Interview With a Shop Keeper About Music Magazines

How many magazines are for sale?

We have four magazines, and around 5 of each on the shelves at the moment. We normally have many more magazines in the back as they have to last us a week or even a month, as they do not come out that fast.

How many different genres do you stock?

We have pop, rock and classic rock with top of the pops, Kerrang!, Mojo and Q. This enables us to be able to supply magazines to a very wide audience.

Which genre of magazine sells the best?

Definitely rock. We sell more Kerrang!s than anything else. Top of the pops, Mojo and Q do sell well, but not on the scale I see the Kerrang!s sell at.

Are there any magazines you would like to stock in the future?

I have heard many people of quite a few genres buy Rolling Stone, so that could be an option for us. However we do already stock magazines covering all of the genres featured in Rolling Stone.

How are the magazines positioned in the store?

I usually place the Kerrang!s at the back of the shelves as I know they sell well, and do not need much advertising, and they often have rude language or images on. This stops people being offended. I also always make sure the price is easily visabe. This can not always be achieved, as it is on the bottom and you can only see the top of the back shelf magazines. To combat this I add labels to each magazine with the price on.

How are the magazines shown on the shelf?

I always make sure the title is visible, and normally if there is a big artist who I believe will sell many copies, I will make sure the buyer can see them as well.

Do you notice about the positioning of the artists on these magazines?

I do notice that big artists don't have to make eye contact to sell. It's strange as when an unheard of artist is on the cover, he is almost always making eye contact.\

From doing this task, I have learnt a lot about what the actual sellers of the magazines think about them, and what they do to help them sell. I now have the knowledge of what a shopkeeper thinks sell, and what doesn't, I will be able to locate things such as the price, barcode and any explicit language in a way that helps them sell them.

Padlet Front Covers Contents Pages and Double Page Spreads

Created with Padlet

From doing this task, I have learnt what people like about specific music magazines. This will be more helpful that general genres or magazines that people like, as I can now see what parts of which magazines people like, why they like them, and see for my self what it is that is so great about it.  Finally, seeing what fans want from a music magazine is one of the most helpful pieces of information that i could have. It gives me a massive insight to the reader and what they do and don't like.

Survey About Music Magazines

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

This is a survey about music magazines that I made. I hopefully will learn a lot about the type of person who would buy a music magazine by doing this. It is similar to the rate cards, yet the audience will be those who I ask, not everyone, and it will be a bit more vague. I will record my results on Prezi and release them in the future.

How to Attract an Audience

I have learnt from doing this task, that the front covers of magazines need many features to appeal to all audiences. This will make a magazine successful and as long as it is well done and the content is good, it will sell well. I will need to featured at least some of these examples or variants of these examples in my magazine to make the cover look successful.

NME and UNCUT music magazine rate cards

This card was interesting, as it showed me very detailed facts and figures about NME’s readers. I already knew what NME was, who read it and what it included, however, this card goes into much more detail than I already knew about. It gives a very good insight to who would be likely to buy this magazine and why.

 

This card was helpful for me, as I did not know too much about the magazine before reading this. I knew Uncut was a classic rock magazine, and therefore had a general idea about who would buy it, and what it would include, however, this rate card goes into much more detail than I knew about. I was surprised to find out they knew so much about their readers, and I didn’t expect it to be in so much detail. For example, they know how much each reader spends on average on DVDs each year, and 77% of readers are working full time.

I have learnt many detailed facts about the type of people who buy certain music magazines. This could help me when it comes to making my music magazine. I would know what content to choose, to appeal to the type of people who would generally buy my music magazine.

Photos of Music Magazine Analysis

Music magazine analysis on PhotoPeach

From doing this task I have learnt about how publishers make front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. This will definitely help me when it comes to making my own music magazine, as i will know how the successful music magazines lay and set out their magazines.

Media Institutions Video

By doing this task, I have learnt how to put across information effectively, and enjoyably. I now also know a lot about the beginnings of successful media institutions. Finally, I feel confident in my research and how to use programmes like iMovie.

