Question 3

As I expected, the most popular outcome for favourite genre is Indie, with pop as a close second. I'm very happy about this because Indie was always going to be the chosen genre for my magazine, despite the outcome of the survey. As for pop, I knew this genre would be one of the top answers because of it's constant presence on TV and radio stations. Pop also fits into my magazine in places in features such as Bastille's section of the magazine because Bastille have recently made it into the charts, and so are becoming more widely known, making my magazine appeal to a wider audience. In terms of rock and RnB being rated number 5 by 27 of the respondents, I half expected this result. I know RnB music has became less and less popular in recent years due to the increase in new rap and dance artists, but I didn't think that it would come this low down in this question. Despite this, it does not affect how my results will develop my magazine.

Question 2

Clearly shown by the bar chart above, the majority of people who took my survey were aged between 13 and 17. This is an outstanding result, and means that this is definitely the age group I am to target if I want my magazine to be successful. This is the result I will used to define every aspect of my magazine: from photos, to language and layout. The language, in this case, will have to be carefully selected. If I chose to aim my magazine at the higher end of that age group, then I wouldn't hesitate to include rude and explicit language; however, I have to consider the younger end of the age group. Although I do not know this for sure, I have to assume that 13 year olds aren't allowed to use language like that, and so my magazine shouldn't demonstrate examples of it for them. For this reason I have decided to keep all the language in my magazine clean and simple. There will be the odd complicated word to create an interesting read, and also to keep the older end of the age group (and the 18-25 age group) interested, without making it impossible to read for a younger audience. Furthermore, I will try and include features in the contents which will have some appeal to other age groups, for example the 18-25s, the age group where 6 people - the second largest group of people - who responded to my survey belonged to. These will be things such as festivals, assuming they're festival-goers, and competitions whereby you have to be 18 to have a go. Although 2 people who filled in my survey were 41 and over, this is not the age group I will be targeting, and so none of the features I will be including in my magazine will be tweaked and targeted towards these people.

Music Magazine Survey

After four weeks of my survey being accessible for everyone, I gathered 37 responses. I was disappointed because I had hoped to receive at least 50 respondents to get a larger group of people in order a wider range of ages, as that would've helped me to get a lot more feedback. However, the results that I did receive were better than I expected due to the feature I put on to my survey which wouldn't let the respondents skip any questions, so their written answers are full and precise (despite a couple of anomaly answers).

Question 1

I was surprised to find that most of the respondents were male, as I think the majority of people which my survey was available to were female (eg twitter followers). However, I think this tells me a lot about the kind of people who buy music magazines, and in turn the type of audience I should be targeting  The fact that boys seem to buy music magazines more means that I need to think about, if I include any, what types of puns I use and where personal pronouns should occur.

Front cover story ideas

• BASTILLE - the next big thing
• DAUGHTER - life on tour
• Behind the scenes with Newton Faulkner
• V FESTIVAL Who's there?
• "I saw Maximo Park at 12 and thought... I wanna do that!"

Double page spread plan

The following picture is my original drawn plan for the double page spread of my magazine.

The plan for my double page spread is one which I have had in mind since the start of my project. Strongly based on Q, but slightly unconventional in how I've placed it, the photo takes up the left hand side, and the article on the right. The picture I have drawn on this plan is a long shot of my artist, facing the camera. However, I think in my final draft I will experiment and consider using the photo which I planned to use on my contents page because the background on that one will be busier and will fit better on the page. Down the right hand side of the double page I have copied a column from Q magazine which offers the readers three new artists which make similar music to the artist whose article they have just read. I have done this because it fits in with my theme of introducing new music to the reader. As with the other two pages, I plan on this page to use a mix of serif and sans serif font to create a balance: usually serif for the longer pieces of writing and sans serif for the main titles, quotes and drop caps.

Contents page plan

The following picture is my original drawn plan for the contents page of my magazine.

I'm aware that my contents page is very similar to that of Q magazine judging by the layout and the features, but I have tried to make it less regulated by putting the smaller photo on a canted angle spanning over the three different sections. Also, I put the website name 'www.intromusic.com' in the top corner of the main photo because I didn't want the top banner to become overcrowded. Furthermore, depending on the results of my survey, I will change and adapt because I can see now that there's a large bit of space in the bottom left hand corner. The picture I first planned to put on the contents page is from the same set of photos which I will use for the front page and the double page spread - just like the Take That and Lady Gaga issues of Q - because I think that reinforces continuity and reflects the magazine's constant delivery of new music. The photo will be of my friend Reece sitting in an old brown chair in a Victorian-style room, as it contrasts with the modern, edgy clothing which he will be wearing. However, now I've looked at my plans, I think this photo will look better on the double page spread, and I think one of my model standing against an exterior wall avoiding eye contact with the audience will fit a lot better, looking at some issues of Q magazine which have similar styles of photos. As for the front page, the colour scheme will be the same: simple, yet eye catching.

Front page plan

The following picture is my original drawn plan for the front page of my magazine.

Taking inspiration from Liam Gallagher's issue of Q magazine, my initial ideas consist of a deep-focus close-up with stories around the main photograph, along with a quote from the artist which is larger in order for it to stand out. I tried to use a balance of serif and sans serif font, which is a feature of Q magazine, and I labelled them to plan where I will use them and for what text. The main headline, which I have placed along the bottom of the front cover, will be witty and include the name of the artist in a clever play on words to entice the reader into buying the magazine to read what the main article is about. Similar to NME magazine, I placed the barcode portrait along the right hand side of the page so it would be out of the way of the stories on the cover - I also like this because it looks slightly different to many other magazines, without looking unconventional. I haven't decided on a colour scheme yet as this will depend on the results of my survey (which I have began to analyse) but I know that the background will be white, accompanied by some black text and another colour such as red - though I will try to stray from red because I don't want my magazine to be a copy of Q. The name 'INTRO' came to me a few days ago and I thought this was a perfect name because it can represent a number of things: first, the intro to a song so that is how it relates to music, and secondly, the aim of my magazine is going to be to bring new, un-charted music to people, so there is an introduction there.