Audience Research

Generic Audience Research 

Target Audience: A primarily 16-25 year-old middle market aspirational audience                        

Within the target audience age range, the exposure to technology has increased meaning that they are the first generation to be fully bought up with the technology we know to day. With the ever-changing technology and trends, artists and producers have to keep up with these changes and continue to adapt in order to appeal to the audience.  

This particular age group is known as 'gen z' and as stated above, they are the fist generation to be fully bought up surrounded by technology, social media and immediate internet access. This means that a strong online brand identity and presence is vital when appealing to this demographic. 'Trends' tend to appeal to them and encourage them to engage with topics that interest them and those around them. Due to the social, economic and political issues that they tend to be aware of due to the immediate access to news, gossip music and more, they tend to lean to a more political viewpoint compared to previous generations. They are socially aware of the latest news and stories and are therefore more generally accepting and tolerant of others.  

One of the main ways to reach the specific target demographic is via social media. With the fast-pace increase of popularity of social media platforms as well as the fast-pace generic style, the social media industry has had to develop and adapt to the ways people use their platforms. These platforms also have a large impact on the way people and brands present themselves.

According to a study done in December 2020 by 'Whizz Market', they concluded the most popular and current social media platforms that are most appealing to the 16-24 year old demographic.

The platforms ranked as followed: 

• 82% Youtube 
• 80% Facebook
• 79% WatsApp
• 76% Instagram
• 57% Snapchat 
• 44% Twitter

However, since the results were recorded, apps such as TikTok have gradually become more and more popular amongst the target demographic. With the ability to record and view videos ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes, enables a wide range of content and variety within the app. TikTok was created in 2016 by ByteDance but in 2017, took over the rights to Musical.ly and thus began the continuous growth and development of the app. In 2020, it was the third fasted growing brand and was recorded as the most popular app of 2021. The app allows advertising, publicising, sharing, discovering and most importantly, enables users to express themselves, their interests, ideologies and views. 

In regards to music artists, they often post short snippets or parts of their songs or music videos on the app which increases and develops their audience in a way that was not possible before the popularity of the app. 

In general, around 90% of the target audience use at least one social media platform. The fast-pace and immediate access allows constant updates, notifications and alerts to the latest popular and niche content that the audience might be interested in. These ideas play a key role when linking to the 'aspirer psychometric'. 

Focus Group - Primary Research

  

    Name: William Witts

    Age:17 

    Identify as: Male

    Occupation: Student

    Location: Leigh-On-Sea

    Race: White/British

    Psychographic group: Mainstreamer/Reformer/Aspirer

    Interests: Football, music, going out with friends, cycling, 

    politics, reading, Netflix 

    Favourite music genre/decade: 90s, 90s rock 'n' roll, house, Oasis,              Beach Boys, The Beatles 

    Name: Eliza Davis

    Age: 17

    Pronouns: she/her

    Occupation: Student, Waitress

    Location: Chelmsford 

    Race: White/British 

    Psychographic group: Reformer/Aspirer

    Interests: Music, watching TV and films, reading,

    fashion, vintage fashion

    Favourite music genre/decade: 70s-90s, 

    rock/alternative rock, Taylor Swift

   

    Name: Joni Rushton

    Age: 16

    Pronouns: she/her

    Occupation: Student, Waitress

    Location: Barmouth, North Wales

    Race: White/British

    Psychographic group: Aspirer/Resigned/Reformer

    Interests: Art, health, going out with friends, 

    dog walking, music, watching Netflix, dog walking

    Favourite music genre/decade: Early 2000s 

Name: Tom Palmer

Age: 23

Identify as: he/him

Occupation: Student/Tutor

Location: Leeds

Race: White/British 

Psychographic group: Reformer/Explorer

Interests: Music (listening and playing), reading, walking, politics, history 

Favourite music genre/decade: Hip-hop, neo-soul, alternative, 2000s, Everything Everything                                                                                                                                                                          

