Audience Research

The genre of music I am going to make it indie/rock, similar to rock magazines such as Kerrang! and Rocksound. I have decided I wanted to do this genre of music as it is what interests me the most, I feel would be the most engaging, interesting and flexible genre of music magazine to create.


Kerrang! Magazine 
The readers profile details are below, which highlight their target audiences prefrences, interests and guides them on how to satisfy them in production.
The target audience can be cut up into segments, such as:
Age
Gender
Sexual Orientation
Nationality
Ethnicity
Where they live
Education
Occupation
Socioeconmic status
Religion
and Tribes.
What products their audience also buy is important, for advertising strategies and to identify their main interests.

From this profile, I have found the median age of Kerrang!'s target audience to be 19 years of age, with a slightly higher proportion of the audience being male.  Therefore, it would be apporpiate to use mainly young male models for my photography and front page image, as many male readers of this age would aspire to be like them. Although there is a less proportionate of a female audience, it will be important to still feature at least one female artist, as a representation of a sexual image towards male readers, along with satisfying female readers by featuring role models and artists they aspire to be like. This will also ensure my magazine includes a range of different models, rather than focusing on just the one artists/band. Kerrang! often apply this strategy to their photography, when featuring female artists or singers, the positioning of them is crucial in representing them as a sexual image towards males. Likewise, this strategy can be used vise versa, by using a handsome, masculine image of a lead male as a sex icon towards female readers. 

Most readers use their income or money on:
- Music - on average purchasing around 31 albums a year
- Gig tickets,
- Active consumers of clothing, mainly brands which favourite their age range and style 'tribe',
- Gaming and the latest technologies eg. the iPod - in which their passionate side for music is consumed,
- 58% say appearance is the most important factor. 

Rocksound Magazine

Unlike Kerrang!, Rocksound tends to have a much older target age, of around 30. In socioeconomic terms, it's audience tend to be between upper middle class down to skilled working class. This represents that Rocksound's audience are mainly succeeders, reformers and aspirers. In order for the magazine to match the needs of it's target audience, Rocksound's layout, structure and photography are presented to the highest quality, in which, photography wise, many can aspire to be like, which influences them to purchase the magazine. This is also supported by the higher price of the magazine, around £4.90 compared to the lower price of Kerrang! magazine (£2.20). 

Above I have created my own photographic reader profile for my target audience, with what I intend to represent the interests and consumer choices of my readers. It contains a range of different bands and artists that indulge in the rock/independant genre, latest technology like the iPod, iPhone and Blackberry, TV Drama's with a target age of my own target audience which conform to representing teenage life, independant clothing companies, social networking sites, and popular high street shops in which my target audience tend to shop at.

My Target Audience

From my research, I have been able to identify some key features of my intended target audience, which will affect the way in which I structure and produce my magazine.

• Age - Between 16-30
• Gender - A larger proportion being male, but around 60:40 - This will effect my photography and how I represent stereotypes in my magazine
• Hobbies and Interests : Mainly music - buying gig tickets, attending concerts, festivals, travelling (seeing the world around them), the internet - social networking sites  (Such as: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube), clothes and fashion, the latest technology - Blackberry, iPhone, iPod, Laptops  
• Media Influences : many media influences such as web 2.0, social networking sites, TV dramas aimed at a young target audience (Skins, the Inbetweeners, Misfits) - which create stereotypes of this age which many intend to imitate, newspapers - highlighting young people to be deviant - rebellion
• Many have part time jobs to support excessive needs to keep up with the recent trends - to fit in, which funds their social activities. 

Focus Group

For my focus group I used members of my own target audience along with RockSound's, so that they would give a valid and critical opinion on the magazines layout, colours, photography and structure. This feedback is helpful for me when creating my own magazine, as I can design exactly to how they have judged and what they like about RockSound. 
I have managed to identify that it is important to have a 'house style' colour pallet, which are recognisable to frequent readers and my main audience. This sustains a recognisable design to the magazine whilst on the shelf against other music magazines. Also, like both Kerrang! and RockSound, the photography on the front page is important, and usually contains a image of a featuring band, rather than just one artists. Usually, traditional front man/woman roles apply, by framing them higher and further forward in the frame to maintain their position and popularity with the audience. I have decided I will apply this to my magazine.