Meaning & Purpose
Ownership is essentially what type of company Columbia Records is: there are many different types and all of them differ in who owns what, whether the public or the private sector gets the shares, etc. I think that it is very important that we go into detail and learn about ownership too, because from it we are then able to have a greater understanding for the works of companies, such as Columbia Records.
Below I go into more detail on what Columbia Records actually is as a company and who it belongs too... Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American flagship recording label, under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment and operates under the Columbia Music Group. Sony Music Entertainment is the parent company, and Columbia Records is a subsidiary (the child of the parent company). A parent company is a company that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operation by doing and influencing or electing its board of directors; a subsidiary is a company whose voting stock is more than 50% controlled by another company (the parent company). The advantages of a subsidiary company is that the parent-subsidiary structure essentially isolates risks because the two companies are separate legal entities. The losses at a subsidiary do not automatically transfer to the parent company. The parent can exercise control over a subsidiary if it owns a large block of its stock, but not necessarily a majority of the shares. (Even a fractional ownership of the shares of a widely held company could result in effective control).
There are disadvantages to subsidiary companies too though; for example the parent company does not have complete access to the cash flow of the subsidiary, unless the parent controls 100% of the shares. In order to maintain its image and reputation too, the parent company may have to pay for the subsidiary's debts, even if it has no legal obligation. The parent company can also be liable for damages if an operating subsidiary violates the law, or is subject to enforcement actions. So in this case, if Columbia Records did go badly one day and its reputation depleted for whatever reason, Sony Music Entertainment would be obliged to pay for their costs, despite the situation having nothing to do with them.
It was founded in 1988, in Washington D.C. (The UK label is led by joint MDs Alison Donald and Mark Terry).
I believe Columbia Records is multinational; the advantages to the company being this is that the cost of production throughout the world will cost less; however a monopoly effect could also be created, which means that the public could turn on the company, if they make unpopular decisions (for example, dropping a very popular artist).
Meaning & Purpose The operating model of a company is essentially how different parts of the institution interact to the needs of the products reduced, as well as so the company (Columbia Records) is able to work as effectively/efficiently as possible, with people tailored (specialised) in specific areas (or departments). There are 1000's of different people who work within Columbia Records as a whole, and within that there are numerous others who work in very specific areas (ie management, finance, scouting etc).
Columbia Records
The label is headed by Rob Stringer.
The executive vice president and general manager is Joe Klaiman, who joined the label in December 2012.
Sony Music Entertainment: In which Columbia Records acts underneath...
Marketing:
The marketing department at Sony Music employs marketing managers, online marketing professionals, product managers and department coordinators to employ an effective marketing strategy for artists and their albums, including placement of adverting (across all platforms), competitions, production of marketing materials (posters, leaflets), coordination of street-teams and distribution of fan mail.
Sales:
Sony Music employs sales directors, sales account managers and sales representatives to oversee all aspects of the selling and delivery of new album and single releases into record stores, large department stores like Walmart and other music-selling retailers.
Legal:
Sony Music Entertainment employs at least one in-hour lawyer to negotiate, write and manage all artist contracts. These include record contracts, songwriting contracts, performance contracts and television appearance contracts. They generally work in conjunction with an external legal body who manage larger legal matters.
Promotions and Publicity:
The promotions and publicity department of Sony Music is responsible for securing interviews and general artist coverage in local, national and international press, pitching new music to radio stations for addition to their playlists and media training of all artists and groups. The publicity department employs publicists, artist relations specialists (who accompany artists to interviews and appearances) and office managers.
Finance and Human Resources:
The Finance department at Sony Music hire people to monitor budgets manage invoice payment and payment of staff at all levels from entry level department coordinators to directors. Human resources representatives at Sony Music are responsible for recruiting new employees and ensuring they are entirely suited to both the role and the company's vision.
Products are essentially what a company produces (and in this case I mean the musicians Columbia Records sign) who then go on to record songs/albums and make the company lots of revenue.
For the specific case of Columbia Records, the 'products' (artists) are chosen extremely carefully (some even appear to be hand picked by the head of the scouting departments); this is because the record company has to be sure that they will receive enough revenue from the artist, in exactly the same way that toy companies must be sure the toy will be appealing enough for people to want to buy, etc.
