Music magazine front cover draft:

The reason for the masthead choice is because the word 'Pulse' sounds very energetic and modern. It is also only short which is catchy and memorable. The main picture shown looks affective and clear to who the person is as the model is wearing symbollic equipment to R&B making the target market clear.

Picture's taken for my music magazine

All of these picture's were taken on a cannon 1000D camera.

Although this picture looks very effective, the picture may not look right in the magazine as the top half of the head is cropped off.

This picture wasn't chosen for my magazine as the model isn't looking towards the camera, and this means that the audience cannot engage with the audience.

This image looks very effective as the model is shown to be looking into the distance, however, the camera angle makes the model to look far away in the sense that they are pushing away from the wall. It also wasn't chosen as other picture's looked a lot more effective.

Audience, price and publish

As my intended target audience are the age of 16-24 I will need a price which is suitable for this age group. Most teenagers are in education rather than having a highly paid job, therefore do not earn a lot of money so my magazine price needs to be affordable in order for them to buy it. I will publish my magazine every monthly because not only will my magazine provide different and exciting contents every month, my magazine can advertise for the following months and offer coupons which will persuade readers to buy the continuing magazine which will result in more buyers, long term.

However, a competitive price will be needed to compete in the market. Therefore, I will price my magazine at £2.90 as this is a reasonable price for the target market. This should be affordable for my target market as it is published monthly. The date of publish, target audience and competitors have been taken into account when setting a price for my magazine.

Initial ideas and drafts

All of these magazines are a rough draft of what my music magazine layout will be like. This is also the information which will be included. These images will help me plan how my images will be layed out to be like. These images help me decide how I will take my photographs and what clothing the model should wear. They also give me an idea on how to set them out (plain background). The text of the artist's name (Jennifer Hudson) in that font and colour scheme looks very effective and I believe I should use this on my music magazine. Depending on my image, my masthead title may differ to red as this will stand out and make the magazine noticable. The masthead will cover up the full top 1/4 of the page as this is the main focus of the magazine.

Digital mock up:

This gives me an indication on how the layout of my magazine will look. This helps me plan my magazine as it shows whether my layout will work or if it will be cramped.

Target audience

Audiences are separated into groups using quantitive data; on gender, age and social class. Gender is separated into two categories; male and female. This can then be separated into ages: 15 and under, 16-24, 25-35, 36-55 and 56 and over. I have decided to aim my magazine at both male and female but mainly females, this will age from 16-24. This is because from my research I found that it is mainly young females that like this sort of music (R&B). My target audience is most likely to be in the c-d grade (unemployed/semi-skilled workers). This should be the correct target audience as most 16-24 year olds are in education, or recently gone in to work. Therefore, making a low price for the magazine should be correct. They would like to see a main image that covers the whole page which is appealing to them perhaps showing attitude. Also, a good main headline. Tease devices such as winning tickets to an R&B concert which will appeal to them. They will also want good main headlines which will interest them and persuade them to buy the magazine. Demographics are important so I can figure out more about my target audience. Including relatively new bands in my magazine should make young readers interested in the magazine and buy it. Therefore, my front cover should be very appealing and eye catching meeting the target audience's needs. 

My chosen music genre

For my music magazine I will create an R&B music magazine. The main R&B magazine is Vibe. This is because I like this style of music and therefore know a lot about it. R&B magazine's are all different and are targetted to men and women as this is a wide music genre. I will focus my magazine on females but also males. I looked on R&B music charts and noticed which artists featured on this, these consist of; JLS, Rizzle Kicks and Professor green. These artists are supported by males and females. However, JLS mainly have female fans. An example of a music magazine I found of this genre is:


This magazine will be aimed at men and women. However, this magazine in particular is more focussed on the male audience as it talks a lot about sex. This magazine shows attitude which can be considered for my magazine. This is aimed towards the younger audience as it shows attitude and a young artist.


This magazine shows an audience of males and females. However, this one is slightly more leading to female fans of women hence the body. This magazine features an MCU shot of Chris Brown which will appeal to a lot of people.


These images help me decide how to plan my music magazine and what to include in it.    

Middle page spread

This double page spread is from the rock/indie magazine 'NME'. This contains monochrome colours. The blue in this double page spread connotes indie. The colour also shows that it is vibrant this helps promote for a wider audience. The page title is given in the top left hand corner(byline) followed by a caption underneath. The purpose of this article is to entertain and inform the audience ('need to know' box). It shows that its purpose is to entertain by having a quote 'Of course we're a sexual band. We're the teenagers and thats all they think about'(pull quote) which has a comical tone. There is also use of colloquial language when it says 'Young, dumb and full of..filthy tunes'. From this double page spread you can tell that the audience is 16-24's (young-mid audience) and that the older generation most probably wouldn't like this. The font in this magazine is a mixture of serif and sans-serif. All the text in this magazine is simple and direct, it all stands out to the reader and is clear to read as they have bold statements which will attract the audience. The photograph is a high angle shot of the band. The big image is eye catching and will attract the younger audience. This magazine helps me plan my own magazine as highlighting main elements is very effective and they use certain devices to attract their audience. They also use drop capitals which looks very good.

The main image takes up one whole page spread this shows what the article is about and appeals to the audience and makes it clear what the article is about as the image relates to it. The article has a 'C' which covers almost the whole page this looks very effective and appealing to the audience. At the bottom left hand side there is a pull quote which is taken from the article this is often informative or humorous and gives the reader a brief look at what the article is about. Another image is shown at the bottom right hand side of the article and this shows the reader more information on the article. The colour scheme of red and black is very effective and appealing to the audience. The mise-en-scene of Cheryl Cole of the main image fits in with the colour scheme and leather, black and studs are usually related to rock.

The main attraction this double page spread is the page title. The text is written in a dark and bold font, highlighted in yellow which stands out shows that the text is important. This has been made to stand out as it is important information to this article. The use of artists has been used to attract people into buying the article as Rihanna is one of the most famous R&B icons around and Drake is well known for been an R&B artist. Therefore, this article attracts both male and female artists to attract a wider audience. The text that’s says ‘RIHANNA ft Drake’ Rihanna is all in capitals and Drakes isn’t I feel they have done this because Rihanna is the main person as the article is about her but you know it will mention Drake, I feel they have put the text in blue because it is more of a male related colour then yellow so it is trying to attract the male audience. The second attraction is the column on the right hand side which shows Rihanna's past hairstyles which people may want to copy. This will appeal to the female audience as they will be interested in this and it also gives the reader more information about Rihanna. The main image stands out as it is directly in the middle of the page and Rihanna is looking directly towards the audience this is a conventional approach.  Another main attraction goes down to the terminal area. The first thing you see is a little yellow box that has a sub title saying ‘along similar lines’ it is short and catchy which will make  people want to read it. The colour scheme is in yellow, black and white. This is effective as they all stand out when they are put together as they are contrasting colours. The background of this article is in white which makes everything else on the page stand out and putting the side column with a black background makes it stand out. These features make the magazine more appealing to the audience and therefore may choose this over others on the market. This page consists of more pictures than text as for this age group are not as likely to be as interested in reading the articles. The article is promoting Rihanna's new single which is also shown in the page title which makes it sound catchy. The text is also persuasive which will persuade the audience to buy/listen to Rihanna's new single. The main title is also a rhetorical interrogative which involves the reader. This magazine is aimed at 16-24's which have an interest in R&B as the artist and text shows.