To add a little more to my Blog and give me a better idea about the standard of the work in the magazine industry, I have decided to analyse an issue of Rock Sound Magazine. I've been looking around for a Media Pack, and haven't been able to find much...
General
Which company produces the magazine?
Rock Sound LTD produce this magazine on a monthly basis.
What is the Target Audience?
I haven't found that much at all on Target Audience for this magazine, but by looking at the cover and flicking through the content I can imagine its a very similar to Kerrang! magazine. I found a Blog on the internet with a bit of information about their current audience though. This tells me that the average reader's are aged 15-24 (pretty young...) and that 72% of the audience are men. Similar to the Kerrang! Target Audience, Rock Sound's audience will use their magazine as a source of new fashion and trends more than any other source on the market. Staying connected is a very important part of their lives, they value being constantly updated, and the ways readers connect with Rock Sound is Print, Web and Social Networking. 82% of their audience use at least two of these methods to stay connected with their Rock Idols, and in total they spend roughly £114 million a year on music and gig tickets.How much does it cost?
The cost of each Rock Sound magazine is £3.99.
How often is it Published?
Rock Sound magazine, which is different to Kerrang! is published on a Monthly basis, rather than the Weekly basis of Kerrang! magazine.
What are it's Circulation and Readership figures?
The Circulation figures for Rock Sound magazine is 15,005 copies. This magazine also has an expected Readership of 23,027. This is considerably less than Kerrang! and since this isn't a magazine that is constantly in the public eye (again with the whole "underground" thing) there is no circulation information about them on Press Gazette. However on Wordpress I managed to find a Leaderboard for this and a few other Rock / Alternative / Metal magazines such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and Classic Rock. According to the magazines in their leaderboard Rock Sound is 8th out of 12 magazines whose figures where recorded. As you can see, its not a majorly good record to have in this current day and age where technology is booming and gaining more popularity every minute of everyday. The link to the leaderboard is just here;http://dezji.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/uk-music-magazine-circulation-figures-2/
Work out the approximate Monthly Revenue Streams. What does this tell you?
By assuming that every issue of Rock Sound is £3.99, I worked out that the MRS (Monthly Revenue Streams) of the magazine is £59,869.95. This is significantly less than Kerrang! magazine, but this is only because Rock Sound is published monthly.
The Front Cover
The title. Why is it called this? What does the title connote?
The title of this magazine is of course Rock Sound. The magazine is intended to be less commercial, more "underground" than other magazines. The two words "Sound" and "underground" have a slight rhyme to their sounds, and this could suggest how this magazine is meant to be the Sound of the Underground.
What does the Masthead / title logo say to the reader?
The masthead of the magazine is actually pretty basic when you first look at it, with the only major design element being the sprayed circle around the "R" of the "Rock". That circle could be seen as a part of a tunnel, reinforcing the whole idea that this is a much less commercial magazine, more "underground". However it could also be seen as a Dial, showing that the music in this magazine has hit the max of how good it can get.
How does the Main Image reach out to the reader?
The main image of this issue of Rock Sound magazine is of a soloist known as Skrillex. He stands there alone in the middle of the page, with his body turned to the right but with his head turned towards the camera. This kind of body language could suggest he has something to hide, or even that he HAD something to hide and has revealed it in an interview in this magazine. He is seen to be wearing a dark, checked shirt with black glasses, ear stretcher and dark hair. This combined with his pale skin creates an almost black-and-white image even though the audience knows by looking into his eyes that it is a colour image, and could be seen to portray Skrillex in a dark and ominous light. This secrecy could be used to entice the audience to buy this magazine above something like Kerrang! or NME. His gaze is fixated on the camera, and similar to the way Kerrang! have their picture done, this could be seen as a confrontation, almost daring a possible customer to buy the magazine. He smiles into the camera, his facial expression cool and collected. The camera is at an eyeline match with Skrillex, showing that he is no higher or lower in dominance than the audience. This could be seen to suggest that he understands the way that normal people live their lives and that he hasn't lost that down-to-earth persona now that he's famous.
Are there other images on the cover?
Other than the main image of Skrillex, there is little in the means of images on the cover of this magazine. There is a small montage of images in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover, and these show posters and stickers that are available free in the magazine.
How are the fonts, graphics and colours used effectively?
All of the font on the Front Cover is Capitalised in the same way that the font is done on the cover of Kerrang! However I don't think its Bolded as well, and this could reinforce the whole atmosphere around this magazine of how "underground" Rock Sound want the magazine to feel to the reader. The colour scheme of the cover is mainly Light Blue on a White background, and this is a very cool, collected colour scheme. The blue is a cold, chilled out blue suggesting that the magazine is very calm and relaxed with its choice of content, and this colour contrasts to the dark scene that is painted by the magazine's "underground" atmosphere.
How does the cover 'talk' to the reader?