The artists must of course be able to sing, but unfortunately record labels sign for a number of different other reasons nowadays too (such as how appealing they believe the artist will be to different ages/genres); however I do believe that Columbia Records picks artists based purely on how talented they are, which is great and how it should be done! They are then legally Columbia's 'products' until a contract is written up stating otherwise.
The record label, Columbia Records, have a number of other different products (artists) as well as The Script who I analysed in P2.
Here are all the artists that the record label have signed in its lifetime as a company:
Apologies for the lack of pictures with the artists, they just wouldn't download, despite me refreshing over 10 times...
Interestingly enough, Columbia Records also have a UK label (which has a completely separate website and artist list too!)
The label has signed the following artists, past and present:
ALL OF THESE ARTISTS ARE CURRENTLY SIGNED TO COLUMBIA RECORDS *GLOBALLY
Furthermore, within the actual artists themselves, many sell their own products, under their record labels. So, for example, if I were to choose an artist under Columbia Records, it would be very easy to then find their 'merchandise'.
The Script are a band that are signed to Columbia Records; as you can see down below, they sell their own products that go with whatever album they've released/tour they're on at the time. The biggest product that practically every musician will sell commercially if they wish to is definitely t-shirts. The t-shirt on the right is one that the band sold for their most recent album, 'No Sound Without Silence'; however the shirt on the left is one they sold a couple of years back, during the cycle of their previous album, #3! The merchandise bands/artists sell under their record labels really does vary, but of course a percentage of the revenue made by the products go straight back into Columbia Records' pockets. The Script in particular sell more than just t-shirts though; particularly when on tour, you can buy signed posters, wristbands, photo books, hats, hoodies - the list goes on!
In terms of representation, on The Script's merchandise store page I think they present the band very successfully; the theme is consistent and kept very similar to the bands latest image/album, making the merchandise even the more appealing to buy for the fans. As you can see too there are various different styles of t-shirts even that fans can buy from the website, and there are numerous designs, plus different sizes and mens/women!
On the other hand, there are also other products that other artists under Columbia Records distributes too; and in terms of digital presentation, as you can see down below, the two websites in comparison actually look very different.
John Mayer's merchandise website is presented in a much more mature (and almost neater) way; I believe the differentiations are purely down to the artist and their target audiences.
The market position for the record label is essentially where it stands in terms of the sales, etc. I believe that it is important that I try and find out more about Columbia Records own market position, because it is very useful in trying to establish how big the record company actually is (and then comparing it to other very similar ones later on too!)
Columbia Records, market position-wise is difficult to comprehend; because as mentioned previous, they are owned by Sony Entertainment (the mother company). Looking at the record label as whole, I will go into more detail down below...
Although I have used the same screenshots in the section below this one, the 'competitors' tab, I still believe that they are very useful in trying to explain more about the market position, and getting a brief overview on where all the major record labels stand within the market.
As you can see from the graph above, in terms of a more general look at the record company, Columbia had the second place in the 2014 market share, which is very good!
In fact, looking at the market for record labels in an even broader sense, as you can see from the statistics provided below, the recording industries total value in 2014 racked up to $15 billion; a gigantic sum of money, but not actually that surprising, considering how appealing singing for a living actually is right now. (To be a singer/songwriter/in a band is one of the most desired careers in the world after all!)
In terms of the specific revenue the record companies receive, as you can see below, there is a split between physical sales (such as CD's) and digital downloads (such as the songs you buy on the hugely popular site iTunes); there are also a couple of other much smaller areas that generate revenue too, but the physical/digital music is definitely the biggest source of income for record companies.
In fact record labels such as Columbia Records do not even have to rely on income from the physical format sales anymore (the sectors share of industry revenue declining from 60% in 2011 to 46% in 2014!) However despite the continued transition to digital download, physical music sales are actually still an important revenue source, despite perhaps the declination of sales. In some countries, such as Germany and France, record labels like Columbia Records still rely rather heavily on them (they still account for more than half of the market over there!) Furthermore, although globally, physical sales value declined by 8% in 2014, other countries like Germany only experience a 1.5% fall - in fact there was actually growth in several South American countries, like Paraguay and Venezuela!
