Conventions of a Music Magazine Front Cover

Left Third - The left third of the magazine cover is vital for sales in shops where the magazine is not shown full-frontage. It is the left hand side where the top headlines are printed.
Masthead - The magazine's title. Usually displayed in the top left corner.
Barcode - Read Electronically and decoded into usable information.
Splash - The whole magazine cover itself.
Skyline - A line of text above the Masthead.
Graphology and Graphics - Graphics on a certain text and or graphical shapes to highlight feature (s).
Colour Scheme and Colour - Specific/stylistic/thematic types.
Kicker - Is something that kicks you to a certain direction or page.
Teller - Subtitle that tells a reader what the advert is about.
Screamers - Text that 'screams' out to a reader.
Flash - A star or circle that draws a readers attention.
Cover Lines - Are distributed around the main image without detracting from it too much. A mistake often made with cover lines is that they run over an image that has a lot of colour changes, rendering the words invisible.
Sell Lines - Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point.
Dateline - Month and year of publication, often with the price. Also weekly. Usually from Saturday to Friday and monthly is usually a month ahead.
Images - Size: CU to med CU. Ranges from one main image to x amount featuring one main image and smaller images. Helps make the page look more interesting. It can add understanding of a story and/or entice someone to read the magazine.
Price - The cost of the magazine.
Issue Number - A tally of magazines.
Teaser - One word or phrase acts as an attention grabber.
Main Feature: Headline - A phrase that may summarise the main point of the main feature. In large print, different style, bold colours in order to catch the attention of the reader.
Subtitle - Smaller headline that may summarise the feature.
Smaller Feature - Features included in the magazine.
Font - Style and size of type face.
Offers/adverts Blurb - Banner-style shape featuring free products/promotions.
Anchorage - The description and text underneath a picture stating the meaning of the picture.
Vocabulary - The words that are used.
Credit - The writing that says who wrote the article.