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I played a show (with very few people in attendance) recently and I learned that my target audience isn't who I thought it was.

Most of my gigs have sort of consisted of either me playing to empty chairs, or me playing to other musicians, or me playing to people who came for something else other than music (like ice cream or coffee.) I've played originals, covers, folk, pop, rock, etc. I've never really had great communication with an audience, which is strange, because when I do trainings at my day job, I'm pretty good at getting people laughing and comfortable.

But for this gig where almost no one showed up, I really connected. I had people laughing, they were enjoying themselves. It was weird. What was different? I've played to people and been ignored, or had people leave, or be polite and pay attention but not be into it... why were these folks so into it?

I found my target audience. They totally got my music and they liked the stories and the little jokes I threw in, which made me more comfortable, which made me tell better stories, etc. And what I discovered is that my target audience is women, who are my age or older than me. The women who thought I put on a great show were all my age or older (I'm 43.) They also liked the style of music I was playing (mostly folk/story songs,) so of course that's important. So yeah, women 40 or older who like acoustic music. Apparently that's my demographic.

Knowing this "should" make it easier for me to find gigs that are more appropriate, ie play in front of audiences that are more likely to dig my music. Libraries and bookstores are more appropriate for me, probably, than coffee shops near college campuses.

What about you? Have you determined your target audience? Why or why not? Who are they? How did you figure it out?


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I used to think I knew. I had figured my target audience were probably the early baby boomers--folks who still knew how to do the two-step and wished Hank Williams were still alive (along with Hank Thompson, Hank Snow, and a few others). How could I tell? Well, if they smiled, if they sang along, if they danced, or if they requested specific things, as opposed to saying "Eww..." and clapping hands over their children's ears. The folks who liked the stuff the best seemed to be about my age or older (I was 4 when ol' Hank died). And I'd figured out which of my songs appealed to women more than men, and vice versa, and so on.

That was before my daughter (who was in high school) told me a lot of her friends were listening to my CD, singing the songs, and telling her they thought her dad was cool. Wait a minute--these are teenagers, and they ain't supposed to be listening to this stuff. They're supposed to hate it. Apparently not. I've had a few other surprises--like a tavern full of college kids singing along with "Hank's Song," and Christmas carolers singing "I'm Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas." I don't know how big the market is any more. I am trying to find out. All I know is it's a market that appears to be being ignored by the commercial record industry. I think they're ignoring it at their peril--but hey, they don't listen to me.

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Richard, I don't think I have mine figured out but I wonder if yours is really "people who are here to listen to original songs", rather than 40+ women. It may be that more women are interested in original songs, but it also may be that the bookstore/library crowd is more into creative originals than folks who hang out at bars or coffee shops. And by the way, I think most musician showcase folks are really just waiting for you or me to shut up so they can get up and do their thing!

The Blue Island Beer Club does a mixture of originals and less common covers from the classic rock era. We have not done too well at bar/restaurant gigs in terms of return engagements. We do not look for gigs where we are wallpaper amid a sea of TVs showing sports to drunken fans. We have been successful at coffee shops in terms of the audience liking us, but we are inclined to spend more than we get paid which as any accountant will tell you is a disaster in the making.

Our most appreciative audiences seem to be at events like outdoor markets and the like. I guess the people tend to be more mature like us, sober, and perhaps looking for stuff to do or buy.

I recently put five of my newer original songs on a CD and gave them away as Christmas presents to friends. Several have listened and commented and it is interesting that different songs have grabbed different people. One says "I like the first and the last song the best". Another said "I really like song #2". And so on - (they all like the instrumental on which I am not singing though!).

Interesting stuff.....


Colin

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Joe,

I get where you are coming from, and it's totally possible that there are teenagers out there who might like my music. The problem is that the majority of them probably would NOT like it, so from a marketing standpoint, it's not a good group for me to aim at. My angle is that I'm trying to figure out the best way to promote myself both for gigs and for CD sales. I don't think it's particularly effective to market yourself when you don't know who your audience is. But it's also true that I don't know what I'm doing, so there's that...

Colin,

You could be right about the original thing. It just seems that at my gigs, women pay more attention than men, in general, and they look like they appreciate it more. I dunno. I agree about showcases and open mics, but there are exceptions... when we used to have the JPF showcases, I honestly felt like people enjoyed listening to each other. There were several people that I always liked hearing at the showcases. But mostly, yeah, it's people waiting for their turn. I think it gets to be good when you get a regular group of people coming back all the time.

