Audience Research

Slice the Pie.com – Questions and Responses

This is the site that I have joined to get some of my questions answered. I did this because I wanted to do some useful audience research and this helped me finally decide on a song. Slice the pie.com is a music site where people can discuss music and promote their music. I got some very useful answers to my question and some not so helpful, but overall it was useful to do.

This is link to the website to show that it is a genuine music website and the responses are from people that are in the target audience ---> http://www.slicethepie.com/

My Question: I am having trouble trying to find out what I need to made a good music video for a pop song, or what the audience would be, what are their likes and dislikes of them and who likes them?

(This was the question I asked before I changed to the genre of acoustic music but I still got some answers from this question that I can adampt my my music video such as attractive female character and artist playing music.

1st Answer: Half naked chicks / free kitkats / voucher codes / appearing in it. Seriously though, I don’t like videos that just show the band or artist playing. It’s better if there is some sort of visual story to the video.  ↓

This was a helpful answer as it confimred that telling a story in a music video is really good and that the audience will like it, I have done what this person suggested and have a story in my music video and only feature the artist 3-4 times in the whole music video.

2nd Answer: If the song is rubbish it doesn’t matter how good the video is. Otherwise, Sex appeal, fast cars, great scenic shots for helicopters etc crazy stunts whatever.

This is a less helpful answer as the person that wrote it doesn't seen to really care what I have asked and has more personal veiws on what songs are good.

  
3rd Answer: If you are going to do a pop video, then you need to choose elements that appeal to a very wide audience. It should be fun (fairground, car-riding etc) and bubbly/happy with harmonious colours (scenes of nature maybe?) I hope that gave you some inspiration? As for actually filming it do you know any people that enjoy that side of things? Maybe they could give you some practical suggestions. Advertise in a college near you for a media student to help. ↓

This was a helpful answer as I was able to pull the conventions out from what they had written and come to the comclusion that in most music videos sticking to the conventions makes for a good music video in any genre.

My 2nd Question: What are your likes and dislikes of music videos?

1st Answer: They’re better when the frontman/woman looks directly into the camera as through they’re looking at you and most especially when they are projecting confidence and smiling disarmingly. J Not too many distractions from the singing and playing unless you go into story telling, in case you can then become very creative with acting and scenery etc. It’s best to choose elements that directly relate to the message that you’re trying to get across whether it be serious or just great fun (or maybe both!) J  ↓

Again, another person has suggested that a story in the music video would be a good idea, so this confirming for me to go ahead with the idea of the photos being found and the characters life experience and story to be told in the video. Location is important as the can then with the story be creative with the settings, e.g. in my music video there are a range of beach, woods, moor, house and train.

I have learnt from doing task what the audience and what people out there expect from a music video. This will help me in making my music video as I will know who to target and this will make it look convincing and more like a proper music video. 

The disadvantages of using this method is that some people put very silly and unhelpful answers that were not relevant to the questions or information that I could use. The advantages that I found by using this way for audience research is that I got a wide range of answers will different opinions. This helped me to pick out what was needed and find the majority of what people thought. Then I was able to find an audience profile and what I can include in my music video.

Audience Research - Asking the Public

This is some more audience research into what age and gender my audience are. I have also asked questions what after they heard the song on what they thought should be in the music video to accompany the song. This task is helping me to pin point my exact target audience and also give me ideas for my music video. I have asked them to pick out things linked to the song as I have a idea and I wanted to see if I was right and find the specific target audience.

My idea for a music idea is a girl going round in different pretty locations in and finding things along the way (maybe photos) and finding them to piece together a story.

 This one was done with by a 17 year old female. She stated that she was part of the audience and thought that nature was a big part in making the music video succussful. As well as this she suggested that a more personal touch to the video my make the general feeling of the music video come across to the audience more.

 This was done by a 17 year old male. He said that he liked the song but he didn't think for the whole package that he was the target audience. Even though he isn't the target audience he has still circled the things that I thought would be good for this music video, so this confirming that the ideas are the same as other people and should work.

 This was done by a 50 year old female. She selected that she wasn't the target audience as the song was to 'young for her' and not in her generation, she thought it was pretty but not her taste. On a positive note she still picked the options that I thought would be good for a music video. This again confirming that my idea is still looking like a good idea.

 This was done by a 27 year old male and when he talked to me after doing this he explained that he had circled yes and no for the question 'do you think you are the target audience?' he said he did this because he is a fan of the song and the genre is his taste but he thought that the video would be more aimed at females as he pictured pretty settings and more girly things.

 18 year old female. She said she thinks she is in the target audience as the song was the genre she likes and the ideas for the music video were to her taste and the options were what she agreed with, without even having to look at the sheet she said she was already having a similar idea in her head.

This has made my learn that it is quite hard to do audience research as there are many answers and it is hard to pick what method will be most conclusive.

I found that the results that I did agree with my first prediction that my idea did fit in with the answers that the people gave. I also think that the audience is more female but the song is gender neutral but the video idea is more suited to women. The age of the audience I think is about 16 - 30 with mainly women but men as well. This has helped me in finding my audience and making my ideas for my music video.

The main think that I found from my audience research is that the idea of having a story plot in the music videos makes is more visually pleasing/interesting for the audience as just having shots of the band/artist all the time gets very boring know matter how good the song is. This really helped me in deciding the plot of my music video and what time there should be in it such as...

- Stunning setting
- Plot/story in the video
- An attractive (female)
- Some shots of the artist.

I have taken a range from what the audience research has told me and put it into my music video and the outcome I am very happy with and the audience feedback that I got confirmed that these things all work and the audience research was helpful in making my media text a success.