Overview Of Music Magazine

The NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music. The award-winning www.nme.com, launched in 1996, has grown to be the biggest commercial music news site in Europe.

Price £2.20
Frequency Weekly
Circulation 56,284
Readership 411,000
Launch Date 1952
Male/Female 73%/27%
Average Age 25
ABC1 73%
Target Market Men 17-30

• 80% of NME readers feel that music is an important part of their lives
• 79% of NME readers like to listen to new bands
• 63% specially choose to listen to indie/guitar bands
• 49% specially choose to listen to live bands in studio
• 52% are interested in taking a musical course/qualification
• 36% are thinking of buying a musical instrument in the next year
• 34% are working full time, 18% are working part time and 26% are full time students
• 62% read at least 3 out of 4 issues
• Almost half (49%) have been reading NME for at least 3 years
• 84% think the magazine gives them what they want spending an average of 46 minutes reading each issue

This is an established music magazine product. IT is instantly recognised by all audiences including its own target audience. It caters for the indie and alternative music industry instead of chart or pop music. It’s mainly targeted at males on an average age of 25 but is popular among females and younger students too.

Overview of Industry

IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month.
IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.
Our men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.
Our mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the goodtoknow network.
Our upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome.

This company is a major producer of magazine. they have several different titles which cover everything from fashion music and lifestyle advise. They say they have reached ‘almost 26 million UK adults’. Some of which are women which they split into mass market women, which would be described as mainstream women who are interested in magazines like ‘woman’ magazine and ’heat’ magazine, and upmarket women which are more of a higher class and would read magazines like ‘vogue’ and ‘cosmopolitan’.

This feature article has a very noticeable house style. The read writing is bold and stands out on the black back ground and black and white images with the white head line in the centre that immediately draw your eye to it. The article has a large block of information and writing on the band that is easy to read up close and includes details on the band and around it there are relevant pictures to the article which give a feel of what the article is talking about. Next to the article there is a ‘lowdown list’ which gives small pieces of information and facts on the band. This could help to make the band more popular as is encourages readers to read about them and learn about them. The band chosen rally suits the target audience and the picture of the band recording records and performing would attract the right people who are interested in music and also backs up the idea of them being deeply involved in their music.

This article is from NME about Lily Allen and popular music artist. The first thing you notice about it Is the house style of the jagged black and white text and Lily in her bold, red top. I think this works well with the target audience as it fits in the ‘individual’ theme of the magazine and represents Lily as ‘out there’ and against the rules of a strict colour scheme with the rest of the articles cold white and black. By main head like of ‘People think I’m an attention seeker, but I’m just honest’ is evidence to how she feels she is free and maybe against society, which again works well with the magazines feel and probably the types of people who read it and like to have role models that rebel or represent rebellions.

Analysis Of College Magazine

This collage magazine is for an older group of students. The first thing you notice is the picture of the student in the middle. He is smiling and holding ‘law business and society’ books which make you think straight away that the magazine is about happy students who are studying. The colours on this cover are very well done as it has a theme of yellow and white which make the eye focus on the head line and title, which is titled as ‘college’ which straight away give you the right feel of college and education. I think the image size is a good size, it is quite big which draws your eye to the cover but not so big you cannot read the cover lines. The cover lines are also a good size. I think they could have been a bit bigger or brighter as some of the white ones are a bit harder to read. I like the way the fonts are all different on the cover lines except the main title of each one. Each font gives a different feel for what you are reading about. For example ‘the ultimate spring break escape’ is in a very thin relaxed font, whereas ‘make money on campus’ is in a bold yellow font. The tone of the magazine is good because it is very relaxed and fun yet it still is talking about collage and not only information for students but about the collage or ‘campus’ too. I think the target audience is probably for older student about 16- 19 as the student on the front looks quite grown up and the cover lines are a lot about making money or about doing things independently which makes me thing the students that this is aimed for is for people who live on their own or who are moving out. The magazine is priced at $4.99 which is about £2.70 which I think is a reasonable price for the target audience as it is for an older group of students and it does look quite well made and as if it has a lot of useful information inside. I think the magazine is seasonal as it says on this issue, summer issue. I think that would work quite well as we have terms through each season so it would help to have a lot of information based on the summer like summer breaks and then a winter issue based on Christmas savings and things. I also think this explains why the price is a bit more than an average magazine as if there are only four a year, for each season, I think it would have a lot of information and advice in each one.

