Magazine Choice

Magazine Choice

Choosing the right magazine for a music advert is essential; a product's target market must correspond to some extent with the readership of the magazine in which it features, otherwise the advertisement would not be effective. The advertisement should also look like it 'belongs' in the magazine in regards to its style and genre. The artwork of the advert should connote a mood which somewhat matches the moods created by other articles and adverts of the magazine. 

I started with the genre of my music video - pop music. I found three popular magazines which appeared to feature pop music advertisements by bands and artistes who were similar to my own. Choosing a popular magazine to feature an advert is no doubt costly, however it ensures that a wide audience will receive the product which is being promoted. It is worthwhile mentioning that having an advertisement in a popular magazine would not be possible on a small budget. 

Billboard

Billboard magazine is exclusively a music magazine, featuring a variety of music genres and artistes. It is regarded as a global magazine, since it can be found in North America, Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia (among other countries), and online too. It is well known for its charts (such as the Billboard Hot 100) and prides itself as "the world's most influential music media brand reaching key executives and tastemakers in and around the music business". 

Its readership is very broad, and in terms of music genre the target audience is not completely specific. Articles involve pop, latin, rock, indie and others. For my own magazine advert, the broad audience of Billboard magazine could be beneficial because it enhances the possibility that other demographics can explore and enjoy my product, rather than my own niche demographic exclusively. 

The example front cover of this magazine happens to be the singer of 'Try Everything', Shakira. Shakira's songs in the English language often fit into the same pop genre as 'Try Everything', suggesting that this particular magazine would in fact be ideal for my magazine advertisement.

Entertainment Weekly 

The Entertainment Weekly magazine is a lot more broad in the content which it supplies; not only does it feature articles about music, it also mentions the events in the film, TV and literature industries. More often than not, the cover of the magazine displays an upcoming film or a recent popular TV series. Even on the example cover given above, it can be seen that this particular issue is a 'special music issue', meaning the star of the front would have to be an artiste anyway. 

This magazine has a broad audience in another sense to the broad audience of the Billboard magazine. The fact that the product which I am trying to promote is an album (with a relatively niche target audience) suggests that the readership of this particular magazine may be too diverse to make my promotion a success. The vast amount of money that it would cost to have an advert feature in the Entertainment Weekly may not be worthwhile, since the target audience may not be reached and this risks ineffectiveness. In spite of this, the main coverage of music that the magazine does feature is music of my music video's genre (pop, and famous artistes like Shakira). In this way, the music edition of the Entertainment Weekly magazine would be an ideal place for my magazine advert to be shown. 

NME

NME, 'New Music Express' is a magazine which is well established, having been first released in 1952. One of its main advantages in regards to my own music video project is that it is exclusively a music magazine, ensuring that its readership is likely to be interested in the purchase of new albums. NME features the most recent artistes and new music (hence the magazine company name). The music genres which it features are varied, including articles on older pop/rock bands such as The Beatles, hip-hop artistes, rock bands and some more contemporary pop. In terms of genre, my magazine advertisement would fit somewhat comfortably in this magazine. 

Upon conducting further research, I found that the demographic of this magazine is not that similar to the demographic for my own music video and advertisement - the lack of correlation between these two demographics runs the risk of the expensive advertisement being ineffective. According to statista, a statistics website, 676,000 of the 971,000 adults (15 years and above) who read the magazine in 2016-17 were in fact male. Considering that a large portion of my own music video's target audience is younger females, these statistics suggest that NME is not the best magazine to feature my advertisement. 


Overall, I would choose to feature my album advertisement in the Billboard magazine, since it is the magazine which correlates the most accurately with the target audience for my own music video. This is an essential element of the choosing process because it ensures that the advertisement reaches the right people - the people who are most likely to invest in the product which I am promoting with my advertisement.