Mixmag case study

Mixmag is a British electronic dance and club magazine (the first ever dance music magazine to be made and released) which was founded in 1983; the first ever issue was released on February 1st 1983. Mixmag is published in London – England – by Development Hell LTD and they address their selves as “the worlds dance music and clubbing destination” because they cover dance events and music/club night reviews in their magazine each month.

Over the 30 prior years, from 1983, Mixmag has undergone multiple of changes (of development). The company that founded Mixmag was DMC (Disco Mix Club) and the editor was Tony Prince, who created the first ever 16-page black-and-white magazine publication; the first ever advertiser was a company called Technics Panasonic. However, DJ Dave Seaman, who became the editor of Mixmag after Tony, decided to expand the magazine into covering all dance music and club culture – rather than just news for DJs - when house music began; the magazine covered acid house, rave era, rise of superstar DJs and so on, and due to the popularity of Acid House, the magazine reached a circulation of 70,000 copies.

Conversely, in the mid 1990s Mixmag was sold to EMAP Ltd. (Emap International Limited) and then bought by Development Hell in 2005. The current editor (in 2005), Andrew Harrison, wasn’t necessarily content with the design of the magazine since the previous staff had fixed the magazine strongly around the younger generation who were supposedly hardcore clubbers and he (Andrew) thought that was the wrong way to go about the magazine. Subsequently, he restored the magazine to address the entire world of dance music, rather than just the youth. Nick DeCosemo became editor of Mixmag in 2007.

Within May 2013, Mixmag publicized a strategic partnership with Skiddle (primary ticket outlet); Skiddle distributing a ticket sales and event listing solution to the Mixmag website and Mixmag providing Skiddle with extra event listings.

Additionally, the re-launched magazine now features a fashion section which accordingly has improved production values.

Mixmag uses a lot of technology and processes enabled to encourage more interest in their magazine. They publish their magazines manually and sell them in shops; such as WHSmirths, they use websites such as Issuu to publish their work, they’ve created apps for all Apple or Android products to facilitate consumers with their latest releases, they have a YouTube account to give brands their expertise, they have their own website to keep fans up to date with what’s new and so on. So as you can see, Mixmag uses a lot of digital procedures in aim of getting more publicized.

Mixmag is mainly bought by males (72% of production values are male whilst females are only 28%) who are averagely 24 years of age (median age). They appeal to their demographic audience by usually including images of elegant looking women which evidently appeals to the majority of males. They mainly use dark colours within their magazine and produce their whole magazine on a relatively large scale of masculinity but they still incorporate features which appeal to females; i.e. fashion articles, mastheads with a feminine colour, etc...

Their fan base, they believe, have a high disposable income that spend their money on clothes, music and nights out. Consequently, by having an expensive cost price for their magazine (in comparison to other music magazines) and including articles on clothing and clubs, they appeal to their audience.

In view of the fact that their common readers are supposedly clubbers, they use artists/DJs that do DJ/Clubbing events as features in their magazine which, as a result, definitely specifies to their consumers clearly and therefore attracts their audience.

Mixmag also believe that their readers are always up to date in the latest music releases and fashion trends so they contribute to their consumer’s interests by means of releasing an issue each month which include articles on tips, news, trends, etc...

This entices their audience because they’re giving the reader more information on what they’re interested in.

Mixmag mainly advertises music and fashion related stuff, i.e. headphones by crossfade and clothing by a variety of different shops, that all link to dance music. They also sometimes advertise alcohol, such as Agwa De Bolivia. They obviously advertise events that are coming up but other than that, they don’t really advertise that much stuff.

HOUSE STYLE A house style of a magazine is a specific look/layout used to attract their audience and to familiarize their audience with this magazine.

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Mixmag’s cover page is commonly Studio Imagery •

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Block typeface writing with a funky spin on it

Their magazine is usually based around one colour with different tones within the text and graphical elements.

The feature article, on the front cover, is usually brightly coloured to stand out and attract the eye of the reader.

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Masthead on the cover page takes up ¼ of the page at the top of the page •

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Very distinct layout

Cover image is commonly a medium close up

Mixmag often uses different weights of text to attract the target audience to read the pages in a particular order Subtle and Vibrancy of colours are usually placed next to each other to capture the reader’s attention, i.e. with the purple and white on the image below.

Block typeface writing with a funky spin on it

Studio Imagery Colour scheme is primarily purples and whites - based around one colour with different tones within the text and graphical elements

Medium Close up/long shot.

Distinct but concise layout