Foundation Portfolio-Main Task

The foundation portfolio main task involves producing the front page, a double page spread and a mock-up of a contents page of a new music magazine. As this is the beginning of the task i have started by looking at how the media key concepts can be applied to produce a music magazine cover using the acronym LIIAR;

Language: The language used will be light, fun and entertaining and appealing to those who are interested in the music industry. The textual colour and image focus will depend entirely on the type of music audience the magazine is aimed at, for example a magazine based around Kerrang would probably use colours such as red and black, whereas a magazine based around a mix-mag theme would use bright, aluminous and eye catching colours.


Ideology: The purpose of my music magazine will be to inform and entertain the target audience. I will do this by including articles about new and upcoming music events the latest music releases and artists and the most recent showbiz/music gossip to make sure I include something for both the general and sophisticated reader. It will promote the music genre i decide to base my magazine upon.


Institution: A music magazine publisher. There are a number of different publishing companies. I have researched the main publishers to see which one my magazine would fall under, considering the music audience they cater for;

Ipc Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher and offers a wide range of different magazines that are suited to almost every reader. These include the very popular music magazine, NME. The NME is a British weekly music magazine featuring latest music news, UK's most comprehensive gig guide, reviews, gigs,tracks and albums and comments from nations most opinionated writes and gives an essential guide to music.

Emap is the publisher of the kerrang magazine, the UK's premier multi-platform music destination and is the worlds biggest selling weekly rock magazine. The six music magazines in the Emap Performance stable - Sneak, Smash Hits, Kerrang!, Mixmag, Q, Mojo - cover a wide spectrum of tastes and age groups but all stand by a reputation of quality and passion. emap Performance also has a variety of websites supporting the music magazines and radio stations.

Future: This publisher is a trusted editorial service and magazines are just one of the media types they publish, to inform, entertain. Future produces over 4 million magazines each month. In addition, Future exports its publications to 90 countries internationally, making them the UK's number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines. These include, Classic Rock, the UK’s fastest growing rock music magazine and this publisher is the global market leader in guitar magazines.


Audience: Each magazine and magazine publisher have a different target audience for the different genre they chose to represent.

IPC: Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine. That's almost 27 million UK adults. Also the publisher of NME which has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. It offers unlimited access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently, Statistics look like this: 65% Male*, 50% 16-24*, 23% 25-34*and 79% ABC1*

The audience profile for Kerrang magazine states that this magazine is read by, individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

The Mixmag reader has a median age of 26 and are 72% male, 28% female, who tend to be urban and single. Mixmag has a certified circulation of 37,139 and a readership of 276,000.
The reader tends to have a high disposable income and a high propensity to spend it on:
· Nights out
· Clothes
· Tunes
· The latest mobile and MP3 player
Nearly 80% do not read another music magazine and they spend little time watching TV, especially at weekends.


Representation: This all depends on the music genre the magazine has chosen to represent. For example Kerrang caters for a fan of the heavy metal/rock genre, where as Mixmag caters for a fan of a music genre of the complete opposite, this being clubbing music and represents today's 'clubber'. Whereas Kerang would chose to represent a band member on the front cover, Mixmag would rather opt for an attractive, young female.
NME has chosen to represent the news side of music and after ten years NME has earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading sources for music news.
As my aim is to create a new and upcoming magazine i would probably choose to represent either a dance/hiphop/rnb music genre as these I am most interested in.