Here are the questions for my double page spread with Hippys on the hill:

How hard it is to make it big!

1. How long have you all been together?

2. How did you all meet?

3. What do you enjoy about performing?

4. What influences your music?

5. Who are your idols/who do you aspire to be like?

6. Do you see this as a good way of making money?

7. How hard is it to make it big?

8. Would you like to be as big as?

9. Has anything embarrassing ever happened to you on stage?

10. How hard is it get gigs?

11. How close have you got to making it big so far?

12. Is this something you want to do for a career?

Thank you for taking the time to answering my questions.

And here is my article

What have we got to lose what have we got to win” is one the Hippy’s on the hill favourite songs and seems highly appropriate for what I’m about to talk about. They are four unique, talented friends and band members who met and grew up in the small town of Wallasey, however being a mere twenty minutes from the buzzing atmosphere of Liverpool opportunities are bound to come their way.
They are just one of the many new up and coming bands. However with so much competition in the modern day music industry, we decided to ask them how hard it actually is to make it big.
I met up with the lads after their latest performance at the 02 arena were they totally rocked the crowd and took control of the stage. Their fans were obviously under their spell singing along to every word and screaming for an encore at the end. The atmosphere was immense, even the rain outside couldn’t dampen the mood. I thought it was about time to get the inside scoop from the boys for all of you who wonder how people make it to the top.
Let’s start with the basics shall we. Hippy’s on the hill have been together for three and a half years, since they were only thirteen, a tender age to be exposed to all that attention and stress. They all met in Mosslands High school apart from Mikey, the drummer who was recommended to the three lads by friends. “He fitted in straight away” Hendo laughed the rhythm guitarist “Unfortunately” Mikey said smiling, getting evils looks off the others. They are all now inseparable and wise as well because they now all are doing their a level’s at Weatherhead media arts college, knowing everyone should have a plan B
I personally have always wondered what it would be like to be standing in front a microphone with a screaming crowd below me but the closest I can get to knowing is by asking. It is clear to me the lads can’t get enough of the rush, because as soon as I asked a smirk consumed the four faces starring back at me. They say they love “Having a lively crowd bouncing around, singing along to the music we’ve written. It gives us such a rush and makes us feel alive, like nothing we’ve felt before, now we’ve experienced it once we couldn’t live without it”.
I’ve often wondered were artists find inspiration to write new material for a catchy meaningful album, The Hippy’s were bound to know. Brad, the lead singer looked and me and replied “Were influenced by our everyday life, other bands and all of our friends really”. This intrigued me, so I delved further, curious about who their idols were and who made them want to go in to their profession.
Aspiration is a huge part of the music industry; everybody has an idol and somebody to try to match up to, the lads let me in on who they aspired to be like “We have loads of idols but AC/DC and The Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s are both immense and after watching them live many times when we were younger it was clear this was our ultimate dream to aspire to be as big as them. You could say we even aspire to be like my dad, Pete who in the Band Insanity because when I was younger he was my hero, I thought he was­­­­ amazing, and still do” said Brad, the lead singer and lead guitarist.
Who doesn’t need extra cash? , I can’t think of anybody who wouldn’t say yes “We do it for cash and anything else of top of this is a bonus” answered the bass guitarist Sean the lads obviously aren’t any exception, but doing something they love and getting paid for it, cant be a bad life. I know I wouldn’t turn it down.
But money isn’t all they need, luck plays a big part in getting anywhere “Its all about luck, most success we’ve had now is down to luck and being in the right place at the right time. You can’t just wait for the record label to come to you, you’ve gotta be in it to win it”.
Luck is all well and good but a huge thing that helps them along the way is social networking sites like facebook, myspce, twitter and bebo. Everyone who is anyone has one. Advertising on there has really helped them. They can sell tickets for gigs or even advertise their new album and pick up new fans along the way, its astonishing what the Internet can achieve. But it’s not only the Hippy’s that use this way of advertisement nearly every celebrity does. People as big Lilly Allen and Robbie Williams have twitter. The lads are now playing alongside with the big boys. The good stuff is obviously great. But along with the good comes the bad, the embarrassing moments and the let downs. Brad went bright red as soon as I said “Any embarrassing moments”, “I’ve fallen off the stage , I went to jump in to the crowd and slipped , I was devastated” I tried not to laugh but I now understood the red face. Another downside is the frequency of work “It’s normally not that hard to get gigs, but sometimes we have dry patches , and man they can drag , it seems like were never going to get anywhere. You’ve just got to have faith and without doubt something good with come along”.
They may be a long way off seeing their faces on Kerrang and TMF but for their age their certainly not doing bad. All of them seem adamant that they will one day be a household name and after meeting them I don’t have any doubts either. They are four stand up guys and very bit of success they get.