History of Music Magazines

From doing this task, I have learnt how very successful media institutions made their magazines work and sell to the masses. This will help me when it comes to making and planning my magazine, as I know what people expect from successful institutions. I will put what people want into my own work.

Music Magazine Analysis

By doing this task, I have learn a lot about what people will look for within a music magazine, and how it is done professionally.By looking at camera angles, text/fonts, titles logos and colours, I know what the qualifications are for a successful magazine, and I feel like I could put these into action when creating my own magazine.

Institutional Grid

This task gave me knowledge into the actual businesses and institutions that make the magazines. I reviewed and researched which institutions made what magazines, when, where, at what cost and what the actual magazine is about. This will help me gain a crucial understanding of what it takes to successfully publish magazines. I noticed the most successful were the ones that have been around the longest, and sell for a reasonable price, which generally means you are not going to get a magazine of a terrible quality, but also means it wont include lots of extras all the time. When making a magazine, I will look back at this chart to see the key to a successful institution.

Preliminary Task School Magazine Evaluation

I feel this task went well for quite a few reasons. For example, the research I carried out for this task was enough to give me an idea of what to do. Also, planning the contents page and the front cover helped me make sure that changes and starting the task was easy. 

The front cover went well I my opinion. It includes side articles, a midshot for the main photo, which has been manipulated, text that was easy to read and straight to the point, colours that were relevant, as they are the school colours and finally a title with the school logo. I would next time add some sort of gradient to the block colours to add a bit more detail into them.

The plans for the contents and cover where good, as they laid out a path for me to take when making them. I feel that they did their job and helped me get off my feet and get started, but did not help with the details. Next time, I would plan in more detail, and write down ideas to help me further on in the making.

The manipulated image went decently. For instance, it added a lot of depth to it, but it was a very simple manipulation, so I feel that my Photoshop skills could have been developed further. Finally, the end image was nice, as it made the front cover eye catching.

Overall, I feel that this task was a success as my skills were not only developed, but they were put into action, and I have something good to show for them. The research, planning, making and final product are all good ways to show what I have learnt in the past two weeks.

Preliminary Task Final Version of Front Cover

This is the final version of the front cover. It features a price, side articles, relevant colours, a title, logo, easy to read text and eye catching photos. I feel it was quite successful as it is interesting, and it is engaging. I do believe, however, that the colours are a bit bland, but they are contrasted to the edited image, and the relevance of the colours. I feel that an effective front cover has to be funny to capture the reader. I think that my photo's and headlines are quite funny, and therefore would be able to capture the readers.

From completing my front cover, I have gained knowledge on how to use pages effectively, and importantly, how to deal with deadlines. Finally, I think I have improved my Photoshop skills.

Preliminary Task Manipluated Photo for Front Cover of School Magazine

This is the original of the photo on my front cover for my school magazine.














I cropped the black edges off, so the photo reached all corners on the magazine.















 This is the final version. Using Photoshop, I manipulated it by altering the exposure. I did this to enhance the colours and the contrast, and I believe that it helps make it more eye catching.











By doing this, I have learnt how to use photoshop, as well as gaining the knowledge to take my work a step further and edit an image to make my magazine more eye catching.

Preliminary Task School Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page Plans

This is the plan for my front cover. It features a title, school logo, samples of the articles that are included and it will feature a main photo, a midshot, as the background. I will make sure that this includes everything I thought a good cover needed.

This is the plan for my contents page. It has a title to show what the page is, among other features. For example, page numbers, along with article titles are included, as well as notes from the head of the school and the head of sixth form. These will come with photos of them. The background will be a photo, but it will be easy on the eye, so the rest of the page is easy to read.

 

 

I have learnt a fair bit from planning my cover and contents pages for my school magazine. For instance, I now know that planning something on pages before doing the task can help to quickly make decisions that could have otherwise been difficult. Finally, it is also a good way to show changes from the original plan, to show the development of my work.