A quick example of successful artists under Columbia: for example, Beyonce's self titled album, released in 2013, welcomed them a boost of 0.5% of their total share for 2013 by way of sales!
Columbia Records' market position relies heavily on how successful their artists are; and they have been very successful so far, combined selling millions of single/albums worldwide (in the case of the most popular artists signed to Columbia in particular); music video downloads, single and album downloads, even tours, all add up as revenue for Columbia. They are doing very well!
In 2014 Sony (ATV) was the publishing leader; their position on the market being extremely high. Because they have so many smaller companies working under their wing, Columbia Records being one of the biggest, I believe that Columbia earns them a substantial amount of profit.
Meaning & Purpose
The meaning of competitors is fairly obvious: an organisation (or country) engaged in commercial or economic competition with others. More specifically in terms of media companies, it is comparing one with others who pose economic (etc) threats to them. So, with a record label such as Columbia Records, the main competition would perhaps be from other very large record labels. I think that it is very important too that we learn about the companies differing competition, as well as competition for companies in general, because from there we are then able to understand perhaps why organisations do things the way they are done. Understanding a companies competitors I believe will further extend understanding for how and why a company makes its decisions.
And of course Columbia Recordshas a number of competitors that they have to endure whilst trying to sell their artists work, as well as attempting to scout the best new artists (much like everyone else too!) Columbia's competitors will be trying to do the exact same thing that Columbia are doing themselves, only better; so the company must make sure that everything is covered thoroughly in order to stop this from happening.
Examples of these are: - Republic and Capital Music Group (known and likely to be the nearest competitor) - Atlantic Records Corporation - Capitol Records, LLC - Interscope Geffen A&M Records
For example, in 2014 Columbia Records was actually the second record label (company) on the 2014 market share chart. One of its competitors, Republic, actually beat them with 8.97% - Columbia Records got a commendable 7.75% of total album sales, plus track equivalent albums (TEA).
The graph above shows exactly what percentages the mother companies held; as you can see Sony LTD actually holds a very commendable, higher percentage than at least Indies and WMG; however, again their competitors (this time being UMG) are clearly more successful - perhaps because the company is larger? Surely this provides a substantial advantage!
Even indie labels are seen to be catching up to major record labels now in terms of sales, again as you can clearly see from the graph; small competition, but competition nevertheless. However Columbia Records does have several advantages over the indie record labels.
For example, Columbia is obviously much larger than indie labels (the departments in particular); this means they are able to act faster and more efficiently than the indie labels, ultimately resulting in more income/shares for the company. Furthermore indie record labels are admittedly far less known than big record labels, such as Columbia Records under Sony. This makes the bigger ones far more appealing than the smaller, because with more exposure for the aspiring recording artists comes more live shows, recording sessions and income.
In terms of disadvantages though, I believe that perhaps smaller record labels (unlike Columbia Records) have more artist freedom; because the labels are smaller, the people running them perhaps aren't as motivated by revenue as the much bigger ones like Columbia, who essentially have to maintain a reputation. Therefore I feel the bigger record labels would constrict artists more, and try to get 'hit' songs out of them, as opposed to smaller one who would give the artists more freedom to make what they actually want to make. (Of course this is not the case all the time, but it does happen! People have been dropped from very big record labels for not making something the label feels will be successful).
The graph above here is what I was talking about in the first paragraph; as you can see there are many different competitors to Columbia Records, such as Warner Bros and Atlantic. There are even smaller record labels within Sony, the mother company even! (Such as Sony Nashville; they work under the same mother company and so both bring in income for Sony - however in terms of individual record labels yes, they are both still competition to each other). Although Columbia Records is not number one on the chart, they still continue to challenge, and are very commendable in providing decent competition. Their album sales have never been better!