The final decision about my new magazine are:

Title: Indiego

Positioning statement: The Ultimate Indie Bible

Price: £3.00

Issue size: 170 pages

Frequency: Monthly

Distribution: Newsagents, supermarkets, HMV, W.H Smith

Rationale: The approach of the magazine is very much from a music lover’s point of view. We will offer opinions and insights; and articles interviews will focus very much on what the music lovers want to know and ask.

Style: The style of my magazine is informal and humorous. Images will be the dominant feature of layouts. ‘

Regular content
-Gig guides
-Editors letter
-Music forum letters
-Letters
-Subscribe and save
-Small ads where fans can buy and sell CD’s and music etc
-Access all areas
-My record collection (A look at a certain celebrity’s records)
-Quizzes
-The dirt on …
-Questions and answers
-Honour of the month
-The story behind the song
- Access all areas
-My record collection
-A round with…
-Last requests

Feature Articles:
-Gigs you must go see
-150 albums’ you must see before you die
-Articles about bands
-Interviews with artists
-T4 search for the next up and coming band.
-Do’s and do not’s of music festivals
-The ten best artists of all time
-Big stars best moment
-Gig adverts
-150 albums you really should here before you die.
-Come back acts –take that, west life etc.
-Where they the ultimate band?
-Music festival reviews
-Last requests

Images

Front Cover:
Teenage girl connoting stereotypical indie teens

Contents:
Indie girl holding guitar
Money
Records
Girls at a festival
Image of editor
Image of front cover

Here are the pie and bar charts for the results of my questionnaire.

1. Who is your favourite band?

4.What is your favourite colour?

5.How often do you buy music magazines?

7.What do you like about music magazines?

7 continued. What do you dislike about music magazines?

8.What special feature would make you buy a magazine ?

10.How old are you?

Here are my detailed conclusions for each of my questions:

1.Most peoples favourite indie band varied however the top two favourites were Kings of Leon and The Stereophonics.This shows that i should focus on these artists and do main articles about them.

2.The word indie reminds people of many things such as camping out ,drugs,fame and fashion.However the thing it reminds people of the most is festivals,make-up ,skinny jeans and alcohol.This means the reader will respond positively if I include these topics in my work.

3.The most popular colours chosen by my target audience were black and purple.This effects my work because these are the colours that will attracted my audience to buy a product so I should incorporate these in my colour scheme.

4.The majority of my target audience seem to buy music magazines once a month so this is how often I should distribute it.

5.Most people would spend £5.00 on a music magazine ,however they were all pretty similar results and my magazine will be a new one which means people are not familiar with it and less likely to buy it so I will set the price it at the lower cost of £4.00

6.This question helps me alot with the content of my magazine I will not feature adverts quizzes and articles that are very opinionated very heavily becasue people have indicated that they dislike them.On the other hand I will include music news,reviews,gossip,come back reviews and posters more because these thing were popular with my target audience.

7.The things that would make people buy a magazine are free things,posters ,gossips ,articles on new bands and artist ,festival reviews and quizzes/competitions and gig reviews so i will include all of these in my magazine .However people seem to like festival reviews and articles on news bands the most so these should feature on my front cover.

8.The thing people enjoy reading the most is "Who's Dating Who?" and "The Best Ever (Bands,Music,Artists ECT) so these thing should also feature on my front cover, I do all of these thing to attract people to buy my magazine and make a profit.

9.The majoirty were female by a narror margin.

10. The majortiy age of people who complete my questionnaire were between 15-21

I gave out 20 quesionnaires to my target auidence and here are tally charts for my results.

1.What is your favourite band?
Kasabian 3
The kooks 2
Kings of leon 5
Stereophonics 4
Muse 2
The dykeenies 1
Paramore 2
Blink 182 1
Blue october 1

2.What three words do you asscocaite with indie music?
Skinny jeans 9
Make-up 7
Fashion 5
Gigs 7
Festivals 11
Drugs 6
Alcahol 7
Big hair 3
Mud 1
Fame 1
Camping out 3

3.What is you favourite colour?
Purple 4
Black 4
Red 2
Blue 3
Green 1
Pink 3
Yellow 2
White 1

4.How often do you buy music magazines?
Once a week 5
Every two weeks 3
Once a month 7
Not often 5