Questionnaire Analysis

When I did me collage magazine questionnaire I found that most of the people who were questioned did not read the magazine. 5% of the people asked said yes, they did read the magazine, and a large 95% said they didn’t. As we had established that not a lot of students actually read the magazine we were surprised to conclude that a more impressive 25% would pay for the magazine, even the most they said they would pay was 50p, and 75% of the people asked said no, they wouldn’t pay for it.
The next set of questions was about what the magazine would include and hat it would have to offer. The most popular things to be put in the magazine were upcoming events which got 9, shout outs, completions and news bulletins. The least popular was history of the collage and work load. On another question we managed to find out what people thought would make the magazine more likely to be sold or read, some of the answers were; Pictures, More publicity, Graphics and colours. And that the most popular features we could include were upcoming gigs (which was most popular of all) followed by jobs being the second favourite and Facebook news, cinema times showing information and film reviews, Gossip and agony aunts and TV reviews.
Finally we found out that the people asked would like the magazine to be released either monthly, being the most popular, and weekly. Not many people wanted it termly and no one voted for it yearly.

This magazine cover has been produced very cleverly as is has put three very different artists on the cover to entice three or more types of audiences. Lady gaga would appeal to the charts industry and pop music were as jay-z would appeal to hip hoppers or people who enjoy rap, and then Dave Grohl appeals to indies and rockers etc. Just above then is “Exciting People” which makes the reader thing not only is there at least one person on the front cover that appeals to them but they may be more inside and that the magazine is right for lots of people. All of the adverts and appeals round the edge of the magazine cover are all there to engage the reader into buying the magazine and this magazine does that well with the “42 pages of reviews” which make the reader want to buy the magazine to read.
The magazine has tried to put as many different genres and types of artists to attract
different types or music lovers and readers to the magazine and website and they have clearly places the Q sign so it is easy to identify and relate to.

This magazine is bold and catches the readers eye. The Masthead (magazine name) is very bright and in contrast to the rest or the colours and house styles of the magazine which is good as it is easy to identify by the name. The main image, of La Roux, is very bright and shocking which is attention grabbing and immediately brings the eye to the magazine. Also the subjects eyes are staring in to the camera which give the effect that she is looking at you which makes you want to look at it as her eye make-up and skin is shocking. Next to the Masthead there is the magazines selling phase, “the future of music” which caches the reader’s attention and is very appealing to the target audience of young people as they know that young people always want to be ahead of everything. All of the important cover lines are in bold, bright writing to catch your attention and the main things like “50” and “La Roux” are in large writing so you notice the important information first and then want to read the smaller piece afterwards, for example your eye catches “50” and you immediately want to know 50 what ? “the bands , the artists, the innovators”.

This contents page is good as it has a good red and white spaced out house style and is very eye catching. It splits the two main sections into featured and regulars which are very clearly displayed and easy to identify. This helps the reader to use the magazine and to find what they’re looking for without hassle. It also has clear picture of things people might want to see or they recognise with the page number in the corner so you can flick to that page easily and efficiently. The words ‘Drummer’ in bold writing entices the reader to read the magazine as it backs up the idea of a cool music magazine and is what the reader is looking for. Each feature has an individual name that catches the readers attention and makes it clear to the reader what the feature is all about and why they should read it, in just a couple of words. For example ‘Jazz Is…’ gives the reader a clear idea that that particular article is about something to do with jazz and what its about, so if someone was just looking at the magazine in a shop and wanted something to do with jazz they would see this and it could help them to buy the magazine. Also the way they have put a small amount of information on the feature section and just titles of each article on the regulars makes you think that obviously they do those particular article regularly and if you bought the magazine a lot and new it well you know what they’re about anyway which could sway someone into buying it a lot, as to feel like they are part of the magazine and know what its about. The spacing is very well done and it is all set out very well to not confuse the reader but to make the magazine easier to understand and read.

This contents page is very different to the one before. Whereas the last one was very focused on what was in the magazine and the articles inside I think this one is a lot more about the artist inside and what is featured as we have a large clear picture of a rapper which draws most of your attention. Again we have the feature list with all of the articles inside that are featured in this particular magazine but underneath they have their own heading for fashion which makes me think they are focused on fashion and music fitting in together. They have a very clear house style of a purple red colour and white text that stands out on the page to attract the reader’s attention. Also the picture in the middle of the artist is very bold and controversial which is very enticing to some audiences especially young. The main picture also would be very forward for certain target audiences as it shows the artists tattoos and big jewellery which would appeal to certain people, thus making them want to buy the magazine more.