Meaning & Purpose
To put it simply (I go into more detail later on), the meaning of this section in my blog is essentially to look upon a music video, produced by an artist under Columbia Records; I will use the correct language and analysis skills to study it, and try to decipher how the video was made (and more specifically, the different types of shots used, the genre, etc).
a) purpose
b) genre
c) form
d) style
e) content
f) meaning
g) production process
Music Video Analysis The Script - Science and Faith
(Signed to Columbia Records)
Purpose:
I believe the main purpose of this music video is to try and highlight what the lyrics in the song actually mean; the editing is incredibly clever in doing this, masking a very simple shoot in a studio with various other incredible shots, filmed all over the world. The contrast between the shots of the band and the other shots provide the audience with a very subtle sense of emotion and discovery, which of course is what the video is trying to convey. The purpose of the video as a whole is to sell and promote the artist of whom the video was made for, as well as the song. (In this case, the band is The Script and the song is called 'Science and Faith'). The video was made with the core purpose to promote the band, primarily so they are able to sell records and get a high chart position. However I believe the purpose of this video is also to highlight the lyrics of the song, which as I said before they do very well.
Genre:
The genre of the band's music (in particular the song they promote in this music video) is pop rock/soft rock. However the band have also dabbled in Contemporary R&B, and sometimes even straight up rap! Of course there is no gender that would be specifically suitable for the band and their music, and the nice thing is that actually their audience is very mixed. However I would say that usually people under the age of 21 tend to go to their shows more, and just generally are the biggest group of supporters.
Form:
The form of media I have chosen is video/film (a music video for the band The Script).
Content/Meaning:
The music video starts with 3 establishing shots of the members of the band. The background is very simple (throughout the whole video actually) but I think that this makes the video a lot more powerful. Using the colour white is a clever way of highlighting the title of the song too; the lyrics express confusion between loving someone or pinning it all down to science, and the title of the song is 'Science and Faith'; I'd say that the white reflects the purity that people who have faith appear to radiate. This is a very clever form of symbolism, and is expressed very well through the simplest of methods. Returning to the 3 establishing shots at the beginning of the video though, the close up of the lead singers face, to the long shot of the guitarists and then a slightly closer one again of the drummer is a great way of introducing the video, and building up the initial main guitar riff. However it is not obvious that the video will have a lot (if any) visual effects at this point; I think this is clever because it doesn't throw the audience immediately into the video. There are lens flares though; whether they are natural or were edited
in post, they are still subtle enough that they look effect and not over the top. I think overall the introduction to the video is very nice and simple. Layering clips on top of the the band later, however, makes the whole thing a lot more interesting than if it was just shots of the live performance all the way through; another reason why I like the video! There are no very outstanding angle changes at this point in the video either; however it does look like there is a small dolly, going from top to the bottom, when filming the drummer. This adds a very subtle but nicer, more interesting effect to the video.
The rest of the video, shot-wise, is very similar to
the 3 establishing shots. There is shot variety in the sense that there is a mix of close ups and long shots; this provides a nice contrast for the viewer and makes the video more interesting. The band members are clearly placed in order to get the framing right too, presumably in order to make the editing in post easier! (Shown with the picture of the lead singer posing with cracked glass layered onto him). There is a pattern in that there tends to be more close ups on the lead singer; his head is usually centred in the shot. Again this looks pleasing to the eye and is effective in The shots layered behind the band are incredible though! The lighting on the band is also very interesting; it gives a slightly diffused effect and makes everything in the frame look softer. The only props in the video are of course, the instruments; the simplicity makes the video bolder! There is a definite contrast between black and white (which I would say is the predominant colour scheme) in the video too; it is clear when the band members move into the path of the studio lights. However I think the lighting in the video is done extremely well; the emphasis on the silhouettes against the
white background is just as effective as half of the members faces partially lit; the contrast between the two colours is particularly highlighted when this is the case. Cropping-wise, there are no bars on the video; I think this works well actually, because although they make videos look more cinematic, the full picture we are able to see in this music video makes the background shots stand out more. There are no sound effects in the music either; just the single audio.
