Planning - My Music Magazine Pitch

During class this week each of us had to give a pitch on the general nuance of our individual music magazines. This included - the title, genre, front tagline and coverline, main article/narrative and a lexicon of words associated with our magazine: and the target audience we hope to aim our magazine at.

My Music Magazine;

• Title = 'Mercury' - after two things; 1) Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen and my biggest musical idol and inspiration. 2) after the comments given to me by my peers and teacher at the end of my pitch, I have decided to also design my magazine, as the magazine of 'The Mercury Prize' (hence my previous blog post). 'The Mercury Prize' also celebrates artists of my chosen genre - thus I felt such a theme of my magazine was appropriate.
• Tagline = "The music magazine of 'The Mercury Prize'". 
• Genre = 'classic rock' - this is ultimately because it is one of my favourite genre of music, and the one I felt most intrigued by and passionate about when I was carrying out my generic research.
• Front coverline = "Meet Amy; the up-and-coming Killer Queen of rock!" - I chose this as my main coverline for the front cover as 'Amy' is the artist feature of my main image; thus, the main coverline relates to her. Additionally, I chose to embed the words of 'Killer Queen' within the coverline as it relates to my title and so, one of my reasonings for titling my magazine 'Mercury'. Killer Queen is a song by 'Queen' (whose lead singer is Freddie Mercury - one of the reasons why I called my magazine Mercury). And this chose of title and coverline also links to my genre - as long as my - Target Audience = 21+ - which, after my pitch, everyone got right. I felt that the title and coverline wording would connect well with my chosen target audience. Moreover, I didn't limit the upper-bound of the age of my target audience, due to the market research I carried out; classic rock magazines are often aimed at those who were young teenagers at the time bands such as Queen and The Beatles first came out. So, if these people were to pick up my music magazine, then they would be aware of the underline meaning of my title and front coverline.
• Narrative = in the main article of my magazine, it will concern the main artist on my front cover - "Amy" - it will cover her journey into stardom and discusses her inspirations (such as the early days of Madonna). This means that the narrative will remain true to the whole house-style of my magazine (i.e; the history of rock; and, now - as a result of the comments I received from my peers and my teachers - 'The Mercury Prize'): "Amy" will also be a young star striving to find herself shortlisted for a Mercury Award in 2016. She will also supply readers with her verdict on the previous winners of the prize etc.
  Furthermore, to cover my second theme of the history of rock, the main artist will inform us of her earliest memories of rock music as a young girl, i,e; Madonna - hence the photoshoot's similarities to early pictures of her in the past. The interview will go from the ultimate classics before her time i.e; Led Zepplin and Queen, to continuing modern day classics such as David Bowie (who is still releasing new albums).
• Lexicon of words = "rock, music, led zepplin, hard rock, metal, pink floyd, ac/dc, classic, queen, heavy metal, rock and roll, the beatles, rap, rolling stones, beatles, freddie mercury, guitar, jimmy page, paul mccartney, the who".

Comments on my pitch (From my Peers);

1. "Good link to Freddie Mercury - fans will want to buy it. TA: Middle-aged/older rock fans."
2. "Mercury - awards. Classic rock. Killer Queen = clever. Lexicon = interesting. TA: older rockers."
3. "Organise ideas so that you have a clear focus. Good masthead. Target audience = late 20's."
4. "Mercury. Up and coming killer queen of rock. T.A = middle-aged people and rock enthusiasts."
5. "Like your ideas about magazine - history of rock. TA = 25+."
6. "Title shows genre clearly. Very clever pun too. (TA) middle-aged."
7. "Really good name and ideas! Target audience: late 20's and above."
8. "Mercury. Classic rock. Up and coming killer queen. T.A. young-middle aged adults."
9. "Classic rock - Mercury. Mercury music awards. S.'s sister. Killer queen of rock. Up-and-coming. Inspired by Madonna. Early progression of rock. TA: older music fans, veterans of rock."

Generic Research - The Mercury Prize (Music Awards)

The Mercury Prize (Music Awards);

Winners = are well known to experience a mass increase in record and singles sales, as a result of the awards
              - particularly good for new or lesser known artists; they receive an award trophy + prize money (which, in 2014 = £20'000).
- the considerable effect on sales for artists who win (and even those simply shortlisted) is remarkable. 
           - "Elbow" = 700% increase in sales of album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' (2008 - winner).
           - "The XX" = 450% increase in sales of album 'The xx' (2010 - winner).

• The Mercury Prize = Formerly called 'The Mercury Music Prize' - an annual music prize awarded for the "Best Album" from the UK and Ireland.
  
• Established by? = The Mercury Prize was established by the 'British Phonographic Industry' and the 'British Association of Record Dealers' in 1992: the awards came as an alternative to the Brit Awards.
  
• Sponsors = 1) Mercury Communications (owned by 'Cable and Wireless) - where the prize got its title, 2) Technics (1998-2001), 3) Panasonic (2002+2003), 4) Nationwide Building Society (2004-2008) + Barclaycard (since 2009).
  
• Process = any album released by a British or Irish artists (or a band where 50% or more of its members are British/Irish) can be submitted for consideration by its label
                              - shortlist is chosen by an independent panel of musicians, music presenters/producers/journalists, festival organisers + other figures.
  
