Photos for my music magazine

I have taken a selection of photos to choose from to use for my music magazine. I want the artist on my double page spread to be the person on the front cover as well so the photos will be from the same shoot so the image on the front portrays what the double page spread will be like. I wanted the feel of the photos to be quite eerie which is why I took them at night to play with the light and create this feel. The artist I am portraying is a female solo singer who is similar to Lana Del Ray in her music so I wanted the photos to show a personality similar to ones she would take. Here is the results below and I will later be choosing the final photos. These are unedited versions.

Flatplans

Front cover flatplan

Contents flatplan

 

Double page spread flatplan

Music Magazine Proposal

Who are you aiming your magazine at specifically?

I am aiming my magazine at girls aged from 16+. I want it to appeal to people who like rock/acoustic/alternative music. The feel of it is to be mature and not cheesy like some magazines you get nowadays which are to young for an audience of 16+ year olds.

What will your magazine be about

My magazine will obviously be about music but in particular bands and artists who’s genre is rock/alternative/acoustic. I want it to feature articles about up and coming bands, day in the life’s, success stories etc. Typical articles you would find in a magazine like NME or Q.

What are your ideas for cover lines?

I haven’t decided what the cover lines will be called but I know what I want them to be about. I have chosen new artist profiles, day in the life of a band, who is going to be big in 2012, new album review and tour review.

What title have you decide and why?

I haven’t decided on a title yet.

What fonts do you want to use?

I want to use simple fonts such as Arial and Calibri because they are easy to read making it easier to focus on things like what the text actually says, the pictures etc.

Ideas for taglines?

I haven’t decided on a tagline but I want to make sure it’s catchy without being cheesy.

When will it be published?

It will be a monthly magazine.

What will the cover image be?

It will be an image of a girl who will be perceived as very popular to my target audience.

How much will it sell for?

It will be a monthly magazine so will be thicker than say a weekly so because of this it will be between £2-£3 which I think is an affordable price to pay once a month.

Target Audience Research

I decided I wanted to get to know the target audience I was aiming at and really find out what they wanted from a music magazine so I can make mine as good as possible and for people to actually want to read it. To carry out my research I wrote a questionaire on freeonlinesurveys.com to send to girls I knew who had recently attended an Arctic Monkeys gig. I chose this gig as they cover the genre I am covering in my magazine, so the people I'm asking have to have an interest in this music to gain the best results. I sent it to ten girls. From my market research I can help write my proposal, create flatplans and begin to make my magazine. Below is a link to a copy of the questionaire and the results.

Free Online Surveys

Results...
Artists and bands such as Arctic Monkeys. Laura Marling, The Vaccines and Bon Iver were most popular to come up. This is good as they are all part of the genre I want my magazine to be.
Things they wanted to read about that often came up were features on new artists or bands, behind the scenes gossip and oppertunities to win prizes.
80% of girls would pay £2.50-£3.50 for their monthly music magazine, 20% would pay $4+.
Almost all of the girls often attended gigs or festivals.

This research has reallt been helpful. I can now decide on a price for my magazine that will be affordable and reasonable to my audience. Also I have ideas for diferent feautures and coverlines to have on my cover as well as bands/artists to involve.

Music Magazine Target Audience

Genre: Female

Age: 16+

Favorite bands/artists: Arctic Monkeys, The Vaccines, Lana Del Ray. Laura Marling, Ed Sheeran, The Big Pink, Crystal Castles.

Likes: Going out with friends, going to see live music, fashion

Dislikes: Fake artists and bands, bad music.

What they want in a music magazine: Good information on their favorite bands and artists, interviews, new music, tour dates, gig reviews. Lots to read, not a flimsy magazine, pictures, affordable.

Music Magazine Genre

I have decided that the genre of my magazine will be rock/alternative/acoustic. I want it to take inspiration from magazines like Q and NME, which feature artists of a similar genre. I have decided that I want it to be aimed at girls aged 16+ so my job is to think of artists and bands which will appeal to girls who like these genres of music. Bands and artists at the moment like this are people like Lana Del Ray, Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, The Vaccines, Laura Marling. These type of people are who I’m going to look at when creating my artists and bands.

Experimenting with photoshop

I am starting to think about the images I would like on my magazine and will need quite a few. I thought I should take a few test pictures that I could possibly use and see what I can do with them on photoshop. Here is an example of a picture i took.

I didn't really think the photo was that good, you could see around the image so firstly I needed to crop these parts away so the focus was on the soundboard. This is the result.

Now the image has been cropped and the focus is on the soundboard I can experiment with different filters to make the image a bit more interesting. To do this you go to filter and select the effect you want. I chose filter>artistic>dry brush and this was the result.

It doesn't look that different but i think it makes the photo look that bit better than before. Experimenting with your pictures like this creates the nest possible pictures to make our magazine look good and professional.

Practising a double page spread.

Above is my first attempt at a double page spread. I wanted to practise it first before I created the real one with text, and different pictures to suit the magazine. I found it quite simple and picked up how to do different things quite easily and these easy things look effective. I made the spread simple at first with a headline and text using the text box tool then collums by using 
the collums and margins selection in the layout drop down menu and a picture using the rectangle image tool . I thought i could expand on this. 


In the picture below I have manipulated the spread. Firstly I inserted a second picture and used text wrapping so I could place it anywhere on the text and the text would make move for the picture. Secondly I inserted a text box in the bottom left hand margin and placed a page number, making sure it was an even number on the left hand side of the page. I will use these skills when creating my real double page spread and I feel confident doing so because they are so simple to do yet effective.