Poster:
This is another form of advertisement that the band used when their music was released (from around the period of the song 'Science and Faith'). The poster's purpose of course again is to promote the band to people of all ages; these were stuck all over London at the time of the album release, meaning that the message got across to a much larger audience (as opposed to a specific group of supporters, like followers on social media sites). The genre of the poster is visual; the design is very eye catching, particularly the multiple exposure effect of the lead singers head (and face), with the two other members enclosed within the shape too. The form of the media is a poster! In terms of content and meaning, the poster (as mentioned before) was obviously edited in a very specific way; I think the overall effect it gives is actually incredibly striking too! The multiple exposure effect makes the poster so much more interesting, than if it were just a picture of the band standing together and looking at the camera. The colour scheme is also effective; the contrast between the light and dark makes the poster stand out more, and also works very well as a facial replacement. The desaturated look also gives a more mellow feel to the poster, which in turn is very reflective to the songs in the albums 'Science and Faith' and '#3', which are mostly about heartbreak etc. The cropping of the poster is also significant; the logo for the band is not empowering, as some bands like to design their adverts. Instead the spacing between the logo and the main feature of the poster, the band members, is small and provides a comfortable spacing between the rest of the poster. The choice of font for the band logo itself, I believe was original and designed by the band's team; this immediately makes it stand out more than if they had used 'Comic Sans' (etc). The originality of the logo also plays a factor in gaining people's interest in the band. The costumes and lighting on the band members are also subtle but as a result they make the poster look less bold and more pleasing to the eye.
Production Process (touring) In terms of the production process for The Script, I will be using their most recent UK headline tour (where they actually played several nights at the O2 in London!) as an example of how they complete things and what goes on behind the scenes, both in concerns with the band and spreading further out to all sorts of other areas on making the tour the best one it can be.
Back in 2014 the band went on a massive tour, to venues all throughout the UK; their production manager, Bob O'Brien, and tour manager, Ian Quinn, set out to make the tour the best one it could be. O'Brien stated at the very start of the production process that he did not feel any need to change the existing suppliers; he says that if the band has a good relationship with the companies already, there would be no need to change them (and they do a very good job as well).
Rehearsals start at LH2 Studios. Adlib are called in for audio, PRG for lighting, and PRG Nocturne for visuals (as well as BPM SFX, who handle the lazer aspects to the show). LS-Live were the chosen staging company, Stardes supplied trucking and Coach Services supplied the tour bus; everything seemed to be arranged incredibly well by the team behind The Script's world tour. O'Brien said about chosen rehearsal studio, for example, "LH2 were absolutely fantastic, they were perfect actually. They look after us really well and the facilities are second to none."
In terms of moving the whole tour with the band, O'Brien and his crew actually required four tour buses! Three for the crew and one for the band; as well as 11 more trucks, used in order to ensure that everything was taken along for the venues. The team include 46 crew personnel, 15 drivers, and double drivers when they were needed. In the production office, O'Brien was also assisted by Production Coordinator Jane Woolfenden.
There are several areas of the production process of a tour that needed to be looked at, planned and executed very carefully. These included (for The Script):
- FOH SOUND (Richy Nicholson)
- MONITORING (Paul Moore)
- CONSISTENT PA (Adlib Audio supplied L-Acoustics K1 PA system for the tour)
- LIGHTING DESIGNS (Jamie Thompson)
- VIDEO (Paul Eggerton)
- LASER LIGHTS (Nick Lloyd)
- STAGING
- CATERING (Stephen Knudsen)
All of these areas were seemingly handled incredibly well, as everything went to plan and the tour was actually a huge success.
Production process (song writing):
In the video above, Mark, Danny and Glen explain how they go about in the 'production planning' of song writing; Mark explains that they really do not have a specific set of rules they stick by in the writing process of songs, because if they did the songs would not sound the way they wanted.
Production process (recording):
In terms of the production process for The Script's recording ethics, the band (in the 2 videos above) have recorded themselves in the studio, providing a very useful walkthrough of everything they do to set up in a studio, before the album. For example, frontman Danny explains that although they initially set up 10 microphones, they only use 3 for the actual recording; however they like to turn all 10 on so they are able to capture everything. Production process (festivals):
In the video above The Script talk about their past experiences with festivals before going on to play the main stage at one of the biggest festivals in the UK; Glen, the drummer in the band, explains his own personal production process, and what he likes to do at festivals before going out and playing.
Production process (touring):
The Script, in the video above, record their production process when touring around the UK; it starts in Glasgow, and they film their antics and what else goes on behind the scenes (for example, the sound men working on the soundboards, etc).
They also film what goes on just before the show is about to start; the bass player joins in too and we are able to see the whole production process, right up until the band are actually on stage!
