GENERIC RESEARCH: Websites Research

The Regrettes website analysis

·       When you first enter the website, a pop up appears promoting the band’s latest album (sense of commercial imperative). The pop up allows you to click on ‘Listen Now’, which takes you to a separate site that then asks you to choose a music service (including Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes Store etc.) where you can then stream/download the music. There’s also an option that takes you to the music video for ‘I Dare You’, one of the band’s latest releases.

·       Another pop up appears when you scroll down to the bottom of the website, offering you the opportunity to ‘Get on the list!’, where you can input your email address to get on The Regrettes mailing list and receive ‘exclusive information’ about their tour, video premiers and special announcements. This mailing list offers fans the ability to be apart of a community and makes them feel like they’re getting exclusive interactions with the artist.

·       The home page of the website has quite a conventional layout, with the band’s logo (that acts as a home button when you click it) in the top left-hand corner, and a navigation bar in the top right, making the site easy to navigate.

·       There is also a main image of the band that is at the top of the website across all pages (establishes the band’s star personas – links to Richard Dyer’s theory).

·       As you scroll down the website, one of the first things you see is an image of the band’s latest album, and two hyperlinks that take you to a page where you can stream the music (again promoting the album and encouraging people to stream/download).

·       The band’s latest album cover features a bold, 80s style sans-serif font, and a primary colour scheme which is reflected by the house style of the website (bold, sans serif fonts, colour scheme consisting mainly of black, white, and primary colours) – this reflects the band’s brand image, and is also an example of digital convergence.

·       Below this, there is an option to subscribe to the bands mailing list. Unusually, the band’s website doesn’t feature any links to social media (other than YouTube), so this is the only way fans can ‘interact’ with the band directly from the website. However, linking social media is the most obvious way to create digital convergence and would make it easier for fans to interact with the band, so I do intend to link my artists social media accounts to my website.

·       This part of the homepage features videos from The Regrettes YouTube channel (another example of digital convergence), including recent music videos and home-made infomercials promoting their album. These short videos could be seen as Easter Eggs, as most people would probably just watch the music videos, and not take notice of the shorter promotional videos unless they were fans of the band.

·       If you click on the ‘Video’ text from the navigation menu, it scrolls you down to this part of the homepage, rather than opening a separate page.

·       At the bottom of the homepage there is a list showing some of the bands upcoming gigs, with hyperlinks to a ticket agency where fans can purchase tickets.

·       If you click on the ‘About’ text in the navigation menu, it takes you to this page that tells you about the band, and explains the meaning of their latest album. This is something I could feature in my website, perhaps explaining the meaning of the latest video rather than the album – this could even be done in video format with an interview from the artist.

·       This is the page that opens when you click on the ‘Music’ option in the navigation menu. This page shows all the band’s recent music, with hyperlinks to stream/purchase the all the songs/albums.

·        As well as options to buy/stream the music, fans can also view the lyrics to all the songs. The play button next to the song titles also allows them to listen to the song whilst reading through the lyrics. This encourages fans to listen to the songs but also take a closer look at the lyrics.

·       When you click on the ‘Store’ option in the navigation bar, it takes you to a separate merchandise website where fans can purchase the bands latest album on Vinyl and CD.

Cavetown website analysis

·       This is the homepage for Cavetown’s website. The website doesn’t have a very conventional layout, with Cavetown’s logo (that also acts as a home button) at the top in the centre, and the navigation bar not visible until you click on the circle in the top left corner. When you click on this circle icon, the navigation bar shows options for ‘Tour’, ‘Store’, ‘Photos’ and ‘Music’. Personally, I prefer the navigation bar to be visible at all times (like on The Regrettes website), as this makes the website easier to navigate.

·       The first thing you see on the homepage is the artists most recent music video (an example of digital convergence), promoting the single and Cavetown’s upcoming album, and encouraging fans to engage with the video. When you pause the video, an option for ‘more videos’ pops up, and four other music videos from Cavetown’s YouTube channel can be seen.

·       Below the video are three hyperlinks that take you to different streaming websites where fans can pre-order the artist’s upcoming album.

