Reflection Point : What Have I Learned About Independent Music Magazine Front Covers?

 In all of the independant magazine covers I looked at ('RnR' and 'The Wire') the masthead remained stationary at the top of the page. This allows for the magazines to remain recognisable for a continual audience especially when they are in shops competing with many other magazines on shelves. However, 'The Wire' changes the colour of their masthead depending on the edition, whereas 'RnR' keeps it the same, this is just a house style of both magazines but it's important to see the different options for the masthead of an independant magazine. The mastheads of the two magazines also maintain the same sans-serif font which allows them to be bold and stand out in a storefront against the many other competitors. They also use anchorage between their main coverline and their main image which helps to familarise an audience with these understanding of these and upcoming artists who they may be unaware of. This allows for the magazine to carefully craft the main image and main coverline in order to suggest a certain message or idea about the artists to the audience. 

Furthermore, to make their magazines more recognisable and distinct to audiences, both magazines maintain features of their front cover throughout editions. 'RnR' has the list of reviewed artist alongside the right side of their cover, while the wire keeps its coverlines in one of the corners of the page so they are easily identifiable for a consumer who wants to find out more about the specific edition. This allows them to become more recognisable for a continued audience but also to engage perspective readers through the consistency that they can come to expect from the magazine.

As expected from independant magazines, both 'The Wire' and 'RnR' make reference to the other media products that they produce on their front cover. Although these are more clear on 'RnR' with the use of puffs and text in the recency optical area to catch an audience's attention, this can also be found on the covers of 'The Wire'. This is essential for independant magazines as a lot of the time the sales aren't enough to sustain their production and so they look into other methods in order to entice consumers and also to promote their brand which both magazines do by providing playlists of music for their audiences.