Target Audience Research

I set up a survey on surveymonkey.com and posted it in forums on blink182.com and greendayauthority.com as the fans on these sites are exactly my target audience. It also meant I could get results from people of all ages and from other countries very easily. I left it open for 4 days and collected 55 results.

Gender 

42:13 Females:Males

Age

(Only 51 of the 55 chose to answer this)

Firstly, I asked how the fans get their music; surprisingly, all those asked answered they buy CDs, but this CDs are closely followed by both legal and illegal downloads, which, combined is 53 out of 55. The amount of downloads, along with the fact that again, 53 out of 55 people said they find new music via the internet, shows the relationship between the music industry, how fans consume music and Web 2.0 - the internet makes music even more accessible and the price of downloads is cheaper than CDs. Artists no longer need record labels to produce and sell music, as they can just put it up on iTunes and then market it through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Already established artists use the internet to easily market new products to their audiences and which also creates a familiarity between the artists and fans.

Vinyl and Tape has recently made a comeback and considering that first wave punk was prior to the CD era, a respectable 12 out of 55 said they still bought music on these archaic forms (these 12 were aged between 18 and 29, the mode average being 19).

I then asked how fans find out about new music, a really important piece of research for marketing.

Unsurprisingly, most people answered with 'Internet', showing the dominance of Web 2.0 in advertisement, marketing and sales.  This means that in order for a band to be successful, they need to exploit social media sites etc. when advertising new videos/albums/singles, they're merchandise range and tour information.

Finally, I asked the most important question about music consumption; how much do fans spend on music and gigs each year.

As my survey sample have come from all over the world, I'd answers in Australian, US and Canadian Dollars, GBP and Euros. However, the amounts ranged from around 40 (GBP) up to the 1000s, in all the currencies. Many people said they spend more on gigs than actual music, supporting the numbers that admitted to illegally downloading their music.