• What genres can be involved? = the prize is open to many genres, including; pop, rock, folk, jazz. dance, urban, electronica, blues + classical.
  - awards are usually presented at an Award show in October of that year.
  

• Nominees + Winners across the years;
             - 1992 = "Simply Red" - 'Stars' (shortlisted).
                        = "U2" - 'Achtung Baby' (shortlisted).
                        = "Primal Scream - 'Screamadelica' (WINNER).
  
             - 1996 = "Oasis" - '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' (shortlisted).
                        = "Mark Morrison" - 'Return of the Mack' (shortlisted).
                        = "Pulp" - 'Different Class' (WINNER).
  
             - 2003 = "Coldplay" - 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' (shortlisted).
                        = "Radiohead" - 'Hail to the Theif' (shortlisted).
                        = "Dizzee Rascal" - 'Boy in da Corner' (WINNER).
  
             - 2013 = "Artic Monkeys" - 'AM' (shortlisted).
                        = "David Bowie" - 'The Next Day' (shortlisted).
                        = "Rudimental" - 'Home' (shortlisted).
                        = "James Blake" - 'Overgrown' (WINNER). 

Generic Research - Reader Profile and History of 'Q' Magazine

Q’ magazine reader profile from Sophie Rudd

This post today contains a new PowerPoint presentation on a site I have used previously called 'Slideshare'. The presentation is on my research into a second music magazine's reader profile, this time - for 'Q'.

Now, the reason I chose not to post this reader profile research onto Prezi (as I did with my last piece of research) is because I wanted to keep my blog varied - and every post different. Additionally, with the research into the reader profile of 'Q', I found myself supplied with a lot more facts and figures and very significant information; such that I felt I couldn't consign it all to one presentation on Prezi.
I am aware that you can embed many individual Prezi slides into one presentation, but for me, I felt that a PowerPoint presentation would do my research a better justice.
Moreover, I felt more creative this time round: I really dug deep into the researching process, and found myself thoroughly enjoying putting these individual slides together into one presentation.

'Q' magazine's reader profile has definitely supplied me with a lot of information and inspiration for my reader profile, of which I shall be created for my own music magazine. I found the history and details of this magazine's progression over the years (as becoming one of the best and most popular music magazines in the UK). It also gives you a much wider and better understanding of just how much is contained within a music magazine and its reader profile. 

Generic Research - 'Mojo' Magazine Reader Profile and History research

This is a presentation that I, once again, have published on 'Prezi'. My reasoning for doing this is that my first presentations that I made on Prezi were a - work in progress, almost - and for that reason I wanted to attempt another presentation in a different layout to present my skills of which I have picked up from using this website more.


And the presentation of which I have made is all about the reader profile of 'Mojo' music magazine. Once again, I am aware that I have done research and presentations concerning this magazine before, however; I chose to do this as the genre of my music magazine of which I'll be creating is 'classic rock' - and this magazine in particular is well known for producing magazines to please target audiences that belong to this reader demographic. In addition, I myself enjoy reading the occasional issue of 'Mojo' music magazine, therefore it felt like the perfect reason to do a presentation going into a bit more detail about this magazine; who really reads the magazine? Why was it created? How successful is it? What artists does it include, and who is most commonly mentioned?


Topics/Areas I have included in my Prezi presentation about 'Mojo';
- 'A Brief History'
- 'Original Tagline'
- 'Target Audience and Reader Access'
- 'Business'
- 'Subscription Service'
- 'Sales Figures'
- ''Mojo' in the Modern Age'

Generic Research - My Analysis of 'Mojo' Magazine (2)

This post is very similar to my previous one; however, what I discovered from my previous post was several errors that I felt vital to fix. These decisions came as a result of a comment posted by my teacher on my last post. And all that has changed about the updated presentation on 'Prezi' is the design structure. What my media teacher informed me of was a product that contained a minimal amount of individual 'prezi' slides, and too much text.

Therefore I decided to go back to my presentation, insert more individual slides - except I cropped the images, and separated the text between these individual slides. This way I was able to analyse every factor more closely; this also means that it becomes more clear to an observer of my 'Prezi' presentation as to what part of the magazine cover; contents page or double-page spread that I am analysing.

Generic Research - My Analysis of 'Mojo' Music Magazine

Today's post contains my last analysis of a third music magazine's front cover, contents page and double-page spread. The magazine I analysed was 'Mojo'. And to show variety in my technological skills I have placed my presentation on a different site called 'Prezi'. Therefore, I now have a magazine analysis on 'PowerPoint', one as a video recording (which I have put up onto YouTube - I only done that as I was unable to upload my video file onto 'Vimeo'; due to the size of the file). And lastly, I have my third analysis on 'Prezi'.


Prezi was a new site for me to work with as I have never used anything like this before. This meant that the presentation took quite a long time to produce due to the fact that I wanted to spend a while getting used to how the site works, and playing around with the different settings. However, this presentation - I believe - is the best one I have produced. I feel that, over the course of analysing the various magazines I have learnt more and more along the way; and have also begun to understand how to analyse the magazine better; with a higher level of terminology and understanding.