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

AS Media Studies - Evaluation - Question 7

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Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Computer Software:

New technologies have been very important in the production of my magazine, and I used computer systems installed with professional-standard software, Adobe Photoshop and Quark Xpress, in particular to help me.

I found that in putting together the most visual aspects of my magazine, Photoshop was very helpful. It meant I could easily move individual parts of my magazine due to the "layer" tool which kept each part separate and independent. However, I had to ensure that I was on the correct layer before moving the relevant part of my page, else I would move the wrong thing, something I did not have to worry about on Quark, as on there all elements were both on the same layer AND independent of each other. Photoshop also helped me in editing my photos and image manipulation. On the program, I could enhance colours, improve sharpness of image and apply special colour filters.

Example of original photo

Example of photo cropped and edited on Photoshop

Quark Xpress helped me mostly in the production of my double page spread, as it gave me guidelines and print boundaries, preventing overcrowding and keeping my pages neat. I however felt that its capabilities were lacking and Photoshop far exceeded it in all its avenues. Quark was more difficult to use and I found it that the piece I produced on it was much less pleasing to me - it was unable to cope with detailed fonts, it could barely edit photos and, once many things were layered up, selecting individual elements of my page was made almost impossible.

Photography:

The actual taking of my photographs was equally aided by technology. In photographing my models, I used a digital SLR Nikon camera. With its range of lenses and settings, I was able to set a personal setting which worked best for me. However, being a complex tool, not all my images came out exactly how I wanted, some, like the one below, being too overexposed to consider using in my magazine due to my inability to properly control the flash mechanism.

However, on the plus, I was able to benefit from the modern lighting tools within the photography studio, using them to backlight or illuminate my models where appropriate.

The Internet:

The internet has been almost as important as the programs I used to piece my magazine together. I was able to use the internet for research of facts and figures, images and investigation, particularly during my research and development stage. It has also been invaluable in speaking to my audience, in my case through social networking site Facebook, which allowed me to post images and allowed my friends to comment and post critique. My blog itself, another internet creation, displays every detail of my project, and is versatile in its presentation, allowing me to embed videos, images and slideshows from hosting sites as well as directly input text. In this form, my project can be accessed from any computer with internet connection and can also be viewed by any internet user. My blogging helped me easily keep track of my project's progression, as it broke it down by date into small, easily understandable and memorable sections, allowing me to keep on task and understand what point in my project I had reached.

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

I feel that, overall, my magazine was quite successful. Having showed my magazine to a range of people aged 16-18, both from within my target audience and outside, I found that the comments received were very positive. It seemed that my use of colours, breaking away from the usual reds and blacks in favour of bolder colours, was indeed a good idea, breaking the norm and attracting my audience, who found them "exciting." Given that this colour scheme was opted for by my audience during my research stage, I feel I have been able to carry through my audience's wants from idea to creation . But whilst most enjoyed the bright colours, it was commented by one of my interviewees that my excessive use of blue in fact gave her the impression of depression, not the cool calmness I had been trying to portray.

It also seemed that I targeted my audience successfully, especially by including both male and female models on the cover and so not excluding either gender. It was also noted that by having included models of the audience's age, the reader feels more able to engage with the magazine. That I used the models, colour, and an unconventional layout of tilted text and mastheads was said to have helped enforce the idea that the magazine was intended for young people.

The articles I used in my magazine, both suggested by my contents page and the double page spread itself, were mainly popular, and my use of rhetoric on articles such as "Electric or Acoustic?" were noted to have interested the reader. Because my double page spread in particular was about young musicians, my audience was especially interested, as they felt they could "connect" with the band members and their truthful accounts of juggling teen life with musical ambitions - that the bands were up and coming and not mainstream was also appealing. Not all of the people I interviewed, however, found the language I used suitable for the magazine, one saying that they would expect slang and swearing, as this was how they considered teenagers would interact with each other. This reaction might mean that I had not been clear enough in presenting my magazine as a tool for education as well as entertainment; I had not included such language as suggested because this would have given my magazine a more rebellious, violent and possibly more down-market slant and made it less readable for some of my audience, whereas the magazine I had intended to create was more upmarket and open to as large an audience as possible considering my niche market, especially as I wanted to target a C - A demographic. I did, however, try to keep the language used informal, keeping it approachable, which in most cases appeared to be effective.

