Both: Changes To Initial Ideas

Callum: After doing all of my research, I’ve realised two major changes I need to make to my issue.  The first is the date.  Initially, we envisioned the magazine as bi-weekly thing and so I planned the date to be as such. However, now that, thanks to our research, we have found that readers prefer a monthly magazine, I need to change the issue to reflect this.  Seeing as I was going to do an end of year issue anyway, this isn’t too much of a problem and all I really need to do is change the date on the issue to reflect this.

The second major change is what features on the front cover.  Before, I planned to feature a collage of music album front covers from 2011 and have the lead feature be on the Best Albums of the Year.  Seeing as our audience research, however, prefers band specific features.  So, to entice those people in, the main front cover story will be on a band.  However, the albums piece will still be the main feature and will be included on the front cover, but tucked away in the top left of the cover so as not to interfere with the photo.


Chad: After conducting the questionnaire and alalysing the results;  have chosen to change several aspects of my intiial ideas. After looking at Question 3 on the survey, the magazine should have its primary focus of pop/mainstream music, a fairly large focus on indie music, and a slight greater focus on dance and rock music compared to Rap or Classical music.Also, I will try and have an equal ratio of images:articles. It will be a monthly magazine. The majority of the features will be either band specific features or album review features, with some others. The magazine will cost £3.39. The magazine will not have a freebie as paying for freebies in magazines was not popular in the survey. It should have a professional written style, as well as the professional design. We will also use the logo they chose. Because of the fact that it would be impossible for me to photograph any festivals, and have never done so before I have decided to change my issue to a standard issue - November's. As I am no longer doing a festival special, the colour for the logo will no longer be green. The colour scheme will stick to neutral colours, which will also make it seem more professional. My contents page will feature photos from some of the articles, and my double page spread will no longer be festival act reviews.

Both: Initial Ideas For Magazine

Our magazine will be a multi-genre, professional quality magazine featuring a mix of cutting edge and classic music. Its target audience will be affluent 24 - 30 year olds, who have an enthusiastic taste in music. Although it will be a unisex magazine, there will be a slight male bias as there is most of the popular music magazines.

The magazine will be an A5 compact magazine when printed, and will have a maximum page count of 50 pages, filled with features that everyone will want to read. It will cut most of the more niche, lesser quality articles that you usually skip in music magazines, and this will also cut costs. It is partly influenced by the sucess of i newspaper, which is thin and only contains the main articles.

Because it is a quality magazine, it will be printed on good quality glossy paper.It will also scream 'proffesionalism' and there will be no tabloidy, sensationalist writing.

The sell line will either be: 'For Serious Music Lovers' or 'No compromise' and the title will be 'alpha.' in lower case, with a full stop at the end and the Greek Alpha symbol replacing the A's. We haven't yet decided on the frequency of the magazine, but we will ask this in the questionnaire. 

Some features will include:
- A double spread page of album reviews. The main album will be on one side with a large picture on it too, and 8 more much shorter reviews will be fitted on the other side.
This week in [genre], which will span several features.

As a note, We have banned the colour red from the colour scheme of magazine cover, because it is used in so many other magazines. Most of the colours on the front cover will be monochromatic and neutrals - which look sophisticated - but we will have one bright colour used too.

Callum: My issue will be the Christmas edition.  My front cover image will contain a collage of album covers from 2011 that leads to my main feature on the 50 Best Albums & Tracks Of The Year.  Since we are changing the colour of our logo each issue (something the latest run of NME's have managed to successfully pull off), mine will be gold which reflects the festive period.  On the contents page, there will be an image from a photo shoot that will contain three models representing three members of a band (guitarist, bassist, vocalist) frozen by camera shot mid "song" whilst playing their instruments.  This, and the 50 Best Albums & Tracks feature, will be the only two non-regular features included in this issue due to the severe length of the 50 Best Albums & Tracks feature.  To help make up the space, the image used on the inside, from the photoshoot will be quite large.  Finally, my double page spread will be an extract from the 50 Best Albums & Tracks feature.

Chad: My issue will be the June edition. This means that my issue can be a Music Festival Special, and can feature little guides on every festival, tips on each festivals, music from each band thats playing etc... My logo will mostly green, but perhaps with a white outline. The rest of the colours used on the front cover will be those from our house style, which will be monochromatic and neutral, apart from perhaps some other uses of green. My contents page will feature a large atmospheric festival photo which suits the festival theme. My double page spread will be a spread reviewing the albums of the festival acts playing.