Treatment Sheet

The Magazine: Sycosound (SYC: Sonic Youth Collaboration)

Target Readership: SYC is a hybrid music magazine which is targetted at older teenagers between the ages of about 16-19, the magazine can also be read by younger readers to who are intersted in music from the past and present in all different genres. The readers of SYC are mostly beginning their college life so they need to concentrate on their education but then again don't forget to have fun and talk about things they are interested in with friends. The readers of SYC are all keen active individuals who debate on what they like in the media today including movies and music, they also like to know all the latest news and features in the media today.

Form and style: SYC is a A4 fully coloured magazine which has many features and news on the latest bands of this era it also includes helpful information on how you can chase a career in music or in the media. Typical features in the magazine can include reviews on the latest albums and movies, features on the greatest albums of our time as well as features on newcomer and past bands. Covers on our magazines can include pictures of latest bands, colours on our front covers can include red, black, yellow and white to make a very modern looking magazine. Each issue of our magazine also includes a competition and information on how you can get a career with us!. Graphics in our magazines are quite abstract and modern we use space in a very imaginative and interesting way without cluttering the cover with various lures and headlines, we usually include only a couple of features on the front cover because we do not want the cover to be seen as tacky and unprofessional, we want our magazine to be more collectable than disposable.

Themes and Typical Features: SYC usually has many different features on music from the past, present and what we believe is the future for music. Issues can include lists of the greatest albums, bands, collaborations and music videos of our time. We like to vary the style in which these features are shown, we like to base the feature on the unique style of the band it is featured on. We also like to write each feature informally as if we are speaking right to you, it also makes our magazine seem down to earth and interesting for the reader. Like many magazines we also include our own reviews of the latest albums, films, video games and TV shows as well as features on some of the reviews in that issue.

Potential Advertisers: Our magazine will have quite a varied range of advertisments especially those which are released close to a major music event, advertisments can include information and dates on upcoming concerts and gigs, latest film advertisments, latest albums and others can include 5gum and HMV.

Editorial Team: The editorial team for SYC will be made up of experienced writers and graphic designers so we get the best looking modern music magazine on the shelves. The team is mostly made up of people between the ages of 24 to 29, but in issues we really appreciate the readers contributing there own ideas for future issues. The magazine is of course a mix of male and female interests so our team is made of male and female writers and designers. Our aim is to create a modern and fresh magazine which can feature all the latest interests in the media today.

Readership Figures on other Music Magazines

There are many other music magazines out there on the market right now, alot of them are extremely popular and sell in the thousands. So I need to find a way of making my magazine as popular as many of the others in the market today I could do this by including a free CD or poster with each magazine or I could do this by using exclusive interviews in my magazine and showing this on my front cover. I have done some research on other music magazines out there and have found out the following readership figures for this year.

• The most popular music magazine currently is Mojo with a total circulation monthly of 98,484.
• Just behind this is Q magazine which has a monthly circulation of 94,811.
• More into the rock magazines and at the moment in third place was Uncut magazine which has fallen in sales this year but currently has a monthly circulation of 75,518.
• Classic Rock has gone up but is still behind Uncut, it currently has a circulation of 71,242.
• Metal Hammer which has had an extreme drop in sales currently has a circulation of 41,777.
• Another rock magazine to have an extreme drop in sales is Kerrang! which has dropped all the way down to a circulation of 41,125.
• Even further behind this was NME magazine which circulates 38,486 monthly.
• Under this is dance magazine Mixmag which has a circulation of 26,116.
• Another magazine to suffer a down in sales was music magazine Word which now has a current circulation of 26,555, which is last place in music magazine sales.

My magazine is targetted to have the same kind of style as Q magazine which I believe was a good choice because Q mag seems to be one of the leaders when it comes to music magazine sales. I also believe it is one of the leaders because it seems to be much higher quality than magazines like Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, it has much glossier paper especially on the front cover which makes them seem quite collectable other than Kerrang! where it seems you keep it for a little while then throw it away.

Readership figures found on http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Audience Questionnaire

For this project I would like some other students to answer these questions to help me get a clear picture of what I need for my magazine and what I actually need to do to make my magazine seem professional and well presented. So please could you copy and paste this to answer the questions or simply comment on this post, thank you for reading.

• Age Group ? : 14-16, 17-19, 20-22, 23+
• What other magazines do you read ? : Q, NME, Kerrang!, Mixmag, Other
• What gender do you think my magazine should be designed for ? : Male, Female, Both
• How often should I release my magazine ? : Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly
• How much do you believe my magazine should cost ? : Minimum of £3, £4, Maximum of £5 
• Which of these gifts would entice you ? : Free CD, Poster, Download Vouchers, Other
• What colours would attract you on the front cover ? (Please State)
• Do you prefer alot of text or alot of images in one feature ? : more images, more text, equal
• Do you prefer alot of text on front covers or alot of images ? : more images, more text, equal
• What do you believe is my best option for a magazine name ? : Amplify, Sycosound, Downbeat, Volume, Magnitude

I have now printed ten of these questionnaires off and got the replies I needed, I would like to thank all the people who filled in my questionnaire you were all extremely helpful for my project.

