Generating Ideas (P1, M1, U21)

Learning Outcome 1 (U21):  Be able to generate ideas for an original media product based on a client brief

Client Brief Requirements

The client has asked me to produce a music magazine for North London to promotes the music scene that people need to know about. This brief includes several client requirements which i will discuss below

Explicit-

• do and print based and online music magazine
• required to make sample pages from the first edition of the magazine
• must showcase the talent and venues in the area
• must include a front cover and double page spread
• need to plan, pitch, produce and edit sample pages for  local music magazine for north London
• must product original content for your magazine 
• edit your original content
• plan and deliver your pitch
• develop and sample music ideas 

Implicit-

• present your work using a range of mediums
• about a vibrant music scene developing
• develop and sample music ideas

Open to interpretation-

• produce a new online print based magazine for North London-(what the magazine is about like what genre it is and what is included is open to interpretation)
• a vibrant music scene developing locally
• A young target audience
• edit to create meaning

First thoughts
When looking at the brief my first idea was to create a rap magazine due to it being a very popular music genre in North London and it will appeal to a younger audience, my target audience is a black male aged 14-19 yrs old who are lower class to middle class. i wanted to use the colours red, silver, gold, white and blue as they are very prominent is rap magazines so it would appeal to my target audience more.My plan was to use a mid shot of a rapper so that his face was the focal point of the magazine as it is the most important part of the magazine which will attract our target audience so it is important that is appeals to them .The USP of this magazine would be that it only features new upcoming artists in North London so that my target audience will relate to the artist on the cover and it will also inspire more people to make music in that genre.
I thought it would be good to include a scannable code which could be used online so that it is interactive for my target audience.  
The price of my magazine would be around £2.50 as i wanted to make it affordable to my target market, so it would appeal to people with a lower income. Furthermore kids won't want to spend too much money on magazines as they only receive a small amount in allowance so it needs to appeal to kids and be affordable for them.
My magazines double page spread would include a large picture of a rap artist with some music equipment next to him (a mic etc) and informational text along the bottom and the left side of the double page spread.

3 Key Ideas

Idea 1-Venue

My magazine idea for a venues based magazine is for my magazine to be about a specific venue which will be KOKO and include all the different artists playing there and new magazines come out every 2 weeks. 
My magazine will including reviews on the venue and artists playing there. I will write about the history of KOKO and also include if the artists being featured are releasing albums so that we could talk about each artist that's is playing at KOKO and also have competitions where you could win that artists Merchandise.

My magazine will target older teens 17-22 yrs as an older audience would be more interested in venues rather than artists. my target audience will be of middle class (B1,C1)and be all genders and Caucasian, My secondary audience will be girls of all ethnicities who are of a middle class
On my double page spread there will be a large picture of KOKO with the artists playing at KOKO in front of the venue with information about who's playing underneath it and to the right of the double page spread will be a column containing information of KOKO and its history. in the future I would expand and not just have a magazine on KOKO but also have one on The Round House and talk about the people playing there, we can keep expanding and cover many more venues and reach a wider audience.
My venue based magazine will cost £3 ( print and online) as we are targeting middle classed customers and the magazine will be quite informational as it is aimed at customers looking at artists playing at that venue so that they can go to the concerts, so having knowledge on the venue is very helpful.
when marketing to our target audience we will be putting up posters near the locations that we feature on our magazine so that people attending a concert there can also read up on the location, its history and what other artists will be performing on other nights. Furthermore we will advertise on the roundhouses Instagram as they already have a large following of 25.3k followers and we are featuring them in our magazine, whilst also adverting on our own social media accounts  to promote our product and also having paid advertisements on Instagram advertising our magazine and the events at the round house, we could also advertise on the roundhouse website.

Strengths	Weaknesses
The strengths of this idea is that I am able to expand on this idea in the future, for example in the future I can also write about another music venue like the round house (as well as KOKO) and just keep expanding to The jazz cafe etc., this will grow my magazine and make more money in the future.	This magazines weakness is that not many people are interested in the venues and are more interested in the artist and genre, so having a magazine being mainly about a venue won't appeal to many customers which will threaten the success of this venue based magazine.
Another strength is that with this idea I can write about many different artists and genres, which are being featured, which will attract a large variety of different music lovers and appeal to a large audience.	Another weakness about this magazine is that target customers may just not be interested in going to that specific venue so this magazine wouldn't appeal to them.
Another strength is that there are not many venue magazines, meaning that there are not many competitors in this market which will be a threat to our magazine, so our magazine won't be under threat to lose potential customer to other venue magazines.