·       The house style of the website is a mainly navy-blue colour scheme, with white text in a sans-serif font. This colour scheme reflects Cavetown’s latest album cover, which features mainly navy blue and white (among other colours), creating a clear brand identity. The navy-blue background of the website even features a repetitive print of a sleeping cat, again reflecting the artists most recent album cover, which features a similar sleeping cat. The majority of the text on the website does not include capital letters, most likely for aesthetic reasons, but perhaps also because a lot of teenagers (who the artist is most popular with) also type in this way.

·       There is also an Easter Egg above the Cavetown logo, which I will explain in more detail in a minute.

·       Below the music video is the artists merchandise, which is unusual, as most artists/bands have separate websites (linked in their own websites) where their merchandise is sold. I like the idea of featuring merchandise on the homepage of a website, as it means fans will definitely notice it, and probably be more likely to purchase it than if it was on a separate website that wasn’t as easy to find.

·       A few of the clothing items are even modelled by the artist (for example the hoodie in the top left of this screenshot), which would probably make fans more likely to purchase merchandise, as it would make them feel like they’re part of a community with the artist.

·       At the bottom of the homepage, there are links to all the artists social media, which is something very important in the digital age, especially if your target audience is teenagers and young adults. I definitely want to have links to my artists social media on my website as this is something very important to my target audience, as it allows fans to interact with their favourite artists/bands, and is also a good way to incorporate digital convergence.

·       This is the page that opens when you click on ‘Tour’ in the navigation bar, showing all the artists upcoming concerts, with hyperlinks to ticket agencies where fans can purchase tickets. This page also features an Easter Egg – if you click on the text that says ‘going to a show in the us this fall? get involved!’, a separate page opens that looks like this: 

·       This page tells fans about a project the artist has set up, where fans who come to their shows can donate items for animals and people in need. I really like this idea, and if I set up a list of tour dates on my website, I might do something similar.

·       This is the page that opens when you click on the ‘Photos’ option in the navigation bar. These photos help establish the artists star persona (Richard Dyer).

·       The photos featured on this page are all from concerts, encouraging fans to go to upcoming gigs by showing happy fans in the audience watching the artist perform.

·       This is the page that opens when you click on the ‘Music’ option in the navigation bar. This page allows fans to listen to short clips from all of Cavetown’s songs, and also gives them the option to stream the full songs and albums on Spotify. It’s unusual that this page only give fans the option to listen to the song on Spotify, as most artists websites give you the option to stream/download from various different services.

·       As mentioned previously, there is an Easter Egg above the Cavetown logo on the homepage – if you click on the text above the logo that reads ‘which cavetown artwork are you?’, it takes you to this separate website. This interactive feature allows fans to take a short quiz to determine which Cavetown painting they are, based off of things like eye colour, hair colour and favourite animal. This is a fun Easter Egg for avid fans who know that Cavetown is also a painter, and has painted a lot of his own album covers.

·       This is the results page you see after taking the quiz, where fans can then share the painting they got on Facebook or Twitter – encouraging social media interaction. I really like this feature, and I think it’d be nice to include an Easter Egg like this on my website (perhaps a quiz like this one, or one that lets fans get to know the artist a bit better).

Conan Gray website analysis 

·       This is the homepage for Conan Gray’s website. The website has a conventional layout, with the artists logo (that also acts as a home button) in the top left-hand corner, and a navigation bar in the top right. The navigation bar has 4 options, ‘Tour’, ‘Music’, ‘Video’, and ‘Store’ – ‘Store’ is the only option that takes you to a separate website, ‘Tour’ takes you to a different page of the website, and the other two just scroll you down to the relevant section of the homepage.

·       The first thing you see on the homepage is the album cover of the artists latest album, and a hyperlink that takes you to a website where you can choose which platform you want to use to download/stream the album – as soon as fans enter the website they are encouraged to stream the artists latest release. As well as the links to the latest album, there are also 3 other singles that can be streamed/downloaded if you swipe across your screen.

·       The house style of the website is quite simple, consisting of a black and white colour scheme, and a black italic sans-serif font. This colour scheme is clearly reflected in the latest album cover, which is mostly black, white, and grey. It gives the website a clean, minimalistic look, and creates a clear brand identity for the artist (this is also an example of digital convergence). The font used for the ‘Conan Gray’ logo is quite different from the other fonts used on the website, but is similar to the one used on the album cover for the ‘Maniac’ single, so it still ties in with the overall look of the website.

