Subsidiary Product 2 - Magazine advertisement - Analysis of codes and conventions

When a magazine advertisement is published for an album release it usually follows several conventions such as The band name and the album its advertising, part of the main album cover photo, critic reviews, distribution logo, band/artist website, and a brief introduction of what the album consists of such as hit singles.

The band/artists name and album title are usually the biggest fonts on the page as they’re advertising the band or artists album release so with this text being the biggest its catching the eye of the audience when they’re reading the magazine also sometimes they will use different text to what they have used on the actual album so its different and unique providing more eye catching advertising for their audience. Also sometimes with the font, they often use font which shows the specific genre of the music they’re advertising such as if an album has an autumn sense to it then they could possibly input falling leaves into the font which is artistic and unique. The next thing used on a magazine advertisement is the use of the album cover photo which will be put onto the advertisement however, sometimes the bands/artists don’t choose to use all of the cover they often use part of it just to show which album it is advertising. The use of the album cover instantly shows the audience whose album it is and what album it’s advertising. The album cover photo is usually the eye-catching point of the advertising as the colours and size of the photo are attractive for their audience and the photo is mainly what many people like to view and what catches their eye mostly on an advertisement or album cover. Another main convention of magazine advertisements for an album release is the use of critic reviews, bands and artists often use these around the album cover photo to give other magazines or media related companies perspectives on the album. This is a great addition to an advertisement because it tells the audience what to expect from the album and whether or not it’s good enough to purchase. Even though this is somebody else’s view on the album it can still be a huge impact on the audience mainly because everybody likes to hear if the album is worth listening to or not. Critic reviews are usually in a bold and attractive coloured font because it has to be eye catching for their audience as it’s a main part of the advertising because the critic reviews are selling the album because the reviews are always good ones on the advertisements. Another convention used is distribution logos these are always relatively small as they aren’t very important however, they’re still used to show who is distributing the album and this can allow the audience to possibly view this record labels website and look for other bands and artists who are signed to the label. The use of the band or artists website is good because it allows anybody with an internet connection to easily look up the band or artist on their website and find news about them for possibly upcoming tours or just information about a latest single or even the album which is being advertised in the magazine. The text for the website is often always small because its not really important however, its still easily noticed and readable for the audience. Finally a brief introduction to what songs and on the album is very important to the audience because it shows them what to expect on the album and how many songs will be on it. The main positive of this is that if the audience have listened to a song of the band or artist and then not known if it will be on their album then this advertisement will let them know.

Overall the use of these conventions help to make the advertisement attractive to the audience and provides the most important information to help the audience choose whether to purchase the album or not.