Audience Research

My first question was about gender. It showed most were woman. This also shows women were more willing to take part of the survey, and might be more active readers, meaning I can focus some of the interactive events around women.

This also means my magazine should have a female attitude and focus on being relatable and resourceful for women, rather than men. This means to talk about issues women relate to, focus on female artists that can inspire my readers and have a more delicate colour scheme than dark or neon colours all over the place.

One more thing is this also shows that a small part of my readers don’t identify as either male or woman, this gives my magazine a responsibility to represent that part of my readers in the magazine. This means I’ll include more diverse people which will also participate in what kind of people will read my magazine, as a older generation might avoid that representation in media.

My second question was related to education. This allows me to figure out quite a lot about what my magazine should be like. Most said college which tells me I can use a mix of formal and informal language, as most college students can understand a larger range of words. It also tells me I can have reflective articles, as seventeen year olds can understand emotions and deeper topics better compared to if they were thirteen.

• Some of my Norwegian friends took the survey, and their secondary school equals college

This question is about music magazines directly. This one is quite important as it tells me whether I should post my magazine weekly, monthly or annually. According to this I should do it annually as that’s how often my readers buy magazines related to music.

This means my readers will expect a thicker magazine that they can count on to mention all important moments in music from the last year. Readers who wish for a annually magazine often hope that magazine can summarize the year that has passed, and that will be the goal of the magazine.

This also means we have to bring greater quality content as one expects more from an annually music magazine rather than a weekly gossip based music magazine. We’ll have to review artists from the year, talk about awards that have been – mention highlights from the year, and maybe even predict some peak points in the music industry for the year ahead. Our readers will expect thorough content as we’ve had a year to perfection it.

The fourth question is about what my magazine can put on the front cover to sell well. Most said an artist they like or a current singer. This lets me know, to grab my readers attention – I need my front cover to be current, It needs celebrities that my readers will know and recognize. And headlines that are relevant to the time.

My front cover needs to reflect musical society at that moment. It’ll have relevant headlines and eye catching colours. And as my magazine is an annually one, I might even benefit from having a photograph of a one-hit-wonder artist from the beginning of the year on the page, as people like to be reminded of old celebrities they loved as they’ll feel nostalgic.

They all want something they like, something that appeals to them. This question only confirms my previous research that you need to know your readers to sell well.

The fifth question is very important as it sets the entire genre for the magazine. The answers vary so that shows I can be diverse with the music we’ll write about, but it’s important to note no one chose Billy Ray Cyrus (country) and most people went with Twenty One Pilots.

This tells me to have the magazine focus on Indie Pop but throw in some other genres in between that are similar to that genre while avoiding country.

This also makes my magazine more diverse to the audience. It’ll be an annual summary of the hits over the past year, as Indie Pop is one of the more popular genres in music – it’ll be easy to attract an even bigger audience.

There’s a small part of my audience that likes k-pop, and i’ll make sure to include maybe two or three k-pop related articles in every issue to please that part of my audience.

This is very important as it tells me how much my readers are willing to pay for a magazine that suited all their interests, like mine hopefully does. And the average number is 16. This is quite expensive, which is good – considering we can earn well but also because our magazine will be published annually it will have to be more expensive to be able to keep producing them.

It also means I can afford to put stuff like free cds in the magazine.

I might even afford giving a small percentage to charity, which is both good for the world – but also good for the publicity of the magazine. Doing this, will also make people who are mad about how expensive the magazine is less likely to complain.

This tells me about the content needed in a magazine for it to be considered good quality content. This won’t help the sale of my first magazine, but in the long run it’ll make or break my magazine. The more pleasing the content, the more likely our readers are to recommend it to acquaintances or friends, and to keep buying it.

This is also a way to keep our current readers happy and give us an idea of extra stuff to add like a free CD mentioned by some of responses. It also lets us know they really do like the idea of tours, festivals etc. because they say they want gig reviews, making us more certain that advertising for cheap concert tickets will benefit our magazine and sponsors. Plus, it lets us know that having an entire section of the magazine dedicated to reviews will be appreciated by the readers.

Some also say photographs are important. Our photographs is ultimately the first thing people will notice, and they need to be eye catching and interesting. We’ll make sure to keep the fashion trendy while challenging as to catch their attention. We’ll make the photos have a certain aesthetic to them but not so specific it makes certain readers not want to buy our magazine.

Question number eight is about age. This is actually very critical to the content my magazine will include. Most are between 14 to 17 and considering we already know everyone is in college, my main age group, more specifically, is between 16 to 18. This tells me I can be more mature with my content, I can include more scandals, gossip etc. I don’t have to filter as if my readers were 12 year olds.

We also know a bit more about the stuff they’ll relate to. From being in college and being 16-18 year old – we already know tons of content we could have besides music sections, like study tips, celebrity gossip, beauty trends etc.

The age group is also one known for being influental. Most 16 to 18 year old aere more willing to advertise for an artist they like than 30+ year old people, and they’re also more likely to be active fans. This also means we are making content for the future of the music industry, so our magazine will be influencal to the future rather than right now.

The ninth question is about what sort of advertisements my readers want to see. This is critical to the funding of my magazine, as more sponsors – mean more money to print magazines.

The majority said perfume and fashion related stuff, following that – concerts, musical events etc. and lastly, travelling deals and adventurous items.

All of these are related to music and would suit my magazine. This shows me I should focus on perfume, makeup and fashion advertisements but should also include concerts, music festivals etc.

What I’d do because of this is I’d have most the magazine advertisements be about the most popular category of ads – makeup, perfume and fashion. Then, in the sections of the magazine where there’ll be gig reviews, upcoming festivals etc. I’ll throw in some ads about concert deals and musical events for a good price and/or free.

Lastly, my tenth question and it’s replies are important in two ways. Firstly, it tells me my readers won’t be interested in advertisements about rare musical items and aren’t collectors. However, it also tells me that a big majority of them would buy something if it has significant meaning to them specifically. This allows me add free stuff to my magazine like a free cd, guitar pickers etc.

If none of my readers were to collect anything, ever, it would’ve been a waste and they wouldn’t appreciate it but because most of them can imagine themselves collecting items they’ll appreciate the possibly free additions to their collections.