Mixmag is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine, published in London, England. It styles itself as "the world's biggest selling dance music magazine", with a circulation of approximately 20,000 (1 January 2011 – 31 December 2011).[Launched in 1982 in the United Kingdom, the magazine covers dance events, and reviews music and club nights

• The first issue was printed on 1 February 1983 as a 16-page black-and-white magazine published by Disco Mix Club, a DJ mailout service.

• When house music began, editor and DJ Dave Seaman turned the magazine from a newsletter for DJs to a magazine covering all dance music and club culture. It covered acid house, the subsequent rave era, the rise of superstar DJs and Ibiza.

•  The magazine claims to have coined the terms superclub and trip hop and to have launched the first legal DJ mix tapes, the Mixmag Live series. Later Mixmag, in association with its original publishing company, DMC Publishing, released a series of CDs under the "Mixmag Live" heading.

• Reached a circulation of up to 70,000 copies during the height of the popularity of acid house, was later sold to EMAP Ltd. in the mid-1990s, and then bought by Development Hell, the company that also owns The Word music magazine, in 2005.

• In an attempt to reach a larger readership, Development Hell relaunched the magazine in May 2006 with a revamped design. Editor Andrew Harrison said the magazine had focused on “a young clubber, a very committed hardcore nutter clubber and we thought that wasn't necessarily the right way to go. Mixmag is now a magazine for the entire world of dance music, whether you like hard boshing music that's quite druggy, or chill out music, or you're someone like me who likes to keep in touch with the music but has grown out of clubbing. This idea that dance music is a kind of minority interest, a bit like ska, is wrong." 

• In 2001, the magazine teamed up with Virgin Records to release a double album titled B!g Tunes. The album included forty-two dance songs selected "the best" by the magazine.

• Other changes were made in aattempt to increase circulation. In addition to the change in editorial tone, the relaunched magazine features a fashion section, larger size and, according to the magazine improved production values.

• It carries a covermount mix CD each month by a different DJ or artist, such as Deadmau5, Richie Hawtin, and DJ Touche. 

• Since 2009, the brand has a Brazilian edition, as a result of South American's dance-music market growth. 

Mixmag Reader Profile• Mixmag readers are the opinion formers and leaders in clubbing. They are 

the ones who make the happening music happen and the cool products cool within their peer group.

•They are the first to recommend a new tune and the first on a new fashion trend. They're at that new cool club very early and they move on before it starts to go cold . They're the best informed about top DJs and upcoming tunes, and they just have to have the latest mobile (even if their current one is less than six months old). They're the biggest downloaders of music in the UK.

•The median age of a Mixmag reader is 26 - 72% male, 28% female - and they tend to be urban and single. They have a high disposable income and a high propensity to spend it on:· Nights out· Clothes· Tunes· The latest mobile and MP3 playerNearly 80% do not read another music magazine and they spend little time watching TV, especially at weekends.

There are a number of websites related to mixmag where fans can interact with each other, with the magazine, listen to music etc.

• http://www.mixmag.net/•  • https://soundcloud.com/mixmag-1•  • https://twitter.com/Mixmag•  • https://en-gb.facebook.com/MixmagMagazine•  • http://www.mixcloud.com/Mixmag/

Masthead

The masthead is the main attraction of the magazine as for the colour and font style used. ‘Mixmag’ could be referred to as an informal type of magazine, suggesting the house style is aimed at a teenage target audience.

Lead Article

‘Is she ready for the biggest job in dance music?’ this rhetorical question involves the audience, asking them to read the magazine in order to retrieve the answer. Words ‘biggest job’ and ‘dance music’ appear thicker and darker than in the standard version as the editors want them to stand out. This triumph over tragedy tells a real-life story in which the subject overcomes difficult personal circumstances.

Cover Price

The price paid by the reader who buys a magazine from a retail

Main Image

Annie Mac features the lead image of the front cover of ‘mixmag’. She is a well-known dj from radio 1 which encapsulates her attitude and representational codes of the artist; she is heavily stylised to appeal to the VALs of the target audience. Readers can relate her work from radio 1 to the magazine which may encourage others into purchasing it. The stylist used to edit Annie Mac’s image for the photo shoot used their own perception on how she is perceived by others and what would be suitable to match her personality trait for the readers. In addition, the lead image is positioned so that other features of the magazine can fit around the photograph. Annie Mac creates the image to be more powerful as there is eye contact between the artist and the readers, this image chosen will have been chosen for a reason; it also links to the lead article; in addition it links to the artist’s star persona and what they have been doing lately.

The contrast of colours compliment the font styles and house style of the magazine. Bright colours represent youth which is what the ‘Mixmag’ is targeted at.

Skyline

The skyline runs across the top of the page and calls out to the readers about some special attraction. For ‘mixmag’ the special attraction is the magazine being ‘the world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine’. This statement

The Left Third

‘Mixmag’s’ left third includes the important information such as the articles featured in the magazine; ‘Dizzee tears up Ibiza rocks’ is used by the journalist to give the audience a sense of current affairs from the use of language. This type of language can appeal to the target audience as it is informal. An upper case font is used to attract readers as upper case is used to express a firm statement. ‘Win! An Ibiza closing trip’ represents an advertisement or special feature as readers may be more interested in purchasing the magazine if it is beneficial to them.

Cover Lines

Words such as ‘plus’ create the magazine to be more fulfilling than others; it creates the idea that ‘Mixmag’ has more to offer than other music magazines. The artists listed have been picked specifically to attract the target audience with.