I asked four individuals key questions, these were;
1) Do you like indie music?
2) Would you buy an indie music magazine?
3) What would you like to see in a indie music magazine?
4) What do you expect to see - Eg; colours, cover, content?
5) What would make you want to buy an indie magazine?
6) Can you think of any names for the magazine?
7) What is your knowledge of indie?
8) What are you favourite indie/indie rock artists?
9) What stereotypes do you think of when referring to indie rock?
10) What cost would you pay for the magazine?
11) What would you like the focus to be on, Eg; musicians/festivals?
number one;
1) It's alright
2) No
3) Men musicians, colours = pinks, blues, purples
4) Knowledge of music/festivals/interviews
5) Attractive men
6) 'Indicle'
7) Not alot - Ed Sheeran
8) Ed Sheeran
9) Individual, have their own style
10) £2.50
11) Unknown artists - introduce them to people
number two;
1) Yeah
2) Yes
3) New bands, unknown artists
4) Knowledge of new artists, colours = yellow and blue, black and white
5) Depends on what bands are included - whether their interested
6) 'Uncovered'
7) Different artists, ethos of the genre
8) Charlie Simpson, Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, Ellie Goulding, The Fray - Indie is a favourite genre
9) Guitars and drums
10) £2.50
11) festivals, upcoming & unknown artists.
number three;
1) Yeah
2) Yeah
3) New bands, recent gigs/tours
4) Autumny colours, musicians, free content, chance to win = band tshirts
5) Bands that they're interested in - but not too based on one artist
6) 'NewNoise'
7) Research new bands - internet is key
8) GetCape. WearCape. Fly.
9) Big cardigans, guitars
10) £2.00 - due to being a student
11) Gigs, Upcoming bands
number four
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) New Bands, charts, concert dates
4) Natural colours - earthy
5) New artists, vouchers for free conent, free content
6) N/A
7) Artists
8) Ed Sheeran
9) Guitarts, Drums - not 'emo' - grungy
10) £2-£3
11) Charts, gigs, more unknown artists
Overall, this has helped me gain to far more ideas. For example firstly, the main content of what people would like to see in their magazine. People would be interested in the magazine if it contained different artists, especially unknown artists.
Niche magazines do this well, as I have stated before when researching niche magazines, an artist can be made massive by being included into a magazine due to the demographic that read it. This could swag me into wanting to create a niche magazine due to the majority of people I asked liking the idea of including unknown artists so they could listen to new music. However, I like the idea of broadcast magazines due to the range of demographic and not specific fan base so I would probably go for that with the aspect of new artists and possibly include a double page spread informing people of new artists in the genre.
People also wanted me to include concert/festival and gig dates and adverts. The fact they would like me to include this is good because it can enable me to include two aspects in one. I can inform people of the latest gig dates and festivals, by advertising them. This means I would get income for advertising and would be fulfilling what the target audience wants. I could also include tour dates of the artists people prefer and would like to see, the common artists across the board are Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard. These are both artists that have started out from playing small gigs to loyal fans and have become bigger. People want to see bands/artists that they're interested in included in the magazine so this would enable me to include them.
The demographic and stereotypical target audience of indie is seen to love music festivals so this will attract them. If they have festival information, people will want to purchase to get more information on what they want to go and see.
My research has also shown me that people are not only interested in the music of the genre but also the whole ethos, for example, the clothes they wear and different aspects. People may be more inclined to buy the magazine if it had many aspects to it, not just music. I could possibly include pieces on clothes in the genre for example.
I also decided to look at the price range of my magazine, by looking at the target audience, the majority is that of late teens to 30 year olds. These have more disposable income to spend on the magazine. However, some of these are in the range of students. As I discovered from my focus group, some may not want to buy the magazines because although they have more disposable income, they have more things to pay for, eg. Student fees and driving as these are expensive. In this case, the majority of my focus group said they would like the price to be between £2.00 - £3.00. I think this is quite a good price range and is affordable for everyone meaning hopefully more sales of my magazine.
By looking at the price and these factors, my focus group also suggested including free gifts or vouchers in the magazine. These persuasion devices would hopefully engage and draw the readers into buying my magazine if they weren't sure. This also rewards the loyal readers meaning I would create a solid fan base. Some people suggested these vouchers could be used for band tee-shirts or festival tickets. By including this, it would also enable better advertising, using physical objects to advertise.
One of the aspects I was struggling with was what colours to include and what I should actually call my magazine. These are both vital parts of production as the colours have to be right for the magazine and genre to attract people to it and the name has to be effective. The ideas that my focus group gave me were both very effective. Firstly, I gained three name ideas - 'Indicle' , 'Uncovered' and 'NewNoise'. These three names are all very good. Indicle is good due to the aspect of showing its an indie magazine but also adding a magazine feel to it, as its half of indie - 'Ind' and half of article - 'icle'. So it gives the reader an idea straight away, its quite quirky and different. Uncovered is good because it also suggests that I am uncovering new artists in the genre - which is what my demographic want me to do. So it could enable me to mean the main aspect of my magazine would be uncovering new artists, once more referring to niche magazines, this is a big possibility. Finally, NewNoise, once again, showing the factor of uncovering new noises and new music using alliteration so its catchy and people will remember the name easily. All three are very good suggestions that I will take into consideration.