Textual Analysis on other Music Magazines - DPS (Double Page Spread)

This is an example of a double page spread from NME magazine, I really like the way this page is displayed because of its grid design that neatly fits on and around the main image. All the text seems to overlap the image like for example the large text at the top that says 'The Teenagers', this slightly covers the right hand corner of the image so you can tell that this title is linked to this image. There is also a mix of different fonts on this page that are all used for different features like the black grid on the right that uses capital sans-serif text while in the other feature thats got a white background you can see that serif text has been used instead. The way all the text is presented in this article also adds to the decorative layout, its all in these cube sections beneath the main title and they have these coloured shapes that have a quote in them thats from the article I think this is quite a clever thing to do because it adds to the colourful layout and it shows a quote that the band have actually said themselves so the reader will want to read this if they are interested in this band. As well as a big feature on a new band there are also smaller features on other bands to the right with a black background, there may not be as much text with these bands but there still layed out very well and use up the space on the page in the best possible way, the last band is one of the editors picks so you get another paragraph which is actually a quote so it maybe from an interview with the band, this has a nice effect of having these large punctuation marks on each side of the interview, which is another colourful feature that I quite like.

Textual Analysis on other Music Magazines - Contents Pages



For my first look at contents pages I decided to look at this example from Kerrang! magazine which to me at first looks a bit crowded and I am not loving the layout of it. I like contents pages where theres only a couple of well placed images not lots all stacked up in cubes like in this example. Its not terrible but I believe theres a better way of displaying contents pages than this, my next analysis on a contents page will probably be the one I like. I have heard that Kerrang! is a weekly magazine instead of being monthly, so perhaps this layout is too sum up everything thats happen in music in the past week or perhaps its the fact that these magazines do not have alot of pages so they must place as many images as possible in each magazine. There is an editorial at the top of the page which is displayed quite well with a smaller image of the magazines front cover, this is done in alot of magazines so I may try to do the same to make my contents page look more professionally written. The graphics on this page seem to be quite plain and theres not alot of colour but its still effective, theres alot of images though and each cube seems to have a shadow effect behind it making it seem like its hovering, this is quite a good effect to use because it makes the page look slightly 3-D. Each picture featured on this page has a caption which includes a number is well that shows the page its on, I may do this with my magazine but i'm not going to use as many images as they have in this one, so I may place a picture right next to the page shown in the contents list, I think this will work but I may decide to make my contents page more like the contents in Q magazines where you have one good image of a band and a small caption to go with it.

For my next and last analysis on contents pages I decided to look at this example from Q magazine, I quite like the style and look of Q its all quite modern and looks professional, it really looks like they've put time and effort into it. Also Q seems to always keep to the same colours and this makes the inside of the magazine instantly recognisable because the colours are always used in the same way and the images are always displayed in the same style. Its also very clear and displayed well, you can find the page you want very easily because its so clear. This magazine doesn't use many graphics like in the Kerrang! magazine, earlier there was a shadow effect beneath the images that made the page look slightly 3-D but Q doesn't seem to use these effects it just neatly sets the pages out in sections and really uses the space it has well, I like this type of set up.

Textual Analysis on other Music Magazines - Front Covers



For my first front cover I decided to use this front cover from Kerrang! magazine, as you can see it has many features on the front of it so it is a great cover to use for my textual analysis. As all magazines have it has a masthead which says the name of the magazine, it uses an interesting font which is like a glass shattering effect which links to the power of the kerrang noise that a guitar makes, it also has a black border which really makes the masthead bold and effective. It also has many coverlines about concerts and the biggest news on popular bands, all are in quite bold fonts and make the cover quite colourful and interesting but some could say that its a little over -crowded. It also has a banner at the top of the magazine which is also used to show some of the features in the magazine this is also linked with an image related to the feature next to it. It also has a headline which on this cover is focused on My Chemical Romance and there story probably about there newest released album. The cover also has a few lures which many music magazines have, this magazine has lures on the right about the latest popular bands which will interest teens who like modern rock bands. The graphics on this front cover are also quite good because they use very gritty effects especially on the masthead and on the little lure which says 'The UK's Biggest Gig guide', which is another way they try to make you buy the magazine. Also Kerrang! always includes posters with it each week it is released, another way to persuade the reader to buy the mag. There are always disadvantages though and with this magazine the quality does not seem as good as magazines like Q, the paper is very thin and feels very disposable whereas with Q you have very nice glossy paper which makes the magazine seem very collectable. It obvious that the age group this magazine is targetted at is teenagers and some young adults, so the layout is very lively.

