A research report submitted to the
Wits School of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in partial fulfilment of
a Degree of Master’s of Arts.
Sunday 11 October 2015 / This qualitative research report explores the motivations for, and barriers to, young people
attending and consuming live music in small to medium venues in Johannesburg. With the average
age of South Africans being just 25 years, young people represent a large, existing and potential new
audience for live music venues looking to grow new audiences. Yet there are challenging racial,
spatial and economic legacies of apartheid which live music venues need to overcome to reach out
to more young people.
Young South Africans are often described as one entity, defined by their ‘race’, age and education
level. This research uncovers new insights into what motivates young South Africans to attend live
music from socialising with friends to deeper emotional connections with music and artists. Broader
themes such as young people’s desire for authenticity, uniqueness and self-identity are explored in
the context of live music as well as their preferences for open spaces and freedom of movement
during their live music experiences.
This research explores how to segment South African live music audiences based on motivation and
consumption patterns, to understand if it could help inform future audience development strategies
in South Africa. Live music venues’ understanding and practice of audience development has been
analysed to better understand how embedded the arts marketing profession is within the sector and
what appetite there could be for the introduction of a motivation-based audience segmentation
tool.
Finally, the report reflects on the findings and makes recommendations on how live music venues
could authentically engage with young audiences; what measures could be taken to cultivate more
artistically-led, but audience-focused venues; and ultimately, how to attract more young audiences
to their venues.
Keywords
Audience development, arts motivation, arts marketing, arts consumption, arts audiences, hedonic consumption, authenticity, live music, live music venues, barriers to arts attendance, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, young people, Morris Hargreaves and McIntyre, Concerts SA, The Orbit, Niki’s Oasis, Afrikan Freedom Station and the Soweto Theatre.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/19890 |
| Date | 02 March 2016 |
| Creators | O'Connor, Elizabeth |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/octet-stream |
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