OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Target Audience

In an article found on the Wu Tang Clan website in which they discuss the necessary steps that any aspiring artist must go through when making a marketing plan to ensure that they become successful. As Wu Tang Clan are the artist that I am basing my project on and in the past that fame that they have managed to have I thought this target audience exercise that they devised themselves would be the best place to start in identifying the audience for this project, it bases the whole exercise around three activities in which it outlines, what makes the artist different, who do the artist speak to the most and finally where do the fans go and listen to the music, how is it accessed? furthermore then relating this information to statics about people who listen to Hip-Hop. This will all be finalised by using a example of research that we were taught in a UXD workshop in which fictional audience personas are used to identify and confirm their traits.

 Find your TARGET AUDIENCE

What would you like to be known for?

Wu Tang Clan have always been synonymous for using the best beats Hip Hop has ever heard, this combines with the raw gritty vocals often not found in the modern day autotunes Hip-Hop era and the raw emotion and style employed through the vocals. These aspects all come together to make music of which no true Hip-Hop fan could discredit as being not good enough. Although this style is exactly what they are known for the redesign of the visual aesthetic combined with the music talent of the original album will come together to make a balance that will attract newer fans and keep the existing fans happy.

"Their raw emotion conveyed through the straight forward, raw and pissed of vocals are exactly what attracted to ever kid who felt like they were being represented through he music and given something to relate to" Raekwon

Who does your music speak to most? (Demographic: Age)

Hip-Hop is a musical genre of which can speak to people of a wide variety of ranges as dissimilarly to chart/pop music where the music can almost become pointless, Hip-Hop centres itself around creating music to discuss real world issues and this is something off which is very inviting to music listeners. The main age range that listens to Hip-Hop statistically is the 19-34 years old age range encompassing 24 million listeners and over 70% of the total Hip Hop listeners. This means that appealing to the young to mid age range will be very important to ensure success but may also help as it narrow the age range of the demographic i need to appeal too meaning there is less demographics to think about. Although he majority of listeners does stem from the youthful demographic a peak can be seen in the 35-44 year range as this demographic make up the listener of the group who have been present from the start as although Hip-Hop is massive in our modern day industry it still played a massive part of society in the 1990's. The balance of representing and appealing to both of the new listeners and old fans through my website will be a crucial part of success.

"24 million confirmed people between the ages of 19-34, from a range of nationalities, ethnic groups and religions, are estimated to make up the core hip hop demographic"

"At 15%, the 35-44 listening segment is also large for this demographic."

Where do your potential fans go to discover new music?

By outlining these two different focus age demographics it has made this part of the audience research much easier to identify. It will be crucial to make sure that the fans can discover and access through a wide range of medias to fully represent the target market audience age. This is important as older followers of the group may be insistent on owning a cop of the album and so a straight forward method of online pre-oder, purchase and delivery in needed to satisfy the oder age range, also possibly a list of places to visit in person where he album could be bought.

On the other hand as it is necessary to represent the younger age group it may also be necessary to provide online pay and download facilities as the younger age group appreciate the need for physical CD's much less meaning that the distribution method may also be tailored to their needs too.

Finally as it is inevitable in modern day society it is a massive part to get this campaign release website perfect as the internet and social media play a massive part in the music industry at the moment and harnessing the power these formats have is massively important.

By answering all of these questions you will have a much easier time and a better idea of where they are and allows you to understand your fans and how they think. It’s not about getting your music in front of an audience (let’s get that clear), it’s about getting your music in front of fans who listen to your genre of music and support.

PERSONAS

Name: 

Travis

Age: 

20

Profession: 

Student 

Likes:

Hip-Hop

Modern Culture

Basketball

Going To Concerts

Social Media Outlets

Dislikes:

Working

Chart Music

Music Without Emotion

People Telling Him What To Do

Personality:

Engaging

Exciting

Youthful

Name: 

Craig

Age: 

38

Profession: 

Live Music Technician 

Likes:

Hip-Hop

Holidays In The Sun

Spending Time With His Family

Going To Concerts

Vinyl Collecting

Dislikes:

Being Told To Grow Up

Chart Music

Music Without Thought

Personality:

Relaxing

Homely

Settled & Focused 

Name: 

Emily

Age: 

27

Profession: 

Customer Assistant

Likes:

Hip-Hop

Family Come First

Spending Time With Her Friends

Listening To Music On The Move

Travelling

Dislikes:

Being Told To "Dress Like A Girl"

Having Chart Music Forced Upon Her

Personality:

Welcoming

Fed Up With Society 
Adventurous 

This personas exercise has helped me to realise how wide and broad the demographic of the target audience for the project actually is and how crucial and important it will be to represent all of these different demographics through the design and aesthetics. I decided to leave race and socio-economic background out of my research for demographics as I believe in the modern era we live in music is available to all is man different means, meaning not only those with excessive amounts of money will be able to purchase the CD as in the past few years the music industry has become much easier to access by all. Finally I decided to leave race out of the research also as yet again in the society we live in I believe it would be unfair to say that and one race ro ethnic background has any more right to listen to a certain piece of music than any one else.