Research and Planning for Music Magazine

Summary of Final Magazine Choice• The genre I have decided for my music magazine is dance. Dance music is known and listened to worldwide. It has a mass

audience including all ages. However, different subgenres have a specific target audience.• In the dance genre, there are main sub-genres. Some of which include:• Dance• Electro-Dance• House• Dubstep• Garage• Hardcore• House• Jungle• Drum & Bass• Techno• Trance•

• However, for my specific music magazine, the area’s of Dance I will be focusing on are: House, Dutch House and Dance. These types of music are played in clubs, at gigs and festivals (which will feature heavily in the magazine).

The specific subgenres I have chosen do appeal to large audiences, although they are specifically target towards teenagers toyoung adults. Hence the reason why my target audience is 19 – 24 year olds. This is predominantly because this is the type of music played at festivals and concerts etc.

• Other content will include: an exclusive interview with a DJ or popular artist, the evolution of Dance, festivals upcoming events and other relevant material.

• To discover what my target audience want to be included in this issue I will conduct: Several interviews with this age range,questionnaires will be made available to a large sample size, look at competitors magazines etc. After doing this, the most relevant age for this specific genre and content is 19 – 24 year olds.

• To appeal to this market the most relevant artists in this industry will feature. They will include: Steve Aoki, Axwell, Hardwell, Alesso, Swedish house mafia, Nicky Romero, Martin Solvieg etc.

• Magazine name: PULSE

Audience Research & Analysis

• To discover what my target audience liked and wanted to see in a music magazine, I conducted a questionnaire. This was created on survey monkey. This was then exported and distributed to a wide range of people. From this I discovered:

My target audience ranges from 19 – 24

The most popular genre was dance

The free item will be a music track / mix

Articles will feature popular artists from the industry

It will cost £3.99

It will be available both to download and as a hard copy.

Conducting this survey was very important for decision making. Without this I would not have chose any of the decisions listed above. By seeking answers from my target audience means I am delivering a product that has demand. This should guarantee high sales.

Flat Planning

Flat Planning

Masthead ideas

Dance

Pulse

Party

Rave

Bright lights, loud music

RevolutionBeat

Club

Generation

Masthead Ideas

• After thorough research into Dance music magazines I have discovered that the masthead is different to other genres. In dance, the masthead is very simple but free flowing. Coils and pirouettes are a running theme throughout this specific type of magazine. There is often one feature that differentiates one magazine masthead from another: In ‘mixmag’ we notice the circle above the ‘I’ is double layered and reflects the magazine house style.For my music magazine masthead I have chosen the title ‘Pulse’. The reason behind this is; You need a pulse to live, some people say they cannot live without music which subsequently carries a beat. In every music track they have a certain number of BMP (beats per minuet), dance has one of the highest (125 – 140). Beat connotes ‘Pulse’. The reason for this choice is ‘pulse’ is a catchy and memorable name for a magazine and it is commonly associated with the Dance genre.Some examples of existing mastheads and my ideas are below:

Photograph Planning

• For Dance magazines, the cover model is usually:

One person

No props

Medium close up - medium shot

Plain background

Central

Basic but effective

This gives a strong effect as the audience are only focusing on one thing; the artist. By having one cover model, you know exactly what is going to be included in the center sections.

For my magazine front cover, it will: feature one person, be in a neutral location, have minimal colour.

Photograph Planning

Photograph Planning

SketchesFront Cover Contents page

SketchesDouble-page spread

Creating a Band

• Dutch DJ

• Played festivals: Tomorrowland, Creamfields, Global Gathering, Oxygen, Snowbombing etc

• Age: 24 – started at 18

• Makes Dance and House music

• 5 Top tens in 2012

• Voted ‘One to watch 2013’

• Iconic in this genre in short career

• Promoting world tour