I have now reached the stage where I can begin to consider my music magazine advertisement. In order to be introduced to the various music magazine publications, I was set an Ancillary task.
I divided my page up into thirds. The first third I titled, "UK Music Magazine", where I had to list all of the UK music magazine I knew existed and were in publication. My knowledge proved to be rather limited as I could only think of three; Q, NME and Kerrang!
Next, I titled the second box, "UK Music Magazines (Google search)". I was able to search the internet for more UK music magazine and therefore was able to extend my list, adding publications such as Mojo, Clash and Big Cheese.
Finally, the remaining box was given the heading of, "UK Music Magazine Sales 2014". This meant I had to research and write down facts and statistics regarding the sales of UK music magazines in 2014. The results were surprising, as my research revealed the magazine business is in decline for the majority of publications and circulation has dropped by a vast percentage compared to 2013.
The purpose of this task was to simply make myself aware of all the different UK music magazine publications out there. Through the Google search, I discovered whether the publications were aimed at a particular genre of music or whether they celebrated and reported on all genres. For example, Q is a magazine which comments on all genres of music whereas Kerrang! is aimed at fans of rock and metal music. This preliminary research then lead to my next task...
Researching Media Packs
Choosing the correct magazine to feature an artist is of utmost importance if the artist wants to garner recognition or boost sales of their music. The media packs I researched were for Q, Top of the Pops and Acoustic, as I believed they would facilitate my artist and their genre of music. However, upon looking at them more closely, I was able to rule out several of the options. I discovered that Acoustic would be unsuitable as the target audience was too old and other artists that were featured were too dissimilar to my chosen artist. Similarly, I quickly decided that Q would be unsuitable, as the readership was 75% male and the average age for a reader was 29 - Nina Nesbitt, my chose artist, appeals mainly to females in their teens or early 20s. Placing an advertisement for approximately £10,00 would render useless as my artist's demographic would not read or be accessible to it.
Below is an issue of Q with Tinie Tempah not the cover. Other musicians which have featured on a cover of Q include Adele and Muse. Those artists have a completely different target audience to Nina Nesbitt, so the people reading Q would most likely not take notice of an advertisement promoting her album, as it does not suit their multiple taste. However, it could be argued that because the magazine is multi - genre, there is no real target audience, and is more for music fans in general. Therefore, an advertisement could be placed in Q for Nina Nesbitt, as it could potentially reach her target audience.
In addition, Kerrang! magazine would also be an unsuitable magazine to feature an advert for my artist. Kerrang! magazine is single genre - rock. Nina Nesbitt's music is predominantly pop, albeit with some other influences from other genres. If an advertisement was to be placed in Kerrang! magazine promoting Nina Nesbitt, the complete wrong audience would be receiving the advertisement as rock fans most likely would not listen to Nina Nesbitt. Ultimately, it would be a waste of money, and it would not be beneficial for my artist or the magazine's readers.
However, I believe that Top of the Pops and We Love Pop magazine would be perfect to feature my artist in. The above screenshots is of a table detailing the key facts and figures that those wishing to place an advertisement in the Top of the Pops magazine would need to know. Facts include the circulation and the percentage ratio of boy to girl readership and the age demographic the magazine is aimed at. We Love Pop did not include a media pack, but they have a brief synopsis and overview of what the magazine specialises in. The readership for the magazines are more suitable for my artist's demographic - teenage girls who are interested in pop music would most likely read Top of the Pops and We Love Pop and would perhaps be encouraged to learn more about my Nina Nesbitt if she was featured in an advertisement. Below is a front cover of an issue for Top of the Pops and We Love Pop, both feature Taylor Swift as their cover star. Taylor Swift's music explores the same themes as Nina Nesbitt's and their musical style is very similar, so the target audience for both artists would be closely linked. If Top of the Pops or We Love Pop chooses to have Taylor Swift on their cover, an advertisement of Nina Nesbitt and her album would most likely reach the ideal target audience.
This task was extremely important as it emphasised to me the importance of target audience and the careful placement of promotional items and adverts, and how they can be beneficial to an up and coming artist. When it comes to creating my own music magazine advertisement, I will refer back to this task in order to help me make the correct choice of magazine - writing an article for a specific magazine will make a vast difference in the language choices I make as it has to appeal to that magazine's target audience.
Album Advertisements Conventions
To get a better understanding of what a typical album advertisement included, I did some research: I looked through various magazine, both single and multi genre, and searched for advertisements for an artist's album. The screen shots below detail the results:
All five of the magazine advertisements follow conventions. In every single advertisement, the text that stands out the most is the artist's name. All but one of the advertisements includes the name of the album - only Carl Barat's advertisement does not include the album's title. However, I believe the album is titled eponymously, and is named after the artist. Hurts, Manic Street Preachers and Carl Barat's albums all include critics quotes of the album, and Manic Street Preachers also feature star ratings from other publications such as Clash and The Guardian. Four out the five magazine advertisements also detail the release date of the album - some simply say 'Out Now', such as Hurts' 'Happiness' whereas others such as Foo Fighters 'Sonic Highways' say the specific date (November 10). Two of the advertisements give examples of some of the songs that were released from the album that they are assuming some people might be familiar with - Damien Rice's album 'My Favourite Faded Fantasy' advertisement reads "Includes the new single 'I Don't Want To Change You'".
