Research: Mainstream V Indie

We were looking at One Direction as a 'mainstream' and Lanterns On The Lake as 'indie' and comparing them both as to how being a mainstream and indie has both it's advantages and disadvantages. 

One Direction is a group that was set up by Simon Cowell in the X-Factor in 2011 and signed to Syco Entertainment and specialise in the genre pop. Since then they have become the biggest boy band worldwide and their success has been nothing but massive, having both sold-out concert tickets and a large fan base with a variety of ages. Lanterns On The Lake is an indie rock band that come from Newcastle and are signed to Bella Union. They have had their tours recently this year and have even had one of their singles used in a movie called 'Where the soldier come from'.  Their target audience is mainly 20+ young adults. 

Merchandise & ancillary products:

Both merchandise and ancillary products are very important for both mainstream and indie. Indie tend to have a short time expectancy and so rely greatly on merchandises to bring in part of the income as well as their music grabbing their audience's attention. the same applies to indie however only to an extent, this is because indie bands are more concentrated in getting their music out there so that people hear them rather than being worried about products and seeing how much income it brings in. 

One Direction - with merchandise children feel a sense of connection with the group and pictures with the artist's merchandise means further advertisement such as bedsheets, lamps, make-up. They also do have online stored of their own and other retail shops have their merchandises. 

Traditional merchandise t-shirt

Although being a male boy band their fan base is mainly females so it's convenient to target the female audience. 

Lanterns On The Lake - they have an online store as well as selling t-shirts and wristbands at concerts which is more of a traditional merchandise. 

Posters

Traditional merchandise

One Direction:

There are various ways of getting in touch with the band as well as being able to purchase their music such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Amazon, Sound cloud and their official website.

Lanterns On The Lake:

For this band there are still a variety but smaller amount of way to contact them and purchase their music such as EP albums, Sound cloud, iTunes and Amazon.

	Advantages	Disadvantages
One Direction - Mainstream	Worldwide exposure to their music. Increased fan base. More chances of concerts, increased album sales. Upfront cost of studio time, music videos is taken care of by label.	Label takes a large percentage of the income.  Lack of creative freedom. Overexposed e.g products Have  a time span, if income isn't big they get dropped.
Lanterns On The Lake - Indie	Maintains the artist's original intended vision. Most of the money goes to the artist and the label company. Dont have great expectations. Have more control and influence.	Lack the capital of major labels that are part of international media corporates. Dont have the same access to radio, retail and media as major labels do. Independent labels have to seek and develop new ways of promoting records, to survive and compete against mainstream.