codes and conventions of Indie music magazine front cover

Code an conventions of magazine front covers.
• Title at the top of the page in the centre or to the left.
-- This is because this is where the consumer looks when looking at a magazine. It is an eye-catching position.
• Bar code, price and date.
-- The bar code is there for legal reasons an also for the shops to scan the product. The price is there so that the targeted audience can see the price of the magazine. And the date is on the front of the magazine so that the target audience know what issue it is and when it was out so that they know its up to date
• 1 main image of the music artist/or something related to your main cover story.
-- This is so that the target audience know what the main story is about, and encourage the target audience to buy the magazine.
• Banners.
-- This is to catch your eye. Draw your attention to that area so that you read it and want to buy the magazine and find out more.
• 3 or 4 fonts.
-- This is so that the magazine is not boring but interesting and not over done with loads of different fonts and to make some information stand out.
• Limited colours.
-- this is because it costs loads of money to get loads of colours in the magazine as it has to go through the printer loads of times to get all of the colours so limited colours saves money. (The colours relate to the genre of music)
• Master head
-- The name of the magazine is important as it is what makes the target audience remember the magazine and make them want to buy it again. It also relates to the target audience and makes it clear what genre the magazine belongs to.
• Taglines.
-- These make the magazine catchy so that you want to read the magazine and sets the tome of the magazine.
• Buzz words- example, plus, free, exclusive
-- These make the magazine more interesting and immediately catch the attention of the target audience reading the magazine.
• Other Images
-- To make it more interesting an the target audience can see there is more than one cover story.
• Sub stories
-- These are to show that there is jus more than one story in the magazine so that the target audience reading it, if they don’t like the artist on the front of the magazine wont lose interest as they will know that there is more than that one story on the main story.
• Main image fills the page.
-- this is to make it clear that it is the main story and that it is the most important one out of them all.
• Images- band/artists, mid-close up/long shot, looking at the camera, reflects genre (body language).
-- This is so that they appeal to the target audience and relate to the genre to make it clear that they belong to the genre.
• Cover-lines all link to the genre. Usually 5-10 cover-lines
-- To show that the magazine is the genre it claims to be and so that the audience don’t get bored and know what to expect in the magazine.
• Layout is appropriate to genre and target audience.
-- So that the audience know that it is an ‘indie’ magazine or ‘rock’ magazine. To make it clear what type of magazine it is and who its target audience is.


All of the indie magazine front covers that I have looked at all follow the codes and conventions of indie magazine front covers. Looking at all the magazines I would like to make mine look a little different to all the other indie magazine front covers as I want mine to stand out from all of the others so that it jumps out to my target audience and they want to buy my magazine rather than others that have been on the shelves for a longer time scale than mine. But I will follow the codes an conventions of indie magazines so that my target audience automatically know that it is an indie magazine.