Idea 2-Genre

My second idea is to create a genre based magazine that celebrates Indie as it is a popular genre in North London and a lot of the youth listen to it and make indie music, which complies with the briefs requirements as it is vibrant music developing locally.
my target audience is a 15-19 yr old female who is of a middle class and is also Caucasian. My secondary target audience is 19-25 year old's male and female Caucasians who are of lower to middle class (C2DE).
My magazine will contain different types of competitions with chances for the buyer to win prizes: like vintage shop vouchers and vinyl giveaways, this will attract the customer as they are able to win something for free and get more then their moneys worth. There will also be a scannable code which will have a playlist of the artists being featured most popular music (this will change with every edition(different playlists)) which will be on Spotify, i have chosen to use Spotify as it is the most popular music platform in which artists release and share their music, so we will have little paid adverts which will come up when the user is listening to music.
My double page spread will contain a large image of a indie band with column to the left about the artist and what inspired them to become and artist and make music, also how they make their music and if it is a band being featured it will have information on how that band came to be. Columns below the picture will contain information about the genre and other artists. the information my magazine will contain other then the information on the artist will talk about indie clothing style and vintage shops which they can shop at (paid sponsorship so that we can make more profit, but the shop is being promoted must be good shops which fit the indie style). the colour scheme of my magazine will have quite muted tones with few bright accent colours and the magazine won't have very filled up backgrounds (in the pictures) it will be plain blocks of colours so that it draws the reader focuses on to the main picture of the indie artist. The price of my magazine (print and online) will be £2.50 so that it is affordable for the customer as an expensive magazine won't appeal to the customer.

Strengths	Weaknesses
The strengths of this idea is that it appeals to a vibrant upcoming music scene in north London, which will appeal to our target audience as indie has lately been becoming very popular with younger audiences increasing the chances of this magazine being successful.	The weaknesses of this idea are that it will only appeal to an audience that listens to indie and none of the other new upcoming genres of music.
Another strength about this magazine idea is that it is very versatile in the sense that there are many different upcoming indie artists that can be featured on the magazine, meaning we will never run out of artists to write about.	Another weakness is that it will cost money to have all these competition and giveaways, as we have to pay for it from the money earned from selling these magazines (which probably wont be a lot when starting out).
Another strength is that it is interactive for the customer as there are competition that they can enter and win, which will make the magazine more appealing to the customer as they have the chance to win more than they bargained for (USP). As it is online we can offer a subscription and give customers better deals the longer they subscribe for, which will benefit bite the business and the customer.

Idea 3-Artist

For my third idea i will make a magazine focusing on metal artists and bands, my magazine will give an insight to their lives being music artists and about their music as our purpose is to promote these artists and their music, my magazine will feature a different metal artist or band every edition and will come out weekly.
My target audience will be 20-30 yr old males who are Caucasian and of a middle class, my target audience will be adults who are into metal as metal is more popular with an older audience. They enjoy playing music themselves which means we can do a competition giving our target audience the chance to meet the artists.
The price of my magazine will be £2.80 so that a younger audience is able to afford it. the information my magazine will contain in the columns and articles is information about the band and their upcoming tours, performances, interviews and music/newly released music it will also talk about what its like to be a metal music artist so that the target audience can learn about these bands.
my double page spread will contain a picture of the band with smaller pictures along the bottom about other artists but not the one the magazine is mainly about, my double page spread will have most of the information written alone the bottom of the picture in columns.
my front cover will have a large picture of the artist with brief information of what will be inside, the colours being used are red, black, white, silver, orange, and white as these colours are very prominent in the metal genre and is used by most of the artists in their clothing and logos.
we plan to advertise using posters put up near concerts and will 

Strengths	Weaknesses
The strengths of this idea is that metal has always been popular especially with an older generation so it won’t be hard to find a target customer that actually wants to buy it.	The first weakness about this magazine idea is that it doesn't really meet client brief requirements as we are targeting an older audience so a vibrant music scene developing won’t appeal to an older audiences and they wouldn't listen to modern metal artists or new ones as they grew up listening to older music and wouldn't know many of the artists being featured.
Another strength is that there are no other metal magazines about north London artist, meaning that this is an untouched market, so it will be easier to target this audience as there are no other competitors for them to compete against.	Another weakness is that though it may be more popular genre than it used to be still quite a lot of people don't listen to metal artists, the magazine won’t sell very well.
It also has quite a strong and recognisable codes and conventions meaning it is very recognisable and well known	As it is recognisable and well known it is already cornered by a few big well known magazines so it will be hard to become known

Conclusion 
To conclude i believe that the genre based magazine (option 2) is the most suitable choice as it fits clients requirements as it appeals and fits with a vibrant upcoming music scene, as indie has begun to be quite popular with the youth. Our magazine will appeal to a younger music audience quite effectively as it is a popular genre and our USP which will be the prizes available will attract more customers and make the magazine more money, which will benefit both the customer and the business.