Conventions of a Music Magazine

I have started to research the different conventions of a music magazine by researching 2 different magazines; 'Q' and 'Rock Sound'.

        

Research

For the first part of my research, I will be choosing two magazines and looking at the different conventions used within each. I will choose magazines of a similar genre to what I would like my magazine to be. This will give me an idea of what should be put into my magazine to make it look authentic.

Pre-lim completed Contents Page

On my contents page, I have used the same picture as is shown on the Cover of my magazine.
This shows that my magazine style is consistent and it adds a nice background to the contents page instead of it being white and looking quite plain. However, the filter I have used means that the picture does not distract attention away from the other pictures and text on the page.

I have added 2 pictures to my contents page to make it more exciting and interesting to look at. The pictures also fit in well as they are similar to the one on the cover. They both contain pupils looking happy, on school grounds. Also, having a picture of each gender early on in my magazine will show that the school is a mixed school.

Pre-lim completed Cover

This is my completed cover for my magazine "Northvale High". I have used multiple skills to create my cover such as adding text over the top of a picture and also adding different coloured boxes (ensuring that they fit the house style) to make sure that the writing can be read easily and from a distance.

Photoshop Cover Skills

This is the name of my magazine. The title is the colour green which is the main colour within the house style of the magazine. I duplicated the layer of text within photoshop, changed the colour to while, and placed it behind the original layer. By putting the second, white layer slightly above and to the left, the green title stands out more from the background, making it stand out more and easier to read.

House style for My Magazine

Here is a section of my magazine to show the house style of my magazine "Northvale News". The main colour I have chosen for the mast head (next post) and a range of other things on the magazine is green. This colour is not too bright and looks like an acceptable, neutral school colour. The other colour I have used is dark purple. This colour matches great with the green and the white writing, that I have used throughout, can be read clearly on that colour.

I have also used the same house style for my Contents Page to ensure that my magazine looks professional.

Bauer Media Essay

Bauer Media is a division of Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group, Bauer Media Group. The group was originally founded in 1875 in Hamburg, Germany and is still headquartered there. It now has offices in 16 countries worldwide including The UK and USA and employs 6,400 people. It is owned by the Heinz Bauer of the Bauer family and used to be called “Heinrich Bauer Verlag” but was eventually changed to Bauer Media Group.

Bauer Media own many brands across multiple platforms such as Radio stations, magazines and TV channels and have over 20 million consumers per week. They are constantly buying new stations and magazines to reach across all platforms and audiences.

The audience that Bauer media aim to reach is very broad with the age ranging from about 12 to 65+ and both females and males. They own lots of magazines to reach this target audience such as ‘Angling Times’ which is a fishing magazine aimed predominantly at older men and then ‘Closer’ which is a celebrity gossip magazine aimed at young-to-middle aged women. The prices of the magazines vary to fit the social class that the magazine is aimed at.

One of Bauer’s biggest brands is “Kerrang”! This brand specialises in Rock music and its target audience is mainly young adults from the age of 16-30, male and female. It reaches across four media platforms; Television, online, magazine and radio. It started out as a magazine in 2004 and then “Kerrang TV” was launched in 2005 followed by a radio station and it also has a website.

With more than 570 newspapers and magazines, over 300 digital products, and 50 radio and TV stations, the Bauer Media Group reaches millions of people across the world. Bauer Media own 88 brands in the UK such as their first magazine “Angling Times” which was first published in 1953. Since the company started, it has been passed down through the family and is now owned and managed by Heinz Bauer’s daughter, Yvonne Bauer. The company is constantly buying new brands such as the magazine “Wonderpedia” which was released in the UK in May, and “Absolute Radio” which they purchased in July for £25 Million.

Chloe Louise Francom