Audience Survey Results

Our group conducted an online survey on survey monkey in order to gather responses from the public via the internet as it seems that Web 2.0 is widely used by all ages these days. Due to the majority of our friends also using social networking sites, we had an advantage as we can post our survey onto Facebook or 'tweet' it on Twitter, which then our friends ,as our desired average age, can hopefully respond to our questionnaire.

1. What is your age?

2. What type of music do you listen to?

3. If Indie, what is your favourite sub-genre?












4. If you don't like Indie music, why?
- Production-wise, it's too basic. I prefer my music more mechanical, and more computerised- and I prefer it not to make pretenses about being "real".
- Boring
- I find it boring.

5.How often do you listen to music?

6. How often do you attend gigs?













7. How often do you stream music online?













8. Where do you get your music from?

















From looking at the results, it is clear that the average ages of people who listen to general music is from 15-24, in which the majority of this sample enjoy listening to the Indie genre. The age range of people that generally listen to music also correlates to the demographic research, therefore meaning that this is our target audience, especially as our demographics explain for Mike and similar artists that the target range is mainly teenage girls and young adults. Considering that the majority of people that we asked download and buy their music from Itunes or CD's, we will have to make sure our digipak will be worth buying therefore providing some bonus features such as a concert live song or a music video on the album might be a good idea.

Feedback from Audience

Our group decided to pitch our song to a Focus Group where in return they wrote down there thoughts, ideas and reactions to our song, which we can turn into ideas for our Music Video.

One of the main features that many of our focus group members brought up was the theme of a Love Story including: Boy and Girl, Relationship, Romance, Young Love and Break-Up. This leads us to believe that a key convention of our Music Video and Genre will be Lost Love.

Our Location will be an 'all natural' location as the majority of our Audience said that it would be best in a: field, river, beach, forest and include natural lighting and filters such as the sunrise and moonlight. An idea of rain was also brought forward to enhance the fact the song is sad but the nature element is till there.

A convention we thought up in our original planning was that of 'flashbacks' or looking back to the couples memories together, the focus group also thought this up, without the influence of us, which increases our ambition to use this element in our music video.

The Mise-En-Scene of our Video will include a scruffy casual look from the Artists and a guitar will also be present throughout to bring the music and talent of the Artist to the audience.

Audience Research- Survey

To further our understanding of the Indie Genre and the Audience it attracts, additionally the thoughts and feelings towards Indie our group has devised an Online Survey which is posted below, but will also be posted on our Individual Twitter Pages, Our Groups (B.A.A.D)'s Twitter Page and Facebook.

The questions we have used will gain the information we need to fully sell our Artist to gain all the following and Audience Mike Dignam needs, whilst presenting him in a way that reflects and music and personality.

Similar Artists to Mike Dignam Part II

John Mayer
John Mayer is an American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist and producer; his genre is Folk Rock/ Indie which is similar to our Artists, Mike Dignam's, different songs. As Dignam John Mayer has a certain individuality and diversity in his music, but is still using the stereotypical convention of Indie, a Guitar; although he performs with a mixture of Electric and Acoustic. Like Josh Radin, John Mayer has been associated with Columbia Records, who are more 'mainstream' but have not always been signed by them as he also worked with Arista Records and Aware Records.

John Mayer's career started way back in 2000 where he started gaining major label and commercial success, throughout his rocky music career he has released many CD's, EP's and Singles. He has also won many Grammy and MTV Music Awards.


'Wildfire' is one of John Mayer's recent releases, so I have decided to look at the video on YouTube and see the views, responses, comments and likes that it has received; this will give be an insight into his Audience and Demographics.

Unsurprisingly due to his success, the video has already received over 1.2 Million views, over 9,000 Likes and 1,224 Comments. These comments are by Males and Females with the Ages being between 20-28.

Similar Artists to Mike Dignam

Ben Howard

Ben Howard is a British Singer/Songwriter, his genre is Indie Folk which is similar to our artist Mike Dignam, as he has a soulful voice and includes his guitar in most of his songs; additionally as you can see he is using it in his live performance. Howard is classed as an Indie Artist firstly of his music, image and overall look and because he is not signed by a 'mainstream; record label; his record company is Island Records.