·        In my previous research, I looked in more detail at a music video by Conan Gray, which has a very different aesthetic to this current website, but this is because the video I looked at was from 2018, and the style of his videos has changed a lot since then.

·       Below the links to stream Conan Gray’s latest album, there are two of his recent music videos, another example of digital convergence. This also encourages fans to interact with the music video and acts as a way of promoting the singles and album.

·       Like all the other videos featured on artists websites I’ve seen so far, this music video is from YouTube, confirming my research that suggested YouTube is the most popular platform for music videos.

·       Below the music videos is information about the artists upcoming tour, which can also be seen in more detail by clicking on ‘Tour’ in the navigation bar. There is a personal message from the artist (establishing his star persona) about the tour being postponed, followed by an image of the tour poster (reflecting his brand identity).

·       At the bottom of the homepage, there is the option for fans to subscribe for email updates. This allows fans to receive more information about their favourite artist, and gives them a sense of community. I like this idea, and I intend on making it a feature on my website.

·       Below this, there are icons linking the artists social media, another example of digital convergence. This encourages fans to interact with the artist, and allows them to be a part of a community where they are able to interact with other fans, and share things such as fan art or fan made videos (Henry Jenkins fandom theory). 

·       This is the page that opens when you click on ‘Store’ in the navigation bar. This store is separate from the artists website, and features a range of merchandise, including the album on vinyl and CD, and lots of different clothing items. I would like to feature a few items of merchandise for my artist on my website if possible.

·       This page also gives you the option to sign up to a newsletter, similar to the one at the bottom of the homepage on Conan Gray’s website.

·       

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: Summation

After asking questions to my focus group, and looking at the consumption habits of my target demographic, I have made a few decisions that I will keep in mind when moving forward. One thing I noticed after looking at the answers to my focus group questions was that my target demographic seems to prefer music videos that show both a narrative and an aspect of performance. Initially, I had wanted to make a video that strictly focused on narrative, but after seeing that the majority of my focus group liked a mix of both (but leaning towards narrative), I will think about adding a small aspect of performance to my music video (I have a few ideas for this). I also saw that YouTube is the most popular platform for watching music videos, so I intend on uploading my video to YouTube. My focus group and audience behaviour research have also showed me that Spotify is the most popular music streaming service used my target demographic, so I’ll put a link to the song on Spotify on the homepage of my website. One answer to my focus group questions reflected the idea of interaction with social media, which I know is something quite important to my target demographic, so I intend on making an Instagram account for my artist, and I’ll try to get a link on my website that takes you to the account. Since the majority of my focus group said that they only really watch music videos by their favourite artists, social media will also take a vital role in promotion. I will need to create some social media content that stands out and encourages my target audience to watch and engage with my music video.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: Audience Behaviour

To take a closer look at the consumption habits of my target audience, I looked at three different articles that reflect the way that music videos are consumed nowadays.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/08/169943/music-videos-history-popular-2017
This article asks the question ‘do teens still watch music videos?’ Since older teenagers are a part of my target demographic, I thought it would be interesting to see if they still take an interest in music videos. When teenagers were asked if they still watch music videos, one person answered that she might, ‘if I like both the artist and song’ (this is similar to some answers I received when asking my focus group questions). Another teenager mentioned that ‘sometimes a friend will be like 'watch this' if it's an artist they're super into, but they probably wouldn't post about it on social media.’ The article also states opposing stats from Vevo – ‘61% of teens say that they are watching more online video than they were last year (2017), and 73% say music videos are the best type of content for showing an artist's creative vision’ – suggesting that more teenagers take an interest in music videos than it may seem. The article suggests that ‘teens are engaging with music videos all the time — they just don't realize it.’ This is due to engagement – ‘watching a music video’ doesn’t mean what it did in the past. ‘There’s a next level engagement, what people are sharing, or commenting on, or talking about,’ Patel explains. ‘And then you have an even deeper level of engagement which is, people are...creating things out of that video, for example, memes.’ This article reflects on the idea that interaction with music videos has changed over time, and the idea that interacting with a video is often more than just watching it – and could instead be commenting, sending the video to friends, visiting an artists social media/website, buying merchandise, and other things along those lines.