                            

Name: Ellie Palmer 

Age: 25

Pronouns: she/they

Occupation: Secretary 

Location: Southampton 

Race: White/British 

Psychographic group: Mainstreamer/Explorer 

Interests: Film, photography, fashion, art, food

Favourite music genre/decade: Indie pop, 

Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver 

Focus Group - Secondary Research 

Name: Beau Palmer

Age: 28

Identify as: Non-binary 

Occupation: Art Museum Curator

Location: Leeds

Race: White/British

Psychographic group: Aspirer

Interests: Art, history, politics

Favourite music genre/decade: 

Name: David Harry Palmer
Age: 59

Identify as: Male 

Occupation: Financial Analyst

Location: Leigh-On-Sea

Race: White/British 

Psychographic group: Reformer

Interests: Cycling, music (listening and playing), dog walking, motorcycling, reading, politics, history

Favourite music genre/decade: 70s, alternative, Bruce Springsteen, punk, emo rock 

Industrial Context - Sony and Contemporary

Sony Music Entertainment is an American multinational music company. They are the second largest record company globally and their publishing company, Sony Music Publishing, is the largest music publisher internationally. With the merging of these two companies, it enabled the creation of the Sony Music Group. 

The variety and differentiation between the genres and artists they have signed to them are vast and allow a wide audience appeal. They produce rock, pop, R&B, classical, hip-hop and more and this helps their diverse audience consumption. In a way, they arguably cater to everyone’s musical interests. Each of their artists have their own brand identity and viewpoints which they ensure to highlight in their own ways. 

When you first load up the Sony website, the current artists they are advertising and showcasing, reflect and represent a wide range of audiences and interests. They showcase a diverse and broad mix of artists and aim to promote their artists and stars in the best way possible for the brand itself. Their website has multiple conventions and keeps inform to their brand identify successfully by using their typography throughout as well as their logo in the top left hand corner. 

Typical Conventions and features of the Sony Website:

• Logo on the left hand side - reinforces their brand identity
• Links to several different pages:
• Home - the hyperlink to the homepage of the website, generic convention amongst most websites, allows a quick and accessible way back to the homepage with minimal time consumption. 
• About - has a drop down bar to either 'culture' or 'social justice fund' with an additional link to an overview of their franchise and creation when generally clicking on about, aids to reflect the views and ideologies of Sony and what is important to them, encourages further reading about them and what they can offer - useful to not only the public but to aspiring artists who one day wish to be signed to a company like Sony or Sony themselves.
• News - allows further reading to interesting and diverse articles, appeals to a wide range of audiences and broadens their interests, opens up topics of discussion and allows more research into different artists. 
• Roster - link to a list of all of their signed artists, showcases the diversity and range within their company, interests the audience and could lead onto create a form of entertainment for the audience
• Labels & Partners - shows the convergence within their franchise, a profile for each of the partners etc. with an interactive link to a Sony personalised page to information about each item. 
• Listen - has a drop-down bar to 'releases', 'playlists', or 'podcasts', which  encourages interaction and entertainment for the audience, appears to cater to the different things audiences may like to listen to. 
• Careers - has a drop down bar to 'jobs', 'internships' and 'benefits' further creating another audience/consumer for Sony. 
• For Artists - help for the artists signed to them and to those who wish to be signed to Sony
• Contact - encourages connection between brand and consumer which is becoming increasingly more important within the media society today
• Search tool - allows further personalisation of the website and allows audience to find out the information they wish to. 
• Same and consistent font throughout - helps to promote their brand identity and keep to their house style
• Consistent use of a colour scheme - helps to keep to their house style and reinforces their brand identity

A lot of the generic conventions of the Sony website align with the theory put forward by Blumler and Katz. Their theory, Uses and Gratification, outlines the premises that audiences are active when choosing and consuming the media. They believe that audiences use the media in four main different ways. Those being: Personal identity, Information, Entertainment and Social Interaction. These four ways mean and encourage different things amongst different audiences which ultimately alter and change the way each individual uses the media. 