Since 2008, Ben Howard has released several singles, EP's and has released an Album which has lead him to win two BRIT Awards and he was Nominated for a Mercury. He is only one of the few 25 year olds that have cracked the US and taken America by storm.

'Keep Your Head Up' and ' The Wolves' are popular singles that he has released, and all charted. Ben Howard may be the most famous British Folk Singer of his time, which makes him a similar Artist that Mike Dignam may aspire too.
Demographics

I decided to look into the statistics of his song, Only Love which has over 5 Million views, and over 2,500 Comments. These comments seem to be more commonly from Females, but as Ben Howard is one of the biggest British Indie Artists he is very popular by Ben also; these females seem to be between 13-24 and then males are between 18-24. I believe the lyrics and meanings of his songs attract many different age ranges as they are about love, relationships and tough times, which is easily relate able.

I looked on Ben Howard's Facebook page and you can see his like page is very popular due to over 500,000 people Like this, and over 8,000 have talked about him. The most popular fans on his Facebook Page are ages between 18-24 again, which links to the Demographics from his Facebook Page.


Through this fans are able to keep up with his Tour Dates, upcoming new music and any personal updates. A lot of the younger generations use these social networking sites so it help to keep in touch.

I had a quick look at Ben Howard's Twitter and Twitter followers, which are more than 345,000, not as many as Facebook but are still a large about. A mixture of males and females are shown to be Following him, with a small collection of Indie Artists and Indie Radio Station DJ's, such as Fearne Cotton

Josh Radin

Josh Radin is  an American Recording Artist/ Songwriter, his genre is  Acoustic Indie, and he   also uses a guitar in most of his performances and songs along with his whisper, silver bell voice. Radin's career started in 2004 as he was signed with Columbia Records ,which issued his Album 'We Were Here' in 2006, he was then signed by Mom + Pop Music, an independent record label based in New York.

Josh Radin decided in 2004 to take a stab at  songwriting and played one of his earliest compositions 'Winter' to his friend Zach Braff. Braff to an immediate liking to the song and as an Actor /Director he eventually used it in  his hit television show 'Scrubs'. After fan were requesting more music  from him, which encouraged him to  pursue his career in the Music Industry by making it his main job. 

One of Josh Radin's marketing styles that he made was in 2006 when he exclusively released his Album ' We Were Here' to iTunes for a month, before attracting attention from Major Labels. From this Radin has received high reviews from  magazines such as Rolling Stones. He has released several Ep's and 5 Albums, four by Mom + Pop Music; additionally his music has appeared in several T.V shows and Films.

Demographics

I decided to look into Josh Radin's song 'I'd Rather Be With You' and the demographics of the video. It has over 3.5 Million views and 1,500 Comments. These comments again seem to be slightly more female based but there is an obvious mix of Females and Males comments, indicating he is the 'Ben Howard' of America as he attracts a wider range of Genders and Age's. His YouTube Page initially helped these fans find his new and upcoming Music, these fans seem to be of a younger Age that would spend a lot of time on YouTube, these seem to be slightly older than Ben Howard, 18-27.

I looked on Josh Radin's Facebook Page and this page is not as popular as I would of imagined but I believe it is because the Audience are slightly older than Ben Howard. Over 330,000 Likes and nearly 4,000 People have talked about this, the comments again are from the age range we found on his YouTube.

This page again can  help him keep in contact on all media platforms.

I also looked at Josh Radin's Twitter Page and unsurprisingly found that he has again not as many Followers, but less generations use Twitter as their social Networking site. He has nearly 73,000 Followers, who again are a mixture of Males and Females. Radin also has a celebrity follower, Ellen DeGeneres, which looks good for his Audience.

Listener Profiles/ Radio Stations

The radio is an important platform for upcoming artist's music to be heard anywhere and everywhere, the radio allows this to happen as the right audience listens to a specific radio station which plays mostly the Music Genre they enjoy. Radio is the fastest way in which Artists can gain recognition in the music industry, and the more successful they become the more likely their new releases will be played.

Radio 1 is the most likely station our Genre will be played on unless it gets into the charts then it will appear on more. The station is aimed mainly at the ages of 15-29 but the average age of the audience is actually 33.

