Music Magazine

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Moving onto Hip-Hop from LoFi

Researching these artists and their audiences has helped me understand the audience and age range. Most of Hip-hop fans are males in their 20’s, with some of these artists having some of their fans in their late 20’s, 30’s, who listen to similar artists and keep up with hip-hop culture.

With this information, I will create a dating profile around a hip-hop fan.

The audience will clearly be able to decode the fact he enjoys hip-hop, even just from how he represents himself and his interests- and how they are encoded/or reflected onto him. The preferred reading-  He likes hip-hop, the style and representation is displayed openly, which is matching the reader/audiences’ likes, hobbies, and overall things in relation to them that they enjoy. This gives a better view on the profile/person, drawing more people in/generating more positive traction.

I have chosen LoFi as my music genre for my magazine. I intend to make it have a “chill”, calm vibe and atmosphere. I’m aiming the magazine to younger audiences, in their teens or early 20’s, in an educational occupation.

I want the brand name of the magazine to be smooth, not dragged out or too short, so I went with “Archives“, since the word has connotations to libraries- relaxing and has a lot of “books”; or music.

It is modern, but also uses the styles and rhythms of old, retro music, from the 1970’s-1990’s. LoFi uses Low-Frequency to enhance the relaxation effect, and helps with attention and concentration.

“The aim of this magazine is to encourage more people to study and aid in relaxation, when needed. It’s aimed towards the youth, those who are studying or need to relax more easily, who would benefit more from this magazine. We wish to archive and detail all the best, new songs and albums within the LoFi genre, and upcoming artists and their music.” – Mission Statement.

The USP (Unique Selling Point) – detailing and archiving all of the music that appeals to fans in one magazine, picking the best ones and showing them. It’s a niche genre, so there aren’t many magazines like this.

Uses and gratifications;  as the mission statement says, the magazine is aimed towards the youth/young adults, who seek entertainment while they study. It could also fit in with information, as the listener learns what former rhythms and music from a more retro era was like.

Mojo is a music magazine that releases issues monthly, targeting music enthusiasts.

Analyising this front cover has helped me identify key features and design aspects more accurately and effectively. As well as this, learning about the audience psychographic and being able to identify audience and intended audience better is going to help me steer and target specific, varied audiences when I design my front cover. Identifying the conventional and key aspects will make my poster more attractive to audiences, drawing in traffic.

(Added Slide 2)

Masthead: The masthead is the title, and is usually the brand or something related to the main topic the magazine covers

Main Coverline: Battle of the Bands, the topic the issue covers. Important to tell people what’s being written about/covered.

Insets: Extra images, fill up extra space and use it for more advertisements of the contents of the magazine.

Plug: Extra things to advertise, using up space.  Draw more attention to some merchandising etc.

Captions: Extra information to inform the readers.

Barcode: To scan, pay

Pug: Extra advertisement, the price, logo etc.

Main Coverstar: The main individual or entity being displayed and written about in the magazine.

It’s important to know these elements and technical design conventions in order to create a higher quality magazine that can advertise more effectively. Better to understand the layout of popular magazines, so you can base off it and also improve.