Research

Task One

The music magazine that I have decided to produce is:
Based on R&B genre such as Vibe, Blender, Scratch, XXL, and also Q.
The target audience is not very specific, and is defined by interest in the R&B genre.

Task Two

There are not many music magazines which focus on the R&B genre, so I am going to use magazines of a similar nature to help me with my research in order to produce a professional looking R&B magazine.



Q
Price: £3.90
Frequency of publication: Monthly
Issue Size: 162 pages
Regular Content: Access all areas, Soap Box, New to Q, Q Hero, My record collection, Cash for Questions, A round with, Q50, Quiz, Last Requests, Q Review
Feature Articles: Gig Guides, Interview with Artists




Blender
Price: $4.99
Frequency of Publication: Monthly













Vibe
Price: $3.99
Frequency of Publication: Monthly
(Hip Hop, Urban music. Targeted at 18 – 34 year olds)








XXL
Price: $3.95
Frequency of Publication: Monthly
Issue Size: 140 pages
Regular Content: Reviews of up and coming artists
Feature Articles: Hand it down, Time to build, World Play, Back for the first time, My Time, ‘Bout me






Scratch
Frequency of Publication: Monthly









Task Three

Price: £3.00
Frequency of publication: Monthly
Average issue size: 152 pages
Regular Content:
· Quiz and competitions
· Upcoming Tours
· Gig Guides
· Question and Answers (Readers send in questions to artists)
· Weekly interview with surprise guest
· Interviews with up and coming artists
· Best onstage costume of the month
· Horoscopes
· Artist News
· New songs and album releases
· Top song of the month

Feature Articles:
· World’s greatest RnB star – You decide!
· Aymee- The R’n’B Queen is back
· Top 20 gigs of 2009
· Exclusive interviews
· Ciara and her music career so far
· Jay-Z launching his new album – The blueprint 3
· Chipmunk breaks America
· RnB Factor – Have you got it?
· Who came out on top? -Best album of the year
· Greatest concert sales
· Music Festivals Images
· Music awards reviews
· How we made it (Stars tell all on how they made it big)
· Search for the next hottest girl band
· Impressing Simon Cowell
· 2009s music review
· Unsigned Acts
· What’s hot and what’s not – How to get the best out of your voice
· Under my umbrella – Fans of Rihanna tell all on their idol
· Beyonce – singing or drama?
· Lil Wayne and Jay Sean combine
· Is Tinchy Strider really ‘number 1’?



Task Four


· Few colours used, black, red and white making the magazine cover stand out.
· Bold fonts used not many different fonts.
· Few pictures on cover, makes the main image stand out.
· Creative use of photography
· Title in largest font, main coverline in a larger text than the other coverlines.
· Barcode at top of page.
· Puff included.
· Other artists included within content are shown.
· Not a lot of coverlines.
· Main image over title.

· Not many colours used (White/Grey, Black, Orange)
· Only one image.
· Puffs included.
· Few coverlines.
· Title in the biggest font spread across whole page.
· Limited number of fonts used.
· Strapline included.
· Simple main image, pose of the model is creative as it is different to other magazines.
· Title over main image.

· Limited amount of colours used (Red, White Black) which appeals to the genre of magazine.
· Title in largest font.
· Main image over title.
· Limited number of coverlines used.
· Main coverline in larger font than other coverlines.
· Barcode in bottom left hand corner of page.
· Includes Byline/Strapline.
· More fonts used.




· Limited amount of colours used (Blue, Black, Yellow, White) which appeals to the genre of magazine.
· Main image covers title.
· Main coverline is in a larger font than other coverlines.
· Barcode is n the bottom left hand corner of page.
· Variety of fonts used.








· More variety of colours used although still not lots of different colours (Red, Blue, White, Black, Green)
· One large image stands out.
· Title in largest font spread across whole page.
· Barcode in bottom left hand corner.
· Few fonts used.
· Larger variety of longer coverlines used.
· Strapline/Byline included above the title.
· Title over main image.

Task Five

Codes and Conventions of the studied magazines Contents page

Q Magazine
• Double page
• The title of the magazine is shown in the top left hand corner of the left page
• The word “Contents” is written at the top of the left page, next to the title
• Issue number of magazine shown at the top of the right page
• Image of magazine front cover shown in top right hand corner of right page
• Pages look bright
• List of regulars shown down the right hand side of the right page
• Feature articles are listed down the left hand side of the left page
• Around 10/11 images are used
• One larger image is used showing the artist on the front cover
• Not many colours are used - red, black and white
• Different size page numbers shown on each image – largest page number shown on largest image of front cover artist
• Most of the pages are covered with images
• Text to go with the title of each article, explaining what each article is about
• Some images overlap
• White background
• Number of page is shown in the bottom outer corner of each page, including magazine title and issue date
• Creative photography used

XXL Magazine
• Single page
• One main image is used which is also used as the background
• Page looks dark
• Only a list of feature articles is shown – does not list regular content
• Few simple colours used
• Text is written down the right hand side of the page