Key concepts of Q magazineIn this I will look at a style of magazine that I plan to base my own

magazine on, and I will compare it to other magazines as a whole.

Language

The music magazine that I have chosen is a Q music magazine. When looking at the front cover you notice how different each magazine is. Q is different to other music magazines because they use less colours than billboard for example. Billboard generally use a bigger range of bright and bold colours whereas Q seem to stick to black, red, grey and white, (then you may have the odd other colours that the artist may be wearing). Also their range of font that they use is different because theirs in quite indie and rock based so its bold and thick, where as billboards and top of the pops is softer and more rounded. Furthermore the focal point of their magazine would have to be their logo. The use of a bright red against a white really makes the logo pop out. For an eye catching magazine you need something on the page to stand out, and that it exactly what Q has done.

Additionally they use a lot of pronouns within their magazines. Doing so makes the audience connect more with the magazine, because it is as if they are asking you specifically to go and listen to the certain artists. Using pronouns can make the audience read more and therefore hopefully buy the magazines.

Representation

The images that Q use can be quite serious and or straight faced. This may be because Q will use older people compared to Top of the pops as they use younger people. They would use older adults because Q magazine is mainly aimed for the older generation, because they generally use artists and bands that have been around for quite a lot of years, therefore older people will know them more which is why it is aimed at that age range. Also the styling for Q is indie/rock, whereas top of the pops use bright coloured clothing to make it ‘poppy’, and billboard use bold colours for the background, but try too keep it simple on the styling. Moreover, as Q magazine is an indie/rock based music magazine, they base their music o that type of style of music so they advertise artists that are that style f music. This would be different for top of the pops and billboard as they use pop music. Also looking at the layout (contrast in colour) they use very bold headings and subheadings because they use white against black, whereas top of the pops use colours that almost blend together. And also looking at the layout, top of the pops uses a lot of subheadings as it’s a very busy page on the other hand, Q is busy but its not all over the place, (its more organized), and lastly for billboard they are quite simplistic with their overall layout.

Audience

Social media takes a huge part of the advisement of magazines. Social networking's such as Instagram, twitter and Facebook are the most popular for advertisement, and doing so can bring in a lot more money for the company. We respond to things on media more than anything else, and that shows how important it is. There is a theory which is known as the two step flow. This is the idea that most people will form their opinion after hearing the opinion leaders. In this case the magazine is the opinion leader and the audience have their normal own opinion. If you go by what this theory says then the information that is said within the magazine is what the readers will think and or believe as well. They will change their mind or still agree because they think that this is a trustworthy source or information because the readers know that makers of Q have met the artists and have had individual interviews.

InstitutionQ magazine generally sells for around £3.00 to £30.00. The price of the magazine will depend whether it is an exclusive one of magazine or the general monthly magazine. Moreover, releasing a magazine monthly can better for the company because you can bring in more money. What I mean by this is that making people wait for the magazine at the end of the month can increase demand for the production of it. This means that if more people are wanting them, then they can raise the price of the magazine, which means they can bring in more profit. Additionally, features that would make me want this are the giant buttons that they advertise, and also seeing whether they have added any competitions and prizes that you can win. As well as this all magazines have to try get their name out somehow, otherwise they will not be able to bring in money. Q got their name out like every other magazine. They would have started with newer, and not as well know artists and they would have made their way up and up to eventually get where they are now. As well as Q magazine, they also have Q radio. From what I know Q magazine have a radio station in which they would talk to different artists. This would bring in more money for Q because they are advertising themselves to new people who might want to buy their magazine.