Researching music magazines

When artists become a little more well known they are asked to be on the cover of popular music magazines, and their are certain magazines that are linked with a particular genre, also if an artist is promoting music they may be on the cover of these magazines to reach a wider audience.

Rock Sound magazine is targeted at an audience who enjoy rock/punk music. The cover shows an image of Tay Jardine who is a member of We Are The In Crowd, and then it has a heading stating there will be a story about her inside the magazine. As well as having a main image magazines also have various other smaller images on the cover promoting other artists and the things that will be inside the magazine. They may also include free posters of other artists for the readers to keep. The barcode is on the front of the magazine as well rather than the back because the back cover usually shows an advertisement of a product or something.

Billboard magazine is very popular in the United States and usually feature mainly American artists such as Katy Perry, but popular artists from other continents do sometimes make the cover. This cover is mainly aimed at people who enjoy the pop genre, particularly if you're a fan of Katy Perry, it is quite feminine with all the pink tones and flowers. The Billboard title is just behind the image of the artist but it is still recognisable and the title of the artist is a lot bolder than the other subheadings across the cover, this makes Katy Perry's name stand out to the reader and to advertise the story about her that will be inside the magazine.

Q Magazine is the UK's biggest music magazine, and it writes about and features the most popular and successful artists of the music industry. The cover features a close up of the popular artist Adele and in the corner it shows the Q logo which advertises the magazine itself. This cover is the 300th issue published and this is highlighted by the stamp like gold circle underneath the logo, which shows that the magazine has been running for a long time and is still as popular as it was the first time it was published. It shows the artists name at the bottom in bold white lettering to make it stand out against the background, and then a quote by the artist that she said in the interview that the magazine carried out with her. It then has a few main stories on the left hand side that will also feature in the magazine and the barcode which is needed when the magazine is purchased in shops.

Researching chosen artist CD artwork

This is the album front cover for our chosen artist that we will be making a music video with their song 'Louder'. The background is a simple white background but it includes four separate images, one showing each group member quite close up. The images have a different filter on each square that covers each image of the girls, which is quite effective as it is quite an original thing to do. The font of the groups name is the font that they have used from the beginning when they first released a single, so it has become a trademark font for the group, the album name is taken from one of their earlier singles 'Welcome To The Jungle' and because this is their first ever studio album it is like it welcomes the listeners into their style of music and them as a group. This aspect can be useful when we come up with album names and start creating our own CD cover as it allows us to create a meaning behind the title so we can link it to our created group.

Researching CD artwork

When artists release music they usually release a CD form of them as well as a downloaded/iTunes version. The artists make sure that their CD artwork for albums, EPs and singles reflect the song/s on the CD but also them as artists. This is something that we will have to consider when creating our own CD digipak. We will also have to think of what image, font and album name we will want to use for our own work, which will also need to reflect on our created artist/group.

This is the front cover artwork for girl group, Little Mix, new album. The album name is 'Salute' which was chosen because it is one of the songs on the album, but also maybe to portray an idea if girl power because it's an all girl group and the album cover looks to be quite a powerful image, particularly with the clouded sky behind the image of the girls. The font is a red and it is a paint-like style, to give the cover a more grungy look, and they have also included the Little Mix logo in the corner, also in red, to make the album more recognisable to their fans. The image of the girls shows their own personal style and fashion choices, but they have been styled to colour coordinate with each other to go with the theme of the album itself which is girl power. They're also posing in quite a sassy way to also go with the idea of girl power and independence.

This is the front cover artwork for boy band, One Direction's, new album. It is quite simple as it only consists of two images of the group, in front of a wood background, however it stills shows each members individual style. The font is their own created font that represents them as a band, written in white inside a black box which shows contrast and makes the writing stand out. The album name is 'Four' which was chosen because it is their fourth studio album and they have been a group for four years now, which is again quite a simple name but it does have a meaning behind it.

Some artists choose not to be on the cover of their albums, EPs or singles. This example is from Ed Sheeran's second album 'X', and it is very simple as it just shows a black X across the whole cover, which looks like it has been spray painted on, which highlights the name of the album. The background is just a simple bright green, which also creates contrast and makes the album title stand out.

The front cover is not all that is needed for a CD digipak, we also need to think about the back cover of the album. We will have to consider if we want another image of our created artist on the back or something that may represent them, or we could decide not to have a back image at all. We will also have to think about where we will place the track listing and what font and colour will be used for this. As this is a CD digipak we will also have to include the record labels logo, and in our case we're using Sony Music Entertainment, and to show that rights do go to the label, and we will also need an image of a barcode to show it is able to be sold in shops and online websites.

Character mood boards

I created two character mood boards for the members of Vintage Strobe. This allows viewers to see what the members personalities and interests are, and from this I feel that both girls have quite similar personalities in the way that they both like YouTube and Instagram, and aspects of beauty (nail polish and make up). These sort of things are a pro of being put together as a group by someone else because it makes it more likely for the members to connect and get along with each other. This can also be used for when we're filming and making our CD digipak as it will help us be able to choose the right image and style for the video and album front cover.

Group biography

Group name- Vintage Strobe, consisting of two members. The group was put together in early 2012, and after doing radio tours and school performances they went straight to the studio to record.

Rebecca 'Becca' Bennett- (Born 14th April 1997 in Medway) Becca first started off on Youtube making videos for entertainment purposes,  but she soon started recording covers and putting them on her channel. These videos then became recognised by Sony who put her forward for an audition for the girl group, which was very successful as she is now a member of the group.

Victoria 'Viki' Cresswell- (Born 31st October 1996 in Kent) Viki is the oldest member of the group and has taken part in the UK Xfactor, plus carrying out some photography work. She got through to the Judges Houses but then was sent home before the live finals. Syco Music then decided to put her into the group with Becca, making them Vintage Stobe.

They released their first single in 2013 which was a cover Neon Jungle's 'Louder', which peaked at number 2 in the UK chart. The group are planning to release their debut album in early 2015 named Faded Lights, and they have also been on the cover of the popular UK music magazine 'Q'.

After releasing their album they are set to carry out as tour across the UK, plus making appearances at summer festivals such as Wireless Festival and V Festival.

Email referencing to copyright

In order to be able to use the song that we have chosen for our video we had to send an email to the record company that our group is signed to, in order to use Neon Jungle's song 'Louder'. Neon Jungle are also signed to Sony so we felt that it would be best to email the record company to as for copyright use. By doing this it allows the project to feel more professional, because in the real world, if an artist wanted to use a song for a video or cover that has already been released, they would have to ask permission from the record label and artist.