5.How much would you pay for a music magazine?
£3.00 6
£4.00 6
£5.00 7
More 1

6.What do like and dislike about muic magazines?
Dislike
Adverts 8
Quizzes 5
Articles that are to opinionated 4
Nothing 3
Like
Music news 4
Reviews 5
Gossip 3
Come back reviews 6
Posters 2

7.What special feature would make you buy a magazine?
Free stuff 4
Posters 1
Gossip 3
Articles on new bands/Artists 5
Festival reviews 5
Quizzes and competitions 1
Gig reviews 1

8.What tpye of thing do you enjoy reading about?(Please circle)
Celebrity gossip 3
Festivals/Gigs 4
Whats hot ,whats not? 2
Whos dating who? 5
The best of... (Bands artists ect) 6

9.Are you male or female?
Female 9
Male 11

10.How old are you?
15-17 7

18-21 6

22-24 4

25-27 3

To conduct my audience research i produced a questionnaire by asking a variety of questions this is to help me make decisions on the design,content,prices and frequency of publication
Here is my questionnaire:

1.What is your favourite band?

2.What three words do you asscoiate with indie music?

3.What is your favourite colour?

4.How often do you buy a music magazine?

5.How much would you pay for a music magazine?

6.What do you like and dislike about magazines you read?

7.What special feature would make you buy a magazine?

8.What type of thing do you like reading about (Please circle)
Celebrity gossip

Festivals/Gigs

What's hot ,what's not?

Who's dating who/

The best ever... (bands,music,artists ECT)

Other (Please state)
__________________________________

9.Are you male or female?

10.How old are you? (Please circle)
15-17

18-21

22-24

25-27

Thank you for completing my questionnaire.

The codes and coventions of a double page spread are:

-Strapline
-Strap quote- Get the readers attentions
-Beggining -Short summary -Stand first
-First letter is larger
-Large image
-Limited use of colour.For example black and red
-Eyecatching colours
-Artists names are highlighted
-Pictures of journalist -By line
-Text in columns
-Page numbers
-Title of article
-Title of magazine

Next i had to create the codes and coventions of a contents page:

Codes and conventions

-Dominated by pictures
-Layed out in columns
-Number of page next to topic
-Subtitles
-A little explanation
-Date
-Credits
-Editors Letter
-Webiste
-10-12 size font
-Magazine title
-"On the cover"
-Subcription details.
-Different sized pictures
-One main image
-Title
-"Contents"
-Generally two pages.

Next we had to do the codes and concentions of a music magazine by looking at a number of music magazines

Codes and conventions

-Main title - direct mode od address - unique
-Main picture
-Bar code
-Price
-Date
-Puff
-No writing on the face
-Buzz words
-Postitioning statement
-Supporting images
-Colour scheme
-Coverlines
-Masthead
-Issue number
-Headline
-Tag line
-Familiar faces
This would all help me in creating my own music magazine.

Main task

The type of music magazine I am going to produce it Indie “Q”
My target audience will be 15-25 year old, both male and female, who enjoy Indie music.

Task two: Kerrang (Special edition)




Price: £6.00 special edition or normal £2.20
Frequency of publication: Monthly
Issue size: 130 pages

Regular content:
Festival tours
News on different stars
Things to win
Live reviews of a number of artists
Gig guides
Album reviews

Features:
Band interviews
Big stars best moments
Gig adverts

Classic rock magazine

Price: £4.99
Frequency: Monthly
Issue size: 138

Regular content
-Classic rock online
-The dirt
-Questions and answers
-The story behind the song
-What’s on your CD?
-Reviews
-Subscribe and save
-Letters
-Honour of the week - special concerts
-Ever met Hendrix?
-Rock back pages

Features
-Similar music from the 70’s
-150 albums you really should here before you die.
-Come back acts –take that, west life etc.
-Where they the ultimate band?

Q

Price: £3.90
Frequency: Monthly
Issue size: 162

Regular content

-Access all areas
-Soapbox
-New to Q
-Q Hero
-My record collection
-Cash for questions
-A round with …
-Q50
-Q quiz
-Last requests

Features
-Sting
-Green day
-Pop Babylon


Decisions for my magazine:

Price: £4.00
Issue size: 170 pages
Frequency: Monthly

Regular content
-Gig guides
-Editors letter
-Music forum letters
-Letters
-Subscribe and save
-Small ads where fans can buy and sell CD’s and music etc
-Access all areas
-My record collection (A look at a certain celebrity’s records)
-Quizzes

Feature Articles:
-Gigs you must go see
-150 albums’ you must see before you die
-Articles about bands
-Interviews with artists
-T4 search for the next up and coming band.
-Do’s and do not’s of music festivals
-The ten best artists of all time
-Big stars best moment