Audience Research; Questionnaire Results

Audience Research Questionnaire Results

1.    Male= 3          Female =4

2.    10-13=1         14-18=4         41-50=2

3.    Yes=7

4.    Yes=1

5.    KERRANG

6.    Don’t want to read about music, just listen to it=2 / Doesn’t interest me=3 / Too much money=1 / I feel I’m too old=1

7.    Pop=5                        R&B=2           Indie=2           Rock=2          Classical=4  

Don’t know=2

8.    Yes=4             No=3

9.    Pop=2                        Rock=2

10.  Whether the cover is appealing or not=2           The music style=0   

The celebrity on the front cover=4                        Other...The cover lines=1

From my questionnaire I can see that not a lot of people actually buy music magazines because they just don’t interest them. This is going to be an issue that I will have to take into account when I produce my music magazine. The last question that I asked will be very useful when I think about planning the front cover of my magazine. It has given me a clear insight on what everyday people look for when deciding whether to buy a music magazine or not.  

Audience Research; Questionnaire Template

Audience Research Questionnaire

1.    What gender are you?            Male/Female

2.    What age are you?         10-13       14-18    19-30    31-40     41-50    51+

3.    Do you like music?                  Yes/No

4.    Do you buy music magazines?    Yes/No

5.    If ‘yes’ then what magazine do you buy?

6.    If ‘no’ then why don’t you buy music magazines?

7.    Name three types of music magazine genre...

8.    Do you have a favourite genre of music?        Yes/No

9.    If ‘yes’, what is it?

10. What would make you want to buy a music magazine?

Whether the cover is appealing or not/ The music style/ The celebrity on the front/Other......................................................................................................

Research into state of current music magazine sector

Research into current state of music magazine sector


Q retains its pre-eminent position as the number one music monthly brand in the UK and across Europe of 112,532, alongside an ever-increasing digital reach via q4music.com.
MOJO’s sales are up on the period to 106, 367 and is second only to stablemate Q in the sector. Combined Q and MOJO deliver almost half (43%) the share of the monthly music market. MOJO – which brings classic music to a new generation and new music to established fans – consistently delivers a bespoke fix of high quality journalism and iconic photography to music fans alongside mojo4music.com.

Reference: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Press-Office/News/Bauer-Media-ABC-Magazine-Sales-Figures-Jan-Jun-2008/


IPC Media's weekly rock magazine NME suffered a year-on-year circulation slump of 17.3 per cent in the first half of 2010 as sales of music and film titles slumped.
NME had an average weekly circulation of 33,875 in the six months to the end of June, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Rivals to NME also suffered in a bad set of results for entertainment titles. Circulation of Bauer's Q Magazine dropped 10.7 per cent compared to the first half of 2009, taking it to an average of 89,450 per issue.
Mojo magazine, a stablemate of Q at Bauer, fell by 6.2 per cent year on year to a monthly circulation average of 91,678.
NME's sister title Uncut fared slightly better but still fell with a 3.2 per cent year-on-year drop to a monthly average circulation of 74,067. Bauer's heavy metal weekly Kerrang! increased its average per-issue circulation by 1.8 per cent to 44,013.
As for film titles, the situation is just as bad. Future Media's recently relaunched Total Film saw its sales fall by 10.5 per cent year on year to 76,088, although Future will be hoping the new-look title manages an uplift in the next ABC results in six months' time. Bauer's Empire magazine fell by 7.7 per cent year on year to 179,064.

Reference: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45844&c=1

The top selling music magazine at current is NME, which sells £33,875 on average weekly. However, it also loses the most sales annually, 17.3%. NME’s weekly sales are a lot more than other music magazine sales. An annual sale for The Fly music magazine is £108,207 that would total to be a lot less than NME’s average sale.

WHSmith sells around about 12 music magazines in store. This proves how the popular music magazines will get very high sales whereas the new, or less-known music magazines will perform weaker. This is one of the main reasons for success or failure of music magazines. They have very specific styles of music included in the magazines, so their target audience is very particular and small. Music magazines have to compete greatly against each other because there is only a minority of genres around.

Analysis of Two Covers of Music Magazines

This is a front cover of the very popular music magazine ‘NME’. The most eye-catching part of this magazine is the very bright, red hair of the model as it contrasts so much with the pale blue background. Also, the text helps to bring attention to the hair colour as it says ‘Gerard sees red’. This makes it obvious that the magazine is trying to highlight the red hair as an important feature of the magazine. The eyes of the model are also very intense and draw you into the magazine. The style and facial expressions of the model set the genre of music that the magazine includes. The genre of the magazine is of an indie rock and roll style. The layout of the magazine is quite basic which is pleasing to they eye. It doesn’t look too busy and therefore doesn’t pull your attention away from the model. I like this magazine front cover because the male model isn’t portrayed stereotypically. The use of some of the text also backs up this point. The quote “We loathe what goth has become” proves that the magazine are trying to pull away from the stereotypical views of the magazine. This makes the magazine unique however, it decreases the amount and type of people who will buy the magazine. The target audience is probably 16 to 25 as the music taste is mainly popular with the younger generation.  

This is a front cover of a pop magazine called ‘Top of the Pops’. Unlike other magazines, the first thing that I noticed was the main cover line; “No more secrets”. This stood out because of the use of the colour yellow on the pink background. These colours contrast with each other, making the yellow pop out. The main celebrities on the front are The Jonas Brothers and they are more noticeable than the other singers on the cover because, the picture is bigger and they are central, automatically bringing your attention to them first. This cover is unlike the NME magazine front cover because this is very stereotypical. It has a well-known, good-looking, popular Disney band of brothers and they’re posing in a less serious manner. This is probably aimed at young girls and young teenagers because it contains a lot of gossip of celebrities who are more likely to be known to younger girls. The uses of celebrities such as Cheryl Cole also contribute to the stereotypical vibe that this magazine gives out because she is an example of the ‘perfect’ woman. The cover lines also include competitions to ‘win signed stuff from Ashley, Miley & Jo Bro’, which attract the target audience because younger children enjoy competitions.