This task was extremely useful, as when it comes to creating my own music magazine advertisement, I will have to keep in mind the common conventions. I am now aware that it is imperative that the artist's name and the album title must feature, and also the release date. In addition, I am now aware of other less common conventions that I could include, such as critics quotes and star ratings.
Music Magazine Advertisements - Codes
Having looked at and analysed the conventions of a music magazine advertisement, I decided to research the codes that are present within several examples of an artist's album advertisement.
The first advertisement I chose to analyse was promoting Gwen Stefani's album Love. Music. Angel. Baby. Gwen Stefani has a completely different target audience to my chosen artist, Nina Nesbitt, and this is reflected in the advertisement. The colour gold features prominently and the font is heavily stylised, which gives off the strong impression that the genre of music the album boasts is R&B. Below is a more detailed annotation of the music magazine advertisement for the album.
To further aid my research, I found music magazine advertisements of artists that have a similar target audience and genre of music to Nina Nesbitt.
This task was very important to complete, as it further reinforced the significance of altering and suiting everything to appeal to my target audience. The way I choose to advertise and promote my artist will have a great effect as to how an audience perceives them, and will either reduce or increase their inclination as to whether to purchase the artist's album or not. A common thread amongst all of the advertisements is that they reference the album cover - it therefore makes it immediately identifiable to potential buyers and gives the artist a recognisable image. This is one feature of the advertisement that I will most likely feature in my own. Plus, the codes are also of high importance, as the colours, choice of font colour and style and image all have to relate to my artist, and most importantly, the artist's target audience. For example, it would be inappropriate to create an advertisement for my artist that accents dark and omniscient colours, as it would not be an accurate representation of my artist, whose music is mostly upbeat and boasts positive and humorous messages.
Development of Ideas
After analysis several examples of music magazine advertisements, I began preparations for creating my own. The advertisement will have to be created in Adobe Photoshop, a software I was previously unfamiliar with, having extremely limited knowledge and minimal experience with it. Therefore, before I could begin, I had to learn the basics of photoshop, including things like how to set up the page correctly.
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| This is what the page looks like after it has been set up. |
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| The next step was to add rulers to the page to create the boarders - the space outside of the boarders will not feature in the music magazine advertisement. |
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| It is extremely important to understand layers when creating products in photoshop, as the background, text and images all consist of different layers. The eye symbols at the side allow you to hide that particular layer. |
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| A background, text and an image has been added. Originally, the image had an accompanying background which I edited out using the magnetic lasso tool. |
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| I positioned the image to the left so it looks like her arm is protruding from the side. Plus, I added the album name and made the background the same colour consistently. |
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| Once again, I changed the background colour. Although this task was just to familiarise myself with photoshop, I also have to consider aesthetics - red and pink are clashing colours and too close in colour so I changed the background to a peachier tone to match several shades on the apple. |
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| I noticed that there was still some excess on the artist's image from the background that accompanied it. |
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| I removed the rough edges using the eraser tool. |
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| To ensure that I erase the parts of the image I don't want, I have to click on the correct layer, in this case, layer 2. |
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| Once again, I found the background and text too close in colour, so I changed the background colour to black which is a stark contrast to the red text. |
These screenshots detail some of the steps I took to creating a basic music magazine advertisement. With this experience, I could begin to explore the other effects and techniques Photoshop has to offer to create a better, more professional advertisement.
I could also now attempt to link it to my target audience and create clear similarities between all three of my media projects. As the song is called "Selfies" and polaroids are set to feature extensively in my music video, I included an image of the artist within a template of a polaroid and added several into the background. Plus I kept in mind what colours would complement each other and what ones would clash.
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| Music Magazine Advertisement Idea |
This is an idea for my music magazine advertisement. It depicts a large polaroid titled at an angle with the artist featured in the polaroid (although in reality, a photo of the person acting in my music video will feature instead of Nina Nesbitt.) The title of the album "Peroxide" will be written along the bottom of the polaroid, with the artist's name emblazoned across the top of the advertisement and the phrase "Debut album out now" written across the bottom. Two stray polaroids are placed next to the large polaroid; therefore, this creates a link between the advertisement and the visual themes in the music video.
I asked a member of my target audience whether they liked and approved of this design:
Do you like this Music Magazine Advertisement design, and do you think it appeals to Nina Nesbitt's target audience?
I do like this design and think it does suit her target audience - although Nina's songs can be sad and heartfelt, there is an overall feeling of happiness. She is also an artist who is quite girly and interested in fashion which is reflected within the pastel pink colour scheme of the advertisement. The font also appeals to me as it looks done by hand and not generated by a computer which relates back to Nesbitt's brand as a singer-songwriter who writes about personal experiences.
Are there any changes you would make to the design?
I think I would like the design more if the background colour in the polaroid wasn't the same colour as the background for the whole advertisement. Aside from the white polaroids and block font, there is too much of the same colour - it also washes out the image of the artist considerably.
