Audience and Market Research
For my EP, I have decided to produce two tracks that both fall into the indie rock genre. The two songs that I have been working on take inspiration and sound similar to the music of welsh rock band The Stereophonics. I have decided to look into where The Stereophonics distribute their music, to get ideas on the audience that I should be targeting as well as the best platforms to use for the genre of music.
I have decided to start my research by looking into the different ways The Stereophonics release their music. Like many modern-day bands and artists, The Stereophonics release their music on to different streaming services for fans to download their music.
The streaming services used by the welsh band include popular streaming sites like YouTube, Spotify, ITunes, Apple Music, Deezer. This is along with other services as such as Google Play and Amazon Music. Fans of The Stereophonics are also able to download or buy physical copies of the band’s music from their official website, where you are able to purchase multiple different albums including deluxe editions.
As you would expect, The Stereophonics sell physical copies of their different albums in the form of CDs and vinyl.
Over the years, The Stereophonics have been played on multiple radio stations. Radio stations as such as Radio X and Absolute Radio are current stations that cater for people who enjoy listening to indie rock and guitar based music as opposed to other genres like pop or metal. Other artists that are often get played on these two radio stations include bands like Catfish and the Bottlemen, Arctic Monkeys and solo artists like Noel and Liam Gallagher.
If I were looking to release my EP to the public, I feel I would have to go about it in a similar way to indie bands like The Stereophonics and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Indie rock music as a genre is popular in many parts of the world. Many different places in the world have created their own scenes based around the indie genre, Manchester having Madchester with the likes of the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, and Seattle having Grunge with bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. In the United Kingdom, indie rock music gets listened to in pretty much every city with Coventry and Oxford being the two cities where the genre is listened to most.
Indie currently seems to be a genre of music that is enjoyed by people of all ages with the genre becoming increasingly popular. Interestingly, indie music is most popular with people ranging between the ages of 18-24 showing that the genre is appreciated by people studying further education at universities or by those in work at a similar age range.
Indie music, as I have already pointed out, seems to be about people creating different scenes depending on where they are and the artists they are actually listening to. If the music were to be performed then it would probably get the best reaction in cities in the northern parts of the country. Cities like Liverpool and Manchester would be great to release indie music into because they have a large music scene and a large number of indie and rock bands have made a name for themselves in these places.
I intend on releasing my EP onto streaming services as such as Spotify and Apple Music. I plan on doing this because this seems to be the most common way of releasing music in this day and age, whatever the genre. Spotify and Apple Music are really good ways of getting your music out there because of the ‘similar artists’ feature. This feature is really helpful because it recommends your music when a listener is listening to an artist that plays similar music to yourself, meaning that you can gain new followers and hopefully increase your fan base.
Another way of getting my EP listened to online, is by sending it over the music review blogs as well as music review YouTube channels. An example of this would be the blog Hypebot. The blog is great because, they post regular in-depth posts about multiple things related to the industry. Hypebot is also aimed towards indie musicians, meaning that it would be a great platform to get my music reviewed on.
A similar way to get music reviewed would be to send my music to different music magazine companies. Magazines as such as Total Guitar magazine, It’s all Indie, and Kerrang! Magazine, are great at promoting up and coming bands and artists and help to build your profile.
Social Media is currently an amazing way to promote and express anything you wish. Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat can be used to promote the EP by posting regular posts. The posts can include pictures of the EP artwork as well as links to the different platforms that you can purchase and download the music from. Local band ‘Watercolours’ are very active on social media and regularly post links for their audience to purchase their music as well as merchandise.
In terms of radio stations, I could approach different small radio stations as such as BBC Hereford and Worcester to arrange interviews where I promote my sound and talk about influences and ideas. As a student, I could approach the student radio station Tone Radio and request if my music could be played on their station in the different student union bars on all of the campuses. Local country artist Demi Marriner has done this in the past, and it is a great way of getting a larger amount of people to listen to my music.
Another idea I could use to promote my EP is to have adverts on YouTube videos as well as on social media sites like Facebook. I have found that this is a common way of promoting music with a number of indie artists, the most recent one being Blossoms. The Blossoms have recently had a clip of their new single’s music video appear as an advert on YouTube, making you aware that new music is out. This could be a really good way to promote my EP and maybe even help to gain a broader following.
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