Conventions of a Music Advertisement

•Release date
•Image to represent the band/artist/photographs/graphics
•Album name and information
•Record label
•Website
•Reviews or ratings
•Same image as album cover- synergy
•Record labels logo
•Tracks featured
•Slogan/tagline
•Quotes from newspapers
•Product content
•Magazine reviews/endorsements-smash hits
•Tour dates
•Outlets in which available e.g. HMV, Amazon
•Limited edition
•"Out now"/"debut album"
•Offers free download

Album Advertisement

When a new album is advertised in a magazine, there are always certain conventions which are included in order to make it recognisable to the readers of the magazine and so they know it's an advertisement for a new album. Here is a brief list as to whats usually included:

- Most magazine adverts for new albums nearly all the time have some form of review on them. Wether this be "*****" or a comment such as "this album is simply unmissable". By doing this it makes the reader of the magazine more influenced into buying it.

- The release date of an album is one of the most vital pieces of information that needs to be included on a magazine advert. By including the release date the readers will then know when the album is available to buy and this will then enable the artist to then make as many sales as possible.

- The Advertisement itself usually features a similar image of the artist/band from the actual album cover itself, this way the listener of the music can relate to the image on the poster and when buying the actual album.

-Any extras that aren't essential but sometimes occur are things such as the album record label, possible tour dates and also a web address/my space of the band/artist too.

- There will definitely be a description of some sort as to where you can buy the album from - this could either be an online website or a music store such as HMV.

-some albums have added extras such as a "slogan" that's fits in with the overall theme of their album.

- Finally some have exclusive offers/downloads which can be made available to the buyer of the album.

After researching this, there is a lot more that can be included on an advertisement for an album than I thought and I will be taking these points into great consideration when it comes to designing my own one.

Album Cover Research

SUGAR MAGAZINE



This is an album cover of Pixie Lott on a magazine aimed at 11-12 year old/ or "young teens". I chose this as one of my advertisements to analyse the difference in each magazine about the same artist and how each magazine represents Pixie.

As the magazine "Sugar" is aimed at "young teens" it portrays Pixie Lott as an innocent young female, smiling at the camera in a sweet way. She has reasonable clothes on - not too raunchy or sexy, perfect for what young girls aspire to wear as they grow older.

The colour of the fonts (blue and green) go well with the tones of Pixie's dress and hair colour. Nothing in this picture seems promiscuous, inviting or flirty, which is what Sugar aims for.


FHM MAGAZINE


This advertisement is for FHM magazine, full of music and for the "older viewers" Its a picture of Pixie Lott with a satin bra, hot pants, and dark black eye makeup seems a much more "adult" look. She is standing in front of an amp which suggests the magazine and Pixie are all about the music.

From an adults perspective on music, this picture seems normal, as most artists wear skimpy clothes in their music video's to show off their physic. FHM is prodominately aimed at men, and so the look of the blonde bombshell on the front cover wearing nothing will attract the readers well and also sell well!

However, it seems, the look for Pixie and her target audience seems to be changing from the sweet innocent girl, growing up to the sexy blonde!

Depending on the target audience of the band/artist really depends on what "look" the artist is going for.

COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE



Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at young/middle ages woman with lots of fashion icons and tips inside. Pixie's image on this front cover seems to be going back to the innocent young girl but with a more experience. She is dressed in a plain blue dress grinning at the camera.

This look seems a lot more suitable for the audience and fans Pixie Lott has. The comment on is the "dress sexy" text over the top of her picture, gives off the impression that is what she is trying to do/ doing, proving perhaps Pixie Lott's young teenager image is wearing off, and she is trying to become more of an adult performer? Something I will need to look in to/ decide more about my album advertisements.

Fonts

Sophie and I are currently in the media room discussing different fonts to use for our digi-packs as well as possibly having 'Pixie Mix' at the opening of our song..

We googled Pixie Lotts actual font on her album cover but no luck, so we typed in 'scribble font and crayon font' and found a few to download. They're not the exact same as the original Pixie Lott, but nethertheless they look really good!

Unfortunatly 'blogger' will not let us upload these fonts onto a post!

album cover/ Digi Pack

ALBUM COVERS/ DIGI PACK
A Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging.
Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. Although less vulnerable to cracking than a jewel case, the disc tray inside the package (particularly the "teeth" of the hub which secure the disc in place) remains rather brittle and is prone to cracking if the package is crushed. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s.

AGI has recently introduced a new product called digipak i-create for the consumer market. Digipak i-create is a web-supported concept that is aimed at the download, music, photo and creative markets.

I was inspired for my album cover's by walking through London once on a busy day. I saw at lunchtime all the busy workers leaving work for lunch walking over the Millenium Bridge in London and it made me picture the artist standing in the middle of the bridge with St Pauls Cathedral in the background looking at the caera as images moving are all around her. The images around her would probably be blurred to show the busyness of London and possibly of her life and the album.




Another possibility would be to have the artist standing in an iconic old traditional telephone box staring at the camera. There are still some left in Covent Garden, London which always interests me as they are very picturesque and eye catching. The artist could be standing in the middle box with the remaining four telephone boxes identically beside her.




Ofcourse there is the option to have a close up of the artists face, or have her on a photo shoot, quite like Pixie Lott and other pop artist do, although I want to be unique and more urban with my choice of locations, and so the ones I have already mentioned seem like a good idea.