Target Audience Research

Whilst planning my music video, it is vital that I understand my target audience, so I am able to know how best to appeal to them. I will research the original artists' target audience, then contrast this with contemporary/ classical artists who my style of digipack and video will be similar to, to asses who will be my target audience. I will compile this research into questionnaires and data to help me better process the likes and dislikes of my audience.

Ludovico Einaudi's target audience is difficult to define, although his age and the classical influences of his music may suggest an older audience, the reality is that his music is appreciated by people of all ages and situations. An article from The Sydney Morning Herald, written by Kathy Evans explores how Einaudi's target audience has changed. The nature of Einaudi's music and contemporary influences, the mix of genres that he uses from pop to blues means that he is more accessible to a younger generation.  

Within the article, the journalist notes Einaudi's love of combining classical music with more modern genres, his love of 'Coldplay' is noted and his own classic look of all black clothing and glasses which are his trademark. The article is interesting and has shown me that Einaudi's music will most likely attract a range of people, therefore I am interested to see the results of my own questionnaire. The link for the full article is below,

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/crossover-king-finds-a-new-audience-for-his-classical-music-20140202-31uvr.html

Consumer information surrounding classical music

When conducting my target research I felt that it was important to discover how consumers relate to classical music as this will be vital to the reception of my music video. I have referenced below a study that I found online conducted by the 'John S and James. L. Knight' foundation and a collaboration of American Orchestras. Despite the fact that the study is specifically regarding American audiences, I believe that there is still valuable and relevant information to be taken from this. 

Please follow the link below and scroll to page(s) 41 and 42 to find the information that I looked at and processed. 

http://cuttime.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2002_classical_music_consumer_report.pdf    - scroll to page 41/ 42

I believe that the key information of the study regarding the relationships between the audience and classical music, can be summarised in the following quote; "Overall, consumers have highly personal, complex and multi-dimensional
relationships with classical music. For some people — those most involved with the
art form — classical music plays out like a sound track to their lives." This quote has shown me that classical music can connect with the audience, and I therefore feel that the cross generational theme of my video, and narrative storyline will adhere to this and should hopefully make an interesting and emotionally evocative music video.

My Research - The Questionnaire

As part of my research into my target audience, I have created a questionnaire designed to ascertain what likes and dislikes my audience have. I have asked a range of questions to determine my audience, such as age and gender, as well as questions about my song's genre, the audience's preference for music videos in regards to content and mise-en-scene. The most crucial question for me is whether or not my audience is willing to embrace different genres than perhaps what they might usually choose to listen to, and be open to a "classical music piece set to a more modern/ contemporary music video".  

Having created my questionnaire, I will now conduct the research and process the results within my next post.