The colours suggested also helped me. The first person suggested pinks, purples and blues. The personality of this person is quite girly so it was obviously shown in her choices. However, if I was to produce a broadcast magazine, this would be the attitude I would have to portray. There is a far bigger target audience so I would have to think of this factor when producing my magazine and deciding on colours. Secondly, autumn colours. This is also a good idea, the browns and oranges would create a soft, calm effect I wanted to try and achieve. I wanted to create an idea of soft indie rock, more acousticy so this would be perfect because its simple but effective. I may want to create the idea of autumn suns with acoustic music, however, I think this idea is good when thinking about the type of indie aspect I want to look at. My focus groups pushed me further towards this idea with the types of artists they suggests, Eg Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, GetCape.WearCape.Fly. These are all very acoustic indie people suggesting possibly the majority would agree. The last suggestion was also following these thoughts, suggesting earthy colours, once more backing my initial ideas. These colours could also relate back to the festival aspect of the magazine and what my demographic enjoy because its summery, earthy, for example, grass and camping.
Finally, by interviewing my focus group, I also discovered that the internet is used a massive tool when discovering new talents. This means I should include it in my magazine to gain more readers, for example, Youtube and social networking sites such as Twitter. As I have already shown, the new technology is amazing, especially the bar code scan. I could include links to new artists work by using this bar code technology so they could access it quickly and easily by scanning the bar code. This is defiantly an aspect I feel I should look at.
By asking people what they would like, it has given me a lot more ideas and knowledge on the types of content I should focus on in my magazine and I now have plenty more ideas.
Niche magazines do this well, as I have stated before when researching niche magazines, an artist can be made massive by being included into a magazine due to the demographic that read it. This could swag me into wanting to create a niche magazine due to the majority of people I asked liking the idea of including unknown artists so they could listen to new music. However, I like the idea of broadcast magazines due to the range of demographic and not specific fan base so I would probably go for that with the aspect of new artists and possibly include a double page spread informing people of new artists in the genre.
People also wanted me to include concert/festival and gig dates and adverts. The fact they would like me to include this is good because it can enable me to include two aspects in one. I can inform people of the latest gig dates and festivals, by advertising them. This means I would get income for advertising and would be fulfilling what the target audience wants. I could also include tour dates of the artists people prefer and would like to see, the common artists across the board are Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard. These are both artists that have started out from playing small gigs to loyal fans and have become bigger. People want to see bands/artists that they're interested in included in the magazine so this would enable me to include them.
The demographic and stereotypical target audience of indie is seen to love music festivals so this will attract them. If they have festival information, people will want to purchase to get more information on what they want to go and see.
My research has also shown me that people are not only interested in the music of the genre but also the whole ethos, for example, the clothes they wear and different aspects. People may be more inclined to buy the magazine if it had many aspects to it, not just music. I could possibly include pieces on clothes in the genre for example.
I also decided to look at the price range of my magazine, by looking at the target audience, the majority is that of late teens to 30 year olds. These have more disposable income to spend on the magazine. However, some of these are in the range of students. As I discovered from my focus group, some may not want to buy the magazines because although they have more disposable income, they have more things to pay for, eg. Student fees and driving as these are expensive. In this case, the majority of my focus group said they would like the price to be between £2.00 - £3.00. I think this is quite a good price range and is affordable for everyone meaning hopefully more sales of my magazine.
By looking at the price and these factors, my focus group also suggested including free gifts or vouchers in the magazine. These persuasion devices would hopefully engage and draw the readers into buying my magazine if they weren't sure. This also rewards the loyal readers meaning I would create a solid fan base. Some people suggested these vouchers could be used for band tee-shirts or festival tickets. By including this, it would also enable better advertising, using physical objects to advertise.
One of the aspects I was struggling with was what colours to include and what I should actually call my magazine. These are both vital parts of production as the colours have to be right for the magazine and genre to attract people to it and the name has to be effective. The ideas that my focus group gave me were both very effective. Firstly, I gained three name ideas - 'Indicle' , 'Uncovered' and 'NewNoise'. These three names are all very good. Indicle is good due to the aspect of showing its an indie magazine but also adding a magazine feel to it, as its half of indie - 'Ind' and half of article - 'icle'. So it gives the reader an idea straight away, its quite quirky and different. Uncovered is good because it also suggests that I am uncovering new artists in the genre - which is what my demographic want me to do. So it could enable me to mean the main aspect of my magazine would be uncovering new artists, once more referring to niche magazines, this is a big possibility. Finally, NewNoise, once again, showing the factor of uncovering new noises and new music using alliteration so its catchy and people will remember the name easily. All three are very good suggestions that I will take into consideration.
The colours suggested also helped me. The first person suggested pinks, purples and blues. The personality of this person is quite girly so it was obviously shown in her choices. However, if I was to produce a broadcast magazine, this would be the attitude I would have to portray. There is a far bigger target audience so I would have to think of this factor when producing my magazine and deciding on colours. Secondly, autumn colours. This is also a good idea, the browns and oranges would create a soft, calm effect I wanted to try and achieve. I wanted to create an idea of soft indie rock, more acousticy so this would be perfect because its simple but effective. I may want to create the idea of autumn suns with acoustic music, however, I think this idea is good when thinking about the type of indie aspect I want to look at. My focus groups pushed me further towards this idea with the types of artists they suggests, Eg Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, GetCape.WearCape.Fly. These are all very acoustic indie people suggesting possibly the majority would agree. The last suggestion was also following these thoughts, suggesting earthy colours, once more backing my initial ideas. These colours could also relate back to the festival aspect of the magazine and what my demographic enjoy because its summery, earthy, for example, grass and camping.
Finally, by interviewing my focus group, I also discovered that the internet is used a massive tool when discovering new talents. This means I should include it in my magazine to gain more readers, for example, Youtube and social networking sites such as Twitter. As I have already shown, the new technology is amazing, especially the bar code scan. I could include links to new artists work by using this bar code technology so they could access it quickly and easily by scanning the bar code. This is defiantly an aspect I feel I should look at.
By asking people what they would like, it has given me a lot more ideas and knowledge on the types of content I should focus on in my magazine and I now have plenty more ideas.
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