Research into Magazine Adverts for Digipaks, Albums and Singles

I have researched some music magazine adverts, advertising a new album/single for a particular artist. I have analysed some convensions of these adverts and there are a few things I plan to follow in order to make my product professional and appealing.
This is the first image I found. The artist 'Jessie J' is quite disimilar to the artist I am using for my music video. But I think in terms of target audience they are quite a like. Like Marina and the Diamonds, I think Jessie J is an artist that is able to a wide audience in terms of age and lifestyle, but may be slightly more appealing to females rather then males. On the other hand, this advert does carry some less convensional features and the main one being that is doesn't tell the audience where the album is avaliable from. The other adverts below a show that the product is avaliable from places such as hmv.com or play.com. There is also use of the company logo so the audience are able to identify the website and find some familiarity with it. Although there are some features that are less convensional on this advert, there are some other parts which are very common amongst adverts.
These are:
- there is always an 'image' on the advert, whether this be a photograph of the artist
- the advert seems to carry a particular colour scheme
- there is usually reference to the record label the artist is signed to
- the audience are told were the product is avaliable from
- there is a release date
- some of the most famous tracks are advertised
- the advert takes into account any awards the product has got (eg. #1 album)
- the image on the advert is usually the same as the one that is on the front of the CD

 Every artist has thier own genre and the genre of the music is often represented in the adverts and CD packaging. In this case, the artist 'Kings of Leon' have been put under the genres of southern rock alternative rock and garage rock. I think this advert for the bands new album definatly shows the genre of their music. The first thing I noticed was that the advert looked very 'digital'. I think this can represent the intruments used in the band (eg electric guitars). However I think that the main image does look quite 'old fashioned' by the way its edited. This in my opinion could represent the southern and garage part of the genre. Also the idea that the eagle has been edited into the image of the band members could again represent the southern roots. The use of contrasting block colours to make key information stand out, such as the album name and the 'OUT NOW'. Unlike other adverts, this doesn't seem to follow a colour scheme particularly. I does use the 3 primary colours which could show the band isn't artificial and their music is 'real' and 'raw'.


I think that, like I have mentioned, every artist has a genre and genres can massively vary, but they all seem to carry the same convensions. However, I think that without these convensions the adverts produced could be possibly unsuccessful.  By this I mean, I think the audience needs to be provided with key information about the new product; for example, when the CD is released, the name of the band, an image etc...

I have decided to analyse this advert because I wasn't too keen on it and I want to look a bit deeper into it so I can see what convensions this one follows. Firstly I noticed the font used isn't particularly clear and this combind with the colour used is nearly unreadable. Although, I think the chosen colour is used in order to follow the colour scheme and the colous from photgraph. This advert shows the image twice which I think is unnessacry. I think were they 'TARGET' logo has been put looks very out of place and messy. This advert was created after the album was released, I know this because it days 'album in stores now' at the bottom of the page. However this again was a very small and unreadable font and made me question whether this was done deliberatly, prehaps to make people think the album is brand new and up to date; but this advert could of been made a while after the CD was released. This could of been due to poor sales or it being unsuccessful. Overall I think the image doesn't present the artist in a posative way. The props used in the photo are of a royal theme and this could represent the artist in a way that is 'princessy' and 'over the top'. Also, her facial expression looks quite vacant and unimpressed.

After studying this advert, I am going to take great care in assuring my advert is clear and the right information is presented well. I would like it to be bold and eye catching and tell the audience that the album is out now. I want to use one image, similar to the Jessie J and Kings of Leon magazine advert.