NME magazine double spread page analysis

This is a double spread page of a NME magazine featuring Florence Welsh from "FLorence and the machine"

The image of Florence bleeds onto both halves of a page but is placed to the right. The whole page has a white (grey) coloured background. However, there is also a background for the model herself - big bold letters "USA". Overall the colours of the page are very light with a contrasting clothes of the model. 
Florence, originally English, "got the love" of the America and so does the page say. Even though the photo takes both pages, the model is placed to the left off the center. She is sitting on something that is covered with a red and white striped cloth, and the red stripes highlight the colour of her hair. Her body language is quite closed but her clothes reveal her naked legs and make her look pretty and sexy. Also, even though it is a long shot, she is looking straight at the camera and creates contact with her eyes. Her dress might seem a little bit tempting to the male audience because of it's length and weird leather cone shaped details at the area of her breasts. Her black mini dress and high-heeled boots, that have a leather gloss, combined with her bright red hair make her look as femme fatale. 
The heading is a play on words as it reflects Florence's song "Got the love" and the love of fans she gained in the USA. The part of the heading and a drop cap echo Florence's clothes as they are also of a black colour. The rest of the text is of a same fading grey colour as the "USA" at the background. The "got the love" and drop cap are in a very elegant sans-serif handwritten-like font, that matches the female star on the image. Florence's name is highlighted in blue colour so that it stands out from the rest of the text. It is barely seen in this image (as it is cut few millimeters on the right), however in the top right corner there is a "Florence" written with white letters on a grey coloured rectangular to indicate the pages with the interview. In the bottom right corner there is a date of issue and a masthead of the magazine. Between the heading and the text the information about author and photographer is placed. 
The standfirst ends up in a question so that the audience is interested in reading the text itself. The text itself is in three columns and a small simple serif font. The story links to the picture as it is telling about the time when Florence was visiting New York. Florence's quotes and other special phrases are highlighted by being written in the upper case or in cursive. Text is mostly narrative with a quotes taken from the interview. 

Overall, the page and context of the page match the artist and present her as a modern "porcelain-skinned forest nymph". The page looks very feminine but at the same time Florence herself looks seductive. The image balances with the text and the calm cold colours contrast with the bright clothes of the model. 

Q magazine double spread page analysis

This is a double spread page in the Q magazine featuring Lady Gaga. First of all there are two things that immediately grab the readers attention:

1. The picture of Lady Gaga - the black and white medium close up shot of Lady Gaga takes the whole page and attracts audience, especially male. The picture looks quite sexual as she is looking straight at the camera making eye contact with the person holding the magazine and her make up highlights the eyes creating the "smoky eye" seductive look. Her mouth is slightly opened as if she's about to speak and she seems to be wearing nothing except the necklace and make up. However, the picture is decent and not vulgar as Lady Gaga is covering her breasts with her hands. The picture is black and white and the shadows and posture, as well as facial expression, create a very extraordinary and extravagant look, so natural an usual for Lady Gaga and her fans. 
2. The big red "L" - which obviously stand for "Lady" and is a background for the text. The red colour of a letter echoes the masthead of the magazine and it's colours (the white "Q" in a red square). It is placed in a serif font same as two drop caps. It is the only colourful text on the page and makes a very good bright accent. A big red letter on the background tends to be a common feature and a brand identity of the magazine as it is seen in other issues of the Q magazine. 

Generally the page is quite simple and modern. There is a clear division between the image and the interview and the picture doesn't bleed over the page. There is no heading at the page except for the name of the artist which is written in two different styles. "Lady" is written in the lower case handwritten-like font and "Gaga" is in bold upper case serif letters which highlights the fact that her alias was created by two words put together.

In the bottom right the musthead and the page number is placed as well as the date of issue. In the opposite corner the website of the online version of the magazine is printed. The text of the interview is framed in a way by the two lines at the top and the bottom of the page.

The text itself overlays the red letter "L" making it a background. The text unusually starts with a small font however has two drop caps in the next paragraphs in serif font. There are supposed to be 6 columns on this double spread page however the picture took half of it and so there are only three columns left for the text. The text itself reflects very "mental" character of Lady Gaga. The text has taboo language and magazine prints it as it is. There are no actual questions in the interview and the journalist narrates the text, adding Lady Gaga's quotes from time to time. The text also mentions a lot of public events with the artist. The contents of the text link to the picture and artist herself, as it is very open, sexual and crazy. 

The text is structured quite good as each new paragraph opens a new theme and also almost all the information is in chronological order. It is quite hard to read the text as it is small, however you can see the clear division between the narrator and the artist response. 

Overall it shows the magazine being quite honest with the readers and trying to show famous people from an interesting perspective and original angle. 

Why there is a decrease in ABCs of Music Magazines?..

The research on ABC figures showed a dramatic drop in 2012 and 2013 for the music magazines so I decided to find out the reasons for that.

"As someone who works at the Guardian, I understand the concept of ‘managed decline’ in circulation figures and the need for constantly improving your product to help boost those figures. Whilst the Guardian and the like are adding new products to their publications. most big publishing houses have focused on diversification of revenues rather than developing or improving their printed product. With that, the falling circulation figures for paid-for music publications are unsurprising.