As an extra, I additionally asked if they felt the magazine would be useful to both them and the music industry itself as a tool of education and promotion, as this was one of my main intentions for my magazine. It was mainly agreed it would be, because it bolstered the attentions given to new, small bands and also included the audience in the success of the bands, as was the case with the Amplified competition, for example.

Most of my interviewees, both inside my genre and those less targeted by my genre, said they would buy my magazine, with reasons ranging from its low price, to my inclusion of more popular bands favoured by some interviewees. That I also included information on new bands in the area of my audience also influenced some to buy it. However, due to its particular genre, one interviewee admitted she would not buy the magazine, not able to connect with it because she did not know the bands I included.

It seems that my magazine on the whole was a success, and it is clear that by having done much audience research I was able to clearly express what my audience looked for in a magazine.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

My final target audience would be musical aspirers from the ages of 16-24, ranging demographically from C2-B or possibly A. They would generally be of indie/alternative style, and have musical interest in this same genre. As it is intended also to inspire and assist students hoping to go into the music industry, the age range of 16-24 suits the main ages of students, catching them from 16, where college choices first begin to become important in choosing a job in the future, to uni, where finding a career would now be high on the priority list. Bearing in mind this student age, the price of my magazine is impacted, making it only £2.00 to be affordable to those with a low expendable income.

Evaluation - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

AS Media Studies - Evaluation - Question 3

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Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

AS Media Studies - Evaluation - Question 2

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Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

(Click picture for full-sized image)

Final Design: Double Page Spread

For my double page spread I used the programme Quark Express, as it is a publishing program closer to that used by genuine magazine publisher.
The colour theme for these two pages is different to that of the rest of the magazine, as I wanted to establish a new theme for the article and, as red was the most striking colour from the photos - my friend's red hair and the red guitar, I continued the theme, the red also adding connotations of danger and violence associated with the word "war". As I had imagined a "special" containing many articles on the Amplified competition, I created a top bar which I imagined would appear on all articles, including the magazine's name, and the name of the competition, then added the proper Amplified logo I created. I then continued the colour scheme in my font colours.


The article itself was an interview with members of different bands, a scenario often covered by other magazine articles, and I picked out a major quote to break up the columns of text. I also added a competition, a popular magazine convention, and used a picture I took at a local gig last year as a last minute extra to add interest. The bottom bar I had intended to use as an "extra news" section, but instead used it to incorporate the element of fashion that people had liked in the moodboard I created at the start of the project.

Final Piece: Contents Page

I made my final contents page in Photoshop - though I had initially designed it in QuarkExpress, there were too many elements which I wanted to manipulate/change in ways only Photoshop could. I also used a photo I initially hadn't intended on using as it was very overexposed and slightly blurred. However, using the special filters and editing, I was able to rectify quite a lot of this, and make the image more normal in colour, and clearer.


I changed the colouring slightly, as it had been pointed out to me that the colour scheme didn't quite match that of the front page. This time, I used the eyedropper tool on Photoshop between the two pages to ensure they were both the same colour. I wanted the layout to be more minimal than ones I had previously reviewed, like Kerrang, so I only included one main photo, and made sure there were white spaces. However, my page did become crowded with the page details, so I was unable to add an Editor's Letter, something I had hoped to feature. Overall, I am pleased with this page and feel it keeps to the theme already set by my front cover well.

Front Cover: Feedback and Changes

Having completed my front cover, I posted it up on facebook to gain some final critique and clear up any errors. One point made was the relevance of the bottom photos, which I had intended to be pull out posters, so I went back and labelled them to make it more obvious. I also added a small barcode which wouldn't obscure anything important on the page, and the price, which I had previously missed, putting it as £2.00 as this was the average price that people had said they would pay in previous comments.

Final Piece with added barcode, price and poster screamer

Final Piece: Front Cover

Based on the critique and research I gathered, I put together my final front page on Photoshop, due to its much more efficient image manipulation capabilities. I created the different elements of the cover on many different layers, which meant I could move them around and alter them independantly, and slowly built up both text and my final images from my photoshoot.
From my previous analyses, I found it was effective when the heads of the models blocked part of the title, so attempted to mimic this in my own by erasing parts of the photo then smudging the hair to make it appear intact. I only made the centre model overlap the title, which in turn centres the whole page effectively.

