Audience Research Survey - Results & Conclusions.

A2 Media Coursework Survey
Results and Conclusions

As a part of our research, we thought it was key to create an audience survey, to gain a further insight into not just the importance of music videos, but music itself. We asked fourteen people, using random sampling, of both sexes and varying in age, sixteen questions; a mixture of open and closed, thus giving us both quantitative and qualitative data to conclude with. Here is a breakdown of the questions, the conclusions we have drawn and how these will benefit us later in the planning and production process.

Question one: How often do you listen to music?
Thirteen out of fourteen people asked, replied to the multi option choice of ‘Every day’ with only one person answering ‘Once or twice a month’. These answers along with no one choosing ‘Rarely’ or ‘Never’ conveys the importance of music in everyday life to the large majority of people.

Question two: What type of music do you mainly listen to?
The most commonly occurring genres are; ‘Rock’, ‘Pop’, ‘Indie’, ‘Hiphop/RnB’ and ‘Acoustic’. We have already started considered Indie and Acoustic in the production of our video, but the contrast in these genres highlights the variety in people’s interests. Therefore when later planning and filming, we can look at the other genres in more detail to look for unique inspiration, otherwise not stereotypically used to create a much more different, breakthrough video.

Question three: Do you read any music magazines?
After collating the results, three magazines occurred the most;
NME, a leading magazine in the genre of Indie.
Kerrang, a leading magazine in the genre of Metal.
Sound on Sound; a music recording magazine.
From this, our main target would be the audience of NME with our Indie Acoustic artist appealing well to their readers. Therefore when later looking into our ancillary tasks, we will research in more detail the audience of this particular music magazine.

Question four: Where do you mainly listen to your music?
Online: 22%
MP3 Player: 50%
Music Channels: 14%
Radio: 7%
CDs/Vinyls: 7%
Concluding from this, the majority of people use their MP3 players to listen to their music, howerver on more modern electronics such as the Apple iPhone, it is now much easier to access the web and search for music videos online, on the go.

Question five: How do you access your music?
Download: 43%
Buy: 36%
Spotify: 21%
The majority of those asked told us their main way of accessing music was through download, a much more modern technique but nevertheless, very successful. It has been used by bands such as Radiohead and could be used later when looking at our ancillary tasks.

Question six: Do you enjoy watching music videos? If yes, how often?
93% of those asked said yes, they did enjoy watching music videos, 50% said everyday and 36% said so many times a week. This highlights just how important music videos are to the industry and how commonly watched they are. Therefore, when planning and producing our own, we will aim to make it not only outstanding, but one that challenges the normal conventions in order to create a unique stance for our genre.

Question seven: What is it you prefer about music videos?
The large majority of those asked prefer the music video to be mainly focused on the artist and live performance, whilst still featuring a small area of narrative. This preference was particularly highlighted in fans of the Indie genre. Therefore, when looking at our target audience and what we need to include, we shall focus on the essence of live performance.

Question eight: How do you discover new releases?
TV: 21%
Music Magazines: 22%
Radio: 7%
Internet: 36%
Word of Mouth: 14%
This research conveys music is mostly found over the internet, possibly through sites such as www.myspace.com or www.youtube.com. Although this is the more common choice, music magazines and television are also quite popular, whether it be articles in magazines or videos/adverts on the screen.

Question nine: List a few of your favourite bands;
Bands that came up regularly in answers include; The Smiths, Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol, to name a few, all stereotypically Indie bands.

Question ten: What is it about advertisements for music that attracts you to it?
‘Colour, artist/band, artwork and photography’ are the main answers we concluded from this question. As previously stated in our research, the Indie audience is rather niche and a fan of a band is a fan for life. Not only will loyalty attract the audience, but the unique creativity used by the artist, linking back to the emphasis on individuality. Therefore, before we start to look at possibly ancillary tasks, we will have a look at some samples of advertisements and compare them to the genre and our own ideas, in order to gain some guidance and inspiration.

Question eleven: How important is music to you?
Everything: 43%
Very: 43%
Indifferent: 7%
Not very: 7%
Not at all: 0%
This question links into the answer and brief analysis of question one. It portrays just how important music is to us, and consequently the music videos that follow.

Question twelve: List a few of your favourite music videos;
Here are two samples, not only varying in their genre but also how they are created.

The Hours – Ali In The Jungle, is a predominantly Indie song. The video has no elements of live performance or real narrative, but more so visual effects linking to the lyrics of the song;



In contrast, Atreyu’s Portrait In Black is a predominantly metal song and focuses on aspects of live performance and clips from Underworld, a mainstream, popular film linked with this particular song.



Question thirteen: How much are you willing to pay for music?
£0 - £5: 14%
£6 - £10: 29%
£11 - £15: 36%
£16 - £20: 0%
Over £20: 21%
We asked this question as later on, when conducting our ancillary tasks, this may come into consideration. It highlights the average price a person is willing to pay, although it does depend what for, for example £15 is reasonable for an album, not a single.

Question fourteen: What attracts you to the album art?
The majority of answers to this question included; ‘Attractive males and females, colours, the artist/band, good graphics and interesting photography.’ Later on in the planning process, when it comes to producing our ancillary tasks, we will look into this in much more detail. The basis of the attraction is that it must be eye catching, often featuring the band, highlighting a sense of familiarity with the fan.

Question fifteen: What makes you want to read an article about a particular artist or song?
The main answer to this, was whether or not the artist/band was of interest to the audience. For example, if a fan of Arctic Monkeys saw an article on the lead singer Alex Turner, they would be drawn to it, whereas a fan of Metallica probably wouldn’t be, thus linking audience into genre.

Question sixteen: Do you enjoy live music? If yes, how often?
50% of the people asked said they enjoyed live music every so often, with 29% saying every month and 21% saying rarely. Live music is especially important to certain genres, for Pop music you have concerts whereas for Indie music you have gigs. Most people commented, whilst answering this question, that they would go more often to see their bands it was merely a matter of cost, emphasising the importance of performance. This can be taken into consideration in both the production of the video and the production of the ancillary tasks to follow.

From this survey, we have been able to create conclusions based on the audience’s preferences not only towards music itself, but how they obtain it, how they view it and their opinions towards music videos. Also, by including questions relating to ancillary tasks, we have collected much more research and information to help us later in the production of the overall project. It is from these answers that we have gone into the planning stage of our project with a more confident outlook on what our target audience want and what we aim to achieve throughout the production process.