Audience Research

   Finding out about target audiences is one of the main parts of designing your magazine, as you need to think about how to attract their attention. Designers and Institutions have to think very carefully about every aspect of their magazine and justify how it will appeal to their target audience.

For example colours and language techniques can greatly effect who the magazine appeals to; red and black are more masculine aggressive colours, therefore would attract more males than females.

I think it is mainly 15-25 year olds that would read music magazines because they’re most interested in keeping up with relevant trends and finding out about new up and coming bands and musicians.

Another factor that makes me think it’s this age group that read music magazines is most of the main magazines (Kerrang, NME) offer an online service in which the audience can access the content in the magazine on the internet, which younger people will probably find more accessible than buying the physical magazine (due to the popularity of devices that provide wifi: smartphones, tablets etc. and limited funds to actually purchase the magazine).

Institutions target their audience by making sure they feature bands and musicians which are relevant and current, so that peoples will be interested in the magazine and want to buy it.

They also customise the magazines house style to accommodate the audience, like I said more aggressive colours will attract males, where as brighter and softer colours will attract females.

Two stereotypes which may be attracted to music magazines might be teenage boys (16-19) that have a passion for music, either listening to it, or creating it, as they either may be looking for more knowledge about music as they enjoy it, or they may be looking to join a band or become a solo artist and make a living from it; reading these magazines would help him focus on what is currently popular.

Another stereotype might be alternative girls that are interested in keeping up with current trends, especially if they really enjoy music, and have a passion for going to festivals.

Overall institutions spend a long time perfecting the magazine to ensure that it fit’s the  target audience exactly, to maximise sales and make their magazine popular.