I just think it's important for any artist to know who his/her target audience is. Trying to reach or appeal to everyone is a waste of time and money. We have a product (our music) that we want to sell to people, therefore we need to identify who is most likely to enjoy what we offer. Once we know WHO they are, the next step is figuring out how to reach them. Which probably means figuring out what they do, where they go in real life and online, what their interests are, and so on and so forth.






Richard MacLemale
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Richard, great thread!!

My target audience would be a white male, 59 years old, Christian, living in the South, educated, somewhat musically literate, married with children and a grandchild, libertarian and fairly socially liberal, well read but with eccentric tastes, and anyone else who might agree with the above.


You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

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P.S.

Richard, this is a great thread idea, you might put it in the General Forums.


You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music

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OK, will do.


Richard MacLemale
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After seeing you perform many times and hearing many of your songs, I can understand that. In general, your songs are story songs, more emotional songs, with a lot of reminiscing and easy, laid back beats, melodies, and sounds. Most of the more mature women I know tend to be attracted to songs with these attributes. The good craftsmanship helps, also (in any market).

Congratulations! I'm still trying to find my target audience. It's hard to market stuff when you can't figure out what is common among your varied admirers. They seem to cover all age groups, with maybe a little more emphasis among kids (pre-teens and teens) and baby boomers. I haven't noticed any difference in general among the sexes, though some songs appeal more to guys and some more to gals. Maybe my stuff isn't consistent enough and is too much all over the place style-wise.


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You know it's funny. The more "mature"/"(Old)I get , so does my audience.I came up from the Pete Seger/ Bob Dylan/ PP&M folk scare in the 60's and the boomers tend to like me more. but I have found that their kids (and grandkids) have also been influenced by their parents tastes in music, The biggest croud I ever played for was 20,000 strong, and of ages from 5 to 60 and everyone listened once I got into my show. what a great feeling.(love to do THAT again).

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I think if I played in front of 20,000 people all that would come out of my mouth would be a little squeak! I'd love to try it, though!

Andy, it's hard to tell, in my case, if I'm finding my focus as an artist or if I'm just responding to what people seem to like. I get way better reactions to my story songs than anything else I do, and I'm now writing more story songs. I do like them better than my pop/rock songs, though. I'm sort of happy with the idea of what I've become, musically, even though I'm nothing like the music I listen to. I listen to Imogen Heap and Keane, stuff like that. Oh well. I think that your audience would be more varied than mine, so I think you're lucky. Plus you can do cool music videos. smile



Richard MacLemale
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Good or bad, my target audience is me. If other people get it that's fine. Some do, a lot more don't. But in general I'd have to say the audience demographic that would get me the most would be between 35-60, a little left in thinking, and folks who don't mind a little non-radio twang with their coffee. It's a very small group of people - about three at last count. It's funny though most younger kids, probably under 6, get into my music for the rhythm and beat.

It's strange though - people 'get' music for various reasons and each person's a little different. So I think many times your going to get people outside your target that like what you're doing because something resonates with them in particular.

Steve


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Oh, I think that's true. There's the rare teenager that will tell you how much they like your music. Not everyone is the same. I like your music, and I don't listen to a whole lot of Americana or anything close. Well, not true - I do like Steve Earle. But knowing the sort of folks who will be likely to enjoy what you do is, I think, important. I'm trying to move beyond "I'm playing at such and such because they'll have me" to "I'm playing at such and such because I think my music will go down well there." Trick is finding out where such and such is. smile I'd rather play for 10 people who like my music instead of 50 who will ignore me. Hard to find 10 people, though.

Understanding your target audience can not only help you pick out gigs where your target might be, but in theory it should help in the process of advertising and marketing. In reality, there's no shortage of places to play. There's a coffee shop 3 miles from my house that I could probably play at any night I want. Problem is, no one would be there. So the trick then becomes, how do I get people to come to my shows? People I don't know, not just family and friends. And the answer is, I've never thought about it. But knowing who my target is, it should be easier to come up with ways of letting them know that they should come and see me, that they might enjoy it.

Of course, advertising and marketing normally cost money, which I'm not willing to spend. So that's a challenge. How do I find the people in my target, and then how do I convince them to come out to a show? This will require clever, creative thinking. Sadly all I have is me. Oh well. The pieces are there. I just have to figure out how to assemble the thing with no directions and the wrong tools.





