Explanation of Audience Research

My research has been laid out in 6 distinctive posts on my blog. Each post covers a specific part of my research whether it is the area of question or the evaluation of the entire piece. This enables you to view information about a specific area of my research in a quick and efficient manner. The 6 areas are:

• Explanation of Audience Research
• Consumption of Music
• Is Piracy really that bad?
• Production Questions
• Have you heard of a...?
• Evaluation of Audience Research

My research has been centred on a questionnaire designed to answer the questions above. I felt 2 to 3 questions on each area would provide me with a better understanding of the audience who would most likely enjoy my Media Productions such as my Digipak or Music Video. By conducting this research before creating my productions I would be able to gain an insight into what was necessary to attract them.

The other purpose was to gain research valuable to my Media Investigation into Piracy and its effects. I felt rather than sending out 2 separate questionnaires it would be more productive and efficient on my part to combine them into one.

I designed the questionnaire to be answered on the internet rather than by hand, this enabled me to quickly spread it across social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter while also saving me time on having to type up the results or enter the information into a Table to design a graph. I sent this questionnaire out to a random selection of individuals on my list of contacts and within a day or so had collected all the information I needed.

The demographic focus of my research was on the age group of around 16-25 because from my own taste in music and experience in attending Indie music gigs I know that this will be the age group most likely to enjoy the Blighters type of music. Furthermore I realise from working in a Computer Services & Training Company that the majority of people in that age group are far more savoury with the internet and technology meaning that they would give me more of a non-biased answer on Piracy. There would be no true result asking if someone would use Piracy as their active method to acquire their music if they can’t use a computer let alone an internet browser.

The demographic would be only slightly heavier on the male side than females but otherwise gender equal. The indie scene is made out of many individuals but can also attract Aspirers who are attracted by the musicians’ skills or even mainstreamers can be attracted depending how popular the Indie band becomes. What this means for my research is that it has been collected off a wide range of individuals which can’t be specifically locked down onto the groups personal aspirations but rather their age group.