Wided MERCHAOUI, Loup WOLFF
june 2018
20 p.
There are a number of different categories of visitor to the Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris, taking advantage of its varied cultural offering. Roughly half of all visitors come primarily to attend concerts, with the other half of visitors coming for more diverse reasons (relating to exhibition, museum and other cultural activities); these groups can then be broken down into six broad visitor categories.
Representing around half of all visitors, focused on concert attendance, eclectic and classical music lovers tend to fall into two music audience categories at the Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris. The first group (typically much older or much younger than average) tends to be specifically interested in classical repertoire. Those in the second group have more inclusive tastes and take in the full variety of concert types available. Occasional visitors form a category characterised by more intermittent visits to the establishment; they tend to live geographically further away and be more specifically interested in exhibitions. Those living in the immediate vicinity of the site, described as participant spectators, constitute the group most likely to take part in the full range of events put on by the Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris, e.g. concerts, exhibitions and activities. New visitors, on the other hand, tend to be younger individuals, who are less familiar with the establishment whilst also being more specifically interested in its exhibitions. Finally, foreign aficionados form a further small discrete visitor category, made up of foreign nationals showing signs of a high level of musical education, and who come primarily to visit the Museum of Music.
These six visitor groups give an outline of the multiple modes of accessing events hosted by the Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris, and how they relate to the typical visitor experience.