Audience Pleasures

The term 'Audience pleasures' aims to display what the audience enjoy there fore companies work with that to make their magazine more successful because it would be fulfilling the needs of their clientelle. These are a set of techniques that a magazine will use to persuade the audience to buy the magazine and maintain buying it to maintain the sales.

How to gain audience pleasure from LouiseCharity

My Questionnaire to my target audience

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MY 

My Audience

My audience would have an age range of 18-35 Males and would need to have a significant interest in pop music because I would be interviewing various pop artists and asking in depth questions about their music/ careers and if you weren't a dedicated listener to pop music then you would not neccessarily know what I would be talking about. I think that my target gender would be Males because even though more women read magazines than men (48.8% of men as opposed to 51.2% of women- figuers from the NRS website) this proves that there would be more of a niche in the market for a male music magazine therefore more men would be open to buying my magazine and I would also be writing my article from quite a less mature/ sophisticated perspectiveive so it would be more enjoyable to read/ flick through and appeal to them more as well encouraging them to take part in active reading and talking about my magazine with other people therefore promoting sales.

I will be including information about upcoming concerts and festival that certain bands might be headlining them which means that my reader would have to have a distinct interest in going to concerts and festivals because I can imagine that there would be reviews in the next of issue of my magazine. I woud also have oppurtunities to win tickets or even VIP tickets to go to these events which would be shown as part of the sell lines on my front page.

I would like to have an equal ratio of ethnicitites reading my magazine but I have found out that people from an afro-carribean background are more into pop/ R&B music so I think they would have the bigger readerhsip.

Like many other magazines I will be aiming my sales at the 'C2' sector of society and higher because these are the people who would be more likely to afford my magazine and take part in the active readership of telling other people about my magazine, commonly know as 'spreading the word', therefore again hopefully boosting the sales of my magazine.

Socio-economic groups

A group of people have come up with  theory that has been able to categorise the population according to their profession and income. the categories are:
A- These are people who have 'landed gentry' where they have inherited a title therefore the fortune that got with it. OR a big international business owner who has offices in places like london or  chain of businesses.This is commonly known as the 'Upper Middle Class'
B- these are professional working people who have degrees in order to carry out their jobs. for example: Doctors, head teachers and people who are high up in the army (such as sergeants). This is commonly known as the 'Middle Class'
C1- This sector could be professional admin workers, junior managers, supervisors or even nurses who again have had to go to university in order to carry out their profession. This is commonly known as the 'Lower Middle Class'.
C2- These are people who have had to learn practical skills for their work so this includes jobs like; Carpenters, Mechanics and Plumbers or a colloquial term for these people is a 'white van man'. This is commonly known as the 'Skilled Working Class'.
D-  Supermarket/ shop or newsagent workers fall into this category because there wouldn't need to be much training for this job and there is a low income. This is commonly known as the 'unskilled class'
E- Unemployed people who are living off benefits or alternatively students fall into this category because the don't have a job in order to focus on their studies so there is very little income.

Personally, I think this system is very outdated for a number of reasons.

• a student might be at university without a job but they can have very rich parents in the 'A' category therefore they get a weekly allowance which isn't on paper so, in fact,  they can be a very well off student and there isn't a sub-category to account for that.
• People in the skilled working class could have their own businesses from that (e.g. owning your own electrician business) therefore they have worked their way up the socioeconomic scale however because of the nature of their profession they will have to remain in the 'C2' category of society which is unfair.
• Form company to company the amount of pay can fluctuate for the same job so that person's income may not match up to the stereotypical income for that job which would have been issued by the state.

I view music magazines as a luxury because they aren't a necessity to live buy like food or paying the bills which is why as a producer, they need to work hard to persuade people to buy their magazines which is why they use 'Audience Pleasures' which I will go into more detail about in my next post, in order for their magazine to sell. This is also why magazines are aimed at the C2 category or above because they are the people who can afford this luxury such as a magazine.

Magazine Producers

First draft of my finished double page spread

I have drafted 2 ideas of what my double page spread will look like however, I have decided that I prefer this one because it looks more professional. My other idea is below.

First draft of my music article

4 things we want to hear Justin Timberlake do on his next album

It has been confirmed, there will be a new album! So we have decided to give Mr. T our expert advice on producing albums...

