Audience Research: Statistics of Indie

What is Indie
Independent music or 'Indie' originates from artists with a do it yourself approach to creating and recording music. Indie covers many sub-genres like: indie-rock, indie-pop and indie-metal, they are just some of the sub-genres covered by indie.

Having a 'do it yourself approach' has allowed these particular artists to exploit their talent across the market. However being independent has meant they don't have the money to apply a scatter approach in advertising their music. This has meant they have had to target a specific audience group, instead of targeting a large variety of people.

The audience of indie usually expect the song to have been completely written and produced by the artist. The music doesn't necessarily has to have a specific sound, they just want to know its been produced by real artists.

How Popular is Indie
The best example to help show the popularity of indie is the Arctic monkeys, they are a rock indie band which have been nominated for the best album Mercury award. Their album 'AM' is the second fastest selling album of 2013. Their album was also the first independent album to reach number one in the charts. These statistics help show that indie has become increasingly popular over recent years.

However the Arctic Monkeys are a rare example as the genre is rarely this successful. Instead artists tend to have very limited success with a very specific audience.

Who are the Indie Audience
Statistically the main audience for the genre are females between the ages of 18-24. This indicates that the genre is for more young adults, suggesting the genre is seen as more mature by some of its audience. Also the lyrics may work on this particular age group better as they are at the age where they have had a few experiences that they can relate to the song.