All three models are looking directly at the camera and thus the reader, targeting them, and all models are around the lower to middle age range of my target audience so the reader is able to be engaged and feel included. I also included a few extra photos from the shoot and one photo from my experimental shoot, adding a different colour theme to the page instead of another dark image.
I didn't add too many screamers - I wanted my magazine to be more relaxed and more refined than Kerrang, but when I did, I feel it added more effect.

I kept the colour scheme minimal, keeping the the blue and orange theme which had been well liked in my audience comments, but the dark scheme did mean I had to outline much of the text to make it readable.

Overall, I am very happy with my front cover, and don't think I could have added any more to it than perhaps a barcode.

Development: Further Feedback

I again posted my work onto Facebook, where I asked my target audience their opinions on what I had now done, both with my drafts and photos.

First Drafts

The comments I recieved for my first drafts were fully positive, and many commented on liking the fonts and layouts, which made the point of my draft a success. My attention in two posts were drawn to places I will need to improve, alter or pay attention to, in one case, noting I will have to
be careful when putting in my front cover that I do not forget to edit out the smaller white spaces at the bottom of the page, and another comment pointing out there was an accidental variation of colour between the orange of my front cover and contents page, something I will certainly now change, because I want uniformity in my magazine's themes.

Photography

Though many of my photos went uncommented on, the photo for my main article in the double page spread was given attention, particularly after I voiced my fears as to whether it appeared too edited (as this was the photo in which I was forced to edit out the whole background because light fixtures, the wall and floor could be seen beyond the small studio set). I recieved mixed comments in return. Whilst some agreed it did look obviously photoshopped, something I had attempted to avoid, others in fact voted the photo the best out of the shoot, and with comments differing so much, I feel I will keep the photo as it is, as any more editing now would probably impact more negatively on it than if I leave it alone.

Main Article Photo - Too edited?

(Edit: I managed to tweak the background slightly to make it more natural by layering it over the original unedited image and changing the opacity so some of the old colouring could be seen, making the background appear more natural. Picture below.)

Development: Photoshoot

Although successfully booking the studio for the 20th, I was very short of time as my friend who offered to be the male model was delayed, and the time slot I had booked only lasted for half an hour. As a result of the lack of time, one other model could not change into black and white costume, and remained as she was, although I think the final result of this was much more successful. The backdrop, which I had also planned to be white, had been changed to black in the studio, and the time I had did not allow me to change this. However, with the white background of the pages I plan to mount the photos on, and the overall black and white theme, the black background was much more striking and was also easier to edit when need be. This is the final selection of the best pictures from the shoot, which I have edited in Photoshop:

As I wanted to make the colours extra striking, I played with the hue and saturation of the image to make the red stand out, as I want red and black to be a big theme with the double page spread. I'm going to use this picture to accompany information on the artist. I also wanted the models to be almost comically looking across the page at each other, which is why I wanted the model to be looking up.

Another head shot for my artist information on my double page spread. Looking down at the other models across the page.

The most comical of the three headshots, I wanted one of the models to be left out of the staring between the other two artist information photos, and look mock-suprised at being left out, continuing the theme of rivalry that I wanted in the double page spread between the three models.

This is my final image for my double page spread article, the main picture. Before, I had wanted it to be one model feigning attack at the other two, but the small size of the studio prevented this. It also almost prvented me from using this photo because the lighting and wall behind the backdrop could be seen. Luckily I was able to edit this out with relative success. I again played with the hues of the red to make the guitar and models' hair stand out.

This is the shot for the front cover, all three models looking straight at the camera, and so looking at the reader, targeting them. I foreshortened the models by standing on a stool to take the picture, as I wanted a full body shot, but it is also useful that the bottom of the shot is relatively dark, so I would not be losing out on any detail when covering this part of the photo with my magazine information

Development: First Drafts

I finally moved on to piecing together a first draft of my magazine, beginning by inputting my logo which I can use as a theme through the pages of the magazine and as the front cover logo, and had already created as an idea in my moodboard, and had recieved positive remarks. I also made an abbreviated version to use as a symbol of the magazine in the corner of its pages.

I created the draft of my front cover mainly in Photoshop, for its ability to manipulate objects on seperate layers, and also its drawing capabilities, which was really useful in creating aspects like the glow effect of the fonts and also drawing and editing shapes. I'm happy with the layout, but I might need to squash the lower elements down slightly to make the large main front cover photo more dominating. I also might need to get rid of the top information bar if I want the heads of the front cover models to obscure a little of the title.