The reason why print magazine circulations are tumbling is because they don’t know who their audience is. Access to music is easier than at any other time in history. The mainstream (the youth in particular), spend their time with Youtube or the Boiler Room, they don’t need to be able to read, they only need to search.  With the increasing abundance of handheld devices and (more importantly) mobile internet access, even that last bastion of print publication reading opportunity has rapidly eroded. 

But the audience is there and if you find your niche, you will find your audience. This isn’t to say that NME or Q should totally change tact and start putting Romare or Sun Ra Arkestra on their covers, but they should stop playing it safe and experiment a little (the list of NME covers from this year makes pretty depressing reading).You cannot sustain an audience when you ultimately don’t have an audience, or you’re focusing on an audience that is either dying (literally) or likely to be swayed by a free alternative somewhere else.

 So to come to a point, and to address the question ‘is there a future for paid-for print music magazines?’ I think the answer is yes, but not in their current form – either in terms of their editorial content or their distribution model."  

So, after all, the main problem of the magazines is that they are so keen on expansion of their product so to interest more audience, that in fact, they lose more. Also, with technologies, the new opportunities are coming and more and more people use online versions rather than buying printed product. And most important, some of the magazine prefer to ignore these facts rather than keep pace with time and increase the numbers of readers and so the circulation figures. 

The source of information: 

www.untitledmagazineexperiment.com

"The future of music journalism and music 

magazines and making a living" by Gareth Main

ABCs for music magazines for 2012 and 1/2 of 2013

Ab cs 2012 2013 from stacey_s96

The RS contents page cover

The "Rolling Stone" is a US magazine, founded in 1967, is published fortnight and is focused on politics and popular culture, paying a lot of attention to music industry. 

From the first look it is noticeable that this page has a lot of things on it to read and 
The overall background of the page is white with photos and text covering over 60% of it. The pictures are of different styles and sizes, what gives a hint that a magazine is aimed to different age groups and a range of musical tastes. The black and white picture brings us back to the era of soul music while a photo of Queen B is a Pop and R&B culture. There are some comments in the corners of each picture in a tiny white font. 
On this page not just the top headlines stand out but also the numbers. There are three colours, pink black and white, which stand out very well on the white coloured background. The big bold serif letters in the left top corner "RS" stand out for the name of the magazine and link the contents page to the cover page with the musthead. The pink number next to the letters is the number of the current issue. Other two numbers that stand out the most are the numbers of pages of the main articles. All the rest of the page numbers are coloured in pink so that they are different from the headings. 
The page is very balanced and text is very carefully placed exactly under the pictures and is separated by lines topic from topic. The font of the text generally very small and quite hard to read and so the reader has to look at the page number to actually read the article. 
The website is highlighted in the blue colour so that it seen well and readers notice it straight away. Below it there is a name of the photographer of the cover page image. 
Overall the page looks quite retro and stylish. The headings of contents show that the magazine is cultural and political as it mentions popular artists and "national affairs". It also gives information to the readers about all the new things through charts and reviews. 

Vibe contents page analysis

Vibe is an American magazine which is focused on music and entertainment. It is issued monthly since 1993.

The background is quite dark and we can see the outline of the spotlight. It creates shadows from the models body and a quite intimate and special atmosphere. The most of the models body is placed at the bottom part of the page however her legs are up in the air and even though her body is covered, model's naked legs look a little bit seductive. The fact that she is looking straight at the camera adds something personal between Ciara and the reader. The size of the picture suggest that the main article or interview features the model.
The thin white outline of the "V" indicates the magazine - "Vibe" and probably links to the cover page. The word contents is broken up in 3 parts and is placed at the right corner in bold white sans serif font. The picture, particularly model's legs, overlays the text. Also, the legs themselves create a "V" shape echoing the outline. The little 1/3 sign indicates that there are 3 contents pages and so suggests the magazine is quite big and has many pages.
The colours of the page are mostly black, grey and white. The top headings are in black and very elegant and handwrite-like font. It is a little bit girlish and it reflects the fact that female is on the main picture of the page. The rest of the text is in tiny font, which is sometimes hard to read, but the number of pages stand out a bit more. All contents are in a neat straight column but each section is divided by the dotted lines. 
On the left side of the page there is information about clothes and accessorize the model is wearing and in the bottom left there is the name of photographer and the date of the photoshoot. In the opposite corner the number of issue and page is placed. 
Overall the page is kept in the same colour spectrum and is very simple and specific for the "Vibe" magazine. 

Some similar features are seen in the other issue of the "Vibe":

• the picture takes most of the page linking to the main stories in the magazine
• "contents" is broken up in three parts
• the top headings are in the handwritten font
• all the contents are in the column n the right of the page
• brands of clothes are mentioned on the left of the page
• photographer and the date of the photoshoot is written at the bottom left and the issue number at the bottom right

Original features

By compering the similarities in two different issues of the same magazine I've realized that each magazine creates something special what makes it recognizable from the other. For example, if someone showed me one of these contents pages - 

 - from a distance I could say that this is a Vogue magazine even without reading the masthead. I've noticed that from issue to issue there are some changes in layout, however the overall image of the page is very similar. Actually, this is the reason why I compared covers and this will definitely help me, as now I will try to create something unique in my music magazine too.