Example Music Magazine Front Covers:

Here is an example Magazine front cover from 'Classic Rock'. As shown by the dominating centre image, the concept of selling the artist is crucial for the front cover of any music magazine.

This particular front cover has very little colour to it, this could be to connote the feeling of the artist as aged and much before the time of the present.
It could also be a stylistic choice, to draw attention to the text in lime green "Ban the booking fee" in the top right. or "Plus" in the bottom left.

There is not a great deal of space left on the front page, but that does not mean that the page feels cluttered  Keeping a single image stops the page looking crowded and poorly done.

Except for shoulder level, every inch of usable space is crammed with features. This may be something I would have to try to copy, to make as much use of limited space as possible.

'Classic Rock' is a medium between the much more cluttered 'Kerrang' and more minimalist 'Metal Hammer'

Here Kerrang pushes the notion of using free space to the limit. Rather than using text to cram the space, Kerrang uses lot's of smaller images.
This magazine is a lower price than Classic Rock or Metal Hammer, has a different target market and is of a lower quality than it's competitors.

What is clear, is that yet again there is the need to sell the artist. A medium or close up shot of a singer or band being expected for the front cover. Although the page is cluttered, the artist's face is unobscured.

In terms of colour, the page comes across as much less professional than 'Classic Rock' except for the Iron Maiden caricature in the bottom left or the images of Dave Grohl it could be said that the magazine keeps to more autumnal colours.

This particular Metal Hammer serves as the final example of the Music Magazine front page. It is a very simple choice, of only magazine name, image and band name.

The content of the image, although focused on the guitarist, extends to most of the page which would make a style like either of the previous inaccessible as it would obscure the main image. Because of this, there are no features expressed on the body of the page because there is in effect no free space.

The title 'Metal Hammer' is obscured by the image itself. Metal being almost tagged onto the edge of 'Hammer.' Although a letter is obscured, the audience still recognizes the name of the magazine. This technique is almost self-promoting in that it implies the magazine knows it is famous enough to obscure a letter and still be legible. Magazines do not take this to extremes and obscure most of their magazine name however, as the name and font of the magazine is one of the iconic symbols that readers expect to see.