Research & Planning

QUESTIONNAIRE

For one of my research and planning tasks, I produced a questionnaire in which i gave to 15 people questioning them on the type of music they like and what prompts the into buying a music magazine. Questions included:

• How old are you?
• What gender are you?
• What type of music do you like to listen to?
• How often do you buy music magazines?
• What prompts you into buying a magazine?
• How much will you be willing to pay for a single magazine?

Below is a print screen if my questionnaire.




















The results of the questionnaire was useful to me as it helped me decide what genre of magazine to produce and also how much to price the mag and if there should be freebies included.
I recorded my results in form of pie charts shown below:





The results showed that the most popular genre of music is HIP HOP AND R&B. The results also show that most of the participants of the questionnaire were ages 16-19. In relation to my music magazine, I decided that I would create a Hip Hop and RnB magazine mainly aimed at 16-24 year olds.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF MUSIC PRESS FRONT PAGE

As part of my research and planning, I analyzed the front covers of two music magazines.

The magazines I analyzed were NME and VIBE.

The mode of address in NME is informal. The use of informal language creates a friendlier approach towards the reader. The front cover notifies the reader that the magazine includes a lot of information about celebrities for example Eminems Cribs Gossip and how Bowie started the credit crunch. The writing includes quotes from pop stars such as Lily Allen. This suggests the magazine is targeted at people who are genuinely interested in celebrity news and want to know a bit more about the celebrities themselves rather than what new releases there are etc. The most visual text on the front cover reads 'Lily Allen takes on The World'. This also infers that the magazine has a lot of information inside. Vibe magazine also includes quotations from celebrities and many headlines about celebrity gossip. This infers that this magazine is also aimed at people interested in celebrity gossip. The front cover includes a lot of questions such as 'Does Hilary Clinton still matter?'. This makes the reader purchase the magazine as they want to find out answers in which they then feel the magazine can provide. The magazine focuses mainly RnB singers which could suggest who their target audience is.

The features of NME and also VIBE magazine suggest that the reader's needs are 'Personal'. It suggests the reader finds comfort through the identification of pop stars or characters they recognize. It also suggests they may spend their time browsing the net, watching soaps or reading other gossip mags. Also, the readers of both magazines may be reading the magazines as a form of diversion in order to separate themselves from the tension of everyday life.

The layout of NME is quite unorganized. Texts are overlapping and have been rotated. This creates a sense/mood of havoc which may suggest that the readership are interested in more lively music as appose to jazz for example. NME mag uses a lot of bold colours such as black and red which contrasts with the pure white background. This makes it more noticeable and enables it to stand out more. Vibe magazine is similarly set up with a close up shot of the celebrities face. This may suggest that the reader will become 'emotionally' drawn to the celebrity and reinforces a sense of trust between the magazine and the reader. However, Vibe magazine is more neatly set up and is easier to read. Like the NME magazine, vibe uses mainly red font that is also big and stands out on the page. The use of the colour red may symbolize warning/fierceness or calamity.

Comparatively it is clear that both magazines have a few differences as they are both aimed at different people. Whilst NME is targeted at people mainly interested in rock music, vibe seems to be aimed at people who are more into RnB/Hip-hop. However there are some similarities between the 2 magazines. NME & Vibe use the same techniques in order to try and make their magazines noticeable and also appealing to their selected audiences. Both NME and Vibe use similar bold colours and font. Also both magazines have taken close shots of the singer which creates an intimacy between the readers and the mag.