Market Research

Music Magazines available in the UK

In the UK we can find a lot of different music magazines. Some examples are “Kerrang!”, “Classic Rock”, “Metal Hammer”, “NME”, “Q”, “Mojo”, “Mixmag” and “We <3 Pop”.

Publishers, Circulations, readers and mission statements

Kerrang readers are the heaviest music consumers purchasing over 6 albums a month on average, which is 53% more than the national average. The circulation is about 44 000. The magazine attracts especially rock lovers.

Classic Rock has a solid 149 608 readership, was launched in 1998 and its circulation is 71 242. This magazine will be interesting if you like rock, obviously.

Metal Hammer has a readership of 91 909, launched in 1994 and a circulation of 41 777. Young readers (average 22 years old) will read this.

Texual Analysis

Masthead – Uses yellow letters pointing straight forward. The letters are in contrast with the read colour behind, so we can clearly see the Masthead.

Main Image – Famous people from the band “Green day”. This attracts readers since they are well known. We can feel that they are looking at us and trying to get our attention. They wear dark suits, which is a nice outfit for special occasions and will therefore make people buy this, because it seem more classy. Layout - is colourful with strong,

bright colours, such as yellow, black and red. This magazine will therefore be easy to spot amongst many other magazines. Normally these magazines are black, but the company might have changed this into black and yellow because of the season (halloween?)

Barcode - A commonconvention used onthe front cover inorder for the consumerto purchase the media product.

Sub heading – Catchy and gets attention from the audience. The letters are written in another theme font and colour, which strengthens the attention.

Plug – This is on the front cover to get the audience buying the magazine. They get an idea of what's inside the magazine and will hopefully buy it.

Buzz word – “WIN”, positive word that strikes the audience straight away, as everyone wants to win. The letters are coloured in white, with a black background, so it is clear to see because of the contrast between the two colours.

“Kerrang” double page spread

Heading – Different colour on the words in the same sentence creates a good variation and makes the reader more interested than if they were regular white and boring colours. The white colours attracts especially more the men, and the pink colour attracts more women. The heading is also a quote, taken directly from what the person said. This would be interesting for the fans of the person on the double page spread, as the whole article will be about him.

Buzz words - “Absolutely” catches the audiences eye, and is written in a big font. Also, it stands out on the double page spread, as the background colour is black and therefore creates a good contrast. Main image – The person

is looking at the audience, and gets a “connection” to the audience. His t-shirt is white with some black colour in the middle of it. The costume uses only colours that are commonly used other places on the double page spread.

Layout – White, black, and pink are colours used to create a good balance for the double page spreads layout. All the small text is placed on right page, and the whole picture of the man is on the left. This allows the costumer to only concentrate on the right page when reading, and left page when looking at Davey Havok. The subheadings are easy to notice because of the white colour background and black font. This separates the actual text from the subheadings quite clearly.

Drop caps - Draws the attention of the audience to the start of the article. Black colour attracts both men and women, because the colour is neutral.

Centrefold – Two letters in the heading goes over on the left page, and this makes a good balance for the double page spread. The left hand side page is more for men, as the colours are more masculin.

Kerrang Content pageMasterhead – This is written in yellow with a black background. By doing this, the letters in the word stands out. The costumer can easily see that this is a content page, as the word “contents” is used on top of the page.

Main image – This is a black and white picture. This might show the costumer that this is something scary and frightening. We can also see that the intention is to make it look scary, as the word “zombie” is used in the right corner of the picture.

Sub image – Advertisement with the intention of the costumer purchasing a product, in this case tickets. Written in different colours in order to catch the audiences attention.

Layout – The use of the yellow colour is commonly used on the page, but in different areas, and makes a good balance for the layout. Many pictures of different people are used on the content page to show this is a magazine for everyone, and by doing this it makes the costumer feel more involved.

Sub heading – The white and yellow letters with a black background draws the attention of the audience and brings more focus to the words.

Buss word – “Win” is something that everyone likes, and is a positive word, also written in yellow with a black background as many other places on the page.

Texual Analysis

Barcode – A convention commonly used on the front cover in order for the costumer to purchase the media product.

Masterhead – Red, big and clear letters that easily gets the customers attention, also in the contrast of the hair of the person on the picture. .

Sub image – what the audience can expect in the magazine/gives a sneak peak, but just as much as it catches the interest of the buyer to want to read more about the case.

Main Image – Main focus on the magazine front cover. There is an eye line match, which the customer can feel in touch with the person on the picture. This is not a regular person in everyday-clothing, but more a formal person suited up. This may make the customer feel more exclusive when buying the magazine.

Buzz Words: “Free” and “Hero” are words that gets the attention of the reader, and since they are positive and easy words to understand, people will most likely buy this magazine.

Layout – neutral white background, Which makes the main image really clear. The red letters stands out as the clearest ones at thisfront page, and therefore the most importantthings in the magazine is written in red, and theless important is written in black and white. Thesub images also gets attention because of the blue colour on her robe, and the contrast between the shirt of the man and the suit he’s wearing.