Number 1: don’t bombard us with as many songs and do a fewer number of more heartfelt songs?

Out of his last album only about 3 reached the UK charts with a good standing so REVERB magazine suggests doing less songs that have a better appeal and would gain a higher rating in the charts. AND Justin agrees…

“I can tell you that if we were to do it again soon then it probably wouldn't be 20-25 songs. It would probably be a different effort towards something else, but that could be exciting"

Number 2: More Collaborations!

The only major collaboration to date Is with Jay-z on his ‘Holy Grail’ album so on Justin’s next album, to ‘spice things up a bit’ he needs to have more collaborations which would also have more genres of music introduced on the album which coincides with why we would like to see him work with more producers. We would LOVE to see a collaboration with Nicki Minaj to see how he would deal with that ;)

Number 3: Release it sooner!

After 7 years of waiting we got a bit bored and though Timberlake had gone completely off the music radar to take up a career in acting after his role in ‘Friends with Benefits’ was such a success. That would have been a sad day… We were so relieved to hear that this wasn’t the case and the 20/20 experience was being released! But next time, try not to leave your fans hanging for as long.

"The answer is I have no idea but my gut tells me that I don't think it's going to be seven years."

Number 4: More tour dates please…

Everyone loves listening to their favourite artist but seeing them live is a completely different experience! Justin has already postponed 3 of his dates for this tour and Is only doing 5 concerts in the UK?! Which is a pitiful amount. Metronome magazine wants him to spend longer in the UK next time so more of us get the opportunity to see this amazing artist.

History of VIBE magazine

Brief History: VIBE magazine was founded by Quincy Jones in 1993 which predominantly features Hip-Hop/R&B artists and actors. Originally the magazine had been called Volume before the co-founding editor gave it the current name of 'VIBE'. On June 30th 2009, VIBE announced it was ceasing publication immedeatley and only releasing articles online. After that, InterMedia Partners bought the magazine and now publish it every other month with double covers as well as a larger on-line presence. Currently the Magazine has approximately 863,000 readers.

VIBE is an R&B magazine which is mainly featured around R&B/ Pop artists so it would share both ideologies.

What is the typical content and typical reader: This Magazine usually has a certain amount of columns about reggae and Caribbean music because R&B originated from the Caribbean therefore the majority of the readers would be from that ethnic background. It also has a stereotypical gossip column called 'Vibe Confidential' and a 'Next' page which profiles and advertises upcoming artists in this industry. There are also numerous double page spreads which display high-end designer clothing on these singers/celebrities by urban labels such as 'Fubu' and 'Rocawear'. Many of these fashion labels are linked to the celebrities such as: Nelly's Apple Bottom Jeans and Sean Combs' Sean John. Because of the nature of the readers, this magazine highlights celebrities of an ethnic minority and portrays them in a good light which would appeal more to the target reader. I have found out through the American version of the NRS website that 71.3% of the readers are African-American which is why the magazine is relative tot heir interests and culture.


House style of the Magazine: The celebrity is always positioned in front of the masthead which suggests that they are the most important thing on the page even before the masthead title. Every issue always has a banner at the top of the page which tells you what is coming up in the magazine. I will use this idea in my magazine because I find this a very effective way of making people buy a magazine because when they are on sale in a shop,the first thing people look at is that banner and if they like what they see then they will buy it. They also have their sell lines and sub-headings down either side of the front page (like any other magazine) which outlines the celebrities faces which would make them stand out more.

Producer and Distribution: VIBE magazine is currently owned by InterMedia Partners which is private equity, this company also owns other media based companies such a radio stations. Their magazines are distributed to a variety of shops all over the USA but if you subscribe to a years worth of magazines (6 issues) then they make 'catchy' offers to keep you buying that magazine.

How are social groups represented in this magazine? 
The type of people that read this magazine would be interested in R&B music so stereotypically this would be 'street' people who like artists such as: Rihanna, Eminem, Beyonce etc. Therefore the people this has represented are commonly known as 'blingers' because they wear lots of 'bling' and noticeable jewellery as well as wearing designer labels show off their sense of fashion but they also have the ability to dress smart when neccessary. When creating my own magazine I will make sure that I always have my target audience- including their likes and dislikes- which would help boost the sales of my magazine if it went on sale to the public.