My Magazine

What does my magazine have to offer?

Function

The function of my music magazine is to inform the audience on Indie Rock music - for them to appreciate the unique. This means that it will feature things that are important in the genre, rather than gimmicks like freebies. The audience is older teen/young adult, but essentially anyone can read it, there is no preferred gender.

Format

The aim for the format is for it to be spacious and clear with a continuing housestyle. I don't want it to be crowed and complicated to read - this was also what the audience don't want as it was reflected in my survey. However, I still want it to be conventional - conventions work for a reason and straying from them is not always the best idea.

Frame

The magazine will have a house style and will follow the same margins and layout. My aim is to have each page with the same sort of layout, rather than having them completely different as it ends up being quite offensive to the eyes. If it were to be published properly, then the cover would follow the same pattern in terms of where things are on it, except that the information would change - an example of what not to do is the magazine RayGun.

Formula

The magazine will contain anything that is relevant to Indie Rock. It focuses on topics like the best ever bands, what gigs to go to, and is tailored to suit the preferences of people who want to know about the genre rather than just know who to listen to be seen as 'cool'.

Unique Selling Point

The USP of my magazine is that it is about the music. I want it to be like a guide to the genre - so it will include articles like best gigs to go to, up and coming artist, in depth reviews of albums or the songs we recognise, but don't know who sings them. It will feature the most important topics of the genre - Indie Rock - and will be specific to the genre.

Magazine Names



Name ideas for my Music Magazine 

I have come up with a number of different names for my music magazine - some of which I don't think that they would make a good name because they don't follow my ideas. For example, 'Sole' - I came up with the idea that the magazine would be independent and by its self, however would have worked better if my genre was Soul as it would have been a kind of play on words. 

Some of the names that I am considering are;

• Undiscovered
• Riff
• Beat 
• Chord
• Peace
• Rhythm

Shindig Magazine

Shindig!

What is Shindig?

Shindig! began in 1992 as a photocopied garage - punk fanzine called Gravedigger.

According to the official Shindig! website, it describes itself as;

"A publication put together with genuine understanding, sincerity and utter belief. We seek to end mediocrity in music magazines... to bring the scope and knowledge of old fanzines and specialist rock titles to a larger readership: quality journalism, columns, music and film history; exciting new bands and culture. From the most far-out ’60s sounds through country-rock and folk to soul and electronic experimentation. It's all there.

We have already inspired every major music mag... so let us inspire you too."

Publisher

Shindig! was originally published by Volcano Publishing, but has recently signed a deal with Silverback Publishing. Both are fairly independent and less well known. 

Audience 

Shindig!'s audience is focused on a niche audience. 82% of its readers are in the ABC1 group, with men making up 83% whilst 17% of women read it. The magazine achieves a worldwide circulation of 26,000.

Publishing

Publishing Houses

All magazines need to published if they are to be bought from shops - two of the biggest publishing houses are 'Bauer' and 'Time Inc UK' .

 

Bauer

Bauer Media Group is a large European based media company founded in 1875. They portfolio around 600 magazines, within this are 2 of the most popular music magazines - Kerrang! and Q.

 

Time Inc UK

Time Inc UK, previously International Publishing Corporation and IPC Media, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc. I was founded in 1968 and its headquarters are located in London. It is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the UK, with a large portfolio that sells a range of over 350 million copies of magazines each year. Within their large portfolio, they publish 2 music magazines - NME and Uncut.

 

Independent Publishers

As well as the large companies, there are small, independent publishing houses that portfolio magazines by printing them or publishing then digitally. An example of an independent magazine publisher is Volcano Publishing, and a digital publisher is ISSUU.

 

ISSUU

This publisher is a free, electronic publishing platform with over 25 million publications and 85 million active readers. It portfolios many different magazines and features leading and emerging titles in fashion, culture, the arts ect. Some of its partners include The New York Times, Vice and V Magazine.

 

My Magazine

The genre of my music magazine is Indie Rock, part of the alternative genre. It isn't as popular as the genres Hip - Hop or Pop, so for this reason I think that it would be best to publish it with a large and well known publishing house rather than a smaller, independent one, or a digital one. This is because I want it to reach the target audience - and there is more chance of this if it is a bigger publisher because it will be more widely distributed. Consequently, the readership of it will be sufficiently bigger, which as a result will create a larger profit. This means that with more money, the magazine will get better because it can afford to look better and can be advertised because the publisher will be well known.