I made a questionnaire which I put up on a social networking site, Facebook. This way I could have all my answers digitally and it was easier for people to fill in, so it made it easier for everyone. By doing primary research I was able to gather accurate results which I knew, were correct therefore giving me relevant data.
Here is the questionnaire I posted onto Facebook
QuestionnaireHere is my questionnaire –
Age: 16-20 21-25 26-30
Gender: Female Male
Occupation: Student (School/College) University Student Unemployed Employed
What is you favorite genres of music, Chose 4 at the most: Rock Alternative Indie R&B Pop Jazz Metal Classical Techno Reggae Hip Hop Folk Punk Soul Drum ’n’ Bass Dance
How you get your music normally? CDInternet downloads, Eg. iTunesVinylIllegal Downloads, Eg LimewireIf other please specify:
Do you use different ways of purchasing different genres?, Eg Certain genres not on Itunes
How often do you like watch music video TV channels?Every day3 times+ a week1 time+ a weekOnce a monthNever
How often do you listen to radio?Every day3 times+ a week1 time+ a weekOnce a monthNever
Do you use music sharing websites to listen to music over the internet? (If yes, please state) Yes/NoYouTube Spotify Last F.M Others………………………………………..
Please circle any of the below that you own at the moment: Mp3/MP4/iPodCD playerVinyl record playerRadioComputer/LaptopMobile phone
Do you attended concerts or gigs? Yes NoIf yes, how often do you usually see in a year?…………………………………………….
Do you ever go onto a bands/artists web page over the internet? Yes No
Do you use websites like Q, MTV or NME to keep up-to-date with the music industry? Yes No
Do you buy music from retail stores? All the time/ Often/ Rarely/ Never
How do you find out about new artists and music? The Internet (YouTube/ iTunes etc.)RadioMusic MagazinesWord of Mouth/friendsLive GigsOther please specify:
Results
Audience Research
I have created a questionnaire to look deeper into audiences of the music industry and how they consume and find out about new music. I have also made this to ask audiences on how they feel about our ideas towards the music video. I posted my questionnaire out on a social networking site I use, ‘Facebook’. I posted it to friends with a mixture of age and gender, mostly around 15-20. I only gave it to this age range because the questions are suited to this age range. I decided to do a questionnaire because it is easier to assess the points made and I can show the results in graphs.
Here are my results, I have not included all the results from my questionnaire but I have included the ones I feel are relevant.
I started by asking people what their favourite genres were to give me an idea of what audiences most like.
The results didn’t surprise me as I notice these popular genres are favoured among people I know. Rock and Indie are the two popular genres and our music production features a band with a similar style for this.
Within the group we had ideas instantly from listening to the song of having skateboarding in the music video as well as performance from the band. In my questionnaire I asked if people would enjoy watching skateboarding in a music video and my results were fourteen to three in favour of it. I have researched into music videos that have included skateboarding in a music video such as ‘Shinobi Vs Dragon’ By Lostprohets and ‘Fat Lip’ by Sum 41. These two videos use skateboarding to altar the pace of the video and this creates a good affect. Watching these videos influenced our idea to use skateboarding and it shows how popular it is in a music video from my results.
As you can see over three quarters of the participants would enjoy watching skateboarding in a music video. After looking deeper at this particular question I noticed that stereotypically that only boys would enjoy skateboarding but looking into my questionnaire there were many girls that also answered yes to this question.
I then looked into the consumption of music throughout audiences. I asked how they accessed their music.
There are many ways to do this legal or illegal, streaming or downloading. Illegal downloading is becoming a serious issue in the music industry and my results show support this claim. Six out of seventeen said they illegal download which is the outlier in the results but this stat could be more as many people are embarrassed or afraid to admit that they illegal download. Therefore this percentage could be a lot higher. Looking at the other ways. I looked deeper into the consumption between audiences and I looked at the consumption within certain genres. Comparing people favourite genres and how they consumed music was interesting. The people that selected ‘Dance and Drum and Bass’ as their favourite type of genres mostly had put down they acquire their music through either vinyl or CD which is of course legal. Rock and Indie fans however mostly download illegally. This may be the way these genres are published and advertised and also the way the genres are listened to. Dance and drum and bass tends to be ‘mixed’ by Dj’s. Since vinyl piracy is quite sparse the main option is to buy vinyl and this is why the vinyl industry isn’t under threat at the moment. Rock and Indie however is mostly accessed for use on Mp3 players and computers so the acquiring of the music isn’t important. This is why recent schemes like ‘Spotify’ have been introduced.
I then looked at how audiences found out about new/ local bands, this was important so I could see how people possibly found out about ‘Blighters’.
| Radio | 1 | | Flyers | 3 | | Gigs | 6 | | Internet | 5 | | Other | 2 |
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As you can see gigs and the Internet are the main sources of information for new and local bands. Norwich has great venues for small bands to promote themselves and this could be why ‘gigs’ is such a high flyer in my results. The Internet is great in the modern world to find out anything you want so it is no wonder is popular for information. Websites such as SOFACOM help promote all Norwich bands, big and small which is updated regularly. There are also huge networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook where bands usually have a page. The Internet and Gigs also come together with the website Norfolk Gigs which gives information on Where? When? Who? This makes it easy for locals to find out about new bands. Aswell as this there are small Norwich radio stations such as Future Radio which has shows on to promote local Norwich Bands. This is another great opportunity for bands to get their music recognised.
As I attend many gigs I have begun to notice that appearance varies between genres and so I asked audiences whether they felt music influences their appearance.
Nearly half felt it had no affect on them and they look how they want to look. But over half said that it did make a difference. This topic is another where the answers may not always be true. Many of the audiences may not admit or realise that their music is affecting the appearance and this can happen very often. It is good to see that many people have admitted that it affects them whether that be only a small amount or massively. Again I noticed a pattern between those whose favourite genres were rock and indie. Those who selected rock and indie as their favourite genre also said that music influences their appearance. Whereas dance and drum and bass fans said it mainly didn't.
Evaluate
After looking into my results I have found patterns within them. I have found people often turn to illegal downloading because they can’t get the music anywhere else. People have also stated that the smaller bands that may be unsigned are hard to purchase legally. This again causes them to download on sites such as Lime wire.Another pattern I found in my answers interested me and it was something I had looked into before. The answer to the question ‘How do you get your music?’ was answered simply, “I don’t, I use Spotify”. This interested me because Spotify has been labelled as a piracy solver. If people are using Spotify to listen to their music mostly people find they no longer need to buy music. So yes it stops people downloading illegally but it also stops people from going out and purchasing the CD’s or downloading off Itunes. From these results it shows that Spotify is having a bad effect on the music industry.
Looking at how vinyl is a popular way of listening to music because of the latest trends and crazes. My results showed me that people who buy vinyl don’t download illegally. There are ways of getting music to vinyl illegally but this is a long process including an expensive piece of equipment. It happens, but quite rarely and the vinyl business is at a healthy state at the moment.
Overall I have noticed a link between consumption and influence of music between genres. There are common stereotypes of indie kids and rockets and this shows through with my results on the influence. The consumption between genres also has a great pattern. The participants preferring dance and drum and bass, get their music legally through mostly CDs and vinyl this could be to do with the big DJing craze that is around . Most indie and rock fans just seem to want the music on the computer or Ipod for listening purposes only, so illegal downloading is easy and therefore occurs often.
