The document discusses research into the target audience for independent music. It finds that independent music audiences tend to be 15-34 years old, as popularity of indie music has grown with the internet and music festivals. XFM radio listeners, who like indie/alternative rock, modern alternative, and pop rock, are the target. The target audience enjoys comedy and going to concerts. They may be students and value freedom of expression. While indie music started as anti-mainstream, it is now popular across Europe so the audience includes both mainstream and anti-mainstream individuals aged 13-24.

1. Target Audience Research FOR INDEPENDENT MUSIC Hannah Ram, Candidate No: 4730

2. Our chosen song, ‘Stitches’ by The Dykeenies, falls into the Indie music genre and fits into both the Indie Pop and Indie Rock subcultures of this genre. In recent years, Independent music has become increasingly popular amongst teenagers and adults in their twenties due to the recent surge in popularity of the internet, with websites like MySpace and YouTube championing undiscovered talent, and music festivals. Indie rock takes its name from "independent," which describes both the do-it-yourself attitudes of its bands and the small, lower-budget nature of the labels that release the music. Independent music is free to explore sounds, emotions, and lyrical subjects that don't always appeal to large, mainstream audiences -- profit isn't as much of a concern as personal taste. Indie Music

3. Research As XFM is a popular radio station amongst audiences that like to listen to independent music, such as; Indie/Alternative Rock, Modern Alternative, Britpop, and Pop Rock, I decided that it would be a good idea to see who their target audience is as it would help me to find out who buys and listens to Indie music. According to an Ofcom report, about XFM Manchester, XFM ‘will provide an alternative music format for 15-34 year olds’. This suggests that indie music audiences tend to range in age from 15-34, and is a good indication of what our target audience should be like when creating our media products. The report also states that ‘comedy is a key interest to the target audience’. Therefore, in order to appeal to our target audience it might be a good idea to include some comical elements into at least one of our media products. Information taken from this Ofcom report made in 2006: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/radio-ops/sampling/xfm.pdf

5. Arrogant band members

6. Gimmicks that take away from the music Cross-Cultural Consumer Characteristics Our target audience will largely consist of mainstreamers (individuals that are concerned with stability and security, mainly buying well-recognised brands and consuming mainstream texts), as in recent years Indie Rock/Pop has become much more mainstream despite the fact that it was originally created for an anti-mainstream target audience. According to Wikipedia, Indie music is now really popular throughout Europe, especially in the UK. Therefore, the Dykeenies potential target audience will consist of both mainstream and anti-mainstream individuals.

7. The Dykeenies Audience On you now have the option to find out more information about the type of audience that watch specific videos online. Luckily, I was able to get this information for some of The Dykeenies videos that had been posted online... Taken from Levi UK’s video of The Dykeenies live performance of ‘Stitches’ (on 15/08/10) Taken from The Dykeenies music video for ‘Sounds of the City’ (on 15/08/10)

8. The Dykeenies Audience Taken from The Dykeenies music video for ‘New Ideas’ (on 15/08/10) Chart Analysis – Audience Demographic Those three charts showed that The Dykeenies main fan base is concentrated in the United Kingdom. Therefore, my group will have to make sure that the media products that we create appeal to a UK audience. I also found out that their target audience is aged from 13-24, which indicates that, like most independent bands, The Dykeenies has a large teenage following which consists of both males and females. This age group also shows that most of their target audience will be students as most people of that age group are in some sort of higher education. However, in all of the charts females aged 13-17 topped the list, which suggests that although their target audience ranges from the ages of 13-24 and consists of both males and females, their main target audience are females aged 13-17.

9. From my research, I think that our media products should be aimed at both male and female audiences aged 15-24, as this age range fits into both The Dykeenies target audience and the more mainstream audience of XFM. Conclusion