... it means acoustic, without electronic instruments and I think that music. can be sung without electronic instrument
My proposal
Name of magazine: Unplugged After reading the brief I have come up with a music magazine proposal for the north London community. After doing some research online, I plan to make my magazine targeted at gigs and live music around North London. This is because around North London there are many acoustic live gigs most of the time, that most of the community don’t even know about! I have come up with a plan/ idea that could be different, fun, interesting and enjoyable for the people living in North London. In this proposal, I will write about funds, appearances, locations and any other detail that is relevant. When I came up with the name of the magazine I had to think about the genre and something that will be catchy for the target audience. The musical atmosphere in North London now is preforming live gigs, whilst building up a strong following/ fan base. Name, colour scheme, logo ideas and font: Name- The name of this magazine is ‘Unplugged’. The reason why I chose this name for the magazine is because it means acoustic, without electronic instruments and I think that music can be sung without electronic instrument and it still sounds good. I also feel like it represents having your own freedom, being unplugged from the world. For me personally, whenever I listen to music I do become unplugged from everything around me/my surrounding and I want everyone to feel like that and connect to the acoustic music world. When I first started thinking of names for this magazine I also brainstormed ‘Brit Hits’. The reason I didn’t choose this name is because my magazine is targeted at north west London rather than the whole of ‘Britain’. Also, this restricts my magazine to only UK artists and bands which is not what I am aiming for as there are a lot of US artists/ bands that play gigs around north west London. Logo ideasThis was my first draft for my logo. I liked the colour scheme, I feel as these colours represent happiness as they are bright, vibrant and the primary colours of the rainbow. Additionally, the colours are appropriate and conventional to my genre. I liked the icon as I felt as if it was showing someone being free and ‘flying’ away from everything which is metaphorically the effect of music. However, I felt as it also represented a sportier outlook rather than an effective music logo. After taking all of this into consideration, I created my final logo. I inputted a similar colour scheme but made it have that music feel. I feel like this is a perfect logo for Unplugged magazine as it is a reflection/ shadow of someone who has musical notes streaming out of their head which represents passion and
freedom. It’s all about disconnecting from the world and getting into the music. I also feel like this is completely opposite from what you would expect a magazine logo to be. It’s fun, edgy, slightly colorful but effective and lastly very bold but simple, which is important. Colour scheme- 3 colours and 3 fonts My magazine will have catchy colours such as red, grey, black and white. Nothing too bright as I don’t want it to look ‘childlike’ but more mature. This includes the masthead. I have taken inspiration from ‘Time Out’ Magazine which is a London magazine that is a listings magazine so that you know everything that is going on. I liked their colour scheme, theme and how they portrayed their magazine.
For the font, I will use a soft bold found, I want to give my magazine a welcoming feel for the reader. Ideally, I would want my masthead to be very bold but simples. The colour of my masthead will be red and I feel like this colour stands out. I used DaFont to find this font ‘American Capital’. I thought this font was most appropriate because it looks edgy, bold and it is easy to read and recognize.
My magazine front cover will feature my masthead in this font and the rest of the writing will be Helvetica. I am planning to make my masthead Red, with a black background and then the colour grey for all the cover lines. The price of my magazine will be £1.99. This is because I don’t want to make it too expensive as it won’t be ‘affordable’ for some of the local people. I feel like £1.99 is a good price and will draw in a lot of people to buy it. The reason why I am putting a price to my magazine instead of being solely funded by advertisements is because I don’t want Unplugged to be disvalued, if it is sold for free in a copy of a newspaper I feel that people won’t realize what this magazine is for and will throw it away as they bought the newspaper to read and won’t need the extra mag inside. However, this could work if Unplugged becomes popular. Objective: I will plan and create a music magazine for North London as there is a vibrant music scene developing locally and people need to know about it. I will make sample pages from the first edition of the magazine to showcase all the talent and venues within the area. This will get people out of the house and exploring the different types of music within their area. This will hopefully also get people/ the local community more involved within the music industry and this could lead to more people coming forward with a musical talent! Concept: The whole concept of unplugged is to find space, meet brands and bands and to build relationships within the community. It will also be the simplest and quickest way to book and look up unique live gig spaces within the area. Unplugged is intended to be a magazine featuring articles about the local gigs and an up to date guide to who is preforming and all the further details in each issue. There will be loads of upcoming gigs and descriptions of all the bands/ performers. I will also like to include pictures of the venues and the musicians to give the audience a rough idea as to what they are going to go watch. Unplugged will be focusing on bringing the community together with exclusive access to some gigs and performances and focusing on up to date music. Each monthly issue will also include the top 20 of that certain month. It will also give an insight as to what these artists have been getting up to and if they will be around north London in the future. Unplugged will also be focusing on giving people tips and tricks on how to perform in a gig if anyone would be interested.
The magazine will be funded by advertisements from local companies specific to each article within the magazine (i.e. bars or restaurants near a venue or gig in north London). The magazine will also include sponsored links to find new
artists from north London. After researching online, I found loads of people, bands and companies looking for musicians in London (Unplugged will target this solely at North London).
(SAMPLE PAGE FOR EVENT) I will also like to do a collaboration with Koko which is one of the biggest, coolest venues in North London! The reason why I think this will be convenient for Unplugged is because Koko’s website shows all the gigs coming up at their venue and all the latest about each artist, this will be beneficial for Unplugged as if we can hire the club and have a ‘launch’ gig, at this gig we will
bring out some t-shirts, wristbands and cool things to promote Unplugged. I will also have a team to put up posters of the magazine and exclusives. This will also build a connection with local artists as they would want to feature and preform at this gig. This will help us reach out to the latest bands/ singers in north London. Contents: The main locations that will be included in Unplugged are: KOKO, O2 Roundhouse and XOYO This is an example of what my contents page will look like.
