Before beginning my magazine i asked people from my potential target audience some questions in relation to the way my magazine would appear. I asked them questions such as what would be the most suitable name for the magazine (out of a selection), would you want a male, female or mixed artist/artists on the front cover, how many people would you want to appear on the front cover (single or group), any special features, e.g freebies, posters or competitions. I asked the questions, filmed the responses and i have finally edited the video and I will be uploading it onto my blog soon, I used all the feedback in my work previously. 
I created my first attempt of my music magazine, the cover, contents and double page spread. I collected feedback off my peers, this was useful in giving me more ideas and where I could improve. Also because my peers are mainly part of my target audience therefore the feedback I received was very useful. My initial cover, contents and double page spread wasnt particularly impressive as it took me quite a while to develop my skills using the Adobe software, so I knew I would have to really up my work after the initial deadline.
Once all my photos have been edited and tweeked into professional looking snaps I have began to work on InDesign. I used the programme for my preliminary task of a school magazine, on my first attempt my skills were very basic and my school magazine didnt look very professional! Now I have found how to add new fonts and to add different box options, banners and windows. 

development

I've been developing my skills on Photoshop through practice and more practice! Since my school magazine my skills have came on massively, I've found where lots of buttons and short cuts are, this allows me to edit my photos to look better quality and more professional. This is important for the quality of my final magazine.
Q History
I researched into my style model, Q magazine to get some background information on the magazine. The Q is a British music magazine first published in October 1986. Initially the magazine was called Cue, but was changed to Q after being mixed up for a snooker magazine.
The founders of Q felt the older generations were being ignored by music magazine, so targeted their magazine at 25+ (However my target audience is slightly younger).
The magazine has a mass audience, but could be described at niche as it only appeals to music fans.
The magazine is distributed by different companies depending on the country. In the Uk it is distributed by Source IPD and Speedimpex
After taking two selections of photos, I used Photoshop to edit the photos I liked the most, which were most suitable and good quality to be used in my magazine. Here are some examples...











I had a second photo shoot, the images I took will be used for my front cover, as well as a small one for my contents page...

















All the photos had a slightly different angle or position. The main idea behind all the photos was to emphasize the plug of the headphones as the introduction to the artist on the cover will be 'Plug into... ROBO'
Here is a sample of some of the photos I took yesterday during my shoot with Lizzy James...








"  All the photos have very different moods and positions. I had some 'fun' photos, as in one of my style models from Q I'd seen similar photos on a double page spread interview similar to what I plan to do. Other photos such as the heart with the fingers reflect the article, how it discusses her love life with Jame Arthur in relation to her music career and there are some more iconic 'possey' photo shoot style photos.  "
Today I took my initial photos for my magazine. Mainly for my double page spread, but I may consider using one of the photos for my front cover 
Style model:
               the style model I used for my music magazine is Q. Q is a mainstream music magazine, it is well recognized and works well for the genre of target audience I have. By using Q as a style model I will keep referring to pages in their magazines similar to what I am doing, such as the Contents pages, to get an influence on my own work. I will consider the Q colour schemes, photo composition, fonts and layouts.