Music Magazine Evaluation:

1.      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product use forms and conventions of a real media product such as a cover with a masthead and a mid-shot photo on the cover with eyes that follow you (this is usually a feature that brings more attention to your product).I t has a contents page and a double page spread like any other magazine, and it contains stories of music and musicians just like any other music magazine. It has a list of the moments most popular songs, and articles about the new stars rising to fame. The double page spread has one page with written content and one page with an image describing and representing who and what and the content is about. It has reoccurring colours and font styles throughout the magazine that help make it feel like it’s all part of the same product.

When I researched front covers (music magazines) the most common results I got were, 1. a lot of text all over the over the cover, and 2. a more simple and neat look with less text . I thought of the different genres the magazines were supposed to represent, and through this decided to go for a style closer to Billboard’s Kesha cover than Vibe’s Usher cover (taking into account that the magazine is more pop & rock based, and the cover featuring Usher gives more of a hip hop impression). This is significant because it is developed on an idea inspired by music magazines, using a style already in existence, but that maybe also challenges the style many other music magazines use.

I used the cover as a base for the rest of my magazine and let colouring, fonts and stories stay like any other magazine. A thing that challenges many magazines though is how much is said on the contents page, story from story, page to page. For my double page spread I gave it a very long story, which would start on my double page spread. Stories this length you don’t see very often in music magazines, but I wanted to make my feature full of information for the more curious person.

2.     How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine represents the social group of people who, first of all interested in music, and of those, the people who like more pop and rock type of music, maybe also with some soul. They would be the kind of people who like to know what’s new in the music world, and who love finding new artists to listen too. My magazine represents and attracts its social group through the main focus: Pop music, music charts and interviews with the stars.

3.     What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of institution that would want to distribute my music magazine would have to be someone that help start up for someone’s work if they see potential for it to get better and bigger. They would maybe produce my product it is made to have a big audience based on genre and the questionnaire results. The title refers to the meaning of sound (which without there would be no music), and that might catch their attention to at least take a look at the magazine. The magazine that gives people a good and descriptive read with many secrets stashed into it for the big fan base with easy navigation. It has its one personality almost, colours and the fonts used help bring that forward, and the music charts would always keep readers up to date on what big new is in the music world. Even though all these were my intentions though, I feel like the result should have been better, and even though I did put a lot of work and effort into it, good will doesn’t always give the best results. I don’t think it would be something a distribution would pick up and would think was a really good product, but maybe someone would think it does have some potential and help improve the magazine to higher standards.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teens and people in their twenties would mostly be the audience for my media product, since they are the ones I took the questionnaire on, so it’s made more for them, but that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t get anything out from reading the content interests them. The audience would mostly be pop fans, and pop fans that like a little rock and soul. That would be the kind of content to be found in the magazine, and so, the kind of fans.

4.     How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract the attention of my audience, I first had to find out who my audience would be, which I did through a questionnaire. Through this questionnaire I discovered that making a pop magazine would be the best option to get a bigger audience. Then I started thinking about what kind of stories would interest this audience, and I thought of my main story, a new pop star. I bought a couple of music magazines and went through to learn more about the way a music magazine are made and what they should consist of. Since my magazine also was to have a little part with rock, I wanted a darker colour for the font, and since light purple and pink (girly colours) is associated more with pop, I decided to put on a darker purple that I think it’s a good colour that draws attention to the magazine.

5.     What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing this product, I have learned many different things about how to use different technologies. I have learned to use a blog, something I have never done before and never really thought I’d do. I learned how to keep an eye on the blog from the blogs page. I learned how to post and edit posts, and I learned how to use it to follow other blogs. I learned how to use a DSLR camera, not just point and shoot something and hope for the best, but really learned to use the different setting and good angles to shoot at. The thing I have worked the hardest on to teach myself though, must be Photoshop. I have never really understood how to use Photoshop, and ever really succeeded with anything I tried to do in there, but after countless hours and days doing nothing else than to try to understand how everything works, I finally learned how to use most of the tools.

6.     Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learned a lot in the progression of the full product, including the technological stuff above. I now have a better understanding of the music industry, music magazines and magazines in general: how they are made, how they influence their audiences and to draw people’s attention using a magazine.