Interview 2

Person No.1- 28 Years of Age What do you like about the Indie genre? No.1- It brings an upbeat but a soothing, catchy feel. I like that it has a different style and I know it won't disappoint But I particularly enjoy listening to Indie Pop, to artists such as Florence and the Machine and London Grammar. Do you ever listen to the sub genre, Indie Acoustic at all? No.1- Yes occasionally, I think its very relaxing to listen to around the house. I enjoy listening to the likes of Lucy Rose and Daughter where they tend to use interesting sounds in their music. How would you describe generally of an Indie Music Video? No.1- Natural feel, outdoors, love narrative, lip syncing to the camera. When listening to our song choice, what are your first thoughts for the music video? No.1- Close up of the guitar scenes, lip syncing sometimes avoiding camera, natural surroundings, showing times when the relationship was present.

Interview 1

I asked a small amount of my friends and family on their opinions of the Indie genre. This will altogether gather more detailed research from a sample of people from various age ranges.

Person No.1 - 17 Years of Age
Person No.2 - 56 Years of Age

 What do you like about the Indie genre?
 No. 1- The guitar solos mostly, I play guitar myself so I find that I can relate to the genre as I like to play some of their guitar parts. Although I do enjoy listening to Indie Pop, such as Bastille where their music is more electronic or drum & bass.
No.2- I like the different sounds from the guitar, particularly enjoying Indie Rock with the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and The Vaccines. I like their upbeat tunes and how they suck you into their music.

Do you ever listen to the sub genre, Indie Acoustic at all?
No.1- Not really.
No.2- Not at all.

How would you describe generally of an Indie Music Video?
No.1- Cutting rate in time with beat, love story, natural scenes, showing something different to other music videos.
No.2- Happy, reminiscing over a relationship, natural.

When listening to our song choice, what are your first thoughts for the music video?
No.1- Strumming of the guitar, love story, good times.
No.2- Guitar present in most scenes to help represent the indie acoustic, love story shown throughout, lip syncing, gradually a build up towards an ending.

Research into Indie

As our song is inspired by Indie,  I have decided to look into the Genre as a whole, and in particular the motifs, styles and conventions of Indie.

What is Indie Music?
Indie Music, originally known as Independent Music, is not a distinctive style of Music but is a recognisable Style as a lot of the time Indie Bands are influenced by each other, resulting in a alike sound. They are 'Independent' as their record label may not be mainstream. Overall the sound of Indie is harmonious and melodic, and the instruments that accompany the sound are well balanced, effortless and effective. The Instruments usually consist of a guitar riff, with an overlay of an additional guitar riff, which complements the sound well; a minimal drum beat, a bass guitar, and soft remarkable, unique voice. The Lyrics usually contain powerful emotions, usually deep in thought but not obvious, tasteless or weak.

How popular is Indie?
As a 'Scene' the Indie audience mostly have a love for the music alone, not the stage setting, lights and 'fans'; the scene is kept quite small as the 'big' fuss is not what the Audience really want. They feel as if the music is what matters and they do not want it to be commercialised, it is all about the music. Overall the Indie Audience is quite big, but the following is not as big as Pop, as they just appreciate the music.

The Most Common Conventions of Indie And Indie Music Video's-
+ Instruments- Typical to Rock Indie
+ Assorted Shot Types - Montage
+ Flash Transitions
+ Cross Cutting between Artist and Place
+ Close up/ Long Shot
+ Cutting rate to the beat of the music, this creates synchronisation between sound and visuals.

Examples of Indie Artists and Bands-
+ Arctic Monkeys
+ Arcade Fire
+ Bloc Party
+ Mumford & Sons
+  The Strokes
+ The Decemberists
+ Death Cab for Cuties
+ Bon Iver
+ Ben Howard
+ Josh Rodin
+ John Major
+ Nick Camillo

Ideal Audience Member

As our Audience fits into the Indie Acoustic Genre, our typical audience member will be a female aged 18, as from looking at Mike Dignam's and other Indie Artists demographics, this is the most common gender for a male Acoustic Indie Genre, which stereotypically fits into the profile. The fan would have previous knowledge of what the conventions are regarding Indie Acoustic Genre; with the emotional and personal lyrics and the solo instrument which is usually a Guitar, which is attractive to the Female if the Artist can play an instrument.  The female fan will be able to relate to the lyrics in some form; usually in a relationship situation; additionally the female will not be far off the Artists age and will be able to relate and create a connection to his music.