https://nerdsmagazine.com/watch-music-videos/
This article shows the different websites that audiences can use to watch music videos. Although this article is quite old, it lists YouTube as one the most popular sites for watching music videos, which is still relevant today, as YouTube still seems to be the most popular platform that people in my target demographic tend to use when watching music videos. The article also lists Vevo and Vimeo as platforms that can be used to watch music videos, but after looking at the Vevo website, I noticed that the links to Vevo videos on the website take you to YouTube. Music videos on YouTube also get a lot more views than music videos on Vimeo, and my target audience is a lot more likely to interact with a YouTube video (as shown by the answers to my focus group questions).

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/online-music-listening-preferences
This article looks at the different ways that people consume music nowadays in the streaming era. The article shows the results of a survey that looked at the ways that 2,500 different people listen to music online, and shows that a small percentage (9% of those surveyed) chose ‘I primarily watch music videos online through something like YouTube’ when asked what is the primary way that they consume music. This shows that for some people, watching a music video will sometimes be the first time they hear a song, meaning a music video has to be a good visual representation of the song and its lyrics, as it will sometimes be the first impression that a person gets of an artist. The article also shows that over 50% of people use a music streaming service like Spotify. This article is a few years old, so this number is even higher now (Spotify currently has around 285 million monthly active users), and Spotify is very popular with my target demographic (as shown by the answers to my focus group questions). This suggests that when designing my website for my music video, it would be a good idea to have a link to the song on Spotify so that my target audience can stream the song.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH: Focus Group Questions

Below are the questions I asked my focus group

1. How often do you watch music videos? (eg. often, rarely, only when my favourite artists upload one)
2. What platform do you use to watch music videos?
3. Would you interact with a music video after watching it if you enjoyed it? (eg. by leaving a comment, visiting the bands social media or website)
4. Do you ever download/purchase music after watching a good music video?
5. Do you watch music videos for the video or just for the song?
6. Do you prefer narrative music videos (music videos that tell a story) or performance music videos (that show the band playing the song) or do you prefer a mix of both (a video that shows a narrative as well as the band performing)?
7. What is your favourite music video and why?
8. What streaming service do you use to listen to music? (eg. Spotify, Apple Music)

Here are their answers:

Tito
1. Only when my favourite artists upload one.
2. YouTube
3. Yes, I’ll probably comment or visit their social media.
4. Yes, always.
5. For the video mostly but sometimes for the song.
6. A mix but leaning towards narrative music videos as I think they’re more interesting.
7. Do It All The Time by IDKHBTFM due to its performance aspects and also all the visuals and storytelling within it. I also liked One Last Time by Ariana Grande because of the story telling in it and for the nostalgia.
8. Spotify

Alex
1. Usually only when my favourite artists upload one, but sometimes I might watch one in my Youtube recommended if it looks interesting.
2. YouTube
3. Maybe if it was one of my favourite artists, but not usually.
4. Yes, if it’s a good song.
5. For the video.
6. A mix of both but I prefer narrative videos.
7. Life Itself by Glass Animals because I like how it's a part of a bigger story with the other music videos from the album. I also like the visuals and I think it's cool that the meaning is quite subjective.
8. Spotify

Amber
1. Only when my favourite artists upload one.
2. YouTube
3. I’d probably just like the video
4. Yes
5. For the video
6. A mix of both.
7. Thriller by Michael Jackson because I like the story and the visual style.
8. Spotify

Leon
1. Rarely
2. YouTube
3. No
4. I usually only watch videos by bands I know, so I’ll probably have the music downloaded already.
5. I usually watch for the song but I like to see its video representation. If the graphics are good or I like the style of the video then I might watch more by the same artists to see the videos.
6. Narrative
7. Paranoid Android by Radiohead, because of the cool graphics, animation and colour. It’s unusual and I like that.
8. Spotify

GENERIC RESEARCH: Textual Analysis 3

Textual Analysis 3 Seashore from ErinFoggo