Chris' Production Blog
Well.....
Target audience is somewhat of a tricky one!
When first starting to play an instrument all we want to do is play and be like our hero rock stars or pop stars or whoever it may be. Then we start meeting people and they start telling us what music to listen to, "If you like that then you should listen to this!!". And we either do or we don't. We either expand our taste into the never ending universe of genre, sub-genre, sub-sub-genre and is that even music anymore?? Or we stick only to one and do what they did.
If sticking to the one is what we do, then defining a target audience is pretty easy..... They're the same type of people as us, they go to the same shows, they wear the same clothes and so long as we can write music that vaguely represents every popular song from that genre, then it's sold.
If by chance we went down the road of curiosity and found that not all tea tastes the same and cheese and apricot jam toast, though a bit strange sounding, is actually quite yummy, then perhaps we find ourselves thinking "I don't know who my target audience is. I don't even know what genre this belongs to. It sounds a bit like jazzy and a bit electronic and it fits in with rocky and folky stuff and it's a bit up tempo, but it doesn't really sound like any of them enough to say which one is the definitive target audience........"
So maybe all are suitable? And why not?!
Having a broader target audience will make a product more difficult to market, but if we get all the elements right then we're at least making things a little easier. First start with a solid foundation in the main musical elements. Drums and Bass drive the music and should adhere as much as possible to one genre. Then the chordal instruments such as piano, synth and guitars create the context of the song and can diverge from the foundation genre. All the parts on top like lead sounds and voices and melodies can now have a fun time dancing around in unfamiliar territories to create something unique.
I guess the target audience are those looking for something unique and a little bit different, but still familiar enough so they can label it and put it in a box. (People seem to like putting things in boxes)
The great thing about most art forms is that no matter what label it's given or what category it sits under, it can all still be found in the same place, they're still given the one umbrella labels. Music, Film, Dance etc. And so our music will sit with the rest on the virtual shelves of Bandcamp, Soumdcloud, iTunes and Spotify while we use the most common forms of social media to force it upon people until they like it and buy it.