WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO LIKE JAZZ?
Information on the market for jazz ranges in the UK from sparse to non-existent. There are a couple of older studies from very reliable data sources, and a couple of little studies, less reliable, one of them by us and previously unpublished. We are going to have to make the assumption that the broad trends have not altered much in the last few years. None of this would be acceptable to a business marketing chief, but if we take it as straw evidence then it is probably safe enough.
According to a very reliable market research company, RSGB, about 13% of the population listen to orchestral music of some kind regularly. The success of Classical fm radio would attest to this, but it still remains a minority when compared to popular music stations. About 7% listen to jazz regularly. Jazz fm is a very successful radio station – it reaches the second highest jazz radio audience in the world. But, and it is a big But, when it used to devote itself to recognised jazz music it nearly expired from malnutrition. It has achieved its success since it broadened its daytime appeal to include soul, blues, funk and music with a broader appeal than jazz. Jazz is nearly twice as popular as Opera, which has a 4% regular listener base.
The following table from a 1997/8 study which is supported by other evidence shows that jazz has slightly more appeal amongst men, and amongst higher social groups. The data for young people probably reflects the fact that they go out to events of all kinds far more than older people. This is supported by a small study by Jazz Services which also noted that about a third of the audience are students, and about 40% are professionally qualified.
% of population % ever attending a jazz event
Under 35 37 45
35-54 30 34
55+ 33 31
Male 49 57
Female 51 43
ABC1 40 62
C2DE 60 38
More people listen to jazz than would ever go out to a jazz event – the same would be true of all music probably. TGI figures for the year 1997/98 show the audience for jazz who attended live jazz events at least once a year to be 5.8% of the sample, with 0.6% attending at least once every 3 months. The audience for jazz at live events in the United Kingdom extrapolated from the 1997/98 TGI figures is 3.3 million adults, of which 1.49 million are ABC social groupings. An earlier separate study into the leisure market (RSL leisure
