Evaluation of audience research and questionnaires

The target audience for my magazine will be aged between 16-22; therefore this is the age in which my music magazine will be prime in being attracted. For a teenage type of readers I think that the main image on the front cover will be the main feature in which will influence potential readers, meaning I will have to produce a strong front cover image to win over my target audience. There are house styles of magazines which are aimed at younger teens such as ‘smash hits’. This survey contributed to my research for my music magazine as I have formed an age group for which I think would be the most suitable for the house style of my music magazine.

The majority of females answered my research survey over males, this may be because females are more willing to answer a questionnaire rather than males. My music magazine will aim to attract females as well as males as I intend to create an individual, creative magazine. I would suspect females to purchase music magazines such as ‘Mizz’, and males to purchase music magazines such as ‘Kerrang’. Features such as interviews, articles, gigs, photographs and free gifts are all aimed at a specific target audience and attracts readers who are interested in a particular feature in a music magazine. This survey contributed to my research for my plan of my music magazine as I have a basic idea on which type of gender is more likely to be attracted to my magazine; females could be more attracted to the front cover and main image whereas males could be more attracted to the content of the magazine.

The preferred genre of music in which my respondents chose balanced first preference between R&B and Indie. Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to ‘R&B’ is a genre of popular African American music; whereas independent music is often abbreviated to ‘indie’ and the term is used to describe independence from major commercial record labels. These two genres of music may have been chosen according to gender, race or personality type. Personally within the youth culture nowadays I think R&B and indie are becoming increasingly popular, there are many artists who influence the way teenagers may act or perceive music. The house style magazine which I intend to create is indie based. Other genres of music such as dirty electro and pop could possibly be connected to indie which I could include in my music magazine; therefore this could potentially attract more readers as the magazine would not be limited to indie. This survey contributed to my research for my plan of my music magazine by indicating what genre of music my target audience prefer.

According to my market research for my music magazine, the price gap of £1.50-£2.50 is the most suitable price in which my target audience would pay for a music magazine in general. Personally I would be prepared to pay more than £2.50 for a music magazine as I prefer a magazine to be based on quality rather than quantity. A music magazine such as ‘Pigeons and Peacocks’ sells each issue at around £4.60 by which they suggest it is ‘the most influential monthly magazine in the world’; this indicates that their primary focus is quality and how features of the magazine are perceived by the readers. However, A music magazine such as ‘Kerrang’, focuses on quantity and the attraction of the price attracting readers. Although my target audience prefer to pay a sum of between £1.50-£2.50 for a music magazine, I think if another music magazine strongly attracted them then they would be prepared to pay the extra. Features such as interviews, photographs, articles and reviews influence readers the most into purchasing the magazine, as well as the front cover image. For my music magazine I intend to base features to a high quality which will attract more creative, artistic minded readers which links to the preferred genre of music my applicants chose. This survey contributed to my research of my plan for my music magazine as I have a basic idea on the structure and what type of class the magazine will be aimed at.

Music magazines can be approved by including free gifts, more variety, photographs, interviews, being based around more popular music, including more information about up and coming bands, being more cheaper and being more specific to each genre. After analysing my data, my target audience voted that including a cover mount and inserting additional information would be the best choice into improving a music magazine.

If music magazines tend to include most features in which the reader is attracted to; there is more chance of the magazine being purchased. I intend to include specific information consisting of current affairs and artists featured in my music magazine. The house style music magazine which I intend to create is indie, by including more photographs this will make the magazine more attractive to the target audience and also appeal to their interests rather than a mainstream music magazine. ‘Interesting columns about abstract bands, less mainstream up and coming artists’ is an opinion in which I will base my music magazine on as it applies to my basic idea of creating a more creative, less mainstream magazine. This survey contributed to my research for my music magazine by receiving personal responses and aiming to apply them; also opinions to which I shall consider when creating my individual music magazine.

93.1% of my target audience prefer a music magazine to be image led rather than text led, this may be because images can be more attractive and appealing to readers. They can also relate to the feature through a picture as for the graphics and imagery. Image-led is when the visual material takes priority over the words on a publication; whereas text-led is when the words take priority over the visual material on a publication. My target audience is aged between 16-22 which indicates they are more entertained by images and photographs rather than just text, however if my target audience were to be within an older age group they could be more attracted to the text. I intend to include more image led features in my magazine rather than text led as to what my interviewees preferred. This survey contributed to my research for my music magazine because I know what type of feature my target audience prefer over text-led. As I intend to create my music magazine to be alternative and imaginative, I will focus on the images and photographs to be presented in the proposed house style.

The main feature in a music magazine which interests my target audience the most is an interview. Interviews consist of questions asked by the interviewer or journalist to an artist or band, usually regarding current affairs. The next preferred feature in a music magazine is photos; photographs can compliment an interview as the readers can be more interested and influenced into reading the interview. I shall apply an interview in my music magazine based on a question and answer structure and include photos so that the spread is not entirely text-led. Photos can compliment an interview with an artist as it makes the audience aware of the artist’s personality trait and behavior, also makes it more attractive to the reader as complete text-led spreads do not appeal to my target audience. An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. This survey contributed to my research for my music magazine as I am now almost certain on what I am going to include on my double-page spread. By applying an interview in my music magazine, the readers will be satisfied by the content and gain knowledge from the artist featured.

NME was voted the most attractive with 53.6% of votes, whereas ‘Dazed and Confused’ has 46.4% of votes. Many of my target audience chose ‘NME’ as it is well-known and popular within my target audience. However comments such as ‘its much more fun to look at!’, ‘it just isn't just an average picture it has been modified’, ‘because I like the colour scheme..it catches my eye more’ and ‘the front cover is eye-catching’ applies to ‘Dazed and Confused’ magazine. These are the sort of comments I expected to be made as the main image is extremely eye-catching and its main purpose is that it has been edited in order to attract readers.

On the contrary, this question of my survey could be classed as bias. ‘NME’ presented male artists on the front cover and ‘Dazed and Confused’ presented a female artist on the front cover; this could be argued that males who answered my questionnaire are more likely to have chosen NME and females who answered my questionnaire are more likely to have chosen Dazed and Confused.

This survey contributed to my research for my music magazine as I intend to follow the design and features of ‘Dazed and Confused’. Although ‘NME’ was voted the most attractive by two votes over, I think that for my creative target audience they will prefer ‘Dazed and Confused’. A main reason why I think NME was more popular is for the comment ‘we know what to expect in the NME and they're famous!’ as NME is more of a main-stream music magazine.