My contents page was put together in Quark Express, a desktop publisher, though some of the elements were initially created in Photoshop due to Quark's inferior drawing and image manipulation abilities. Again, I am happy with the general layout and colour scheme of the page, but slightly dissatisfied with the abbreviated Radiowave logo, which is poorly clipped with Quark's image transparency settings. I might need more photographs other than the main image, as I have not yet decided how large I want the editor's note to be, so the amount of space I have for contents is sketchy so far.

Again, my double page spread is designed and put together in Quark Express. I'm hoping the layout will remain similar to this, though I might need more room for the information on each artist. I changed the colour scheme for this because the photos mainly follow a black, white, red and blue theme, and the normal orange and blue theme wouldn't have fitted. The article I plan to write for this bit will hopefully be about 3 finalist bands in a competition created by the magazine and information on some of the bands' members. I might also make the bottom news bar gradiented like the top.

Development: Shot List

Shot of/Shot type?
Location?
Props/costume etc?
Actors?
Technology required and organisation required?
Date/Time?

• Group Shot (Long)
• Studio
• Costume – dark jeans, white/black tops, dark makeup and backcombed hair. Guitar/mic props.
• Three models. Rivalry theme, feigning attack - Possible main feature photo
• Book/share studio, digital camera and white screen backdrop. Arrange for all models to meet.
• Afternoon
• 20/1/10

• Group Shot (Long) - Front Cover Shot
• Studio
• Same costume as above, no props
• Three models. Rivalry theme. One centered - boy, others either side - girls.
• Book/share studio, digital camera and white screen backdrop. Arrange for all models to meet.
• 20/1/10

• Single close-up shots - One of each artist
• Studio
• Same costumes
• Same models, semi-comical expressions, looking down the page at one another - one shocked, one sideways glace, one thoughtful
• Book/share studio, digital camera and white screen backdrop. Arrange for all models to meet.
• 20/1/10

• Single Long shot
• Riverside/square
• Casual/alt. clothing, guitar
• One of the three initial models, casual pose, ignore camera, playing guitar possibly?
• Organise meet, weather permitting, digital camera
• Mid-morning, 9/1/10
  ALREADY COMPLETED

Development: Trial Photos

I went out with my camera last weekend to test out a few poses and shots with a friend who had also agreed to be a model for my final magazine. We went through a few poses which might be useful, and after taking them, I also tweaked the colours and lighting on Photoshop to achieve warmer/cooler tones, and look at techniques I may need to consider on my final photos. I like some of the photos enough to possibly include one or two of them as part of my final double page spread, and I plan to use my friend again for the front page.

Audience Research: Results

So after gathering images and creating a moodboard that represented the image of the magazine, I posted it up onto facebook, where I could find my target audience and collect opinions and critique in reaction to the initial ideas.

Accompanying the picture, I also asked:

-Would this appeal to you and why?

-Are the colour/font themes effective? (I'm thinking of using the blue/orange theme, but speculation would help!)

-Where would you expect to find this magazine?

-Aside from articles on the bands themselves, what else would you like to see?

-What price would you expect to pay for it?

The moodboard got a very positive reaction, the fact I incorporated things beyond a normal music magazine such as records and tapes, as well as fashion was well recieved. By striking this balance, I've managed to encourage a wider audience, as noted by one messager: "It appeals to me cos it has a mix of images, such as skinny jeans for the youth and LPs for the older generation. The font is good cos it isn't too childish but it isn't too formal either :)" Similarly, the colour scheme "works well" but I might have issues overlaying the brighter colours onto equally pale backgrounds, something I will have to pay attention to if I want my text to be legible. Every messager, when asked what else they would like to see, suggested both band interviews and, interestingly, fashion, a topic not often covered by music magazines, and a possible niche market for me, as I think that fashion and music are indeed linked, and this could open up possibilities for moneymaking though charging particular clothing stores to advertise in the magazine. Everyone expected to find this magazine at supermarkets, within the music section, but one messeger also suggested "indie clothing shops such as Urban Outfitters or Blue Banana" which would also be pretty useful, both targeting my audience and again exploiting fashion routes. On average, every person averaged on £2 paid on price, less than magazines such as Kerrang, but fitting the target audience, many of which would be teenagers with a lesser allowance/access to money.

