Codes and conventions of music magazine front covers

• There is a colour scheme of 3/4 colours so that it is not too plain and not too busy
• The masthead is at the top of the page
• Use of buzzwords to attract the audience (E.g. plus, free, exclusive)
• An average of 5-10 coverlines which link to the gender of the audience
• Smaller images to attract the reader and also links to articles inside the magazine
• Main image can be more than one person as music magazine often have bands on the front of them
• Props are sometimes used in the main image, as they cover star can have a guitar, microphone etc.
• Banners are used to attract attention to what is being said
• Tagline is used as a magazine needs to have a tagline
• The price is always on the front cover, because the audience will want to know the price
• A plain background, so that all the attention is on the main image and not elsewhere
• The issue date of the magazine, so that the reader knows when the magazine was issued
• The band/singer, mostly a long shot for bands and mid-shot for singers on their own
• Cover star is lookign at the camera, to connect to the reader
• The body language of the cover images link to the genre of the magazine
• Mode of address links to the genre of of the magazine
• The masthead attracts a certain audience depending on the genre of the magazine
• Well known images to attract the audience
• The layout is appropriate to the genre and the audience of the magazine
• Representation of the main image links to the genre of the audience