In terms of the production process between an artist and a record label all the way up to a release of an album, etc, it really depends heavily on the relationship the artist has, and whether or not they are independent. I will be using an independent artist as an example here:
The record labels will provide them with useful resources, such as marketing teams, radio pluggers, press teams and more. As the artist is also able to create great music along with great music videos, the audience will be more interested in them too, which again means more revenue for the record company and the artist. Once artists are signed with record labels, they are under their control; it gives the record labels the power to alter the artists as well as the music (which is when problems begin to occur...)
For an independent artist though it means they are able to take more financial risks, plus the money they make from their music goes more to themselves than the record label.
In terms of meaning and purpose for demographics of the target audience for record labels, again I have chosen to direct this question at 2 artists that Columbia Records have signed; it means that I have to take into consideration everything about the audiences the bands/singers appeal too, including things like gender and age.
In terms of Columbia Records, they have an extremely large range of artists that will all, of course, vary in terms of their target audiences, the age of the fans, the people who go to their concerts, etc. The artists range from pop singer, Ella Henderson, to rock band Kings of Leon, to legend Bob Dylan. So, in order to narrow down the range (because it would really be impossible to summarise Columbia records as a whole), the following two examples are from two artists who are signed to the label!
John Mayer
Gender
In terms of gender, with John Mayer his target audience is very universal; despite the initial appeal to pop/blues listeners, and females in particular, Mayer actually has a unique ability to appeal to everyone with his music, whether that be guitar players who like his style, or pop listeners who enjoy the sound, or blues fans. I think it partially comes down to the different album genres; unlike many artists around today, Mayer changes his genre every time he releases a new one, no matter how small the changes actually are. For example, his first album 'Room for 'Squares' is definitely far more acoustically driven than his 4th album, which is very full of soul and blues. His 5th on the other hand changes completely again to a country vibe.
Album 1 Album 4
Album 5
Age
Again, as mentioned before John Mayer's target audience is very universal; however I would say when he released his 4th album 'Battle Studies', it definitely appealed to the younger audiences far more than his previous albums because of the more pop music genre aspect to it. However again, all ages go to his concerts and so it is very hard to pin down an exact age; though I would say that perhaps late teens > are the main listeners. Because so many of his songs are about heartbreak too (one of them is literally called 'Heartbreak Warfare'), I think they also appeal more to older people who can relate to them. Overall, although his music is universal and everyone seems to enjoy it, I would say his audience leans towards the older generation. Lifestyle
In terms of lifestyle, Mayer appears to be a very grounded person for Columbia Records label; however in 2009 he did cause some issues with several interviews, in which I think it would have been very easy for Columbia to have downright dropped him, there and then!
He also stays connected with his target audience ('fanbase') in all sorts of ways...
John Mayer on Twitter
Although Mayer doesn't interact with fans that much on twitter, he does sometimes when he 'tweets them' back!
John Mayer on Instagram
This is Mayer's Instagram account, a place where he effectively communicates to all of his fans through the form of pictures; he keeps everyone who wants to stay updated with him, updated! As you can see below, its almost possible to see exactly what he is doing, when he wants you to; so for example he documents his tour in pictures for the fans to follow, like and comment on as they wish.
John Mayer's website
This is a screenshot from John Mayer's website, where his team and himself are able to share things with the fans worldwide very easily. They share different tabs such as his tour dates/links to tickets, his merchandise shop, and of course all the links to his other social media!
The record company attracts Mayer's target audience through the use of social media and the internet quite successfully; although his sites are not as active as perhaps they could be, I believe the website in particular is still updated regularly by the record label, so when fans want to check what John is up to, they are able to very quickly and easily! Furthermore as I wrote before, the Instagram and twitter account are also great sources of social media for fans to go to; John himself handles these very well. Overall the record company are good at using the social media to appeal to the fanbase, and others interested in John's work!
Spending Power
Regarding spending power, John Mayer has sold 1,000,000's of his records through Columbia Records, all across the globe.
His first album 'Room For Squares', released in 2001, made $4,484,00.
His second album 'Heavier Things', released 2 years later, made approximately $3,000,000.
His third 'Continuum' made $2,800,000.
