Magazine Media Pack

Magazine Media Pack

Brand Overview

Billboard has been within the entertainment and music industry since 1894. It began as a weekly advertising business but Billboard and the world’s most popular music charts have transformed into a successful information source on music trends and music release dates!

Digital - The go-to source for everything music—read by fans and music industry insiders.

Mobile- Website and updated music charts adapted for smaller devices such as mobiles and tablets so music fans can stay up-to-date wherever they are.
Social- With over 12.9M followers on various different social media formats. Billboard stays engaged connecting with music lovers everywhere.
Print- Billboard’s weekly magazine is read by some of the biggest music fans.

Online Audience

Billboard.com users over-index when it comes to entertainment within the music industry:

PURCHASED CONCERT TICKETS (LAST 6 MONTHS) 233

PROVIDES FREQUENT MUSIC ADVICE 163

PURCHASED DIGITAL MUSIC (LAST 30 DAYS) 222

WENT TO A LIVE CONCERT (LAST 30 DAYS) 145

Social

With over 12 million fans across social media formats, Billboard continuously interact with fans over multiple channels. It’s ranked in the top 10 social publishers since 2014!

Newsletters

Billboard successfully delivers music information directly to the inbox of fans and companies with an interest of the music industry via email. Information included within these newsletters are music’s breaking news, chart beat and touring news for top artists.

Magazine Audience

Billboard magazine has been re designed to be the essential read for individuals who run the music industry. This includes managers, agents, head of record labels, producers and promoters.

Magazine Content

On opening of the music magazine, the top 100 is shown which then extends to the most important music news, reviews and tour dates.

Music Magazine Industry Research- Pop Genre.

Music Magazine Industry Research- Pop Genre.

We love Pop is a monthly music magazine which launched in September 2011. Each issue contains 68 pages and its target audience is teenage girls aged between 13-15 years old. We Love Pop is published by Egmont UK. The typical content of a We Love Pop issue are articles on artists/bands, interviews, features on film, fashion, technology, and beauty and advertisements from companies also aiming at the teen audience such as Universal Music, Boohoo and So Fragrances.

Egmont saw a gap in the market after another pop music magazine ended called Smash Hits in 2006. Smash Hits had a similar target audience to the now audience of We Love Pop and therefore when they closed there was a gap to fill for the benefit of this age group.

The publisher of the magazine (Egmont Group) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise mass media generally. Egmont Group encourage more and more children to enjoy the sheer pleasure of reading. Whether its books, magazines or digital media they create media to ensure reading is fun for children and it has made us the UK’s leading children’s publisher, for babies through to teens.

Pop magazines normally use bright colours like pink, yellow and orange. This reflects pop music’s bright and bubbly personality. The celebrity on the front of the magazine normally wears similar bright colours to reflect the magazine’s style but also to show that they are a pop star and that they fit that genre. The style of the costume they wear compliments the colour. It is usually in quite a fun style, e.g. short, flirty, modern dresses for the female artists. The colours are bright so they would attract their target audience. They would also appeal to their target audience as it is very likely that the colours used in the magazine would be the target audience’s favourite colours. The colours also normally match what the model is wearing. This gives the magazine a professional feel, while making sure it does not look too overpowering.

The style of pop magazines is usually informal. The magazine often uses bright shapes and borders around sections of text to make it look more interesting, instead of just having one big block of copy, which would bore the audience. There is a mixture between text and images, so the magazine would interest their audience, who would not be interested by whole pages of text. The pictures also make the magazine look more interesting. The fonts used are feminine, and fun, reflecting the target audience. The captions under the image give a brief explanation of the picture, and are usually funny or have a joke.

Magazine Feature Article Analysis

Magazine Feature Article Analysis

A feature article is a detailed piece of writing which explores a range of issues, opinions, experiences and ideas based on a specific target audience.

Within this essay I will be analysing a feature article based on Lilly Allen. The purpose of this feature article is to potentially change people’s opinions of Lilly Allen and how she feels she is being perceived, as opposed to how the tabloids are presenting her to be.

One quote from the double page spread is ‘People think I’m an attention seeker, but I’m just honest’. This masthead is trying to seek attention by using all different size fonts and spacing the letters unevenly apart. The contrast between the black area and the cut out area of the letters create a stark contrast. The font connotes letters cut out of a newspaper to make a title. This also suggests a sense of the article being ‘breaking news’, like it is on the front page of a newspaper making it seem more interesting and exciting.

The main image of Lilly Allen is very clear and in good lighting with her red checkered shirt blending in with the colour palette and catching audience’s attention as it’s a bold colour connoting danger. Her hands are on her hips showing confidence but also catching attention to the target audience. The image uses direct address which creates a personal connection with the audience. It will make the audience feel as if the article is addressing them.

A pull quote has been used as the title of the article which suggests the artist is very rebellious and outspoken just like how the font stands out. The text of the article has been arranged in columns. This makes the article easier to read and it makes the audience more likely to read it as it doesn’t look like a lot of text.

The mode of address is slightly detached in this article. An audience, of sorts, is referred to as ‘People’ which suggests the artist is not addressing you, but more everyone in general creating a detached atmosphere.

A short two-line introduction has been used to introduce the artist and the tone of the article. The quote ‘Lilly Allen is a tabloid-baiting breath of fresh air’ suggests the article will contradict what has been said about Allen in other magazine and newspaper articles. It also suggests NME has been able to get the real ‘inside scoop’ and been able to ‘get behind the headlines.