 18.3.22 - website homepage  

                                                                                                               

When loading up the website on the 18th of March 2022, I found that the content they were showcasing was up-to-date with the recent BRITS awards. They are essentially promoting the artists that are signed to them in order to reach their target audience and ensure that the public are aware that those winning or nominated artists are signed with them, thus further extending their brand. The entirety of their homepage on the date I loaded the website up, promotes and showcases how successful they are in producing and supporting artists. 

For example, in the 2022 BRITs, Adele was the most successful award winner, winning three awards for herself and for Sony. They ensure to have a feature and a chance for further reading on her. The language on her feature, such as ‘dominates’, suggests just how successful she was at the awards ceremony. This ensures that when opening the website,  Sony are able promote an evidently successful female artist that is signed to them, thus further growing their brand and franchise. 

They also ensure to showcase the other awards and large events happening for their brand such as Jade Thirwell's new record deal, the Young Music Boss Awards and news on Bring Me The Horizon and their latest awards. 

 

30.3.22 - website homepage 

 On the 30th of March 2022, I reloaded up the website to see if Sony had updated their homepage. I found that they had updated it but ensure to keep with their brand identity and generic layout. They used the same convention of showcasing their most recent and popular artists in order to appeal to a mass audience and grow their franchise further. However, the main image on their website to change is the one on the left hand side, previously the Sony logo with a caption about themselves was replaced with notice of Harry Styles' new album. 

 

Interesting figures and facts about Sony 

• Between April 2020 and March 2021 - Sony was able to generate 1.42 billion US dollars from the publishing sector of it's brand and 4.64 billion US dollars from their recorded music sector 
• They own over five million songs in total (as of the end of March 2021)
• Sony bought the rights to all of Michael Jackson's songs

Industrial Research - History of Music Videos

• In 1894, the idea of illustrated song came about. This was the first time music was merged with a flim. Edward B.Marks and Joe Stern were hired by George Thomas to take their performance of song and syntonised it with a series of still life images. 
• It was not until the 1920s, when Musical Short Films were coming into popularity. This was the end of silent film and the movie industry began to develop. It suddenly became necessary to fit sound to moving picture and the first film to successfully do this was 'The Jazz Singer'. 
• throughout the 1930s, Warner Bros created a series of live-action short videos and it's aim was to showcase the most popular sounds of the time. They were shown in movie theatres and featured a performer playing a form of short and sweet segment of a piece of music.
• In the 1960s, music videos were deemed and understood to be a form of 'promotional video' for a band or artist. Artists used specific shot types in order to capture specific moments for the video in order to promote the artists in the best and most influential way possible. The Beatles were one of the first bands known to create a 'promotional video' during their rise to fame throughout the 1960s. 
• Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the most popular and influential videos to come from the 1970s. With the introduction of 'Progressive Rock' and 'Glam Rock', the video ensured to capture the cinematography aspects of how incredible and creative music videos were about to become. Queen used the latest technology and software in order to encapsulate the viewers into believing what a music video could look like. 
•  MTV rose to fame in the 1980s. This meant that although it was evident music videos were pre-existent to the 1980s, they really took off during the decade to come. With the ability to broadcast and show videos on TV, the artists begun to get more recognition for their creativity on top of their musical skills. It lead to an increase in profit for artists as they had their videos to help them sell their singles, songs and albums. The first video to appear on MTV was 'Video Killed The Radio Star', sung by the Buggles. However, the video that arguably took MTV and music videos that one step further is 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. The video was a 13-minute long screenplay rather than just an average music video. 
• During the 1990s, special effects grew into popularity and started to become used more and more frequently in music videos. With this, videos such as ‘Hit me Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears and ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls, the use of special effects was put to good use. 
• YouTube started to take over for publishing and showcasing music videos from MTV. With the chance to rewatch and rewind videos to one’s desires meant that people could also have access to these videos more frequently and at the click of a button. YouTube also created the possibilities of being able to share, like, subscribe and comment on music videos - encouraging fans to engage with the artists and react to how they feel the video was in general. 
• Overall, due to the development and advancements of technology, people are now able to watch and interact with videos when they wish and no longer have to wait for them to be shown on TV. Alongside this, the premises that YouTube allows free interaction and video play for not only music videos but for all other forms of entertainment means that the technology behind the way the media works will continue to grow and develop. 