Based on this report, I will make the necessary changes to my music magazine advertisement so the target audience is pleased with the final product. In the meantime, I will continue to complete pre-production tasks in preparation for the first day of production, which is on Thursday, 29th January.
Music Magazine Advertisement - Evolving Ideas
As I am considering not using my original CD Digipack design for the CD Digipack itself, I decided that the idea would work more successfully on a larger format. Therefore, I think I have decided to use the design of the artist's photo being split up and overlaid with other images for my Music Magazine Advertisement.
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| This is the image I found on the internet of Nina Nesbitt which I would proceed to edit. |
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| The image had to be duplicated several times in order for the design to be constructed successfully. |
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| I used a 3x3 square as a template to marquee the individual squares on the image. |
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| After marqueeing a square of the image, it had to be inversed and then deselected. I then moved onto the next duplicated layer and repeated. |
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| This is one square of the image which I edited in photoshop, creating an oil painting effect. Although I will most likely not use such effects during the creation of the final product, I am just experimenting with the different editing options and effects. |
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| I intend to take photos of other things such as polaroids or the heart shaped piñata to place over certain squares of the artist's image as a reference to the music video. Once again, I picked a random image from the internet to place over the top of one of the squares and adjusted it so it fit. |
After experimenting with this design with the Music Magazine Advertisement in mind, I am going to proceed with the idea and develop it into the final design for my MMA. The next step will be to set up a photoshoot with my actor in order to take the appropriate photo for both the MMA and the CD Digipack design.
Evolving Ideas
After searching through Photoshop Magazines, I discovered another idea that I thought would be suitable and appropriate to use for my Music Magazine Advertisement. It is called the "dispersion effect" and it creates a fragmented aesthetic. Next, I searched for tutorials on YouTube that could help me achieve this effect, and found this video to be most helpful:
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| This is a screenshot of a stage of the process in creating the final product. The image had to be duplicated several times so I could work on multiple layers in order to create the technique effectively. |
After following the tutorial closely, the above screenshot depicts the final result. Although the dispersion effect does not look as neat as the end design in the tutorial, I intend to practice this technique following the tutorial several more times so when it comes to editing the image I intend to use in my Music Magazine Advertisement, the process will be quick. Therefore, I will be able to spend more time on choosing the appropriate font style, size and colour to ensure that there is a visual thread that runs through all of my media pieces.
The evolution of ideas of my Music Magazine Advertisement has been extensive, and multiple designs have been proposed throughout the process. However, with each idea I am developing different skills within Photoshop and thinking of how each design ties in with my other two media pieces. My first initial design felt too basic, and I felt it was not creative enough to capture my audience's attention. The second design that I decided to develop into my Music Magazine Advertisement I also thought would not be appropriate, as there would be too many visually contrasting images and would make the advertisement look too crowded. However, I felt my third design suited the purpose of the advertisement considerably more than the other two designs; it provides an interesting and exciting visual, but also allows room to incorporate text.
Music Magazine Advertisement - Progress
Whilst obtaining footage for my music video, I also managed to take photographs of my actor that could be included in my Music Magazine Advertisement. After removing the white background behind my actor using the MagicWand tool, I re-sized the image so it would fit within the guidelines of the advertisement. Before I added on the dispersion effect to the image, I inserted some text and altered its position on the page.
Personally, I believe that artist's name and title of their album is better suited and positioned at the top of the advertisement, as that is where a viewing audience are most likely to look first. Therefore, all of the other text including the album's release date, record label details, social media links, album review excerpts etc will be placed below the artist's name and title of the album. I originally intended for the font of the artist and album name to be the same. However, I felt it was hard to differentiate the two, in addition to the fact that they were the same colour. Subsequently, after I added the dispersion effect onto the image, I changed the font size and colour of the font so the audience have several different visuals.
I decided to conduct further audience research by asking a member of my target audience, Emily who is 17 years old, as to whether or not this design was fitting with with my CD Digipak and music video:
Do you think this design for my Music Magazine Advertisement is suitable?
I really like this design and think it is very suitable. I think the dispersion effect is really creative and playful which I think reflects Nina Nesbitt's musical style, especially the song "Selfies". I like the berry colour font as it matches the actor's lipstick and it contrasts nicely against the electric blue shirt.
Does the design work with the music video and CD Digipak?
I think the design works really well. The actor is wearing the same shirt that she is wearing the music video and CD Digipak which I think provides a nice visual link. Also, the polaroid and vintage looking background is extremely similar to the background in the CD Digipak, so those two media forms are nicely linked. The font is also the same as the font used in the CD Digipak which creates consistency throughout both pieces.
Are there any changes that you would make to the design?
I think one of the only changes that should be made to the design is the inclusion of more text, as the design feels a bit too bare, especially as the image only fills a small portion of the page.
Having received this audience feedback, I can now make the necessary amendments to the design, including adding more text.
"Selfies" Nina Nesbitt Completed Magazine Advertisement
The gap between the image of my artist and the edge of the advertisement is due to the trim lines that I put in place prior to publication.
