Target Audience

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran’s target audience is younger people (between the ages of around 15-25), which is around his age (20).

He was self promoted for a while, until he signed to asylum/atlantic records in 2011. Ed first began writing music and doing gigs in 2005. He supportedartists such as Example and Just Jack, which have a similar target audience to him.

He is well known for being mostly self promoted – he does it all himself, even writing the songs.

Ed went to Los Angeles, unsigned, and played as many open mic nights as he could. Many of the people in his target audience would have gone to these open mic nights, this is how he began to get a bigger fan-base.

After this his fan-base grew online; he posted videos of himself playing his songs (see the link below the powerpoint) on Youtube which gave him a lot more publicity. Social networking sites like Facebook also helped him gain a bigger fan-base. He has his own profile, which people can ‘like’, which shows up on other people’s news feeds, so other people can find out about him.

In 2011, Ed did an album of collaborations with artists with a similar target audience –this helped him get more fans because the other artists he collaborated with could also promote the songs.

A couple of months later, he put on a gig at The Barfly (a well known venue in Camden, London). Most of his target audience are students, so they don’t have a lot of money, so this would have really appealed to them. Ed has a few songs on the application called Spotify. A lot of young people use this, both on their computers and their mobiles. This allows people to find and listen to his music for free, and share music with other people. This reallyappeals to a younger audience as they don’t usually have a lot of money, so they don’t really want to have to pay for music.

Machine Head

Machine Head are a heavy metal band from California. Their target audience is quite varied, but the main audience seems to be between the ages of about 16 and 35.

They tour regularly and play at festivals every year. People within this target audience (particularly the younger ones) attend gigs and festivals regularly, so this really appeals to them and helps them gain a larger fan-base.

Every time Machine Head bring out a new album, they also bring out new merchandise to advertise it. Their target audience are the type that love to wear their favourite bands’ merchandise, so the new merchandise keeps their fans keen. They sell their merchandise at gigs and festivals, which is where their target audience loves to go.

They advertise their albums and tours in music magazines such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang!. These are the magazines that their target audience reads, so this way they’re more likely to get noticed by other people.

Machine Head do regular interviews in magazines (e.g. Kerrang! And Metal Hammer) and on music channels about their music. Most of their target audience watches these music channels (e.g. Kerrang! And Scuzz). Their videos are also shown regularly on these music channels.Because their fan-base also has slightly older people as well, they tend to rely on more traditional promotional methods, such as magazines and music channels, to gain popularity. If they were just aiming towards a younger audience then they would rely on just the internet to promote themselves.

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring Me The Horizon’s target audience is teenagers between the ages of about 14 – 19.

They tour and play at festivals regularly (roughly every year). Their target audience loves attending gigs and festivals regularly, so this really appeals to them. They also support other bands on tour in the same genre and with the same target audience (such as A Day To Remember), so they can gain a bigger fan-base.They release songs with other

artists with a similar target audience, such as You Me At Six, so they appeal to their audience more.

Like Machine Head, they bring out new merchandise every time they have a new album out. Their target audience loves to wear their favourite bands’ merchandise. This also advertises them to other people so they gain more popularity.

Their videos and adverts are played on music channels (Kerrang! And Scuzz) regularly. Their target audience watches music channels a lot so this is a great way for them to promote their music. They alsohave adverts in the magazines that their target audience reads alot, so they can get thepublicity they need fromthem.