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Contents page-

Page 1- Cover of Handbook

Page 2- Contents page
(Types of Research)
Page 3-Quantitive research
Page 4-Qualitative research
(Methods of research)
Page 5- Secondary research
Page 6- Primary Research
Page 7- Data gathering agencies
Page 8- Self-generated
(Purpose of research)
Page 9-Audience research
Page10-Market research
Page 11-Production research

Page 12-Bibliography

Types of researchQuantitiveResearch (Hits on website; sales of CDS)

This is the research of finding out the numbers to a
product or service, like amount of CDS brought and
the amount of hits that a website has. The pros of
using this is that you can tell how many people buy a
certain product from someone. This can be good as you
can tell the general interest of what people want from a
product from the sales as it shows that people are
interested in your product and services. It also can tell
how aware people are of your product or service as the
higher the numbers of visitors/buyers means that
people are interested in you or your product. It can also
tell what type of people are buying your products and
services helping to define that target audience even
more. Also can show peoples buying habits as if
someone buys something over another it can make the
other product much more popular and can be used to
the advantage of finding what people like about your
product over the other product or the other way
around. The cons of using this research are the
researchers results may not reflect the local opinion or
thoughts on a certain product, meaning many people
may buy it but not be satisfied with it meaning it may
not be successful the next time you try to sell
something like this. Another disadvantage is that a
large sample of the population must be studied as the

larger the sample of people researched, the more

statistically accurate the results will be. It is also used
in all figures and needs to be frequently updated to get
the results correct otherwise they can be outdated and
people may have changed their minds about certain
things in a period of time. Linking this back to the
music industry you could use this as an example to
show who is a popular singer or band to be played on
the radio, an elucidated example of this would be a
survey given out to people and they fill in who they
would like to see be played on the radio a lot more. This
could be a tick style list asking who they prefer out of
for example Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and others
as an example of who the person answering could pick
from.

Qualitative research(Song reviews, fanzine website,

opinions)- This research method is when you find out what
people think about something and why they think that way
about it, an example of this is a person may review an album
and say if they like it or not. This is great as the creator of that
album can act of feedback and find out what they need to do to
improve their next product to fit more mass appeal of people
and create more sales towards them; this example can be
attached for anything that gets sold and is reviewed by
someone. A good thing of using this method is that you can find
out peoples feelings and emotions about something or a
certain product; to help feedback for the creator or
manufacturer. The best way of doing this research is by using
face to face interviews to get the best feedback on something

as you can discuss in-depth. This research method is great due

to the fact that you can find out what actual people think of your
product and how their experience was overall as they have
actual hand on experience with he product and can personally
tell their experiences with it. Although there are cons to using
this research such as gaining this information heavily relies on
the askers ability to gain the answers as he must know how to
directly address the questions and know how to respond when
a question comes up to gain the best research possible. These
results that you get at the end can be very hard to analyse and
to sort out when you have finished gaining the research as
everyones answer can be long and different making it much
more difficult to sort out and to directly find out what people
thought about your product! An example of this linking to the
music industry could be asking people questions such as after
they listen to a brand new album they get asked questions such
as how was this album?, would you listen to it again?. why
did you like it? you can then get a percentage of responses
from these questions such as 70% said they would listen to it
again from this date you can then tell that over 50% of the
answers to that question were positive and said yes! this can
help to get a positive, negative or neutral opinion on the album
at hand.

Methods of researchSecondary research (Books, internet, newspapers)This research is known as desk research as it involves the
summary or collection of an existing set of research, instead of
primary research, this is where data is collected from, an

example would be examining what people think about

something through the use of pre-existing material such as
Books, internet and newspapers linking to the music industry it
can help to find someones thoughts on an album! This is a
good research method as the pros come from the easiness to
conduct this research as its simple to find and evaluate
information. It is also easy to conduct as the research is
obtained from public sources so it is easy for anyone to grab a
book and start finding the research for something because of
the mass amounts of it available for anyone! This information is
very much focused on markets and other data in that section so
you can see specifically where the information is coming from
and analysis why they see something that way. It can also be a
good setup for the main information you will obtain from the
primary research as it can be a good starting point on what
future information you will need to find out next. Although there
are cons such as this data is usually frequently outdated due to
new information and thoughts always change on some matters.
There is also an unreliability to it as you sometimes are not
sure where the information was obtained from in that specific
place. Also some of the research you may find can be
unreliable as some answers may not totally give you the full
information you need for your answer. An example of this
research being used in the music industry would be that
producers could see what a music magazine a certain
audience buy on a regular basis from this book knowledge and
internet sales figures they can see what a certain audience
enjoys in the music industry and base more of their music off
the most sold and enjoyed music in the industry. An elucidated
example of this would be the magazine Record Collector
which audience is directly targeted to ages of 40-50 as it was
released around the 80s and records in nowadays are
outdated making only long time followers still follow them, from
this knowledge a producers or manager may place an advert in
one of the magazines that specifically targets that age group.

