Research Techniques

Independent Study
Claire Allan

Contents
Types of Research - Page 3
Qualitative Research
Quantative Research

Methods of Research - Page 4&5

Primary Research
Secondary Research
Data Gathering Agencies
Self Generated

Purpose of Research - Page 6

Audience Research
Market Research
Production Research

Bibliography - Page 7

Types of Research
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is used in order to find out people's opinions, reasons and
motivations for a certain topic. The basis of Qualitative research is finding out what
people think. This is done mainly by research such as interviews, questionnaires etc.
Where people are often asked to give detailed answers, or questions are open ended,
leaving the person to say as much as they want as an answer. In the music industry,
this is useful in finding out what fans of a certain genre of music like or want, gather
their honest opinions on their ideas, or even improve their work by getting feedback
from members of the public.

Quantitative Research
Quantitative research involves fact and statistics as opposed to opinions and feedback.
The results gathered is grouped together to collect numbers. Gathering Qualitative
research tends to be done using surveys. For example, the number of albums or singles
brought from a record company or number of times a music video has been viewed etc.
Quantitative data is really important to companies as they help them see how popular
an artist is or how much money they are making from each single/album. It may also be
useful in working out how much money will be made from the next album/single and
how much money this artist is predicted to earn each month/year. This type of research
is very simplistic and will not give you any more information than graphs, charts or
numerical figures.

Methods of Research
Primary Research
Primary research is that of which an individual uses their own resources to find their
own data using thongs like surveys and questionnaires and interviews. The questions
have to have been created by you in order for it to be primary research. The benefits of
primary research in the music industry is that control over what information and data
they receive is completely in the hands of the producers, artists, distributors etc.
However, the information does have to be relevant to what you are researching and the
planning of the primary research and getting results etc takes a lot of time and effort.

Secondary Research
Secondary Research is done by collecting or summarising data that already exists! This
involves getting a third party involved that have already found the primary data. This is
mainly found over the internet, but can also be found in magazines, books etc.
Secondary research is much easier and less time consuming than primary research as
the basis data is already there. Past research helps people in the music industry find out
what worked for other people, what didnt work, and how other companies resolved
issues or found ways to boost profits etc. However, the downside to secondary research
is that some data may be false or slightly inaccurate if it is found on the internet with an
unreliable source.

Data Gathering Agencies

Data Gathering Agencies are designed to group together and collect information to be
viewed by the public. They are also useful as they can also do research for you,
meaning you dont have to spend time finding the information for yourself. Radio Joint
Audience Research (RAJAR) are a Data Gathering Agency who specialise in measuring
how many viewers 310 difference radio stations have in the UK. The music industry use
this information to work out what genre/ type of music's most popular with the general
public, what radio stations are most popular, and what kind of audience are listening to
each station e.g age, gender etc. This is a good way to find information as Data
Gathering Agencies are professionals and are incredibly reliable.

Self Generated Research

Self Generated Research is fairly self explanatory. It is when a person has generated all
their research and information themselves, without the help of anyone else. This can be
done in the style of a self-made video, or voice recording that shows its only you that
has worked on this research. This is useful in the music industry for when you want to
analyse your own work after completing it. For example, if you are to re evaluate your
music video, or listened back to your song and decided to focus of the negative points,
this is self generated research. This is good as all the research comes from you, but this
may also mean you are biased towards your own work!

Purpose of Research
Audience Research
Audience research is used to find out both the preferences and sizes of audiences.
Ways of finding this information can be through interviews questionnaires and surveys.
In order to get accurate results, the best thing to do is to get information from a few of
these rather than just one. In the music industry, this kind of research helps with finding
out who an artist's target audience is, and this research helps them narrow down
another more specific set of questions to ask the audience.

Market Research
Market research is gathering all kinds of information from the target audience for your
music video, song etc. This kind of information can come in facts, figures etc. Doing this
gains you an insight into what the target audience want meaning music producers and
artists know what to do to please them and how they can develope the music in the
future to always fit the needs of the target audience. Getting the information directly
from the target audience means that the information is reliable and has not been
manipulated in any way. Market research also means you can find out what members of
the public like and dislike about an artist and improve song sales by improving on these
things.

Production Research
Production research is used when researchers want to look into the content for preproducing a music video. This involves asking audiences for their opinions on your
basic ideas and the plans. This helps find positive and negatives about the plans, and
therefore helps the artist and directors manipulate their ideas in order to improve them
to fit the audience's prefered styles.

Bibliography
http://qrj.sagepub.com/
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-is-qualitativeresearchhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research

http://www.snapsurveys.com/qualitative-quantitative-research/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-is-quantitativeresearch-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_research
http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/food-standards-agency/market-research-andconsumer-protection/primary-and-secondary-research.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/marketing/marketresearchrev3.sht
ml

http://www.slideshare.net/09SC1/data-gathering-agencies
http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=about_process

http://www.slideshare.net/MrMightyMcD/research-unit-booklet
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3625465

http://www.slideshare.net/AnnieRose95/audience-research-22808080

http://www.audiencedialogue.net/kya1a.html

https://www.audiokite.com/blog/music-market-research-a-brief-history/
http://musically.com/services/research/
http://www.slideshare.net/marleylong/audience-27055236

http://schniz-n-tish.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/market-and-production-research-inmedia.html