The language used on the cover is very emotive and powerful, reflecting the passionate music that is written about in the magazine, and reinforces the passion of this "underground", anti-mainstream magazine. There are no exclamation marks to end the coverlines though, and this is a lil bit different to Kerrang! This could be seen to reinforce the calmness and the serenity shown by the colour scheme, and portray Rock Sound in a less mainstream light when compared to other magazines such as NME and Q.
Does the cover resemble its rivals? What is it's USP (Unique Selling Point)?
This months cover of Rock Sound could be seen, even with its differences, as very similar to it's rival Kerrang! magazine. It has the same Unique Selling Point, with the free pull out posters and stickers included, and also shows variations of the same ideas just with a different colour scheme and a different image. This makes Rock Sound magazine less appealing to its audience than rivals Kerrang! and could affect their Circulation, Readership and Overall Profit margins in the future.
Inside
How many pages are there?
There are 115 pages in this magazine in total. This is 52 pages less than is in Kerrang! Magazine, which contrasts with Rock Sound's image of being an "underground" magazine since there there is more content than a higher profile magazine such as Kerrang!.
How many pages of Adverts?
In Rock Sound magazine, there is a total of 25 pages used for advertising. The adverts where targeted towards the UK Tribes group Skaters, so many things being sold where band-themed clothes, music based products and upcoming gigs.
How would you categorise the products advertised?
The adverts of this magazine can be categorised into 2 different types, clothes and gig tickets. Similar to the Target Audience of Kerrang! Magazine, Rock Sound's audience is made up of mostly Skaters. Skaters, as described by UK Tribes are constantly connected with their musical idols and tend to stray away from the Mainstream music played on radio stations such as Kiss and Capital to stay loyal to their Rock Heroes. Therefore it makes sense to provide adverts with these sorts of products and events advertised. As explained by the Channel 4 project UK Tribes, it is obvious to see that the individuals described by Kerrang! can be categorised into a mix of Skaters and Metalheads. As described by UK Tribes a Skater is an individual whose skateboard has become their "way of life". They are categorised by their musical taste (Indie music from bands such as You Me At Six), their fashion sense (skinny jeans and floppy hair) and their love of concrete and four wheels. Although they may seem like dropouts when it comes to schoolwork, their love of skating leads onto other sports such as surfing, dirt boarding and other extreme sports. Preferred Media includes Kerrang!, Thrasher and Rock Sound. Metalheads are on a similar wavelength as Skaters, and are known for long hair and loud, screaming vocals. Typically dressed in blue jeans and a black band t-shirt, they are known to listen to both new and old versions of metal from Metallica to Five Finger Death Punch. Preferred Media includes Scuzz, Metal Hammer and Drowned in Sound.
Can you provide a list of the article topics in the magazine?
Here you can see a list of the article topics in this issue of Rock Sound magazine;- The Noise
- Exposure
- Features
- Reviews
Can you categorise the article topics into types?
The main topics in this magazine can be categorised into 3 categories; Interviews, Reviews and Upcoming Events. Features and Exposure both fall into Interviews since they both contain interviews with different bands and soloists, the only difference between the two topics is how Features deals with the Skrillex interview that was shown on the cover. Reviews and The Noise fall into the other 2 categories respectively.
How many Double Page Spreads are there? What are they about?
In total there are 14 DPS's (Double Page Spreads) in this magazine. They are around specific bands and artists similar to the way Kerrang! has written their DPS's. The difference between the two is how Rock Sound focuses mainly on interviews with rock stars and mainly only ask similar questions that have been tweaked to target a specific idol. Kerrang! also uses 1 - 2 of their DPS's to focus on large scale music festivals such as Reading and Leeds, and this gives the magazine an edge that makes Kerrang! more popular among readers than Rock Sound.
Are there any "advertorials" in this magazine?
By looking through this magazine, I found 8 pages that can be classified as advertorials, since I couldn't decide whether they counted as adverts or articles. Although they dealt with content from the contents page and it fit well with the other articles, they were still trying to sell a particular product or service.
How does the magazine achieve a unified House-Style?
Colloquial and Emotive language is used throughout the articles and the heading colour is meant to match that of the text used for the content. The Cover, although it obeys the House-Style, uses headings that would be relevant more to the content of that article than the House-Style of the magazine. This is done in the same way Kerrang! has done so on their cover and throughout their main DPS's. This is used to add more of a graphic element to the magazine rather than religiously follow exactly the same style, although when applying this to my own magazine I must make sure not to bend the House-Style too much.
Why is the House-Style appropriate to the Target Audience?
As described in a previous paragraph, the Target Audience of Rock Sound magazine is mainly Skaters and Metalheads. The House-Style is appropriate for this audience in many ways; the language is colloquial and strong to match the language they would use on a daily basis. The graphic elements (although few and far between) are flashes and splashes of colour to reinforce the wild and uncontrollable nature of the magazine and reflect the style of music that is written about in the articles. All articles lead back to music in some way to keep on track with the audience and keep the readers interested in the content and become regular readers of the magazine.
