What did you learn from your audience feedback?

Tomas McLoughlin

In order to gain some sort of understanding of what my audience thought of my productions, I sent out a survey, using

Survey Monkey – a website which enables you to design and produce a questionnaires with various answer formats.

• These were the questions I put forward to the viewing audience:• 1. What music do you usually listen to? • 2. What genre of music do you think my video belongs? • 3. How did my video compare with other music videos of this genre?• 4. Where would you expect to hear/see my song/video if it was

released? (which radio stations/tv channels etc)• 5. Did the advert digipack and video link together? If so, how?

(Costumes, locations, fonts, etc) • 6. If you came across my album in store, would you pick it up? Why?• 7. What improvements could be made to the video and digipack?• 8. Did you enjoy my video? Was it entertaining?

One of the completed questionnaires I received on SurveyMonkey.com

1. What music do you usually listen to?

• Answering my questionnaire were fans of various genres, ranging from hip-hop/rap fans to heavy metal and Rock fans

2. What genre of music do you think my video belongs to?

• Everyone seemed to correctly recognise the genre of my video, which was a positive for me as it means that I have displayed certain conventions and have made the genre clear to the audience. It is important that the audience can categorise and understand my video.

3. How did my video compare with other music videos of this genre?

• The general feeling was that my music video was unconventional and unique, compared to most other Hip-hop music videos. Mine included none of the antics which you see in stereotypical rap videos. There was no showing off material objects and there was no sexualisation of women. Among the answers were

• -‘More toned down’• -‘Less characters’• -‘More stylish clothing’• -‘Less arrogant’• -‘Slower paced’• These answers are good to hear. The sub-genre of the song is

ALTERNATIVE hip-hop so I think it was appropriate to produce something unique rather than monotonous.

4. Where would you expect to hear/see my music/video if it was released? (which radio stations/tv channels etc)

• The answers to this question were as expected. It was the biggest distributers of urban music that came up, the likes of Radio 1xtra and MTV which the audience think will air my content. This shows that the video I produced is suitable for every age. The fact that Radio 1 and 1xtra came up means that my video is likely to be aired to young people in particular. This is good because young people were my target audience when planning and creating the video. My video is unlikely to feature in magazines such as NME or Kerrang as these magazines focus on Indie/Rock music.

5.Did the advert, digipack and video link together? If so, how? (Costumes, locations, fonts, etc)

• The answers I gained told me that the audience recognised the link between the three products. The links were recognised through the font, setting, costume and artist logo which were kept the same throughout. I was happy with the response to this question as it proved to me that I used costumes, locations, fonts and logos effectively and in a way that the audience would be able to familiarise between the texts

6. If you came across my album in store, would you pick it up? Why?

• Generally the feedback on the album cover was good. People said that it was attractive and that it introduced the audience to my artist, which were the two key functions of my digipack. The font was bold and brightly coloured which caught the eye of my audience. I think the bold and outstanding logo is a feature which calls out to young people – my target audience being 15 to 25 year old males.

• However, according to my questionnaires, my album cover was suitable and attractive to a wide range of people including middle aged men and women – although my questionnaire results suggested there was something in-your-face about the blue font, making it appear youthful.

7. What improvements could be made to the video, advert and digipack?

• According to my audience there wasn’t much that could be improved to my video, apart from:

• -Slightly better lip syncing• -More of a narrative• I think having more of a narrative would have enabled me to connect

better with my audience and help them relate to the song better.• My digipack cover received good feedback but a few people said that I

could have been more imaginative by using different photos for the back and front cover. That would be something to think about next time I make an album cover.

• The only suggested improvement I received for the advert was that some of the font could have been bolder in order to shout out to the audience. This is something I should think about considering the whole purpose of the magazine advert is to draw the attention of readers. Apart from this, there were no other suggested improvements to my texts.

8. Did you enjoy my video? Was it entertaining?

• Not one person said that they didn’t enjoy my video. The general response was that it was entertaining and relevant to the song with a good mixture of narrative and performance. Those who watched my video also said that it was unique and authentic compared to other hip-hop videos, and that it represented my artist as more stylish as well as down to earth. This would appear to give my video an edge over most other hip-hop videos!

• Overall I am pleased with the feedback I gained from my audience. I was interesting to hear what they think of my piece. I have learnt exactly how to target specific audiences and have learnt that you don’t have to copy all of the conventions of your genre in order to represent it. I have taken the criticism on board. Next time I will try to include more narrative in my video as well as keeping the same font and logos throughout, as this worked well.