a magazine for youths. NME was one of the only magazines that really kept up to date with the latest music along with another magazine called ‘melody maker’. The content of 'Melody Maker' was mainly charts singles and the latests gig listings. 

1970

A music magazine named ‘inkies’ released articles containing interviews on the latest artist. The magazine didn’t just focus on big mainstream artists but it also featured independent labels. Near the end of the 1970’s it started covering information on indie music as it was just starting to become popular. NME started to focus on punk as it slowly became a very popular genre. Mid-way through the 70’s NME started including and writing about political issues. In the late 1970’s readers of NME were declining, this was because it was no longer writing about “normal” bands. It was starting to become all about politics and people didn’t like that.

2015

In the modern day with the internet, people now have the ability to do a lot more with music. On the 18^th September 2015 a big music magazine producer ‘NME’ decided to make their magazines free. The company was founded in 1952 and has dropped to 15,000, but the free version's initial print run is 300,000. It is obvious that the sale of music magazines is dangerously low. This is because of the fact that now people can search up all about their favourite artists. They can also listen to their artist’s music for free. This means that there is less need to purchase a magazine to find out about news. To try and solve this problem ‘NME’ will give out their magazines at places like colleges and music festivals to get younger people interested again.

This problem is not just occurring or ‘NME’ but also for another well-known music mag called ‘Q’. Its monthly sales are down to 50,000 copies a month compared to its monthly figures of 200,000 in the nineties

NME- New Music Express

At NME's peak it sold 750,000 copies. In July 2015, its figures shrunk to 15,000. Just recently in September the magazine become free. Back in 1990 the music magazines became very stylish and were trendy to read. 

The launch of video technology launched with channels like MTV. This created a completely new market just for music videos. Even a small band could make a lot of money by creating a good quality video. Youtube launched in 2005 which is very heavenly used to this day for finding new music through watching different music videos. Today digital technology has exploded and changed the industry and the behavior of the audience. 

People can find out about new artists or learn more about their favorite artists through the internet. This also allows people to find the latest news and release dates almost instantly. This removes the need to purchase a magazine to find out the information.

To keep music magazines printing, they needed content that was exclusive and that could be found on the internet. This includes ; freebies, exclusive interviews, charts, fashion of artists, exclusive images, signed collectible items, souvenirs, competitions and gossip. 

As Media Studies Preliminary Project

The front cover of a magazine is the first part that most consumers will see. So it must stand out to do this they normally consists of bright colors and big bold writing so that its eye catching and interesting. All of these magazines have a mast-head, which is the big bold writing near the top of the magazine. This is the part of the magazine that is supposed to be instantly recognizable for the audience.

At the very top of each of these magazines there is a slogan. This is used to tell consumers some of the main content included inside the magazine. Cover lines are the groups of text dotted around the front cover. They very commonly used in magazines. They pick out key parts of articles included in the magazines. They are used to catch the consumers are and make them want to read into the article.

Every magazine consists of a central image. One of the magazine covers I chose has a person as its central image. It has used a medium shot to show what the footballer is wearing and also making it clear who it is.

Another feature these magazines have in common would be a lead article. This is the main article inside the magazine which is supposed to interest the majority of the readers to get them to purchase the product.

My Magazines Target Audience 

The target audience I am aiming for would be 17-19 years of age and for both genders. This is so that I have a larger audience. Their occupation would be working in the nearby by area doing Saturday jobs. Doing things like being a waiter in a restaurant. It would be aimed at people in group E of the demographics table. These are students and causal workers. The kind of students that I want to find my magazine interesting would be students that are interested in their education and value it. They are also the kind of students that are interested in doing well and are interested in going to different places and exploring. The group I use as my target audience in the psycho-graphics table are explorers. These are the kind of people seek discovery and are full of energy and individualism. My target audience like to spend their money on things like technology, games and music. The kind of media I expect them to consume would be some comedy TV shows because they are very popular with teenagers, so I will make sure to include this inside my magazine. I would also think they are likely to watch action thrillers because it’s something that keeps viewers on their toes. I also wouldn't be surprised if my target market read the local newspapers or watched the news to find out what’s going on in the world around them.