Primary Research (Observations, focus groups, questionnaires)

- This research is from any type of research that is collected
from going out and personally obtaining it. This can be things
such as surveys, interviews, observations. This can be good in
the music industry as you can ask fans on how to improve
future albums of songs to their liking to grab in a bigger target
audience! Both primary and secondary are important and can
link in with each other. This is good research that has pros such
as how the targeted issues are usually addressed, this can
mean all research is control of the askers and can directly
address and target the people who you want to answer the
research questions. This can help to find data that is directed to
the exact audience and can concentrate on the market of
choice. The data interpretation is very good as the data
collected can be examined and interpreted by the marketer on
their needs of what results they need than relying on basic
interpretative research as seen in secondary research. Also the
collector of primary data is the owner of that information and he
will not need to share it with other or different companies and
competitors; this gives an edge over competitors relying on
basic secondary research. While this method is good, there are
still cons on this research like things such as sometimes it can
have high cost of collecting this research as it is a costly
proposition as the marketer involved will need to design
everything and create everything from scratch they will asking.
It can also be very time consuming because of the exhaustive
research methods to do it accurately compared to secondary
research. Also there is a chance of inaccurate feedback as the
research involved from the target audience there may be a
chance of feedback not given properly and their feedback may
just be bias compared to other peoples answers or given just

for giving answers. There is also more numbers required as

you need resources and materials too and are needed in a
larger quantity to do bigger surveys and data collection. An
example of this in the media industry would be that a producer
can set up a focus group asking people what they think about a
certain topic such as a recent album or song and ask questions
on if they liked it or not and this can help to gain feedback for
the singer to improve upon next time or before the full release
of the song or album.
Data gathering agencies (RAJAR)
The R.A.J.A.R is an organisation that stands for joint audience
research. This organisation and research method does its
methods through radio audiences in the UK. It is a joint of
around three hundred and ten radio stations. They gather
research on every radio signal in the UK and set it out on a
form or table and record what people listen to more on a certain
radio station that others it is a collaboration of the BBC, IPA and
ISBA. The can link in with the music industry as it can help to
know what music to play more to start audiences to listen to
certain radios and to get more people to listen to music to
generate more money for the artist and radio station that airs
the certain songs. The pros of this is that you can tell how many
people are tuned in to listen to something at a certain period of
time as they can be measured hourly to monthly so there is a
broad range of times of people listening to something so there
is lots of information to find. Also it can be quite easy to gather
numbers of figures tuned in at a time because of how quickly it
is updated they clearly know the number figures easily.
Although there are some cons such as inaccurate research or
bias listening such as many radio stations may have higher
figures over others due to bias listening of a radio station just
because it is popular and not because someone wants to try
something new. Also this data can be lacklustre as times go on
as there is less and less demand for radio as many people

have transitioned to computers or laptops or television as it is

more entertaining and fun to people so the numbers and figures
go down year by year making some of the data unimportant
later on in time. A music related example of this would be the
examples and percentages as seen on the Rajar website these
examples are things such as On average a listener tunes into
21 hours and 4 minutes of live radio per week and others such
as 90% of the population tune in to radio every week these
figures help to give a good basis and knowledge on the radio
industry and can give music producers a good knowledge on
when to play a certain song on the air to maximise listeners and
to help the maximum amount of income get made.

Self-generated (Records of events, observations)This research is the personal recording use of data from
experiences or occurrences relevant to the investigation being
carried out. These methods can include many things such as;
photos/video documentation or audio recordings. It is a study
someone has completed by themselves through different
mediums as I stated above- as a means of completing their
own research. So if someone analysed a music video that they
made and wrote about it in full detail this would be selfgenerated research, so long as if they create it they analyse it!
The pros of this can be that you can compare pieces of your
work to others and see what can be improved for the next time
around or how to take inspiration for the next time. This can be
done to improve before showing it off to people and see their
reactions. The cons are bias as it can be very difficult to say
bad things about your own work so it is difficult to fully analyse

it as you dont want to damage your own work by saying the

bad of it when compared to other peoples you can get a full god
and bad of something without feeling bad about it and using
that as feedback. An example of this relating to the music
industry would be that because of your answers are done by
yourself, they are very unique and personal to you, and this can
help with reliable and personal answers from such things as
questionnaires or surveys. To help you gain the best answers
possible for your intended questions such as asking them about
a song you made would be personal and will be directed
straight toward you in a clear way.

