Evaluation Question: 1

After completing my Front Page, Contents & Double Page Spread of my Music Magazine, I will now undertake the task of evaluating my work and the various elements and aspects surrounding the creation of my work. 
In today's fragmented market, it is becoming increasingly harder to be able to consistently keep circulation of your magazine high. As of January '11, the points below show the circulation figures of the most popular music magazines along with the percentage change of this figure from the previous year:

• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

It is made quite evident very quickly that the music magazine industry is a steadily decreasing market, with well known names such as Q (-12.1%) and NME (-14.0%) showing decreases in sales, the level of competition is assumed to be fierce and whilst this may be seen as a problem for a new music magazine intending to enter the market, it can also be seen as an opportunity to bring something slightly different into the market, something which is not widely known and available. With my genre of music chosen being Dubstep, this could be a USP and would allow me to provide a product which there is no direct competition for. Whilst there are Dubstep orientated magazines out there, none are widely bought and talked about amongst the public, in particular my chosen area of target audience, the Clubbers & Ravers. With the popularity of Dubstep related music and news increasing, it appears I could quite easily become market leader and dominate this genre of the music magazine industry.


When reading through the various elements of my magazine it is key to note that as there are no real similar media products apart from large companies such as UKF and smaller companies such as those that I found in my research (here and here). I have had to incorporate new ideas into the magazine as well as make reference to the leading magazine publishers which show some key characteristics that appear in music magazines currently.


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

This task is made slightly more difficult by the fact that there are no mainstream music magazines which focus solely on Dubstep & Drum 'n' Bass. Due to this I have had to improvise and show elements from magazines with Dubstep based credentials aswell as showing resemblances with well known mainstream magazines such as NME & Q.

Here is the masthead of popular Drum&Bass, Dubstep and Garage magazine Atmosphere (now currently non existent). As you can see they use a stencil like effect on the Masthead. I feel that for this genre it is extremely effective. Although mainstream magazines such as Q and NME sport rather simplistic mastheads, this is due to both the added familiarity for the reader base aswell as tying in with the genre of music that the magazines are writing about. 

With the strong focus on simplicity within the indie/alternative genre, this is sensible however for the Dubstep genre which is a relative unknown using a masthead similar to this can prove to be popular amongst my readers aswell as providing a sense of familiarity once again, giving potential customers an incentive to buy it. The similarities are evident and shows my idea would work in a real word media product. 

My clothing research proved that using headphones would be a sure-fire way of allowing a passer-by to identify just what genre my magazine was about. There is vast amounts of evidence proving that the image of a well known Dubstep artist wearing headphones is a common concept and I used this knowledge I gained from the research throughout my magazine, frequently featuring headphones on the front cover (seen above left), the contents seen here and my double page spread (scroll down). An example of this being used is found on the cover of an issue of popular dance magazine MixMag (above right). Here the female model is wearing headphones indicating the magazine or at least the feature in the magazine is associated with music, typically that of the Dance/Trance/Dubstep/Techno variety. This once again shows my products elements are similar to those of existing media products and therefore would indicate my front cover would not look out of place on a shelf next to this magazine.

Referring back to another issue of the music magazine Atmosphere, you can see I have annotated it on photoshop to show the use of artist listings on the front cover. They have used coloured rectangular bars from the sides of the magazine to exhibit the featuring artists in this issue. This is done in 3 areas of the magazine as I have highlighted here--------------------------------------->.

This is a way of clearing showing the potential buyer who is featuring in this issue and also as a form of advertising the inside of the magazine, showing popular names sparking interest from the reader as to what the stories on these artists are going to be about. I used a similar method after gaining inspiration from Atmosphere magazine. As seen below, I used the rectangular bars to present to the reader who is appearing in the magazine.

I used popular artists at the minute Rusko, Nero and FP (an abbreviation for the dubstep artist Flux Pavillion). Attempting to incorporate a coherent house style, I have used similar effects to that of my mast head, opting for the black and white theme. This allows the names to stand out and really be seen by passers by. I also opted to adding an extra bar entitled "&MORE" I did this as a way of sparking even further intrigue as to who else is featured in the magazine, a similar approach to the popularly used "find out inside" coverline. Once again the similarities amongst the element to a real media product would allow it to exist in the real world.