Another thing would be that the students use social networks like Facebook to socialize with other people. A brand that would represent the majority of my readers would be something like apple. This is because it’s very fashionable up to date and also very expensive. Because my main target audience are students I think a lot of them would spend their money on devices like phones and computers because this is what they use for the sixth form and to socialize with each other. I think it’s very likely that they would spend their money on the latest gadgets or clothes because it makes them look better, and modern. The type of car i think my target audience would have would be something small and probably second hand. This is because they only just started driving. 

Basic Magazine Design 

I want the name of my magazine to be something students can relate to, as well as being modern and interesting. I have decided to call mine Istudent. For a slogan I have come up with "The generation of the future". I think this slogan links really well with the name of the magazine because it connects with how the internet is the next step. It also connects with students because they are the next generation and have control over the future. The colour scheme I want to go with is bright colours, this is because i want it to invite readers and make them feel comfortable reading it. I want to go with a clean and modern design style to keep readers interested and so they don't feel like they are reading an outdated magazine. I want my magazine cover to be dotted with cover lines all over it. This is to make it look like it has interesting contest.

Photography Plan

To make my central image appeal to my target audience I want to make it so that it’s an actual picture of a student so they are interested in reading it. I plan to focus on just one sixth former, but maybe have some others in the background. I plan to take the photo outside because an inside one is a bit more confined and I want the readers to feel free. For the background of my central image i want either one of the buildings or maybe the playing fields. I think it would be best if the background was of one of the new buildings, this is so the magazine feels new and modern and not out of date.  I think my picture should feature a sixth former and not anyone else to show consumers that this is what my magazine is about and what it focuses on. Not only that but also so that it appeals to my target audience. I think they would be less inclined to read it if a primary student was on the front cover. 

Front Cover Mock Up

      Magazine Front Cover

Analysis

I have used a varied amount of conventions; this is to interest my target audience. One convention which I had to spend a lot of time making sure it was right for my target audience was the cover lines. I laid them out in an organised and clean fashion, this as in order to make easy for students to see at a glance how many interesting articles are included in my magazine. I took many photos which I could have used for my central image. I wanted one that would represent a happy student and also one that was relaxed. This could mean that the consumers could feel at home. Once I had inserted my central image I tried to keep all the other conventions like the cover lines a distance from it, so that it wasn’t covered and so my target audience didn't feel that it was covered. Coming up with a lead article was harder than coming up with a cover line. The reason for that is because I had to think of something that would interest students and would be worthy of a big story that would really interest the majority of my target audience. I went with two main primary colours which were blue and black. I thought that they worked really well together. Although the Blue stood out against the background, the black hasn't shown up very well against it. So for next time I think I would change the background to a solid colour like a brick wall or just make the text a brighter colour like red so it’s more visible to the naked eye. I tried to go with an eye catchy font. I decided on a futuristic one not only because it stands out, but also because it fits the name of my magazine as well. A slogan that I thought fitted my magazine and target audience was "the generation of the future". I thought it was a good link with the fact that the readers would be the generation of the future as well as it being catchy. I added at the end of creating my cover a bar code and a date, this was supposed to really bring it to real life and give it that real magazine look.

Overall I think my cover was very successful and came out much better than I thought it would. To start with I was really struggling with getting the gist of how to make it look, but once I looked at some examples loads of ideas came flooding to me. I have shown a number of people and I got a lot of positive feedback about it.

The next time I make a front cover I would like to Keep everything to plain colours and not add so many affects. The reason for this is I think it looks a bit overdone and unprofessional. Another thing i would prevent myself from doing would be putting a rectangle behind my lead article. I think having it there makes the lead article stand out for sure but it also makes it look less appealing. Next time to improve my cover I will also use more varied text fonts to make it look a bit more exciting to consumers. Using the same ones does make it look a bit dull and boring and nowhere near as varied as it should be.

Overall on the whole project I do think my time management could have been a lot better. I went out a couple of times to try and get the correct picture for my magazine instead it think I should have been a bit more wise and dedicated more time to doing so and done it in one go. I did waste a lot of time on thinking about what to call the magazine and what its slogan should be. This meant I fell a bit behind meaning I had to try and catch up.