Purpose of researchAudience Research- This research is defined as any

communication research between the audience that is
conducted to view specific audience information such as their
attitudes, knowledge, preferences, interests and behaviours
with behaviours with certain issues. This information may be
based on various strategies of grouping; such as race, ethnicity,
education or overall income. This helps to gain information due
to different thoughts and beliefs of a certain group of people to

help fix an issue with something they may be having. This is

important in the music industry as it gives an insight into to
mind of the audience and gives us an idea of what the
audience enjoys and looks for in a product, and helps the
creators bring in as much people to the target audience as
possible and in all helps to increase income. For this research
there are many different ways to gather it but most commonly
would be through questionnaires and surveys. This allows the
creators or producers of a certain product to ask questions and
get straight answers to questions (yes/no) so without this
research, the producer of an album for example would create a
music video and end up being a complete failure for not
matching the audience expectations or hopes by failing to
match the audience correctly although while using this research
it helps to understand exactly what the audience want from
their new music video. Also linking back to the grouping
strategy it can help to see if their new album cover is too
controversial or not fitting for the audience, so for example if
someone like Jay Z made a music video that contains a
religious cross in it. This research can then be done to ask
Christians if this is offensive to them and if it is, they can then
change it to be appropriate. An example of this in the music
industry would be helpful as you can get a clear understanding
as to what they enjoy about a certain thing you are asking them
about; this can be done through their own knowledge and their
specific view on something they are a fan of.

Market research- This research is the process of collecting

important information to help find out if there is a market willing
to buy the product or service that you are offering. The research
helps to guide entrepreneurs to make wise and profitable
business decisions. This is very helpful research as the key to a
successful business lies in the understanding of what your

customer wants and how to give it to them in a profitable way

for the company. This process of finding out what your
customers want can be split between two different types of
data; primary information which is the information that you will
gain yourself or gained from someone you hired and is part of
your business. And also secondary information which is data
complete and organised for you. This can be things such as
reports and studies given from the government to help you
company and trade associations. The research can be
important in the music video industry as you can tell if creating
an expensive music video will help in the long run and if you will
earn all of your money back well enough if it will be worth
creating as this link in with the market research being about
clever and ideal marketing decisions. It can also tell if your
music video will be successful overall in the current day of
music videos or if it will be forgotten and not worth the money
risk of making one for it. You can mainly tell if it is going to do
well from the current trends in the music video industry, from
this I mean if they are going to follow the current trends in the
music industry to stay successful what is likely the best option
as many pop music videos use the same formula to stay
successful. An example in the music industry would be used to
solve problems with a certain issue in the marketing team. They
can use focus groups and interviews to help analyse data and
help to evolve certain things in their marketing such as asking
people questions on what item would work better or for what
would appeal to them or for the audience better.

Production Research- this research is very important

when developing a new product. This production research
helps to provide content, research commercial viability and plan
the post production ideas and process. To perform this
production research the developer will employ a number of
trained researchers to gather suitable amounts of information
for the area they are looking for in their production. This
research also includes a certain amount of advertising and
where will the production be set is to gain the best response
from the acquired audience; this research will also help to gain
information on income and a number of outgoing costs. The
income that they can gain from using this research is coming
from the publicity stunts sponsorship and merchandise. They
can also use celebrity endorsement to help advertise the
products at hand on a global scale as these celebs can be very
mainstream and everyone knows of them. And then the
outcome is derived from the costs, such as advertising and
distribution among the target media it is made for. An example
of this being used in music videos is by having a celebrity being
used in your music video to help gain new viewers who may be
a fan of the celebrity but may not care about the singer or band.
Also they can be used to promote the new song thats coming
out by being related to it and going to the interviews with the
original artist to help gain even more recognition for the artist
and the upcoming music video. An example of this in the music
industry would be what could be done for example the music
video used such as where it should take place or what it should
be about using examples from the people that they asked. They
can also ask questions about how the production should be
done or examples of what they could do in their album or song
for example.

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