masses vs audience

masses and audience both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
masses	Yes	No	No	No
audience	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, audience is a hyponym of masses; that is, audience is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than masses:

masses: the common people generally
audience: the part of the general public interested in a source of information, entertainment, or a product/service

Other hyponyms of masses include laity, temporalty, followers, following.

masses (noun)	audience (noun)
the common people generally	a conference (usually with someone important)
	a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance
	the part of the general public interested in a source of information, entertainment, or a product/service
	an opportunity to state your case and be heard