MAGAZINE PITCHBy Joni Sommerville

Quick facts about the magazine!

•Working title: “BEATS”

•Genre of music: Popular music

•Cover price: £4 per issue

•Frequency of publication: Per month

Working title

I’ve decided that the name of my magazine is going to be: ‘BEATS’ magazine. Beats is written in capitals as it commands attention and provides a presence for the magazine. The name by title seemed appropriate as by definition, it is a rthymic musical unit as well as a form of movement. To the reader it symbolises dance, a party environment which to them feels euphoric. The term links to nature in the fact that to stay alive we need heartbeats, as well as I want the reader to need my magazine, to feel alive when they read ‘BEATS’ magazine. Furthermore it’s punchy and short, also the word is used in common phrasing in conversation between the young target audience e.g. ‘Sick beats fam’-(This is a great song my friend.)

Using the popular, free online font download site ‘Dafont.com’ I have selected 6 styles of font that I deem to be perfect for my magazine. The fonts will be coloured in white and the background pink as those colours are traditionally associated with femininity and purity.

Genre of musicThe genre of music I have chosen for the magazine is popular music. As in the title it is a genre of music that is globally recognised as one of the best/most listened to. Pop itself has derived from rock n’ roll which was another genre that has consistently popped up in my research as influential. However I’ve chosen to do a pop-magazine as that is the genre my audience favoured. To expand Western-style pop has many benefactors, such as it is intended to encourage dancing. Dancing has a large range of physical and mental benefits such as; increased muscular strength, endurance and motor fitness as well as the release of endorphins to your brain that activate the body’s opiate receptors, causing an analgesic effect (a feeling of euphoria).

I need my magazine to be associated with this genre so that the audience can consider my magazine as something heavenly and euphoric. Moving on, it combines other elements of culture such as art which I could display and combine into the lifestyle element of my magazine.

Cover price

The price of my magazine is £3.00, I have decided to make this the price as it isn’t considered too expensive for a magazine. Although the respondents wanted the magazine at around £2, I don’t think this is a realistic price for a monthly magazine. Due to the amount of content that is featured in the magazine £2 wouldn’t be enough to cover the costs of roughly 160 pages, with writers commission, printers fees, advertisement etc. Therefore if I were to reduce the cost the quality would suffer and that’s not something I’m willing to suffer as my magazine needs to have the professionalism in order to compete with the likes of ‘Q’ magazine.

My target audience themselves are most likely to have a part-time Job or full time one. Therefore £1 a week saved towards my magazine shouldn’t be too big of an inconvenience for them. As well as a lot of the pop music monthly magazines are around £4-£5 so there is most definitely an audience that can afford to pay the price.

Alternatively, if this is too much of a hassle my target audience can subscribe to my magazine for 1 year which would cost just £30 which works out at around £2.50 per month. And so if my target audience chooses to do this, it would actually bring in more sales for my company.

Frequency of publication

As mentioned in the previous slides my magazine is going to be published monthly. This is because from my survey the majority of respondents said that they don’t buy magazines often and are therefore more inclined to buy a monthly one. This could be due to the rise in E-media, as more young people convert to that platform of media to receive their dosage of music culture.

Even more so my audience are more likely to subscribe to my magazine monthly due to it costing them less overall. This way my magazine can have 160 pages worth of mesmerising, detailed content rather than a brief overview of musical news from the past two weeks for example. Therefore the quality of the magazine will be exquisite and more thought and effort from myself and my team can go into the publication of this monthly magazine. To expand a lot of the professional magazines I have researched such as mixmag are published monthly therefore it allows me to compete with them as well as I can prodice seasonal magazines e.g. Autumn, winter, spring etc. edditions that allow me to switch up the content to make it more specific for the reader at that particular time.

What’s included in the magazine?The magazine itself will be filled with plenty of information on the latest in the pop-music world. It’ll recommend all the new releases from their favourite pop artists for example Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, One direction etc. As well as it has a unique “Code and play” feature where using a mobile phone they can scan the code of our “HIT OF THE MONTH” and it will download straight onto their Spotify playlist. This feature in particular combines print media with e-media so that BEATS grows in popularity. Also the reader has to depend on the magazine (the print media) before then transitioning to e-media. As a magazine company this is vital for me as the more platforms I can combine is the more the reader will become consumed with my company therefore more magazines are bought, my website viewed, app downloads etc. To advertisers this makes my company attractive because they’ll want to invest/be associated with a company that has plenty experience across all platforms in the media.

