- A questionnaire was sent out equally to males and females, but more females responded, suggesting the target audience should be females. However, the questionnaire did not specify the genre of jazz/blues music, which is generally more popular with middle-aged men. - The questionnaire responses are not an accurate representation because it only asked the sender's peers, who are younger, while the target is older adults. - The most popular music genres according to respondents were R&B and pop, which are influenced by top radio stations, but these genres are not the target for a jazz/blues magazine aimed at older audiences.

1. Audience Research

2. I sent out an email attached with this questionnaire to an equal
amount of males and females and more females have responded
than males with a difference of double the amount of women
responding than men. This could show that boys have less of an
interest in music magazines or music in general meaning my target
audience should perhaps be targeted at females. However, they are
unaware of the genre of my magazine due to the questionnaire not
mentioning it and from previous research it is clear that jazz and
blues is more of a genre for middle aged men. This means the
people I have asked are not an accurate representation of who I
should be aiming my magazine at.
Similarly with the age, I only
asked my peers meaning the
information provided is not
collected from the
appropriate age range.
However it did give me ideas
on where not to advertise
etc. due to things like
SoundCloud and Spotify
being more for the younger
generation.
Within the graph you can see that people have selected more than
one option showing that brand loyalty is not applicable in the music
industry. This is a good thing as it illustrates that more than one
place is viewed per person making advertising potentially quite
successful. As well as this the amount of people listening to CDs in
the 20th century is slim and only one person has admitted to it. This
shows they aren’t as popular meaning the album should be primarily
produced electronically on websites like Spotify.
The amount of people who buy music magazines
is relatively low. This isn’t a problem due to the
afore mentioned age difference between my
target audience and who I actually questioned.

3. The most popular genre of music taken from this questionnaire is
RnB. This isn’t surprising when you take into account the age of the
people asked. Teenagers are more likely to be under the influence of
chart music due to it being on the radio and easily the most
publicised genre, along with Pop. This means it’ll ultimately become
more popular. Fortunately, this age range isn’t the target audience
for my magazine as my magazine is targeted at older men and
perhaps women. So when taking into account the amount of females
who responded over the males it’ll become clearer why jazz isn’t as
popular-as well as the age. Alternative rock and indie also appear to
quite popular which is due to them becoming more advertised and
publicised on social media and are soon going to overtake RnB and
Pop in terms of popularity.
The most popular radio station is Radio 1 with Heart
coming in second place. This supports the afore mentioned
support for pop and RnB in the music industry which are
the most popular genres showed on these two leading
stations. This makes it clear that music taste is influenced
by radio stations and what they play. As well as this, radio
stations like Jazz FM only have one person listening to it out
of my (small) sampling of people. This further enforces the
idea that jazz and blues music is not popular amongst our
age group making it essential I target an older audience.

4. The most commonly mentioned essential feature for the front of a
music magazine is a mention of images or pictures presumably of
the artist or an instrument or both. This was an expected answer
and would be the same kind of answers for that of an older
generation as even though it asks for an opinion it isn’t an
opinionated answer as it is quite obvious what should be on the
front cover. As well as this, text, titles and straplines were
mentioned which again, could go unsaid as they are relatively
obvious things you need. The “persuasive strapline” is a vital
answer as it urges the reader to pick up the magazine along with
the catchy title and recognisable image in the foreground.
This is the most useful question with answers between £2 and £3
showing that the magazine needs to be of a much higher quality if
there’s any hope for it selling for a higher price. However, £2.95
sounds like a reasonable price and fits within the price range
selected. However, the age of the people asked is again an
interfering factor as they may be less willing to spend any more due
to having less money than that of someone who is older with a full
time job. Then again I still think I should stay around the £3 region.
I had an additional question asking who their favourite musical
artist was but the choices were too varied to provide a proper
chart. It also wasn’t an entirely useful bunch of responses as no
one mentioned anyone in the jazz and blues genre.