For the second magazine I decided to look at Q magazine which I prefer to Kerrang! because I think the layout and use of images and text is much better and professional, with the example to the left you have an image of Gorillaz who are an extremely popular band and I think that the image really makes the magazine look very colourful. It doesn't show as many features as Kerrang! does on its front cover but I think it is better because it doesn't look over crowded and too colourful that it becomes a little tacky. Again, it has a masthead which is the Q placed on a red background, its much like a logo is well so its now very well known. They have also placed text on top of red backgrounds to compliment the Q logo so it isn't the only red on the cover, the text is also a mix of serif and sans-serif with the sans-serif text being the largest and used for the biggest headline on the cover. There are a few lures on the cover is well both at the side of the main headline, they use a little part of a quote to try and make the reader want to read on. The graphics on this magazine cover are also very nice especially on the Gorillaz art with the wave that has many faces of famous singers and actors, and of course you've got the iconic Gorrilaz characters on the front cover is well so you know who they are by the image and the caption. This magazine also has a feature which is displayed in a big circle, it is displayed as a world exclusive so this makes the feature seem like its only in this magazine and cannot be read anywhere else, it can also act as a caption with the main image on the cover.

 

For the last analysis on the front covers I decided to use this front cover from Mixmag magazine which at first is my favourite because I love the way its displayed, even though the colours are all quite dark and cold it really fits in with the magazines theme of electronic dance music. Again as all magazines have, it has a masthead which is in bold, curved letters at the top of the magazines cover, its quite a modern style of font and this kind of style can be instantly recognisable to a monthly reader. I really like the graphics on this cover with the very crisp and electronic image that makes the cover look really great, the font of writing that 'Daft Punk' is written in really fits in with the magazines look, and its obviously there to link in with the film thats mentioned in the caption on the right. There are disadvantages with this front cover though including the fact that there are only a couple of lures, the image and caption as well as the blue circle near the top of the magazine act as lures, there is also a small square in the top right corner that acts like a lure it is a guide to the latest dance music I think. This magazine cover is definitely not as effective as the last two unfortunately so I much prefer the cover for Q magazine because of its images and effectiveness. The layout of this cover is much different to the other covers it doesn't seem to use many features and lures but it does have a headline which is the main part of the whole cover.

Comparisons of other Music magazines

I compared a few popular music magazines to get an idea of what I need in my final design of my front cover and the other pages within, most of the magazines I have looked at are all quite well designed and all keep to there genre of music that they feature like Kerrang ! which keeps on a theme of rock and metal music so many of the fonts and images used all relate to this theme.

• The first magazine I looked at was Q magazine which has 170 pages and a retail price of £3.90
• It has many different sections which include features like Best of lists and articles on newcomer bands.
• Each feature in the magazine can vary alot from 15 pages to about 40 on a large list feature like in this magazine the best albums of 2009.
• It has many adverts which include dates for concerts, New albums and other popular magazines including Empire.
• Typical features in the magazine can include Record collections of famous people, quizzes and focuses on well-known bands new and old.

• The next magzine I looked at was The Source which has a retail price of £3.95 and has about 95 pages.
• Sections in the magazine include Events like up coming concerts, it also has a feature on art & culture which includes focuses on new albums, clothes and popular trends.
• Each features can again vary in number of pages from about 5 to 30.
• There are agin alot of adverts in this magazine including adverts for 5 gum, film advertisements and even a Colgate toothpaste advert.
• Typical articles can include Art & design in New York and Buyers guides on the latest album and DVD releases.

• The next magazine was Kerrang !, which has a much cheaper retail price of £1.99 and has about 70 pages.
• Sections in the magazine include News on new and old bands, live reviews of concerts, may features focusing on rock and metal bands, K! Icons focusing on well-known bands from the past and present. All these features vary from about 3 to 8 pages.
• Adverts are the usual which are film reviews and many up-coming concerts at the time.
• Typical articles include foucuses on news of bands such in this magazine there is a feature on Red Hot Chili Peppers. There are also features on new albums.

• The last magazine I looked at was Mixmag, which has a retail price of £4.20 and ha about 120 pages.
• Sections in the magazine include fashion, technology, tunes guide of the latest new releases and reviews of new albums and videos. Each sections varies in size from 5 to 20 pages.
• As all magazines it has quite alot of adverts including film advertisements, concerts and tours.
• Typical articles can include sections focusing on new artists such as in this magazine there is a large article focusing on the career of David Guetta. There are also big articles about the best albums of the year.

Brief for the New Project

In this project my task is to design and complete my own music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. Much like he student magazine before I will need to have a photo shoot, decide on fonts and colours and design my page layouts but this time they will need to link in with the theme of different sounds of music. For this project I shall try to improve all the effects I used on the previous project and introduce new effects to my cover to try and make it much more professional and colourful.

Action Plan for Music Magazine Project

In this project I will complete all the following tasks on the dates below:

• 5th January - Action Plan + Brief
• 10th January - Magazine Comparison + Textual Analysis of 3 front covers, 2 contents pages and 1 DPS (Double Page Spread) 
• 17th January - Audience Questionaire + Poll
• 24th January - Internet Research on readership figures + Treatment Sheet
• 31st January - Font & Colour analysis
• 7th February - Photo Shoot
• 14th February - Page Layouts + Drafting
• 21st - 28th February - Final Pages + Feedback + Evaluation

Deadline: 7th March

I have now finished my student magazine which I am quite pleased with and am now beginning my music magazine, which will hopefully be much more detailed and better set out than my student magazine.