Planning - Potential Songs and ideas

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1e66oZrScQpVJ5d1g4rico?si=ENJLTvjOQK6K0SPa43Ifng

Top ideas!

• Run the World - Dayglow 
• Daydream Believer - The Monkees
• Digsy's Dinner - Remastered - Oasis 
• I'm Still Standing - Elton John 
• Acquiesce - Oasis 
• Now That I've Found You - Liam Gallagher 
• Brazil - Declan Mckenna 
• Alright - Supergrass 

Run the World - Dayglow 

'Run the World' was written by Dayglow during the lockdown of 2020. The message within the lyrics that Dayglow wanted to get across was, "Quarantine sucks; I want tor run the whole freaking world." This could potentially attract the audience into wanting to listen to the song or watch the video as many people would be able to relate to the meaning behind the lyrics as 2020 lockdown was arguably a tough time for all. With the up-beat and catchy chorus, it is hard to not feel uplifted. The song 'inspires elation' for those who listen which is why I believe it could be considered as an anthem. 

Brazil - Declan McKenna 

Declan McKenna rose to fame after the official popular release of 'Brazil' in 2017, despite being self-released in 2014 through Mckenna's own YouTube channel. Brazil is believed to be a protest song that criticized FIFA after they opted to decide that the 2014 World Cup should be hosted in Brazil while not fully taking into account the economic and social situation of the country. With constant references throughout the song to the situation within Brazil. It highlights the corruption within the football community as well as the corruption around the choices of Sepp Blatter (previous FIFA secretary). I believe that it could be considered an anthem as it encapsulates the need for change and help within Brazil and could be classed as a 'celebratory symbol for a group' as it aims to make a change for those in Brazil. 

Acquiesce - Oasis 

Previously played in gigs throughout the 90s, but officially released in 1998 '  ' was one of Oasis' most popular songs amongst fans. The verses within the song are sung by Liam Gallagher whereas the chorus' are sung by brother and writer, Noel Gallagher. According to music writer and critic, Paul Du Noyer, "The song is about a friendship in the widest sense and not, as often speculated, about the Gallagher brothers themselves." The song could be considered an anthem as it brings people together and encourages community between friend, families and more. 

Alright -Supergrass

Supergrass released 'Alright' in 1995 and featured on the 'Clueless' soundtrack which helped the band and song rise to fame. It reached second place in the charts and is one of the bands most successful singles. Despite the band having other ideas in how the song should be interpreted or the genuine meaning behind it, many consider it the 'bona fide teen anthem' due to the 'upbeat lyrics and cheerful piano tune' which was inline with the zeitgeist during the 90s when Britpop was growing in popularity.  The video was directed by Dom and Nic and was filmed in Portmeirion, North Wales. The video uses intertextual references to 'The Prisoner' by using the same location. 

Within my music video, I would intend to keep with the 90s theme and 'vibe'. I aim to create a fun, up-beat and generally happy video that encourages community and fun amongst friends. I aim to follow the narrative of a young man throughout summer, while having other shots other different people 'hanging out' and having fun with friends. I will use a wide variety of mise-en-scene much like the original video but this time include international destinations as well as national ones to really follow the narrative. 

first draft of music video 

https://youtu.be/rrxrJtcwL1U