The main image of Olly Murs which is a medium close up can be taken out as a poster for the young teen girls/ fans to stick on their wall. Alongside with the main image we have a secondary image of Olly Murs wearing a Christmas hat which goes with the Christmas theme of this article which goes with the background of the snowflakes. 

Double page spread from 'We Love Pop' opening with a pun with 'Merry Christmurs!' being the main headline which is on a ribbon effect like a present to the audience. The fact that 'Murs' is in a different fount colour shows that Olly Murs is the more dominate figure on this double page spread.

The stand first, introduces the article to potential readers and it gives them an insight of what they are reading. These are effective as they are a quick summary on who the article is about and what it includes.

The paragraph starts with a drop capital highlighted with yellow to grab the attention of readers. Also due to it being highlighted it could show that it is more important than the rest/ the main points in the text. With the secondary image we have a speech bubble which uses direct address to the audience with the word 'you'; this makes the article more essential to the reader. 

The way that the text is set up with the three columns makes it easier for the reader to read what’s on the page. This double page spread has opted for the question and answers with the question being in red font and the answers in black this goes with the Christmas theme and kind of helps the idea of the theme to come across to the reader.

Pull quote gives audience a taster of key words and key ideas within the article. Going with the theme of Christmas just in the middle of Olly there is a pull quote with the heading 'hohoho' which catches your attention to draw you into the story, allowing you to read on.

Music Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page Analysis

Music Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page Analysis

Front Cover

The masthead is a typical convention of a magazine. In this magazine the masthead is located in the top left side of the front cover and takes up a fair amount of the page. Despite the large size, the colours used are bold and contrasting. The use of the colour red connotes passion and strength which represents the artist Florence on the front cover as she’s a successful artist whose passion is music. The contrasting colour white connotes positivity over the darker colours which expresses the emotion the producers want to make the audience feel after reading.

The use of the pull quote “I feel so alone” attracts the audience as it introduces the main cover artist to the readers enabling them to work out there’s an interview involved within the magazine. By using the words “Alone” the reader will intrigued into reading further into the magazine.

The main image is a close up of Florence. The positioning of the photograph is centralised to fit the cover and enables there to be room for the sell lines to still catch audience’s eyes. The image targets the fans of Florence and the Machine. The purity of her skin relates to the purity of the content involved within Q magazine.

The main cover line “FLORENCE WOMAN ON THE EDGE” is big and bold so that the audience can see it from a distance when looking within a variety of different magazines. By positioning the main cover line at the top of the page the reader will be able to see it clearly on the front of the magazine.

The barcode is located on the bottom of the front cover so that the date/issue and price can be easily located to check when the issue was released.

The sell lines on the cover of Q magazine states the key information that is within the magazine. The wording of the sell lines “CHRIS MARTIN IN TEARS” engages the reader into reading the magazine as the target audience would want to read why Chris Martin is crying as when the audience read words such as “tears” they will want to emotionally connect with them sympathetically. Another sell line used on the front cover is “16-PAGE GIG BLOW OUT” shows the target audience what the magazine contains. The word “gig” is drop capped so that it stands out on the page.

Medium close up of Jessie J as she is the main feature of the magazine. Her pose is quite dominant indicating that the writers believe she will dominate the music scene. The outfit is quite edgy as was her attitude/style of music when she first started out. She is smiling which juxtaposes the sell line attached to it. This could be a message to readers that they too can overcome obstacles such as bullying.

The magazine consists of pink and white colours. These have very feminine connotations as the magazine has a very sweet style to it. The target audience is girls around preteen years, the pink colours will appeal to them subconsciously.

The masthead is bold to draw attention and make it easy to identify. Its target audience is younger readers. This brand of magazine helps them easily locate the magazine and keep buying the product.

Cover lines includes a variety of different storylines. This makes the magazine appealing to a lot of different potential viewers. They are highlighted in yellow with bold fonts in pink to stick with the pop magazine conventions of bright colours to attract audiences.

Various images are shown on the front page in order for viewers to see what inside of the magazine before looking inside. The pictures of other celebrities will attract young audiences as they could be there idols. 

Contents Page

All contents pages are usually in columns; on this particular contents page there are three. This gives the contents page an easy layout making it easy for the reader to find what they are looking for.

On all Top of the Pops contents pages the main image is of the front cover which is very unique due to readers picking up the magazine because of the main image. There are arrows pointing to all the different articles with their pages numbers. This is effective as it makes it easier for the audience to find the articles they were interested in and because of the young age of the target audience using arrows enables them to want to read on as its visual images rather than a lot of words. The main image of the contents page is a young boy band to encourage the audience to buy the magazine as young girls tend to be interested in finding out about male pop stars.

The colour scheme here is pink yellow and white which is commonly used colours used on pop music magazines. The colours, mainly pink, represent femininity which reinforces that the target audience is teenage girls. The colour yellow connotes happiness which the magazine is trying to promote and the colour white connotes simplicity which represents the lay out of the magazine.

The title on the contents page is generally very large. The font choice looks like someone’s handwriting which could represent the target audience of young girls writing in their diaries. The use of the word ‘mag’ instead of ‘magazine’ in the title is informal language which many teenage girls use in this day and age. The magazine may have used this to relate more to the teenage girls and encouraging them to buy the product. 

A typical convention of a contents is page numbers. Within this magazine they use large numbers to represent the page numbers as it makes it easy to locate certain articles and looks pretty on the eye to the reader. The font used on other pieces of text within the contents page is very bold and eye-catching to draw the reader’s attention to them. The font is feminine as the magazines target audience is young females.