Research into an aspect of the music industry

The aspect of the music industry I have chosen to research into is music festivals. Music festivals have become a huge part of the industry, each summer music festivals seem to grow in both size and popularity. Today you can judge an artist or bands success by how large their name is written in a festival line up, and festivals are a big deal for the music industry as a whole. Just within the UK there are hundreds of music festivals including names such as Glastonburry, Reading & Leeds, V festival, Boomtown, Latitude, NASS, Hop Farm, Secret Garden, Wilderness etc etc As a regular festival goer from a young age I have been lucky enough to experience this vast if somewhat mad industry and have visited a range of music festivals. I have chosen two contrasting music orientated festivals to study in depth: Glastonburry festival and Latitude festival. These two festivals differ greatly in both size, audience and content- I have also been attending both for many years so I am able to talk first hand of figures and my own experiences.

 Audience
Latitude offers a weekend ticket, a weekend family ticket, an accompanied teen ticket, a child ticket and various campervan/caravan combination tickets. This shows that the audiance for Latitude is family orientated as the festival caters well to a familys needs with a specific area for children to avoid disturbances. The audiance for latitude are also on average of a good yearly income as ticket prices for a family weekend ticket are quite pricey at £182.50- keeping in mind that Latitude is a very small festival. The festival however as stated on the website is "more than just a music festival". Latitude attracts a wider audiance and possibly older audiance of intellectuals with its literary tent and comedy arena which are a large feature of the festival. The childrens area for Latitude is also a big feature and attraction for families.


Performance

The ratio of british bands to foreign is mixed within the latitude playlist. The headliners for 2013 were Bloc party who are British, Kraftwerk who are German and Foals who are English. English or British artists who also featured at the Latitude festival include Local Natives, The Maccabees, Hot Chip, James Blake, Alt J, Disclosure and Rudimental. This shows that Latitude has focused on showing mainly British bands as it is a British festival. However artists such as Grizzly Bear, Cat Power, yeah yeah yeahs and Beach House are all from the USA which proves to be the second most popular region of source.

The representation of gender in the line up is heavily leniant to the male gender, with seven out of eleven artists in the headliners being entirely consisted of males. I doubt this was done intentionally but it does reflect the ratio of male to female artists in this aspect of the music industry as a whole.

Audience

 The tickets avaliable for Glastonbury only come in one format. Everyone must pay the same amount, under 13s go free but all others are charged. This shows that Glastonbury's audience is not aimed at families as their is no offer of a secluded quieter area for children and there are no discounted tickets. However Glastonbury festival is as a whole allot larger than the tiny Latitude, so I must take into account the scale on which these tickets are being sold. Glastonbury's audience are mainly young people in their twenties, however there are many people of all ages attending this giant festival. This shows that Glastonbury offers a wide range of attractions that appeal to all ages. Glastonbury is a "festival of contemporary performing arts" and allthough it is most famed for it's music which it bases around, there are also many, many other attractions such as theatre, circus, comedy etc.
 Peformance
There is such a large line up for Glastonbury festival it is hard to analyse the perfomance and ratio of one artist type to another. However I will analyse the headliners instead and try to conduct some idea of the perfomances. The ratio of British artists to foreign is also mixed within the Glastonbury playlist. The main headliners of the nights were The Arctic Monkeys who are English, The Rolling Stones who are English and Mumford and Sons who are also English.This shows that Glastonbury is prodominintley a Brtish festival and stays true to it's English roots. English or Birtish artists who also featured in the Glastobury line up include; Portishead, Chase & Status, Dizee Rascal, Primal Scream, The Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, Enter Shikari, Alt-J, Jake Bugg and Ben Howard. However bands such as Public Enemy, Vampire Weekend, Seasick Steve and Major Lazer also featured on the main stages and are all descending from the USA. Despite this it is clear that the majority of artists featured at Glastonbury festival are from Britain, making it a truly British festival. The representation of gender is mostly equally distributed between artists performing here but there is such a wide variety and great number it is hard to tell. No gender sticks out as being a majority within the festival.

Contrast
Whilst contrasting and comparing these two festivals I have been able to get an indepth knowledge of this very influencial and popular aspect of the music industry. Whether the festival be small and family orientated or vast and youth targeted it still proves a hit with a wide variety of audiances. This makes it a powerful tool and aspect within the industry.