Generally, don't do it. Black and white shots are associated with old shots of the band or artist. Unless your main feature is about an old band and you're using photos from many years ago, colour photos are used. The majority of the time features are about recent bands and the shoots are done especially for that feature.
What advice can you give when making a front cover of a music magazine?
Think about the front cover as an advert; it is what sells the magazine in the end as it is what the audience sees first. The headline on the cover is what you as a magazine want to say, and the photo sells the magazine. Frame the photo on the cover with text but don't clutter it. As for the logo, I'd keep it simple, but bold. Stick to simple and classic fonts on the cover and for your logo but use the fancy fonts inside the magazine. Also, don't cover up too much of the logo on the first issue; until you become a more well known magazine and people begin to recognise your magazine you can cover it. In your first few issues, no-one is going to know who you are if you cover up too much of the logo. Another thing you can do when you become more known is change the colours around to make it more interesting and stand out. At NME we have a logo which is known for being red and white but recently we have started to change to colours around a bit to make it more exciting.
What would you say about the photos on the cover?
A good tip for photos on the cover is to have one where the artist or band are making eye contact with the camera. It creates contact with the audience and draws them in to buy the magazine. Another tip is we usually make the artists' head quite big which also draws in the reader.
What else should be included on the cover apart from the obvious things like a logo, headline and photo?
There are other big stories other than the main story obviously, and these sell the magazine a lot too, so we often put them at the top of the magazine. By putting them at the top of the magazine, people are more likely to see it because you usually look at something from top to bottom. It's also good to have things that will attract the reader to buy the magazine like posters or perhaps a competition or two. We don't tend to give out free posters because our target audience aren't the kind of people who want them, whereas magazines like Kerrang! give out posters every week as their audience like and want that sort of thing. It all depends on your target audience. However, if we do have posters there is usually only one or two and they are more tasteful.
What would you say about the photos inside the magazine, like the ones for the main story?
Think of what you are trying to say. When shooting artists and bands at photo shoots, you must have a concept before you start. You can't just go in there and be like "Right, I've got this idea, and that idea but I'm not sure they're going to work". You have to go in prepared and also make sure the artist or band know what they are going to do and are fine with it. For example with the concept, we recently featured Noel Gallagher and we wanted to say how he was under the spotlight and in the media, we didn't want to write negatively about him so we made it positive. He was under the spotlight that week, and to show that we photographed him as if he was under an actual spotlight. this created a circular illusion in the photo so to make the writing part of the article look more interesting we put it in a circle rather than the usual, 'boring' columns. We didn't use many props for that shoot, it was all an idea and a concept we put together.
What if you don't have the money for things like props?
If you have no money for props for interesting shoots, think about the colours and the clothes they're wearing. Shooting on brighter colours makes the artist or band stand out. Never shoot on black. Black is boring and it hardly ever works in the photo shoot. You don't always need props, make them wear interesting and colourful clothes to express them and your concept rather than throwing in random objects.
What should be included in the feature article?
Music magazines aren't like newspapers. The audience don't like block text, they aren't the kind of people who just want to read and read. To make it more interesting and to break it up, use entry points in new paragraphs. They break up the blocks of text and draw in the reader making them want to read it. Making the entry points a different colour also helps with this. Always put in box outs and quotes if you can. They break up the text and inform the reader what the article is about and make them want to read it. Use different fonts and sizes of fonts for these to make it more interesting for the reader. Think of the box out as a mini feature. It can be about anything about the band/artist to make it more exciting or it can link to the story. Always keep colours consistent. If you use red and black on the cover for the main feature, use those same colours for the article inside the magazine for the fonts and box outs, etc. It's good to have the same theme from the front cover through to the article. For the headline placement, we always put it either on the page where the image is or on top of the article. When choosing what photos to use, don't go for the best looking ones. You may have a few really brilliant ones but they say nothing about your concept. Go with the ones that relate to your concept. They may not look the best out of the few hundred you may have taken, but they will look better when all of it is put together.
From this interview I have learnt a lot of things that I did not know and it will help me when making my own magazine. I will make sure I use a box out, quotes and drop caps as they will interest the reader and make them want to read the article. I will make the person on the front cover have eye contact with the audience as this will draw the reader in.
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