Magzine Cover Analysis

Music magazine front cover.

The music magazine I am looking at is Metal Hammer, it is a magazine that focuses on the genre of metal and gives readers updates on what bands are getting up to, and things like festivals that relate to the genre.

In order for the magazine to look suitable for the genre, the text used is bold and stands out, the positioning of the title of the magazine is also always at the top of the page. Showing the template used for the magazine. Every issue also has a main image usually of a band or a band logo, this would instantly attract fans of the band on the cover. Other bands names are on the cover to go along with the main image, this again will attract fans of these bands and will encourage more sales of the magazine.

The image on the cover presents the audience because a band that fits into the metal genre is shown each time, people in the audience who like the band on the cover would automatically recognise the sort of magazine and would be wanting to buy it on these terms. The articles advertised on the front cover usually include interviews with bands, normally on the subject of new material or performances coming up and ones that have already been, this gets the audience interested because fans will want to be up to date with what is going on with their favourite bands.

The magazine is priced around the £4 range. I think that this is the case because it is a monthly magazine so you get a lot of content for the price because of the time between each issue. In a lot of the magazines there are also free things in it such as posters or actual CDs. This would mean that the audience would be willing to pay this amount for the magazine because you get a lot for what you are paying for, particularly a music enthusiast. I think this price is also acceptable because the magazine is of a high quality and often advertises features with very popular bands such as Guns N Roses, Metallica and Slayer. These will all be very well known with an audience that enjoy metal music and advertising articles on these sorts of bands will increase the popularity of these magazines. I would happily pay £4 for this magazine monthly as I enjoy this genre of music and interviews with my favourite bands would interest me enough into wanting to buy this magazine.

The covers that I have looked at for this magazine has given me ideas for my own choices when creating my magazine, the idea of using a main image across the full cover is good because it is a bold advertisement for the content of the magazine which I think is effective on audiences that like whatever band I out on the cover. It is also good because it is also an advertisement of the genre of the music that my magazine focuses on, so that target audiences know what it is going to feature strait away. I also think that the bold title is a good idea, it also gives the magazine a house style that is good for brand recognition, the fonts and colours used could be used as a trend for the magazine so that it stands out from similar companies. Another good selling point of this magazine was advertising free items with the magazine such as the posters but I didn't find any with stickers for things like guitar cases which I think the audience would like, so that would be an idea o follow up to encourage the audience to want to buy my magazine.

The newer issue of the magazine also shows a lot more information on the cover and contains the free items which are a CD and poster. Whereas the older issue is a lot more basic and does not give a lot away. In order to see further into how magazines change over time it would be a good idea for me to look at even older versions of the magazine and to also look at the most recent copies of it, this is a way for me to compare how the company has changed it's view and how the magazine has changed its selling points in order to attract the target audience.

This is an issue of Metal Hammer from 2007. It shows a main image of an artist featured in the magazine and is obviously an icon of the genre. The cover also advertises articles that are featured in the magazine as a selling point towards the audience. The cover also shows how the title is unique for the magazine, giving it a house style. This is good because it gives the magazine a brand recognition for its font, meaning that the magazine will be recognised just for the style that is shown.

The magazine also offers a free CD and poster, more selling points that are advertised on the front cover as part of the selling point that goes along with the rest of the articles shown.

This is an issue of the magazine from May 2012. As you can see there are various differences to the magazine compared to the 2007 issue,but the layout is fairly similar. Although the design of the logo has changed, the positioning has been kept the same, and so has the idea of a main image. The selling points are also very similar.