What are the conventions of magazine adverts for new album releases?

Most musicians with a record label are able to promote their new album through magazines. Magazines are a good tool to advertise this because certain magazines suit certain audiences, much like a musician's music would.

The magazine adverts for this must have these things:

1. A picture or symbol representing the artist
2. The name of the album
3. The release date
4. Where it's available
5. Certain themes that relate to the artist's sound - heavy metal would have dark colours for example
6. A picture of the album front cover
7. Details of the artist - artist's website, record label's website
8. Maybe some details of what is included in the album...

My album fits into the "folk/acoustic" category, so there are a few magazines my album could be advertising in.

NME, Q and Mojo are all British magazines that are less-focused towards mainstream music and look at slightly more alternative and unique music. The bottom left magazine, "Rolling Stone" is American. Amber Rubarth's album could be promoted in Rolling Stone as well, for it is a highly prestigious entertainment magazine that is read and sold all over the world.

Here are the following links for the websites of these magazines.

www.nme.com

www.qthemusic.com

www.mojo4music.com

www.rollingstone.com

Font Collage

I have created a set which shows a variety of different fonts that I may use for my digipak. I will be printing this out and getting feedback from people who listen to similar types of music.

Having asked people about the fonts, and which they think will suit the musician most appropriately after listening to the song.

Most people agreed that the font next to the tree is simplistic but suitable for the genre as it is light and not too bold or harsh to the eyes. Others also liked the blue font because it is slightly different and quite quirky. The same was said about the font at the top in yellow/orange but however, it was commented that it would be advisable the colour of the font should be changed.
I think this is useful feedback, because I am receiving opinion from people who listen to similar music and they would know exactly what appeals to them within their preferred genre,... in this case, indie/acoustic/folk.

Exploration of Similar Genres: Folk & Acoustic

I did a little bit of research into Amber Rubarth's musical influences, and there is certainly a number of artists that come up.

Amber Rubarth's music mostly consists of folk and acoustic tunes, and her influences consist of:

• Tom Waits
• Kings of Leon
• Norah Jones
• Cold War Kids

Considering these artists are Amber's musical influences, it may be possible that a lot of their musical aspects are incorporated into her music. This would reflect in theme also, so I have looked at their album art.

What is a "digipak"?

A digipak is a style of DVD or CD packaging, and in this case, for CDs. Digipaks typically consist of a book-style fold, consisting of pieces, which would make up the front cover, the back cover, and two inside pieces including the CD tray.

An example of this would be...

  

I will be creating a digipak for my musician "Amber Rubarth" to promote her music.

Here is a picture of Amber Rubarth...

However, I will be changing her identity a little for this project, and using my actress Sara Da Silva....

Digipack Research

Here is a brief analysis of one of the frames from the "Pilot" music video. I have identified key features from the frame that may directly appeal to the audience. Most of the features can directly be linked back the folk genre, and the overall mise-en-scene is very "creative" and inspirational; the scrapbook, the arty wallpaper, etc.

I have a found a numerous amount of pictures on the website, "weheartit.com" that has pictures of bedrooms that people have uploaded. A lot of them are very creative, with murals on the walls and personal photographs and iconic posters.

Bedrooms

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Music video #2