The final component on my front cover I shall analyse is my created graphic showing the chance of winning a competition inside. Competitions are frequently seen on the front covers of music magazines and are used to lure possible customers into buying the magazines. My particular item directly links with the front cover picture of a hypothetically well known artist which would allow this to be used as a strong USP for this particular issue. I used the logo for Dre Beats as to add to the pulling effect and added the extra incentive of having them signed by the artist to link the competition with my story that features in my contents.
The layout of a similar item featuring on a cover of NME is strikingly similar to mine with the 'WIN' clearly shown aswell as to entice the reader into entering and therefore buying the magazine. Offering a product signed by popular artists (in this case Pete Doherty) allows giveaways to tie in with music magazines and provides added value to a product which is being given away. This is a key and evident alikeness from my product to a real world magazine.


Moving on to the contents page, here (left) is my artist index for my magazine providing readers with the opportunity of finding "your favourite artist". This features in NME especially and is a key selling point which they obviously know due to its frequent appearance in the contents page. It allows buyers the ease of finding the artist story which they are most interested in and for my magazine would be vital as the genre is upcoming, many unknown artists would feature. As to not turn away a percentage of the market who are new to the genre and are only interested in the big names, this allows them to still buy the magazine with assurance they can find their favourite artists. I included what I thought to be the most popular artists at the time with some new faces in the Dubstep world as to differentiate from normal lineups. I then provide the customer with a page in which to search for this artist, a slight but important detail. The index's that appear in NME follow the house style of the magazine using the colours red and black, the consistent colour scheme of the NME as to provide coherence within the magazine. I have chosen to also instigate this and have used the teal/turquoise shade as the outer glow (seen on the front cover and contents mastheads) as well as stick with the black and white simplicity of the text as to ensure it is easily readable. This is a simple and subtle distinct synonymity between my magazine and real world publications.
To the right you can see one of the fundamental aspects of my contents page. As to ensure my product is easily accessible and as to keep with real world publications and modern technology, I decided to insert a QR Code to allow readers who purchase the magazine to read it on their iDevices. As the market for Apple products becomes increasingly larger, it would be ignorant not to accept this is an untapped resource in which music magazine publishers could exploit. Although they are starting to, seen in an anniversary edition of Q magazine (right), it will become increasingly popular and my magazine using the QR Code which is able to be read by all iPhone's and iPad's and some iPod's is a simple but effective selling point, allowing my product to reach the masses and to ensure longelivety much like other music magazines are starting to, showing similar conventional thought. 
The use of the QR code is rapidly expanding and is increasingly becoming the way of using the internet. Please click here to find a prime example of its repeatedly used technology. This is an example of a music video using QR Code technology. This was posted on 8th May 2011, the popularity of this technology has increased since then. This perhaps more so shows my product is developing common known forms of real world media publications.

 My double page spread also features some conventional similarities to music magazines with my quote featuring on the actual picture instead of being used with text wrap within the article. The common misconception with pull quotes is they cannot feature on the picture, this of course being untrue. The use of the quote on the picture is used in an issue of MixMag in the interview with Groove Armada as highlighted against the blurred background below. 
Although I feel their use of the pull quote is aesthetically not that impressive I have developed the idea and used a picture across the DPS with the pull quote featuring on the picture of the person. The conventional manner would be to as said earlier place it into the article's text. I feel the quote gains vibrancy when contrasted against the main image and would work with the colour scheme etc. in the real world.

Another point I would make on my double page spread is that I focused strongly on the positioning of the model as to ensure it looked realistic and could be existent in the modern day market. For this I focused my attention on the same issue, and the same article in MixMag. This once again involved Groove Armada. One of the members is seen in a jacket leaning against a wall with his hands closed together looking casual but also giving the impression of thought. Similar stances are seen throughout various issues of MixMag and I felt I could use this information to create an effective double page spread and take a strong picture.

Here I have roughly blurred the double page spread whilst bringing the main attention and focus onto the model's stance. I have also taken the photo with the model leaning against a wall with his hands closed together with the facial expression of thought. I used 1 halogen spot lamp to light this photo taken outside whilst incorporating the headphones mentioned earlier to ensure my model stayed true to the characteristics of common music magazine conventions. This is a clear similarity to a real world publications and along with the various other elements that feature on the DPS which can be related and attributed to not only MixMag but NME & Q also, I feel that this would not look out of place when put up against real world products.


The final element I will point out which perhaps is the most important when trying to relate to real world conventions and perceptions is the coherence of the colour scheme. Briefly mentioning this earlier I have ensured that all of my magazines various pages have a stereotypical blend of the same colours whilst still incorporating various effects throughout as to ensure the magazine does not become 'bland'. Below are my pages up against those from an issue of Q which show the similarities of house style and that in this instance, my magazine 'Duble Take' does not dangerously challenge the public's typical perception of what a music magazine looks like and will not be put off or find it unattractive or aesthetically unpleasant.