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I think part of our problem is our target audience's age bracket - I think younger folks - teens to maybe mid 20s are more likely to go hear new live bands and follow them. I think once you get above that age the likelihood of folks going out to listen to a newer unknown band is a lot less likely. Convincing those folks to come out is a chore....

Steve


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Steve, I think you're mostly right, though there are opportunities to latch onto baby boomers if you can reach them when it's convenient to them.

Mike McKee and I played a show at Leu Gardens in Orlando for CFFolk on a Sunday afternoon in November. There were 40-50 in attendance who had never heard of us before, but they turn out for CFFolk's shows knowing the acts have been vetted. They listened carefully and responded positively to 90 minutes of original music that they'd never heard before. Many stuck around to thank us for playing for them...that doesn't happen every day!

I think the key is that it was on their terms, not ours. I took that as a lesson learned.

Mike

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I wish I could learn lessons.....


Steve Vaclavik

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My target audience is people who enjoy acoustic folk music, they usually hang at coffee houses, casual restaurants, community events, farmer's markets, and local festivals, & they enjoy listening to performing songwriters.


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That pretty much describes every place I've played. smile Actually I haven't played at local festivals... but I NEED to.


Richard MacLemale
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Originally Posted by Richard Maclemale
Have you determined your target audience?


Being we're of baby boomer ages, and have songs influenced by The Beatles, Kinks, Elton, Moody Blues, etc, we get the most smiles and reaction from men and women who are similar in age, and like most bands of the Classic British Pop/Rock style.

We like to think those people want new music of that style, since they have heard their classics for decades now.
Seems to be. Just the clubs are filled with younger people. This is why we focus on giving concerts in parks or town main streets for block parties.

Thanks,
John Daubert
"Too Little Time"



Actually a Member Since 1996 or 97 (Number One Hundred Something).
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I agree with Steve: When I write, my target audience is me. If I don't like it, it isn't worth doing. It has to entertain me and make me enthusiastic.

The trouble is in keeping that enthusiasm. After listening to the song between 300 to 500 times (literally) during the recording process, I am by that time usually quite bored with my song, as I would be with any song. That is one of the big disadvantages of doing everything yourself: You have to do all those takes yourself and listen to them all repeatedly.

Actually, appealing to an older audience is not bad as they are more willing and able to buy CDs. But I don't know of an easy way to reach them. Most rarely go to clubs, coffeehouses, open mics, etc. Usually we just end up performing for other musicians and aspiring songwriters. And as we all know, that is one group that in general doesn't have much spare cash.


https://www.stonemarmot.com
Stone Marmot
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and its music video at
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John nailed it. When we write, we reflect the music that influenced us. And that will appeal to people who are our age, or in some cases older. So we need to seek out venues where those people go. Main street parties, block parties, concerts in the park, etc, are good examples of those places. And Andy's right in that they have more disposable income. But they don't VALUE music as much as young people. They just don't. Music is more important to people in their youth. Musicians are sort of the exception to the rule. Which is why we spend so much time playing in front of each other. Yes, there ARE older folks who still love music. But older folks in general don't seek it out.

It didn't always work that way. When I think about the past and country/bluegrass played by amateurs, I envision a whole bunch of families getting together and the musicians of those families (young and old) sitting out on the front porch with their instruments, playing upbeat bluegrass, and the grownups getting hammered and having a grand old time. And really good food.

For all I know, that's still happening in the mountains in Virginia or whatever. If so, good for them. I live in the suburbs and people my age for the most part don't even listen to music much.

I think that's one reason I've sort of gravitated to folk. It's a timeless music, so you can get away with using older melodies. It does have an audience, though it's a small one. Some younger people do like folk - mostly they're younger musicians, though. LOL. Actually, real folk musicians would laugh at me and say that I don't do real folk. They're right. It's more like folk/pop or folk/rock. Closest I can come.

