What I have learnt about music magazines from my research

From my music magazine research, I have learnt that to have a successful music magazine the layout for most pages must follow a grid like structure. Also I have learnt that you must have a strict colour scheme that is present throughout the whole magazine, on every page. I now know that the most successful colours used in magazines are mainly red, black and white and sometimes yellow. I evidently saw this when analysing the colour scheme of all the sucessful magazines already established in the media industry that have a big fan base, so clearly these colours have an impact on the audience by catching their eye for various reasons. I have learnt that the magazine must be designed in a way that makes the reader curious and it must be designed so that the reader wants more. The layout of the magazine has to be set out in a simple way so it is clear for the reader to understand, the idea has to be unique but not too complex. It has to look just like any other magazine but with specific aspects creative and unique in comparison to competitive music magazines, so that it gains more audience readership. I have learnt a variety of facts about the music magazines front covers, contents pages and articles:

 

Front Covers  -

 

1. The masthead of the music magazine must fit in with the genre. It must be catchy and memorable so that it attracts customers and so that the audience remember the music magazines name rather than remebering other competing music magazines. The masthead must be the biggest text on the page, it must have the biggest size font in comparison to other writing on the front cover so that it stands out immediately.
2.  The main image is very important for attracting readers, it needs to dominate the whole of the front cover. The purpose of the main image is to represent the splash e.g if the splash was the name of the band "paramore" then the main image must be of the band as a whole or an idividual photo of one of the members, which I can see from my research most of the time is the main singer. So the main image must have a story behind it.
3. The masthead, splash and main image must be effective to make the cover look interesting which is a must.
4. The sell lines don't need to be very detailed, it is best if they are short and straight to the point telling the readers what news will be revealed inside the magazine.
5. A header bar and footer line can make the magazine more detailed and its allows the magazine to give straight to the point infromation but they aren't always needed.
6. There is always a barcode, issue date, price etc. on a music magazines front cover.
7. The subsidiary images can't over come the importance and focus of the main image, they let the readers know what other bands are included in the magazine. Too many subsidiary images can make the front cover look messy but in some cases this has a postive effect but it depends on your target audience e.g kerrang's target audience which are young and prodominantly males like that messy look whereas Q's target audience like a clean, fresh look.
8. The colour scheme is important it helps attract new readers.

Contents Page

1. The contents page must follow a grid like structure putting it's information into columns, which makes the page look more practical and tidy. The majority of contents pages are on double page spreads.
2. The purpose of the contents page is to tell the audience about what information will be given to them on each page in the magazine e.g it informs the reader about what artists are being interviewed and tells them what page to look at to recieve this specific information.
3. The information is straight to the point, there isn't much detailed unless needed.
4. Images are used on the contents page to attract readers and to give them evidence about what artists are being interviewed in the magazine. The images of the artists make the audience/fans feel that the news being revealed is reaslitic and true, it makes them feel closer to them. Images are also used on the contents page to make it look more attractive, so that its not just columns of writing which can make the page look boring.
5. The colour scheme of the contents page must match the colour scheme of the front cover, it give the magazine a sense of identy.
6. The masthead of the music magazine must be present somewhere on the contents page because it is the magazines indentity.
7. The font must be different for each section of information, the font must vary according to shape, colour and size. Normally the headings are in bold and have a bright colour compared to the rest of the text.

Articles

1. The article must also follow a grid like structure, the article is written in columns so that it is tidy. If an article looks messy, with information placed all over the page and if it isn't in a structure, it can make the audience not want to read the article. It can be very off putting. It is important to have a structured article so that it is easy to read.
2. The majority of the articles in a music magazine have a main image, which most of the time is on one side of the double page spread.
3. The colour scheme of the article must match the colour scheme of the front cover and contents page, this shows that the same colour scheme must be used throught the entire magazine, it is important to give a sense of indenty and also it attracts readers and allows specific information to stand out on the page, such as the main heading of the article and a pull quote from the interview.   
4. The font used in the article stays the same throughout the page and it is always smaller than the heading and the pull quote.