People Magazine Target Audience
Know Your Target Audience
This is no exaggeration; I have had this conversation more than one hundred times with artists and groups I’ve worked with: who is your target audience?
Much can be said about people not wanting to be categorized; however, like it or not that’s how things work. Categorizing helps finding a particular thing easier; check the library and see how things are set up.
Grocery stores categorize shopping aisles. Business magazines cater to different areas of business; Black Enterprise focuses on African-Americans; Entrepreneur focuses on entrepreneurs; Forbes focuses on the largest corporations in the world. While each magazine is about business, they focus on a different audience in the business community.
So who is your target audience? In my experience, many artists resist categorization not because of the implied artistic limitation, but because of the work and responsibility involved in deciding to direct their creative output. As an artist you can do your music however you like; however, making money with your music will require that you know who wants it.
Just because you rap and may be crazy with swagger doesn’t mean everyone will love your work. Jay Z, Hannah Montana and Pearl Jam have all gone platinum but let me be clear about this; only one of them got any money from me. The other two acts got their money from a different group of music lovers.
You can’t get everybody, but you can get yours! In order to get paid, know who wants what you do.
Know your target audience and focus you’re creativity for that audience!
About the Author
Roger E Lear, also known as REL, has been creating and producing music for over 22 years. He has helped many new as well as established artists create money making music. He has built his career as a full time music producer by providing excellent quality music production and song writing services.
REL publishes a free weekly newsletter with helpful tips for aspiring artists at http://www.BanginBeatsByREL.com. Included with all subscriptions are free sample beats. You can learn more about REL at http://www.BanginBeatsByREL.com/About-REL.
James R. Gaines – Delacorte Magazine Lecture