Research - A detailed audience profile

Age Range: 16-25
The magazine is designed for people with both an interest in music generally and in success and careers within the music industry. At this age, there is a sudden change in the levels of disposable income and indeed freedom, with part-time jobs and student lifestyle making the audience more socially active, helpful when considering word of mouth would be one of the main forms of promotion. Beyond this age, jobs or a family lifestyle may lessen the interest. Also, the performance side of the music industry is today mostly dominated by younger artists which would in turn appeal to an audience of a similar age.

Psychographics: Strivers/Aspirers. Also for Belongers/Hedonists/Loyal
Being a magazine to promote unsigned artists, it has an aspirer slant, giving striving unsigned artists a chance of exposure and recognition in order to be able to further their musical careers. This in turn is able to provide encouragement for an aspiring audience who would then be able to contribute their own stories to the magazine, and would especially interest student artists at both college and university in deciding what steps they may take into the music industry. There is also an audience who simply wish to consume the bands after gaining an interest, and would need disposable income and be loyal to the band, with a want to spend money in the forms of gigs, merchandise and CDs, able to follow the band to obscure venues etc. Belongers would aid this by then spreading the word of a favoured band and helping it become popular.

Demographics: C1 – A
The audience would need to have a fair disposable income, for the unsigned artists are completely reliant on the sales from the audience, without monetary support from any labels. The audience would be generally strivers because of the magazine’s content and so would generally end up with higher positions within a job.

Research and Planning: Distribution

Between major and independent publishing and distributing companies, there are many differences in their audiences and distribution strategies.
Frontline, and through this Bauer Media, has produced many popular magazine titles, including Heat, Bella, Q and Kerrang; in being a major company, they have gathered enough of both a reputation and money to be able to successfully fund so many. Vice, a smaller independent publishing company is focused singly on the production of the magazine Vice, though also branches into film, dvds (e.g. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad"), books and art.
Most of the Bauer Media magazines are distributed through a large process, travelling between wholesalers and finally the shops themselves – places such as Tesco and Asda, competitive mainstream markets, where they are exposed to the largest possible audience on an almost constant basis and are priced based on such a wide audience. The multi-platform market is also exploited by the company, saturating it in all forms – radio, tv, magazine and also in live events (e.g. awards) Vice, however, distributes in a seemingly small-scale manner, but in fact does so on a worldwide scale, reaching far across Europe and the US. However, it is free for the reader and seems to get its money from advertising, being stocked in alternative and indie shops such as Urban Outfitters and Retro Bizarre. It also posts much of its contents online to leave itself open to as many people as possible.
The audiences differ greatly between those of Bauer and Vice – Bauer is exposed to a very mainstream audience and therefore can be marketed almost anywhere. However, it is able to attract a range of demographics depending on the presentation of the magazine, Q, for example, gaining an A-C1 audience with its high quality, more generalised magazine. Vice, though independent, also is able to target a large audience, anything from A – C2. It is sold worldwide, but through a more individual, niche market which is actually seemingly equally successful.
My own magazine will be for a similar niche market to that of Vice, the audience being aspirers from between A-C2. Because of its musical genre and the individuality of the bands and the concept of the magazine, it probably wouldn’t appeal to the mainstream, and its purpose means that I would charge little or make it free to buy, for it is for promotion and recognition of new and unsigned bands. To gain audiences for these bands, my magazine would have to be sold in a similar location to the target audience, and thus distribute it similarly to Vice, to shops frequented by such people. I would also need to expand into the multi-platform, perhaps giving it a website to host videos and stream music of the bands for an interested audience to sample.

Detailed Research into Forms and Conventions

Of the genres of music magazine, I've settled on rock/indie, which most interests me. Once decided on this, I focused on three magazines from this genre: Kerrang!, NME and Q, not necessarily directly similar, but each drawing on techniques (for instance colour schemes, more informative articles) I would like to consider in my own magazine, being hopefully a product of inspiration from these three magazines.

Even within a genre, the targeted audience are varied, as is seen in the selection of magazines, Kerrang and NME in a lower market than Q (Kerrang and NME much lower down Jicnars Scale, aimed probably from C1 - D than Q, which seems to be appealing to C1 to possibly even an A audience), apparent in both the price, and the textual quality and quantity, as well as the sort of paper printed on, NME and Kerrang being a simple paper throughout, whilst Q is attributed a "glossy" cover.

