Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners.

Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners

Marketplace ResearchChapter Fifteen

Start Thinking . . .

1. How are the music charts (Top 100, Billboard 200, etc.) compiled?

2. Who compiles this information?

3. In what ways does market research impact the music industry?


Chapter Goals

• Become knowledgeable about record market research and how this research is used.

• Learn about the record charts—how they are compiled and their impact.

• Identify record market segments through analysis of stylistic preferences and the science of demographics.


Understanding the Consumer

• In previous decades song + artist = music sales radio stations = label’s most relevant “customer”

• Technology changed old ways market research became more sophisticated new distribution technologies

• Music consumer research categories: sales surveys measuring unit sales consumer attitude research reports custom research


Research TopicsThe Charts

• Lists of most popular music

• Billboard publishes most quoted charts

• Most music categories have their own chart

• Hot Digital Songs chart monitors download sales

• Started measuring streaming play in 2012


Research TopicsDemographics

• Characteristics of consumers = yardstick for analyzing the marketplace

• Enables efficient targeting of music buyers mind-shift from traditional mass-market approach

• Trick is to understand consumers and their behavior minimizes marketing and distribution waste


Research TopicsDemographics

[Insert Figure 15.1]


Research TopicsRecord Categorization

• Easier to sell something when it has been categorized

• Categories constantly change with new trends

• Crossover recordings

• Public cares about sound, not type


Research TopicsRecord Categorization

[Insert Table 15.1]

Note: Crossover titles may be counted in more than one genre. Includes 2011 physical albums and their digital equivalents.

Source: Derived from Nielsen SoundScan and Christian SoundScan POS unit sales.


Research TopicsStylistic Preferences

• Music in a state of constant development and change

• Artists need to transcend trends

• Sometimes shifts in the musical climate are too dramatic for artists to successfully navigate Bobby Darrin and the Four Seasons after Beatlemania Poison and Warrant after Nirvana


Research TopicsResearch Revolution

• Music consumption in new media

• Monitoring of Web surfers

• DIY artists can now monitor their fan base

• College students as an audience segment

• Price versus value


Data SourcesNielsen’s Broadcast Data System

• Monitors broadcasts

• Recognizes songs and commercials

• Tracks music on terrestrial radio, satellite radio, network, Internet radio, and TV

• Detects actual airplay

• Prevents false airplay reports although not beyond manipulation


Data SourcesMediabase 24/7

• From Clear Channel

• Logs airplay

• Ranks music popularity

• Provides subscribers with analytic tools to understand data

• Provides other programming elements

• Consumer testing site: www.ratethemusic.com


Data SourcesMediaguide

• Catalogs music on commercial, non-commercial, and Internet radio

• Verifies that radio commercials actually run

• ASCAP uses Mediaguide to more accurately apportion royalties


Data SourcesMusic Xray

• Analyzes acoustic patterns and amasses feedback from listeners online

• Assembles responses to music from online consumers and industry professionals

• Produces numerical snapshot comparing new songs to past hits


Data SourcesNext Big Sound

• Founded by college grads in 2008 and funded by venture capitalists

• Mines online data regarding consumer activity and buzz for music and sales

• Helps identify strengths, weaknesses, shifts in the marketplace, comparisons to peers and benchmarks


Data SourcesNPD Group

• Provides consumer information on industries within media/entertainment

• Pays attention to consumer activity at POS

• Interviews customers to discover attitudes


Data SourcesRingScan

• A Nielsen service

• Compiles mobile ringtone sales data

• Gathers data from U.S. mobile carriers, aggregators, and other mobile entertainment retailers


Data SourcesSoundScan

• Owned by Nielsen

• Tabulates unit sales of recorded music physical products and downloads

• Sales tabulations offered on a subscription basis

• Old system before SoundScan: sales figures estimated and returns not accounted for certain genres ignored in sales lists subject to manipulation


For Further Thought . . .

1. Beyond sales of prerecorded music, what other, less obvious music activities can research illuminate?

2. How can an understanding of consumer demographics improve the marketing of music?


Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners.

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Transcript of Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners.