Post 5: My target audience

My"fun-loving" 16-25 year old mass-market target audience are such large consumers of music, pop music in particular. With their familiarity with streaming services such as Spotify, their constant engagement with artists on social media and the fact that many artists in the pop music space are around this age, it means pop music is listened to by this group possibly the most out of all age demographics.

The 16-25 year old age demographic

Music is a part of their identity, it provides a way for young people still trying to decide who they are to have something that represents them. A young person is defined in part by the type of music they listen to, they share their favourite songs on social media and it provides a common ground for many different people to come together.


All major pop artists appeal to this age group, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande or Calvin Harris; they all make music to be consumed by people of this age. These are people who have the most free time, are the most interested in keeping up with modern trends and pop culture and are at a mature enough age to be able to buy the many things these artists put out as well as be able to understand and engage with the songs that have deeper meanings with more serious topics. Ariana Grande may have millions of little girls who adore her music, but they're too young to buy any of her merch, stream her songs as they may not have the devices to do so or interact with her on social media. Even if Ariana Grande could do well simply through the money from the parents of preteens, most artists can not. If an artist like Calvin Harris wants to sell out a venue it's going to be the party going, alcohol drinking 16-25 year old audience who will be buying the tickets. There are themes in many artists songs ie heartbreak, partying and various life issues that people under the age of 16 just can't relate to.

The typical concertgoing 16-25 year old audience

Despite this, stereotypical pop music nowadays is definitely disappearing from the mainstream, particularly with 16-25 year olds. This is a generation of people who grew up listening to all of these stereotypical pop icons and now are looking for something different. Rap & R&B music is taking over the music scene, with artists like Drake, Travis Scott, Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar completely running the charts today. Pop is keeping up by taking influences from rap as well as features from famous rap artists, however, it is plain to see that rap is the new rock & roll and is neck and neck with Pop music in terms of popularity.

A list of billboards 2019 number 1 songs with all Hip-hop/r&b songs highlighted

My knowledge of my target audience has moderately influenced my actual project, simply the fact that it's a pop music video inherently makes it well targeted at this audience. I am also 17, playing my 17 year old artist, which though on the lower end of the age bracket, still fits within it. I was concerned that possibly the song would be too "cheesy" for this audience who likes a fair amount of edge in their music, however the positive message is something that people of this age would be happy to hear, as well as the song being overall enjoyable due to how closely it follows typical pop music conventions. I also made sure my video contained people of a similar age to me (17-18 year olds), as that is the age of my target audience. My website also will also link in with my artist's social media pages, as that's something that's extremely popular with young people aged 16-25 in 2019. I decided to only make a Twitter and Instagram page as Snapchat is generally targeting the younger end of my target audience age range and Facebook would be targeting the older end; Twitter & Instagram fit perfectly within the age range.

The social demographics of each different major social media platform

My site also will have a few emojis on my behind the scenes page as that's something that engages young people who love to use their phone. However, I made sure not to use too many emojis, as to where the audience feel they are being pandered to, something this generation knows all too well from the abundance of failed viral marketing campaigns out of touch companies are doing today.

The over abundance of emojis in modern marketing

As well as this, there will be streaming links to my song on the main page, as that's how most people in my TA listen to music, with the CD being a sort of special edition product for only the most die-hard of fans.

To get more information on this, we conducted an online survey, directly asking the target audience their thoughts on music, here were the results

We had a fairly even split, making this group representative of both males and females of my audience

Again a range of age groups, meaning both sides of the age range are taken into account

Most listened to around 2 hours of music per day, meaning music was clearly important to these people

At home + public transport were the top answers, with in the car being at the bottom, possibly as much of this audience cannot or does not regularly drive 

This is data that surprised me, the website is actually a major engagement point for 16-24 year olds, before even Instagram, showing the importance of making a quality website for them to go to.

Pop is beaten out by Rock here, showing how it isn't especially dominant in the modern era

Spotify is unsurprisingly the main way my target audience listens to music, however, Youtube is so close by; showing the importance of putting up a music video so listeners have something to engage with whilst listening on the video.

Many people seem to listen to music for atmosphere or the positive feeling they get from it, showing that upbeat music such as my song would be a good fit for this audience.

A wide variety of bands and artists, spanning many different genres

Very mixed thoughts on the pop music genre, with many calling it manufactured and boring; but a lot of the audience saying they like it or saying that the genre has its faults but there are good songs within it.

Again, a wide variety of genres and artists however no modern pop songs were stated