This audience target also explains the relevance of their titles. Whilst Q subtley references to musical "cueing" of a record in preparation to play, understood only by those who would take music more seriously, NME is simply an abbreviated version of the "New Music Express", shortened to become snappy and more memorable. Kerrang, however, is onomatopoeic, representing the sound of a power-chord, and quite obviously appealing to those who are very centred on the audio-responsive whilst not being technical, people who appreciate music through listening and playing rather than necessarily understanding its process. It is interesting that the title in itself is also a screamer, reinforcing the striking title.

In visual representation, there is a quite obvious similarity between all three magazines, all generally following a black, white and red theme, Kerrang, though, using the red more sparingly. It is evident that the use of three such contrasting colours is a noticable and attractive effect but the scheme isn't exhausted; generally sub-themes are brought in for individual articles or themed covers to strengthen the revelance between cover artists and their captions. The text and smaller photos are generally placed at angles on Kerrang, and hardly anything is aligned, lending an effect of liberation and non-conformity which isn't as strongly notable in the other two magazines, and in all three magazines, the font itself is bold and upper case, often accompanied by screamers, lending an urgency to read to the audience.

Generally the content of all these magazines are limited to three things: musical/gig review and critique, articles on the progress of a band and their lives, or interviews with band members. There isn't that much direct audience targeting, as the focus is mainly on the music itself and relies on this to draw the reader more than clever audience targeting, but there is some use of the personal pronouns "you" and "your". Particularly in NME and Kerrang, the language used is more simplistic and text is generally in smaller chunks, so as to not alienate any of their audience. Q, however, seems much more textual and often delves further into the music industry than the others. In being more informative, it is also more formal in its language, appealing to an older audience.

It is evident from the style of the photos that Q is the most commercial of the magazines - the photos taken, particularly for the cover, are simplistic but seemingly very carefully shot and posed studio pictures, with makeup carefully done and the artists dressed to a theme, not always looking at the camera in their pose, and likely to be Photoshopped. This conforms to the stereotype of a "glossy" magazine and shows psychographically that its audience is much closer to being mainsteamers than the other magazines. Kerrang and NME, however are much more casual, and although many of the pictures are obviously posed in studios, there is a more natural theme and a more individualist nature; the whole band is shown relaxed and looking at the camera, targeting the reader. Also, there are many actual live pictures from gigs and shows, often including the audience themselves, involving them in the magazine.

The presentation of the pages is very carefully considered. The contents pages of all three follow a systematic template, generally composed of: a column listing the articles (aligned either left or right), split into categories of regular features and specials, all of which having a heading and subheading and a dominating and large photo of a major feature, accompanied by a subheading. Whilst Q simply leaves this as it is, Kerrang and NME have extra features which supplement the template: NME provides an artist index column, helping a fan navigate to their favourite band. Kerrang always leaves a note from the editor, reinforcing an apparent magazine-reader communication and familiarity. The double page spreads, too, follow a basic template, generally being dominated by a large picture, keeping to a particular colour scheme. Quite often, the magazine still enforces its title by giving each article a top bar including the title of the magazine and the category of the article. Whilst Q is the most textual of the three, seeking to inform and educate the reader, Kerrang is most visual, adding to the largest picture by overlaying smaller ones and creating montages. What is interesting about this is how Kerrang can devote a double page spread to such small textual pieces (such as the article pictured). Q, being quite the opposite of this, seems generally to devote double page spreads to major articles, and photos are not used to the detriment of the article's size, as the purpose of this magazine is to inform to a much greater extent than magazines like Kerrang and NME, and needs not necessarily rely upon photos to add interest to the articles.

It's interesting that Kerrang and Q, seemingly at different ends of the scale, are in fact published by the same group - Bauer Consumer Media. However, they have their similarities in their favouring of more individual bands and thus reaching similar audiences. NME is owned my Time Inc., a massive company linked to many media outlets, and is more likely to favour bands closer to the mainstream.

In doing this research, it has become apparent that there are many necessary things to consider and include in my own magazine, such as colour and font themes, templates for contents pages etc. It has allowed me to see what is successful in each magazine and what is not, as well as noting a particular gap in the market: whilst all these magazines promote bands, they promote those bands who are already making their way up the music industry, signed to a label. I plan to create a music magazine with the purpose of promoting unsigned artists of the rock/indie genre.