Music Magazine Target Audiences

Music Magazine Target Audiences


Music magazines come in a huge variety of conventions and categories, according to the diversity of music genres. There are so many different genres of music which often define people as a whole, and these are supported by their genre-correspondent magazines which are often read by the people who are interested in a certain genre.

Some examples of music magazines of a certain genre and their target audiences are listed here below. Notably, some music genres will be appropriate not just to personal interests, but moreover to age and environment as well.

Kerrang!

"Kerrang!" (named so due to its apparent sound similarity to the strum of a guitar) is a rock music-devoted magazine, and arguably one of the most well-known genre-specific of its kind. It is obviously aimed at rock-enthusiasts and general fans of acoustic, alternative and heavy rock and metal. It is aimed more at teenage to early-middle age, as you wouldn't imagine a 10-year-old nor a citizen of fifty enjoying "Kerrang!" or its corresponding television. This genre of music has an acquired taste and is rather heavy-going, as is the magazine. This is why whilst there is a gap in the market for magazines such as this one, there is a narrow audience to appeal to, whereas other genres may have slightly more freedom and width in the public to manoeuvre     its product appeal towards.

Smash Hits

"Smash Hits" magazine centres around pop music and is aimed mainly at females of what could be portrayed as most ages but sways more towards the age range of childhood and teenage. What is meant by this is that a girl of around nine, ten or eleven aspiring to be a bit of a gossip-girl and pop-girl would most likely be interested in this genre of magazine. It is orientated around pop music and celebrity culture, sharing its pop music interests with gossip and celebrity rumours and stories. This particular issue is extremely fitting to the stereotype of a young girl's appeal (pink, male celebrities, gossip and celebrity stories) although other issues of this magazine are not necessarily pink or include the dedication to celebrity culture as this one does. However, I chose to use this one as it outlines what the magazine is about and what it revolves around.

NME

"NME (New Musical Express)" is a magazine which although displays acknowledgement of chart music and singles rankings, mainly focuses around the genre of punk rock music. Formerly a newspaper, this could imply that it originally aimed itself at adults (predominantly male) at the age at which you would read newspapers. However, due to its status as being a newspaper, has its agenda to serve the interests of punk rock and therefore this wouldn't be targeted to suit middle aged or older adults. Now that it is a magazine - in fact one of the most popular music magazines of all-time, it is firmly suited to between teenage and just before middle age, but its widespread popularity sees it bought by a larger age range, and mixed gender. This would ultimately result in it just coming down to the taste of music that someone may have, whether they choose to purchase "NME" magazine.


Rolling Stone

"Rolling Stone" is an American music magazine, again differing to the tastes of "Kerrang", "NME" and most considerably "Smash Hits". It focuses around not only music, but notable other topics such as culture and liberal politics, finances and business. This variety makes it incredibly appealing and you can see the main devotion to music through the front cover of this particular issue, featuring Cee-Lo Green,  Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton. The wide scope of interests provided by the magazine give it an edge over other music magazines as you could say that a person's whole main set of interests are all talked about in the magazine. Adults including politics and business-orientated men with a strong interest in any genre of music (a nuclear example) would take a fondness to this magazine in particular over any other. This typically sways away from the interests of both children and the elderly, perhaps taking its main threshold on adults in their twenties and thirties, possibly forties.