His fourth 'Battle Studies' made $1,100,000.
His fifth album 'Born and Raised' went straight to number one and made $514,000.
His most recent album 'Paradise Valley', released in 2013, made $300,000.
John Mayer at a concert in 2009
Furthermore I believe the spending power (disposable income of the target income) also varies a lot due to the varying ages of Mayer's supporters. However I would specify that the younger fans (such as the teenage girls) have a significantly smaller spending power than the older ones, merely due to the fact that most of them do not have jobs, etc. The Script Gender
In terms of The Script's target audience, gender-wise, unlike John Mayer it is quite a lot clearer that the majority of The Script's fans are young girls. I think the main reason why this was the case is because they seem to carry a 'boy band' persona around them, and that definitely appeals to female teenagers in particular! They are young too, but not that young so they don't just appeal to preteens which is obviously good too. For the boys who have discovered though that the Script are actually a band and can perform very well live (this mixed with their rock/pop guitar driven performances), they can and do actually appeal to the boys too; also the albums all the way up to album 4 (their most recent one, released in 2014 under the name 'No Sound Without Silence') are all based around heartbreak (very similar to John Mayer too!).. this means that the lyrics, especially because they were written by Danny O'Donoghue (the lead singer), are very relatable to men as well as women. So in this sense, although the majority of their fanbase consists of females, I think that men do enjoy them as well; all you have to do is study the people who turn up at their headline shows and festival gigs!
Album 1 Album 2
Album 3
Age
Again, with The Script, as well as girls making up the majority of the fanbases, they also do lean towards the younger generation (teens in particular); and again, I think a big part of that plays up to what the Script appear to look like. However it is interesting because although the band look like more of a boy band than a rock band, I think quite a few older people have come to know that they are actually a proper band as well. They all play their own instruments, write their own music and perform live at gigs in front of audiences that appreciate the music, as well as the members. In this case then, I think surprisingly they also do appeal to to the older generation who love rock/pop live music! Their albums too appeal to very different people; the first self titled album is more pop than the second, and the third is far more 'rap' than the fourth.
Lifestyle
In terms of lifestyle, and how The Script interact with their fans and communicate with the community they have created, they of course are on all the social media websites.
The Script on Instagram
This is The Script's profile on Instagram and is essentially the exact same thing that John Mayer has; however The Script post more regularly and interact with their fans more too by 'liking' their posts, etc. They also keep their fanbase up dated on whatever they're doing, more specifically through videos (especially on tour).
The Script's website
The two screenshots below are both from The Script's personal website, where again they are able to connect with all their fans across the whole world. Links are provided for the fans to go to specific areas of the website, where they are able to go to The Script's store, all their other sites (such as Twitter and Facebook), their music videos on Youtube, etc.
The record company attracts the bands target audience through the use of social media and the internet incredibly well actually; in fact the band themselves are also very good at the interaction with fans, particularly on their twitter page. I believe that interaction with a fanbase is key for a bands eventual build up in its success; and the record company certainly do it very well. The people who manage the social media accounts (set up by the record label) are constantly posting pictures of the band while they're on tour, answering questions any fans may have and just generally being very nice; so in that sense, the appeal within the social media itself is enough to get people on board for the Script!
Spending Power
In terms of spending power for The Script's target audience (their disposable income), again I believe that although the band's supporters actually range from several different age groups/genders, etc, the majority of the fanbase being perhaps younger and female (teens) means that their disposable income is considerably less than the older fans. Of course this is due purely to the reason that they are not yet employed, as opposed to the older supporters.
The Script are a band that are signed to Columbia Records; as you can see down below, they sell their own products that go with whatever album they've released/tour they're on at the time. The biggest product that practically every musician will sell commercially if they wish to is definitely t-shirts. The t-shirt on the right is one that the band sold for their most recent album, 'No Sound Without Silence'; however the shirt on the left is one they sold a couple of years back, during the cycle of their previous album, #3! The merchandise bands/artists sell under their record labels really does vary, but of course a percentage of the revenue made by the products go straight back into Columbia Records' pockets. The Script in particular sell more than just t-shirts though; particularly when on tour, you can buy signed posters, wristbands, photo books, hats, hoodies - the list goes on!