Frequency: I will be posting Unplugged magazine every month. This is because I believe that if my magazine is less frequent than other local magazines, it will be able to be at a higher quality and more popular rather than releasing it every week. Due to the extra extended time space, I will also be able to add a lot more information which will make it more interesting and I will include more detailed articles that I has been researched and planned properly. It will also allow me to recognize more bands and musicians, especially upcoming ones as well! This will allow me to talk about them in much more detail. The quality of content that will be in the magazine will be extremely high due to the amount of time it will be edited in. Audience: My primary target audience will be aimed at people aged 19-26 (male and female) that live in North London. I have selected this age category as this is the age span where most people are actively listening/ consuming music whilst understanding it more than other ages. After researching online, I found out that this age group also make up the majority number of the festival population and live events such as concerts. They are also more independent at this age rather than 14-18 year olds as they will be able to legally drink at gigs and festivals. My secondary target audience will be aimed at teenagers (14-18) from North London. This is because at this point of their lives, music will be a huge influence towards them and the decisions they make. After researching online, I have gathered that music influences more
people to change or do stuffs to their lives. I believe that Unplugged magazine can influence teenagers to get out the house and start exploring gigs and the ‘real world’ within their area. Also, it is a safe environment for them to be in as it is local. Thirdly, my tertiary target audience will be adults (28-36). This is so that they can go out and explore. Everyone loves listening to music so this is a great chance for adults this age to still go out and enjoy live music locally. Also, this age shouldn’t be restricted to be able to go out, have a few drinks at a bar and then go to listen to live music Images and graphics (to create visuals)
Research Situation The gap in the market currently is a music magazine for the local community that explains each gig and about the performers. There’s also a lack of knowledge within the local area on where to go for gigs/ live music and how to get there.
My aim is to bring this magazine to life as many people in the local community who don’t particularly have time to go and research about local music, restaurants and gigs. What I have done with this magazine is put all that information into one. People usually rely on word of mouth, however, when it comes to going out and going to local gigs, no one usually knows what to expect! This may lead to the person potentially giving up with going to find new gigs in new places around their area. Competitors After researching online, I found my main competitors. The competitors are Vibe, Q magazine, EN magazine (Enfield) and Enfield presents.
VIBE magazine chronicles the celebs, sounds, fashion, lifestyle, new media and business born from urban music. VIBE creates trends as much as it records them! It covers music, educates its readers and gives back to the community. VIBE serves as a ‘portal’ to a growing, young, trendsetting, multicultural audience. The reason why VIBE magazine is a possible competitor is because it ‘gives back to the community’ which is what Unplugged magazine is about (to a smaller communal area). Another reason is they don’t only talk about music in their magazine, it’s also all the latest fashion etc. which means that it will attract more people. For this reason, I will need to take this into consideration and have a monthly article about north London fashion statements of the month and ‘what to wear to a gig!’.
Q magazine is the UK's top music magazine that brings music alive, every month. With worldbeating exclusives, amazing photography and an inimitable sense of humor, Q magazine tells the stories behind the music that matters. The reason why Q magazine is a possible competitor is because it is a British music magazine. It also brings out a monthly issue which is what I plan to do with Unplugged. EN magazine is a local magazine for people who live in Enfield. The reason why this is one of my competitors is because all types of articles are included and as well as that it is extremely accessible! For my magazine, I need to focus on the locality of it. Another one of my major local competitors is Enfield presents. This publication covers a wide variety of articles but it doesn’t specifically cover one thing. It is local and accessible as well as EN magazine, it is very popular around north London and is modern in its layout. Strengths The magazine will be printed on recycled paper. Recycling-related promotions will be put into the magazine so that it will be eco-friendly. This will also attract more customers because the magazine will be environmentally friendly. Our low page number count and small physical size will be easily consumed by the public (and passed on to new readers) and its popularity will grow quickly. With knowledge of the music world, we are already aware of articles that are going to go into Unplugged and loads of tips on what to do at a gig and how to go to a gig if you are a newcomer! Also, we will include more than enough of our research and knowledge that will keep the readers busy for a long while (one month)! Unplugged will be accessible, honest, successful, friendly, exciting, creative and busy! Weaknesses With the threats of social media, the possible weaknesses are people looking online for all this knowledge and researching about it rather than going to buy a magazine in person. Another weakness is that some people might not want to change their usual routines which means they won’t purchase the magazines as they might not need any more knowledge. Also, people have been going to gigs for years so the magazine may be completely irrelevant so some people which means that they won’t purchase it. Therefore, I want to include a couple of
additional traits to this magazine to make it approachable and conveniently relevant for everyone. Opportunities The magazine will be clearly split into different sections. From tips and gigs, to articles and information pages. There will be maximum 3 pages dedicated to one topic. Unplugged will reach a diverse audience. To overcome some of the weaknesses I would want to develop a subscription scheme and an app, this will be more accessible to the public and my target audience. After I get a certain amount of subscriptions for Unplugged, I will know that we have a strong customer base which will give us an opportunity to develop. I will also make a website for those who don’t buy magazine and they can buy an online copy.
