Focus group

As a small group, we discussed the following about music magazines:


Music tastes artists genre what they are listening to now recent tastes what not liked?

No specifics that people listen to, general like for every genre of music with the exception of Classical and country music. Music listened to at the moment is tending to be chart music such as songs in the top 10 but other than this no specific genre or bands.

When asking about favourite bands again there were no specifics just general bands that would usually appear in the charts with a few exceptions for bands that are perhaps not as high profile as the usual chart toppers.

Consummation of music:

We often listen to music to pass the time, at home or when we’re “out and about”, this includes listening to music all the time on an mp3 player or a mobile phone. Laptops are also used as a source of music because of the accessibility to online music such as on Youtube or online radio stations. Also, music is accessible on TV so we can listen to radio stations when at home.

When finding out about new music, it often stems from recommendation from friends, this could be by “word of mouth” or on social networking sites such as Facebook. Often new music is introduced on the radio before being released and also Youtube often has recommended/featured videos which will promote new music.

Overall, as a class we discovered:
- Not many people consume music magazines.
- Sales of specialist magazines are usually around 30000-50000
- Music tastes are generally fairly narrow.
- Illegal downloading means less money is coming into the music industry so there is less money for advertising.

What the consumer wants to see in a music magazine:

When asking my focus group what they want to see in a music magazine, they wanted to see popular bands or artists that they like, a way of presenting these in a magazine would be through reviews and interviews. My focus group also wanted to find out upcoming dates of tours, including fewstivals and the line ups. Also, music related new stories were a popular choice for being in a music magazine, to enable the consumer to get up to date with the music world.