My Music Magazine.• My music magazine has used all the conventions of a normal

magazine but mine is very original. It uses all the features in which a magazine uses, as I have included all the conventions needed to make a magazine the best it can be. I have developed the conventions of music magazines as I have used my own take on a front cover, contents page and a double-page spread because the magazine has been produced purely from the use of my own ideas it looks very different to most of the real music magazines but still keeps within the Indie genre. I have created the different parts to my magazine using Photoshop which is exactly what producers do when making their magazines then audiences attracted to that magazine will then consume them.

I have put an image of my front cover and a real media product front cover to compare the conventions between the two. My front cover uses; A masthead, plug, main feature image, main feature stories, other feature stories, a footer, barcode, price, issue number and a website linked to the institution that my magazine is produced and also a pull quote. This challenges the likes of the real media products front cover because between my magazine front cover and Q we both have used the same conventions for the front of the magazines the only convention I haven’t used is a skyline for my front cover because I didn’t think it would look right against the rest of my magazine and because I had a footer on my magazine which has most of the information on which the skyline would anyway but it was in a much more appropriate place and looks better. It develops on the conventions of real media products because of the layout of these conventions because my conventions are used in a different way to the Q magazine because my conventions are very spread out and it is very minimalist because of the audience I am catering for. The use of the main conventions of a music magazine makes the magazine very realistic and also then applies to the audience. Some real media products exaggerate the use of the conventions to make the front cover more professional and then it appeals to a mass audience. My magazine is based on a particular genre and I wanted the Indie genre to be expressed through the front cover to make the magazine stand out. On my magazine and the real music magazine the main feature images are both medium close ups which are typical of

magazine conventions as it then allows readers to see what the main story is going to be about straight away and who it is actually based on, the image is based in the middle of the magazine with the stories around them to then also show what is going to be inside the magazine. By me using the same conventions as real media products this makes my magazine be more professional be ready to sell to audiences interested in my magazine.

My contents page challenges the conventions of real media products because I based my contents page on this original NME contents page below. I tried to use the same conventions to make my product look professional. I included my own original images of my main featured artists and other artists that I have taken photos of to add to the contents page. I have used featured stories for this issue of my magazine and also monthly/regulars which appear in my magazine, this has developed the conventions of the existing magazine contents page because they do not use regulars but I wanted to because this then appeals to the niche audience of my product because this appears in my magazine regularly and this might be the section of the magazine which encourages my audience to purchase my product. I have also included an editors note which is not used on the NME contents page, this is not a specific convention that contents pages have to have but mine has been used to show the readers that me as the editor of my music magazine have a big part to play in the production of it and that the magazine is important. The header of my contents page is very much like the NME contents page as we both decided to us e the names of our magazine and also the words contents in a large font and also similar fonts which stand out. My colours used are the same as the rest of my colour scheme like NME I have stuck to three different colours which is the conventions of a magazine to stick to three colours and the most so it stands out and is bold.

I have used the conventions of that the audience of my magazine can actually follow my media product on different forms of social media which is appealing because then they can find the articles on the internet, but this is different to the NME contents page because they have used a box for subscriptions to the magazine and I have used that because I wanted to be able to imply to my target audience that they can find out about the magazine on social media.

My double-page spread challenges the likes of other real media products because I have actually used all the conventions that is usually used in double-page spreads because I wanted it to follow all the conventions that are usually used. I have developed my media product by using the pull quote from the front cover to go with the main feature story and this is a main convention of double-page spreads because it then gives an insight in to the main feature story and what it might be about. Also it challenges the existing media products because of the image and the main feature image for the double-page spreads are very large and stand out from the page but actually relate to the article. I have developed the conventions because I have used different questions as a form of the main feature story for my magazine and this is also the same as the existing dps because the main feature image have to link to the main feature story. I have used a main header for my double page spread to try and draw attention to the main feature story and what It might include, I used a bit more of a larger header for my dps because I wanted to convey a lot more information about the main feature story then just including my main featured persons name. I have also made sure my image is a medium close up because it shows the features of the model and how their expressions relate to the story, like the real media products the main images the mis-en-scene of the costumes and makeup relate to the story and that’s what I wanted to do with my double-page spread so it looks professional.