Date and price – This is a common convention, and almost every magazine has date and price on the front cover. The company doesn’t want this to stand out, and wrote it in small letters as it’s not as appealing to the audience.

Sub Heading – This is something that is very much in the media and gets a lot of attention from the society, since everyone wants to be skinny.

Freebie – this draws in the audience because something is free if you purchase the magazine. Some will just think of the word free, and ignore the fact that you have to purchase the magazine. Very clever method to get more costumers buying this magazine.

NME Double page spreadMasterhead – This is written in black with a white neutral background. When he “takes aim” it’s not directly by shooting someone, but more like achieving something. This makes a creative heading, and gets attention because it’s a good heading as well.

Main image – This picture really stands out, as his jacket is in contrast to his white t-shirt and the white background. He is looking in the camera to get the attention and the feeling that he is connected to the audience.

Layout – Quite simple layout, with not many colours. You have the big heading, two purple letters and a picture of a person on the left. The purple letters creates attention from the audience and are easy to notice. The white words are placed on the jacket, as it creates a contrast from the colour of the jacket.

Drop caps – Draws attention from the audience, so they know the start of the article. Written in purple colours, so they are easily noticed by the one purchasing this magazine.

Target audience – Mostly men will read this magazine because of the masculine colours on this page. However, the pink drop caps may attract some female costumers.

NME content pageLayout – Basically red colours placed on the left hand side, and yellow at the bottom of the page. The black writing is the main text, and is placed in the middle, as it is easier to notice. The rest are just additional texts for the more specific reader. This attracts more costumers, as it allows both the specific readers to read every detail as well as the not extremely detailed reader.

Masterhead – Big font that shows clearly that this is “NME” with the news of the week. This news you will only get this week, and is exclusive as it is just this week. There is also a date under the masterhead, so the costumers know that this is recently posted.

Puff – This shows the costumer the importance in the market of magazines. This is what makes the magazine different from the others, and therefore it will attract people to purchase this magazine.

Sub heading – Involves a famous band, especially in the UK, and because of this, people in the UK would be interested, as they sell “NME” in the UK.

Plug – advertisement in order to make the costumer purchase the magazine. If you subscribe today, you will save 33%. This draws in the audience, as everyone likes discounts, and because of that, it is written in yellow letters with black background, and easy to spot.

Texual Analysis Puff – “The UK’s Biggest Music Magazine”. This shows the importance of the magazine in the UK. Since it clearly is the biggest music magazine in the UK, the customer will think that it just has to be good, and well worth purchasing.

Masterhead – Uses big Q letter in white font with a red background. By doing this, the Q stands out and gets attention from the audience.

Sub heading – “Muse” is used on the froncover, because it’s something that catches the eye of the costumer. Why? Because the band is world famous for it’s music.

Barcode: Common convention to make the costumer purchase this product.

Layout – Not very colourful, few colours: white, red, grey and black. The red colour freshens the page up, and in each of the corners we have the red colour, and it therefore creates a good layout on the front page.

Sub image - Costumer gets an idea of what's in the magazine. The point is to get the costumer enough interested by reading this little sneak peak, to buy the magazine and read the whole case.

Main image – The famous gitarist in the band “Muse” creates attention from the audience and we can see him in action when swinging his guitar. We want to read the magazine, because everyone want success in their lives, and he’s a great example of exactly that. If we read more about him and his life, we might be more like him.

Q double page spread

Masterhead - “50 cent” is written in bright green/blue font because the case involves a famous person that everyone knows about and is therefore exclusive. The word “hell” is used to create attention, and is not a word that is commonly written, and therefore this magazine makes people curious about the case.

Drop caps – The costumer knows where to start the article with the two big drop caps.

Main image – a picture of 50 cent, looking a bit angry. This makes the costumer think automatically that he is in trouble, something unusual is going on. Whenever there is trouble with a famous artist, people will be interested, and this is the case also on this one.

Quote – Strengthens the willingness of the costumer to purchase the product. This is probably something 50 cent has said, and you get a sneak peak on what the article might be about and the reader would like to read the whole article.

Layout – The picture on is on the right hand page unlike the other double page spreads I’ve done so far. The effect this gives is that it creates an excitement towards the magazine, something new and different from all the others. The costumer may feel this is a more exclusive magazine. The article is on the left hand page, and it is not really a lot colours on both pages.

Q content page

Masterhead - This shows clearly what the reader can expect from this page and further on in the magazine as it says “contents” on top of the page.

Feature headlines – This is all the cases the reader can expect to read on the following pages starting with the article about “Plan B” and ends with “Mick Jagger”.

Main image – Two people looking at each other in a so-called two shot. It looks like there is a tension between the two characters and the reader would like to know what the case is all about. But this is just a little sneak peak, and the costumer would like to read the whole article.

Sub image – As every other article in other magazines have pictures captured in the town or of famous people, this magazine shows that it is independent from the others by capturing a picture in the nature with a cow. This is probably just a regular person, as most of the readers, and they might feel more welcome towards the case.

Plug – common convention used to draw the attention of the audience. Uses red colour that is clear and easy to see on the page.