Does the indie genre do well in the charts?

This is the top 23 songs in the alternative charts on itunes. This helps to show that indie music does sell well because in this top 23 there are indie bands such as ; The Killers, Kings of leon,Elbow, Radiohead,Snow Patrol
 and Plain white T's. This shows that quite a few indie bands make it into the charts and has quite a loyal following in terms of fans willing to pay for their music instead of illegally downloading it.
This shows that this genre does well sales wise. Which means that an indie magazine would sell well because their fans are really into this type of music.

Unique selling point (USP)

For a magazine to do well it has to have its own unique selling point to make it shine above the competition. For a new indie magazine to shine above all the competition such as NME ,Q , mojo and so on, they need to really find a way to make people take interest.  For my magazine i am going to try and  make it appeal to women more than most do now. I think there is a growing fan base for indie music consisting of alot of women. Most concerts i go to at the moment seem to have an even amount of males and females. If i made my magazine portray more women artists it could be a strong unique selling point.

     I am also going to try and portray more black people in my magazine. This could make it appeal to more races than just whites. There are many good black artists out there that arent portrayed as much in indie magazines ,so for an indie magazine to attract more black fans it should portray more of these artists which is what im going to try and do with my magazine.

Target Audience for my magazine

To work out my target audience in more detail i need to look at demographic and psychographic profiling techniques. My magazine genre is indie. So im going to work out what the target audience should be and how i can improve my magazine by

To do this im going to use GRASS.

Gender- The typical indie magazine such as Q and NME appeal to and cater for males. It is very male orientated especially with the artists that appear in the magazines. But in recent years i have begun to notice a big rise in females who are real indie music fans and buy music magazines religiously. So when i come to make my music magazine i will make sure it caters for girls just as much as it does lads. This way i think it could attract even more females to buy indie magazines because there is definatley a much larger girl following in indie music now than there was years ago.

Race- I think most indie music magazines are aimed at white people. Most of the artists who are portrayed in these magazines are of white ethnicity. This is just how this genre is. Just like RnB and hip hop magazines appeal more to people of black ethnicity. For my music magazine which is going to be indie is mainly going to portray white people because of the band i am including.

Age- Most indie magazines aim to mainly teenagers from the age of 14 onwards. For my magazine i will aim for ages 15-20. I think these are the ages were most people start really getting into their certain genre of music whichever genre it happens to be. I also think that these are the ages were most people attend concerts and begin to buy music magazines.

Socio economic status-Most indie music is aimed at students. Students seem to enjoy this genre of music and are intrested in going to concerts. So my magazine will be mainly aimed towards students on order to sell well .

Special interest- For an indie magazine the special interest has to be in this genre of music. The audience have to really enjoy indie music to want to buy the magazine. They would have to be intrested in buying/ downloading music that is linked with this genre of music magazine.  They would also have to be intrested in live music and enjoy going to college because the magazine will include alot of reviews.

Figures of my chosen genre

To make sure the genre i have chosen which is indie is actually popular and appeals to its target audience i did some research and found the figures for music magazine sales in the year 2005.
ABC average monthly/weekly figures                                                                                                        

01. Q - 168,547
02. Mojo - 120,530
03. Uncut - 110,052
04. NME - 76,792
05. Kerrang! - 76,165
06. Total Guitar - 52,183
07. Classic Rock - 50,027
08. Metal Hammer - 44,047
09. The Word - 34,753
10. Guitarist - 29,152
11. Rock Sound - 23,027
12. Guitar Techniques - 20,561
13. Rhythm - 10,434
As you can see Q which is an indie magazine is at number one. This shows it has loyal fans because there is only Q and NME that are weekly magazines, and people consistently buy the magazines which shows they have appealed to their target audience.

All of the magazines listed are amongst the most popular magazines on the shelves . Q is at the top showing it is quite clearly the most popular magazine in the UK at this time. Ryhtym is down at the bottom with just over 150,000 less sales than Q. This shows that rythym isnt a popular magazine or it could just be said that the people who like that particular music arent as loyal as indie music fans.
Many people buy indie magazines every week or month however often they are made. But the suprising thing to see is that there is no indie band in the UK top 40 at the moment. It may have a loyal target audience but it is outnumbered amazingly by fans of RnB and hip hop and even pop fans who help to get their favourite music into the charts. But when we look at popularity of music magazines the RnB or hip hop magazines are alot more unpopular than the indie and rock magazines.

The target audience is very important for music magazines to succeed. They need a target audience so they know who to aim for with their articles and bands that they portay in their magazines every week. The target audience for my magazine will be for all genders above the age of 15.

 Seeing these numbers makes me sure that  i chose the right genre because it seems to automatically have a selling point and will make  money if i can find a difference between the magazines around now and then mine. This difference is going to be my unique selling point.

Conventions of music magazine.



