Focus group

In class we got put into groups of 3 or 4  to make a focus group to help us improve our ideas with other peoples opinions on your music magazine. I showed my focus group the mood board I made on Pinterest which included inspirations and some pop artists.

Title:

At the time of the focus group I had only just surveyed names therefore I thought I'd ask for there favourite and 3 out of 4 of the people in my focus group preferred the name 'Emerge'  therefore I have came to conclusion to use that name.

Front cover:

I have only got a brief  idea of what I want my front cover page to look like. I explained to my focus group that I want my front cover to have only want one singer/artist because I have researched other pop magazines and mostly all of them have one artist on the cover therefore they talk more in detail about that one singer. I want to take photos quite close up of the face than a head to toe photo.

Double page spread:

I haven't got a lot of ideas for the double page spread so I asked my focus group for opinions and ideas for what to put in a pop magazine which is targeted to teenagers not children. The ideas they gave me were:

• interview with a singer.
• issues in a singers life.
• talk about a singer's achievements.
• write about a award show e.g. Billboard Music Awards.

From the focus group I have more of an idea what will be on the double page spread I want a larger photograph of the singer, a large title with their name and a article. I don't want the article to be to long, I want it to be a bit more straight to the point and this will engage the reader to read the whole article than get bored half way through.

Magazine name ideas

A magazine name is very important when it comes to engaging with the music audience and making people want to buy your magazine. It is not just about the name of your music magazine but what it looks like on your magazine including the font, size and colour.

I have brainstormed names for my pop magazine which will be eye-catching to the reader/audience. I have surveyed for names from my peers at school and got a few interesting ones. Here is some of the names:

 

In conclusion I have chosen to use the name 'Emerge' because I think it is unique and different and it is appearing and rising, this relates very well to music because new singers and music can appear suddenly and rise in popularity.

Synergy and Convergence in my own magazine

I think print magazines are becoming less popular and this could mean magazine companies are not getting as much money. I like to be able to buy a magazine in a shop and hold a magazine to read it instead of looking online. Therefore I am going to make my magazine look very interesting so people buy the print copy.

When I start to look more in-depth into my music magazine I will start to look at brands that can link to my music magazine. If my magazine is popular enough I would like to include fashion trends into my magazine so I could make a brand out of it selling different pieces of clothing which represent my magazine. I'd like to develop a website to show the popular music, trends and issues at the moment. In particular I will make my website be always be up to date by making the workers be always looking for more interesting news and new music. If the magazine had enough support it could lead on to a radio station and even a TV show.

Synergy,Technological convergence and music magazines

Magazines have to increase profits and market  penetration and music magazines are now 'Brands' and doe not conflict themselves to print.

Digital Technology

Digital technology has changed everything by seeing media texts on a digital device. This has made a concept of a magazine different and can access magazines online on mobiles and tablet/IPad devices.

Synergy

Synergy helps magazines make more money for their brand. You can sell your brand in different ways to reach or relate to more people this is by using a variety of advertising  revenues.

Billboard Music Magazine

I have investigated Billboard magazine and how it is a brand. It is an American music magazine and is very influential in music. The magazine's brand offers the physical magazine but beyond that it offers music charts to   tell people the most popular music day to day. The latest news about the music and entertainment industry and offers new trends and issues happening at the moment.

 Billboard has been developed products, live events, print magazine, TV awards, radio and it offered on mobile platforms this is how the magazine use convergence.

The magazine has a head quarters in New York and now has businesses in Brazil, Greece, Japan,Korea and Russia.

Billboard magazine is owned by 'Prometheus Global Media' which is a diverse company in media, entertainment and advertising and marketing. This company helped the Magazine to get a award show called 'Billboard Music Awards' which started in the 1980's in December but stopped in 2007 and then started again in 2011. They offer different awards e.g. 'Artist of the year', 'Album of the year' and 'Song of the year' and have different hosts and location every year. It was first televised on FOX network and then  after 2011 they stayed with FOX network but on their new channel 'ABC'.Billboard offers different genres of music because they host a Latin music awards.

Key Problems of the music industry

The patterns of music consumption have changed because people are not paying for music they are using Spotify, iTunes and other ways of getting music which have effected the music industry. The internet is used by young people for information. Why would people pay for music that they could get for free? Also why buy magazines when they are offering online for free?

People do not buy music CD's and magazines as much because they know they can get it online for either free or less money. The younger generation subscribe to magazines online and read them there than going out and buying them. Many magazines are going online and music magazines will not survive if the internet is replacing paper magazines and is going onto a digital version.

Social Identity Theory

The theory was developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner. Through social categorization it divides people into social classes, race, age, gender and this helps people formulate a social identity for themselves. There are two groups an 'in-group' and 'out-group', the 'in-group' goes against what the 'out-group' thinks, this enhances there self image.

Tajfel came up with the idea of stereotyping which shows a clear style of group; for example MOD, rock and skinheads. This is called social comparison meaning you compare one group to the other group such as skinheads all have the same short hair cut, doctor martins and are fighters and aggressive. Hippies are very chilled out and go with anything and believe in everything peaceful, these two group do not get along.
 

Does Social identity Theory still apply to music magazines?

In different types of music e.g. pop, this genre is all positive and never show pop celebrities getting in trouble because they are idols for there young target audience. Rock bands/singers don't care about there image and give the impression that they don't care and look down on people if they don't listen to the same music. I can see that rock music affects the people who listen to it by changing there attitudes and beliefs. 

 

Moodboard

I made a mood board on pinterest to help research magazine ideas and to show the pop magazine I want to make it look like and the celebrities that is included on magazine I'm researching.

 

http://www.pinterest.com/katytierney2/music-magazine/