BEATS will be interviewing celebrity pop musicians as well so that the reader has a close insight into their life so they can aspire to be like them. As well as find out what they’ve been up to over the past month in music so that the reader can keep up-to-date with their musical progress. The artist an album reviews section allows the reader to view professional reviews from their favourite albums as well as many more things related such as articles on the best upcoming artists for the pop genre. This will give my magazine great respect from the pop music industry because BEATS not only showcases the familiar talent, it gives the “hungry artist” a chance to break into the industry.

Within the magazine there’ll be sections on the influence of fashion in the popular music industry. For example it’ll discusscollaborations between fashion designers and musicians, where to find these clothes, what the artist themselves have been wearing from everyday looks to evening wear. As well as it will give styling tips as to how to wear the clothes so that my target audience can feel like they’re apart of the industry as well as appear to others who are interested in the same music/lifestyle in the correct way. It also gives them self confidence with their everchanging identity as to what’s on trend.

My readers will also want to reach their favourite artists as physically as they can and socialise with friends therefore a gig guide is featured in the magazine. This guide leads my target audience to all the best gigs lined up for the next month that are safe, easy to access and will be having plenty of pop culture and media coverage.. Through this guide they’ll know the location, date, admission/entry fee, weekend fee (if needed), Acts, set list, places to stay/facilities etc. As well as some lucky readers just might have the chance to go backstage meet the artists and see the behind the scenes of what the stage management team gets up to. In the future, there are prospects for our own pop music festival and so by supporting others in turn we should receive the support and the know how as to what an amazing pop-music festival is like.

The magazine will be overflowing with such information as this and more provided as to what the target audience would like tosee from a music magazine. As a company we aim to give the best experience to our readers so that they gain our trust and will rely on us in the future by purchasing our magazine every month and keeping up to date with us via our app, social media and website.

Length of the magazineThe length of the magazine will be around 160 pages. As it is a monthly magazine it’ll have many detailed pages as it obviously has a months worth of content to cover. It will include contents pages, double spreads and pages for other content as mentioned previously. Plus the advertisers such as Puma, Spotify, McDonalds and Boots etc. They’ll roughly request around 1-2 pages for their campaigns depending on the scale of them.

Below is an example of a magazine flat plan that gives an insight into the length of a monthly magazine:

The attitude of the magazine?

The attitude of the magazine will be electric, enthusiastic and empowering. All imagery will be taken professionally either in a studio or in a chosen location, therefore no matter how simplistic or busy the photo is- it’ll engage the audience as it has been composed in a masterful way. Unlike my competitors my magazine will encourage girls to feel empowered with themselves and will feature articles on self-development and motivation combining with music. My target audience hold these attitudes; they’re excitable hardworking girls and I aim to recreate that through the magazine. Whenever there is an article on a particular artist or group the layout of the page will be edited to replicate the impression that the artist themselves wants to give to the target audience. Therefore the magazine will have plenty of variation within itself. The theme of the colours will reflect the attitudes of the target audience themselves as although the majority of the colours are light, open and friendly the use of black is intimidating as it exudes power. This aims to signify the fact that my target audience are going to become strong,role models from reading my magazine.

The style of the magazine?The magazine will feature something new every month for example one month it’ll be freebies, the next competitions, giveaways etc. We’ll have monthly focus groups before the publication of our next magazine so that the audience has a first hand contribution as to what goes into the magazine. The style is interchangeable as depending on the month it’ll reflect the layout, colours etc. For example one month the theme colours used might be very bright and prominent e.g. bright pink, jet black etc. While other months those colours might be more pastel based. Interviews and gig guides will be based on the trends of that month and will have a variety of different artists and places to go and view preferer music. Overall the style is going to be laid back and interchangeable as the audience is one that is still adapting it tastes over time as they’re still growing up and so the magazine will accommodate to that. Furthermore the interchangeable layout, features and content will engage the audience more because they’ll be kept on their toes and unlike other magazines won’t repetitively use the same layout and aspects.

MISSION STATEMENT“Beats magazine is the latest of its kind to provide you with the ultimate guide to the pop industry. Our mates Justin, Taylor and Ed Sheeran know exactly where to send their fans to read about their latest gigs! We promise to deliver nothing but interviews, reviews, entertainment, gig-guides, album and fashion advice unlike any other magazine has done before. We pride ourselves on having gained such status and respect that celebs pester us to come and see them just to be featured in our magazine. You can guarantee that all our content is original and we’ll never produce anything that YOU the target audience don’t adore. So whether you’re looking for advice on your summer road trip playlist or who’s headlining Leeds fest this year? Be sure to pick up a copy of our magazine to feed your pop-tastic mind. We aim to inspire, encourage and lead you on the path that awaits for you in this music industry. With all the experience and know how, be sure to get in touch!”

See you soon babes!

BEATS mag x