Choosing articles on my Contents page

When thinking about articles to put on my contents page I looked at other music magazines for inspiration, as well as the previous contents page I did for my College magazine in my preliminary task. I will be separating my contents into two sections: Features and Regulars. These will determine whether the article will be a weekly feature or just a one off interview with the artist, making the article more significant and individual to each magazine. To start with I looked in the magazines I initially analysed:

The Fly

As their magazine is quite small anyway, their contents page is quite brief. They separate their articles into 3 sections: Regulars, Features and Reviews. By doing this they create a simple yet informative list of what’s in the contents of the magazine. Also, most of the articles are just mentioned by the name of the band, showing they don't want to elaborate and be over-the-top but just clear as to who they are interviewing. This way their audience can find the artist they wish to read about easily. My favourite articles they list within the regular section are 'Win Stuff' and 'Onestowatch'. The way they write it in colloquial language makes it seem more laid back, but when reading the article it is clear they are still very informative and interesting. Therefore I have decided to feature articles similar to these own my own magazine.

Rocksound

In the copy I had, their contents page spread over 2 pages, with main articles on one and a summary of other sections on the other. I like how they listed the Reviews and Lives all in one collective group with a list of everyone underneath in the description. This may be a feature I will also add in my magazine if I have enough bands and artists to interview. Moreover in their Features column they also have 3 word descriptions of each of the articles that work really well to just get a taste as to what the articles involve.

Kerrang!

Here they feature similar articles to the other music magazines, but there are a few articles that stood out to me. Within Kerrang! they have a page dedicated to the public’s opinions, facts and comments about rock music where people can express their own opinions about new and existing artists and their 'feedback' on articles already published. I like this feature as it involves the audience to almost participate with the making of the magazine, as this page suggests preferences that are then published in magazines. I also like the idea of a gig guide at the end of the magazine, showing the upcoming events in the area, which was an initial idea I had from the target audience research I collected. Therefore I will make sure I include articles like this for my genre of music.

My Target audience research:

When I collected my target audience research I made sure to ask them what they would want to see in my magazine, as it would be them who would buy and read the magazine. My research leads me to consider many different articles that would not only be interesting for them to read, but to make them read more magazines.

· When asking about if they went to gigs regularly, hardly anyone said they went frequently, either because of ticket prices or availability. Therefore at this stage I had decided I wanted to create a regular give away feature of gig tickets to the public so they would have more of an opportunity to go.

·  People also said that they didn't spend an awful lot on music and would prefer to download it illegally. This is slowly destroying the music industry and as my target audience are of an age to download illegally I thought it would be best to give out iTunes voucher to readers. This method would be suitable for this demographic and so would work sufficiently withy maintaining the music industry.

· I also asked my target audience what they would most prefer to read about in a selection of types of articles. most answered that they wanted to read interviews and gig lists, however I will also include the other things mentioned such as new bands/artists, new album and singles releases and posters, as they seemed to have proved most popular in existing music magazines.

· By collecting information on their interests and hobbies, I was also able to consider advertising within my magazine. Places such as McDonalds and H&M proved popular within this demographic, so this would be a contributing article/advertisement to the magazine. I thought I could also influence these preferences into small articles that would broaden my genre of indie, looking into fashion and technology that also fall into the same genre.

· One of the questions I asked to my target audience was to list a few of their favourite artists/bands that would give me ideas for interview articles. They answered well and gave loads of suggestions that have become really useful in choosing indie artists to interview. Therefore I have enough data to create the articles that will work well in my magazine and will interest the target audience as it is based on their preferences.

Overall I want to make sure I have articles that bring popularity to smaller artists in the music industry, as well as popular bands of the time.

Here are the articles I intend to include in my contents page with a brief explanation as to why and which category they will fall in:

 

FEATURES:

 

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW- this is the main interview of the issue, featuring Florescent Violet that will be the double page spread interview about her upcoming tour and rise to stardom

 

ARCTIC MONKEYS-with their new album released after 8 years of waiting this article will describe their climb back to popularity and the musical gifts they have to offer 

 

FUN. - how touring the UK will be different from America

 

MINIATURE TIGERS- now going on tour with Bear Hands we catch up to see how their first album differs to the last

 
FLEET FOXES- what they think of 'Birdy's' cover of their song, and what they're up to nowadays

 

THE 1975

 <the rest of these bands will just have

YOUNG GUNS

ordinary interviews talking about their latest singles and

HAIM

 what 2014 has in store for them

LOCAL NATIVES

PEACE

 

 

UNDER THE RADAR: NEW ARTISTS FOR 2014- for this article I will have loads of separate bands/artists interviewed so the feature will go on for at least 5 pages. To find out the different bands of 2014 I have looked on itsallindie.com, a website full of new indie releases that is really helpful with the collection of article info. From looking at this, I have decided to write about these 5 new artists:

-Wolf Alice- band of 3 guys and a girl singer- mainly guitar with mellow music

-Superfood- 3 guys and girl rocky vibe

-Port St Willow- drums and quiet dark guitar lines contrast with haunting vocals

-Marika Hackman- girl folk singer soft and natural

-Natures Rhythm- two girls with amazing singing vocals

 

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION: ADVENTURE MY TASTE IN MUSIC- a column by me or guest journalist explaining their change in music taste and how the new year has promise to make it better.

YOUTUBERS: THE NEW WAY TO BECOME FAMOUS- this article will feature some of the main Youtuber's around at the moment, showing what they did to get noticed and how they are doing now

Regulars

 

NEW IN TOWN: THE LATEST PERSON TO GET MY EARS RINGING- editors pic of new artists with an interview after going to see them live

 

MY ITUNES- choosing a band member or artist from any band and asking what’s on their iTunes

 

TICKET GIVEAWAY- gig ticket giveaway as a regular feature- both large and smaller artists

 

YOU WOT MATE? YOUR SAY ON THE LATEST ISSUES- the readers say on what’s been in the magazine and things in relation to it from Facebook, twitter and email

 

4 PICS ONE ARTIST- this relates to a game currently on trend where the aim is to identify the person from the 4 pictures. However this version is slightly tweaked as its 4 pictures from the artist themselves to show how they would summarise themselves

 

VOUCHER SNATCHER- music vouchers-either giveaway or competition

 

PIN UP PICTURE PULL OUT PAGE- a tongue twister name for posters

 

ABLUM REVIEWS - this will review the albums that have come out that month, from both well-known and smaller artists

 

GIG LIST- general list of gigs with links to online pages to see when certain artists will be in their area

 

INSTAGRAM FAVORITES- being an indie magazine it would be hard to not include Instagram, where most people put up pictures showing their indie influences on what they wear, say and do. Therefore this article will concentrate on the best pictures that represents them being indie, found with the hash tag #TONICINDIE

 

WIN- another competition to meet and greet artists with signed memorabilia

 

WEB GEEK PICKS OF THE WEEK- a feature looking online to find out the weirdest and wackiest things on the web this month, including YouTube pictures, vines or screenshots of comments.

 

ON TREND- I wanted to influence a bit of fashion into my magazine, on this page will be looking at indie trends and where to buy them. They will feature some of the brands listed from my target audience research so it is relevant to their preferences.