AUDIENCE

What is a audience?

A niche audience is a small selected group of people  they have a unique interest. Along with this interest the audience will also have specific needs and wants from a product. An example of a niche market is 16-26 year olds who are interested in heavy metal music.

A mass audience also known as broadcast audience, is a very large group of people who consume mainstream products. Mass audience's can include a range of ages, social classes and gender's. An example is a newspaper, that can be read by anyone anywhere.

NRS Social Grade

The NRS (National Readership Survey) social grade used in the UK to classify readers in order to undertake market research, The grades are classed by the occupation of the head of the household. 

CLASS A (upper middle class) - well paid  professionals, higher managerial or administrative.

CLASS B (middle class) - middle management, fairly well paid professionals, intermediate

                                           managerial.

CLASS C1 (lower middle class) junior management, clerical or supervisory.

CLASS C2 (skilled working class) 'blue collar' professionals or skilled manual workers.

CLASS D (working class) semi and unskilled manual workers.

CLASS E (non working) students, unemployed or pensioners.

By stereotypically ordering people into classes, companies are able to measure their audience by looking at rating, sales and subscription figures. They are also able to see who their dominant class is so they also know who their target audience is. 

NME Demographics

I am inspired by the style of NME which is British indie/alternative magazine. Because I want my product to be of a similar layout to NME, it is important I research how NME attracts their target audience and how they are.

60.9% of NME reader's are of the A, B and C1 social class. Because  the magazine was read by 289,000 adults in June 2012, many of these adults would have had very well paid and professional jobs meaning they can easily afford the price (£2.50) of the magazine. Another reason for this is that NME sometimes includes older indie artists such as David Bowie which would attract an older audience. C2, D and E social classes were 39.1% of the total readers which is still a large percentage showing that younger generation are also interested. However this generation are more in touch with technology so they probably access articles about indie music for free online.

65.7% of NME readers were male in June 2012. Stereotypically indie, alternative, heavy metal and rock music have always appealed more to men, hence the reason there are more male indie bands. Young women especially typically tend to prefer pop music therefore they would buy magazines related to that genre. However NME is a unisex magazine therefore it should appeal to both genders.







Indie music enthusiasts typically tend to be of a younger age than older, as older generations prefer calmer music like classical than indie rock. Almost all of NME's readers are between 15-34 (93.1%)  and only 6.9% are 35 and older. NME often uses colourful and slang language which only young people would understand and accept. The age range of 15-34 means most people will still be in education whether it is collage or university where this music genre is most popular compared to others such as pop.