Regarding writing for yourself. I think we all do that to some degree. That works better for some people than others. Steve writes for himself but writes pretty consistently Americana. In other words, he naturally has a focus. My problem when I started making CD's was that I did not have any natural focus. My first CD has rock, pop, piano rock, acoustic rock, pop/rock... it's all over the map. I tried to do hard rock on one song (Can't Back Down) and it came out like schlocky pop. The guitar sounds wonderful - the lyrics and vocals don't match the guitar at ALL. My second CD, I tried to focus and I ended up with a pop/rock sound from 1982. I liked the CD a lot, but it didn't make sense - I'm out playing gigs with an acoustic, and my CD sounds like The Cars. Again, lack of focus and vision. My third CD I feel like I hit it - the songs are acoustic based and can sound decent without a band. The style is folk/rock consistently so it's not all over the map.

Sorry - I'm blathering on about me, me, me. What I'm trying to get out of this discussion is how to get appropriate gigs, really. And that starts with determining who will like your music.







Richard MacLemale
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Ya, It's a bitch being creative with few outlets.But. in my case,
I record with alot of "bells and whistles"sure that are impossible to re-create on stage as a solo, accoustic performer, but.
as someone once said," The Song's The thing". It is all in how you present it.
I'm an OK songwriter I guess, but through the many years I've been at it,I've found , if you can make anything entertaining, be it your's or "Free Bird" just communicate with whomever may be listening, make THEM part of your show!That is the secret to everything.I don't care if they are 3 yr's old or 90 yr's old.acknowledge them.
"if you sing it, They will come"

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Interestingly, this topic comes up fairly often in my classes (I'm currently working towards an MBA in Marketing). One recurring theme is that it is almost always more effective to slice up your potential audience by values rather than by demographics. People who enjoy a certain genre of music, people who love to dance, people who love a good story, people who love to get drunk and scream lyrics of bad 80's music, etc etc. Thinking about it that way can better help you plan gigs than trying to find a bar/coffeehouse/whatever that will happen to feature an audience made up of people of a certain gender and/or age group on the night you are performing.

That's my take on it, at least...



Bill Johnston - Singer. Songwriter. Fool.
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I'd agree with that. But I'd also suggest that each of those groups are ALSO tied directly to demographics.


Richard MacLemale
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Originally Posted by Richard Maclemale

I'd agree with that. But I'd also suggest that each of those groups are ALSO tied directly to demographics.


I'm not so sure that's true. As an example, consider the possible segments I mentioned in my last post. Which of those can be tied to a specific age group? A certain gender? Region? Profession? Income level? One of the most wonderful things about music is that it has the power to transcend these types of groupings.

Think about this from your initial post:

Originally Posted by Richard Maclemale

Libraries and bookstores are more appropriate for me, probably, than coffee shops near college campuses.


I think you are spot-on in identifying a type of venue where your music would be well received. But it isn't because women over 40 will/won't be there. It is because people who go to libraries and bookstores like stories, and that's the type of songs that you write.


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It's been said but Great thread here...
I think that demographics have everything to do with it and most has been covered by the various artists who had chimed in here. As many of you know Jim and I are involved in producing a few shows this Spring and we have to look at this topic very carefully. The genre of the artist, the type of content that they relay, the age groups in the general areas where we are securing venues, will the snowbirds be in town ....it goes on and on.
I think the most important thing though as semi pro or polished amateurs as we most find ourselves that we are as practiced, confident and secure when we hit that mic. If we do all we can for our performance quality and we network well the audience will start to show for you.
Keep Strummin' Al Alvarez
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You mean...the entire world is not completely enthusiastic about me??

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Richard,
I believe your story songs are what you enjoy. Your best audience are people who like stories. Probably men or women who read stories. Give the book stores a try.

We have now passed 1200 performances at our Tampa Friday Night open Mic and I am amazed at the performers who can connect with their audience before they begin the song. It makes sense to me to concetrate on songs that will interest a general audience and create monologues for each song. It seems the more clear an explanation about the song the more people are willing to strain to hear and understand it.

I play many public domain songs that are over 100 years old and they all have great stories. Maybe that's why they are around still. I try to also stick to story songs for my originals because that is what I have found to be where I can best connect to an audience.

If there is any Christmas song that will keep your attention it is your "Old Brown Hat" please tell me it's a true story.

See you
Papos


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Papos,

Old Brown Hat is based on a true story - some of the details have been changed a little bit. I wrote it based on a short story my dad wrote, and his short story was true. My dad had an alcoholic uncle who was sort of a family outcast. And he really did collect money from the bar regulars and buy Christmas presents for the poor, with my dad's help, and he really did ask my dad to keep it a secret. And my dad did, until years after his uncle had passed away.


Richard MacLemale
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