This is a magazine cover from the magazine NME. The genre for this magazine is very similar to what genre my music magazine will be. There are many typical features from an indie magazine in this front cover. Firstly, the colour scheme is very typical for an indie magazine. Lots of red blacks and greys. Also it is very typical to have a big main image of the main members of the band. In this case it is using the same style as i am going to use in my music magazine by using the two front men on the band as the picture for my front cover. Including a mian band for the basis of your magazine is very important because they rae there for a particular reason and people want to find out what this reason is.It also has a quote underneath the bands name that will be from an interview that is inside the magazine . choosing a quote that catches the readers eye will make them want to buy the magazine and read the rest of it. Also included in this front cover are plenty of sub headings for other bands and people of the indie genre included in this magazine. This adds towards making people wanting to buy this magazine. The text is positioned around the band to make the band who are pictured seem much more important than what is written around them



                                               This is a contents page from NME magazine. In this contents page it keeps to the indie colour scheme of red black and grey. It keeps to the same colour scheme as the front cover for the backgrounds and the pictures. The font changes and the colour of the writing changes from red to black and even white in some places.It uses many phrases to catch the readers, such as this weeks 'Best gigs'. This makes you want to read this section because they arent only good gigs they are the Best. It includes 2 pictures joint together as one as the main article . Then down the left hand side it has a massive band index that shows all the bands who are mentioned in this magazine , and there are plenty., this is a major selling point if someone opened the page to see what was in the magazine. Down the right side it has different titles for whats in the magazine. The first one starting at the top is 'NEWS' and then has bands that have been in the news this week. Then its 'RADAR' which is all about new bands. Then 'REVIEWS' 'LIVE' and 'FEATURES. This is trying to show how much this magazine includes every week to try and get people to be interested in buying it. It also includes an advertisement at the bottom about subscribing to NME.





                                                                             

 As part of my magazine i have to include a double page article aswell as my front cover and contents page.  This is an example of a double page article from kerrang magazine. This caught my eye because of the choice of pictures.Also because of the big font at the top with a quote that is included in the interview underneath it. The first picture is of the lead singer performing and then pictures of them in the studio. It also includes a person from kerrang talking to the band and noting what they had to say.  For my double page article i want to keep the same colour scheme as shown on this example below. I will also have pictures of the band in their recording area and performing a song. On the right hand side of the article it has a teaser of the bands new tracks and it gives some information about them.I like this idea because it means people can know what to expect when the album actually gets released. This may be an idea i will use for my double page article. The actual article is of the band talking to kerrang  about creating this new album and how their ideas came about and what the game plan was. My article will be about the bands debut album and how successful it has been .

Preliminary task

For my preliminary task i am doing the front cover and the contents page of a student magazine. For this task we have been put into pairs and asked to create these 2 pieces that will be our student magazine. Because were in pairs we have to take a picture of each other for the front cover and choose a theme or the reason why that person is on the front cover whether its because of a sporting achievement, a music achievement or even an academic achievement.

I have used bright colours to give it a nice glow to it instead of it being gloomy and dull.  I have tried to keep the same font all the way through the front cover so it doesn't confuse people when reading the different headlines. I have also kept the font colours the same because black is easy to read on the background.

I could improve on my front cover by adding more headlines around the main image. Also i could try and use more interesting colours for the front cover. And maybe fill up more of the blank space. I have also got a line through the page which makes it brighter on one side which i need to make sure i don't do when it comes to the real magazine. I will need to get rid of the boxes i have left on my front cover this time. And i need to fill the empty space when i do my music magazine.

For my contents page i have drawn up a rough sketch of what it would look like. I have laid it out so that it has a big picture in the middle to advertise the article that will be in the middle. Then i will have the weekly news on the left of the picture. And on the right i would have information of the article.  Then i would have a picture of the other 2 main headlines and Featured this week under my main picture.

My Initial ideas for my project

• The genre of my music magazine will be indie. I have chosen this genre because it is the one that I know most about. I will use my friends band who have just started to make the pictures seem much more professional because they look like a typical indie band. For my front cover i want a close up of the band . with the purpose of them being in the magazine. which in this case is a new album.   I will use plenty of black grey and red colours throughout the magazine. I will add the price and other different people that will be included in the magazine.
• For the contents page i will have 3 pictures of the band playing together. A medium close up of the two front men playing . Then a close up of the drummer and another close up of the bassist to complete the pictures for my contents page. As with the front cover i will keep to a Black grey and red colour scheme. I will list all the things that will be included in the magazine and have a free CD included to make my magazine to stand out amongst the rest. 
• For the article the band will be interviewed about their new album and how the recent tour went. Also they have campaigned for more 'Real' music to be introduced into the charts instead of all the pop and RnB in there now. On this double page i will have a picture of all 4 members walking and interacting, i will add another one of them relaxing in the studio and another of just the front men with arms around each other. I have seen this in mags before and expect them to give a realistic feel to my magazine. And i will stick to the red , black and grey colour scheme.

Introduction

My name is Daniel Boardman and i am 16 years old. I have decided to do Print for my AS media practical. This practical will be a music magazine consisting of a front cover, a contents page and a double page artical.