Cover Convention Comparisons

The three images are cover pages all from different magazines, however they all carry similar music magazine conventions. The first that I noticed was the fact that all the masthead titles were placed behind the models head. This is common for music magazines and a convention I am thinking of using on my magazine. The first two magazines both have the act on their cover photo's headline across the front of the image however the third image has the act headline in the first third of the magazine. All three covers have coverlines in the first third of the page, yet one and three do have small coverlines/teasers in the last third, these are an example of other common conventions of magazines yet they are not always used. The billboard and source magazines both have a barcode in the same place in the first third of the magazine, never the less the essence magazine doesnt. This is possibly to show it is free as a barcode clearly shows the audience they would have to pay for something. Other things are featured individualy such as QR codes and splashes.

These three contents pages are very different. They all include images and columns of text for the page content and information however in very different ways. A nice feature that billboard include is the chart column, this shows the readers exactly where songs and albums are in the charts at this moment. This would appeal to readers within my genre i have chosen because the genre is based solely around the charts. Aswell as that they have an online and events column which has information on gig and tours and the headlines that are online to do with that genre. Kerrang is the next magazine and just as Billboard do, they have the title 'Contents' in large writing to show the reader what they are reading. Kerrang has several images, slightly more than billboard. They also feature a contents list but the images also feature information on the image and what page that particular story is on. Spin magazine has a very different layout. The contents page has a full image on the page with the writing onto of it within the left third. This consists of a few main titles with numbers for the pages and then a paragraph about the story. The three magazines together all hold one thing in common and that is the use of page numbers. None of the magazines put page near the numbers but just highlight them or write them in bold. This is a common convention of music magazines.