UNIT 3 HANDBOOK

Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................... 3
Types of Research.................................................................................................. 3
Methods of Research............................................................................................. 4
Purpose of Research.............................................................................................. 5
Other research techniques.................................................................................... 6
Conclusion............................................................................................................. 6
Bibliography........................................................................................................... 7

Introduction
Research is the best way on expanding your knowledge on anything you want to
know. Research is important because it is a way for people to learn about a

certain topic. This can be very useful in media as its a path to learn about the
past and the history of how everything started off. You can learn about anything
you want to with the power of research. Research in the music industry,
specifically in music videos, is very important because its a way to learn about
how music videos started off and anything you need to know.

Types of Research
Quantitative
Quantitative research is asking people for their opinions in a structured way. This
can help you find solid facts about whatever you need to know. It's important to
use a large audience when using quantitative research so that the results are
very accurate.
A suitable structured question in a quantitative questionnaire is closed. In other
words, people who are answering the questions must answer from a selection of
different answers. For example, how often do you swim? And the answer boxes
will have a selection of amount of times such as 2-3 times a week or 5-6 times
a week. This is different to a semi-structured questionnaire as they involve
open-ended questions where the respondents can write anything they would like
to.
By using structured quantitative questionnaires it's easier for you to find out
information about your customers and it's much easier to gather big bulks of
information.
Quantitative research can help you find information about your respondents such
as what their buying habits are and how you may need to change the market you
are based in. All the information collected from the research can be acted upon
and it can help you decide what you are going to do in the future of your product,
or what you need to change to make it better.
Quantitative research in the music industry could involve reviewing the amount
of people which enter your band or music labels website. This information could
help you understand the size of your audience and how many people you could
potentially aim your music at. But another very important way of checking your
audience is the sales, such as CD sales and online sales on platforms such as
iTunes, or even the amount of people listening to your music on popular
programs such as Spotify. By using this information you can also find out about
how many people are listening and buying your music. This can help show a
band or artist how they're performing and which material is more popular.
Qualitative
Qualitative research includes gathering information through face to face
interviews or focus groups. Qualitative research is about finding out not only
what someone thinks, but also why they think it. This can help you gain a much

wider understanding of their opinion. This can be helpful for you as you can
understand much easier where you need to improve and how your target
audience feel about the product.
Qualitative research is similar to quantitative research in the way that you can
act upon the results of both of the types of research. Qualitative is usually a
better option of research because you can get a wider understanding of your
audience, although it may take longer to get big bulks of information form lots of
different people. Quantitative is usually better for getting big bulks of information
in a short amount of time.
In the music industry, qualitative research can be very helpful as you can
interview people to understand their feelings. For example, if you needed
feedback on your new music video, you could have a focus group express their
opinions and give constructive feedback about it so that you can fix possible
errors and complete it to the best standard.

Methods of Research
Primary Research
There are many different types of research: one of these being primary research.
Primary research is when you create questionnaires, surveys or just ask
questions to a small group of people. Primary research is when you carry out the
research by yourself without the help from secondary sources. This technique is
effective because its the easiest way to collect quick results. Although, the
results may not be reliable because theyre taken from a small group of people
who could possibly have similar interests.
Secondary Research
Another research technique is secondary research. Secondary research is when
you collect research from places such as books or the internet. Secondary
research is when you collect research that has already been carried out by
another person. Usually, with secondary research, you take a bunch of results
from different places and you add them all together to make one more reliable
source of information. This technique of research is much more reliable than
primary research as the information is coming from a much larger base of
people, rather than similar people. Secondary research is better for collecting
reliable information because you can find places where people have collected
information from all types of people.
Data Gathering Agencies
Data gathering agencies are very self-explanatory. Theyre aim is to collect data
on a certain topic or even multiple. This way they can sell the information or put
it out for the public. This technique of research can be very helpful because its
usually made from reliable sources meaning that if you use their data it should

always be correct. Although the big problem with using data gathering agencies
is that you will never know if the information is actually 100 percent accurate.
An example of a data gathering agency would be RAJAR. RAJAR is an organisation
that stand for radio joint audience research. The aim of this company is to
measure the amount of listeners on over 310 radio stations. This company is
owned by the BBC and the radio centre, hence the joint in the name. The data
that they collect is used to plan advertisement and also sell it to people. This is o
that they can find the peak times and the times where not as many people are
listening. The peak times will obviously sell for more.
This can be useful in the music industry as you can find out multiple different
things. RAJAR can be very helpful for the music industry as artists can find what
times are the peak times and by this they can find out which music is more
popular. This could possibly lead to artists heading towards the more popular
genres in order to get people to hear their music.
Self-Generated Research
Self-generated research is the personal recording of the topic being carried out.
This can include: taking photographs and taking notes on things which need
improving. In other words, if someone created a short film with multiple different
shots, angles and sound effects, which was later analysed by themselves, this
would be considered self-generated research.
The main aim of self-generated research is so that you understand your own
project and so that you can fully explore your creativity as you may come up with
other ideas or plans to make their project better.

Purpose of Research
Audience Research
Audience research is a systematic and accurate way of finding things out about
your audience. There are two main things which audience research can help you
achieve: discover sizes of audiences and their preferences. This information is
then used to improve their product to match the majority of the people they
have interviewed. This will make sure that they always have a large viewership
and also that theyll keep their audience interested.
The most common form of audience research is
surveys. This is where you take a certain amount of
individuals and make them complete a survey of all
the same questions, the results are then tallied up to
get an overall answer for the questions. Although,
there are multiple ways of researching your audience such as observations and
qualitative research.

This can be helpful in the music industry because artists and music labels can
see which genre of music is the bestselling, how their audience perceive the
material and what their audience feel about certain music.
Market Research
Market research is the process of collecting important information to find if there
is actually a market for your product. The results from market research will help
you make decisions on where and how to marker your products. Lots of people
make the mistake of thinking that they know what their customers want before
actually asking them and this can lead to their market failing if they are
incorrect. Market research is usually carried out by doing quantitative and
qualitative research.
Market research is useful in the media industry because it can help artists and
music labels understand where their market is. It can help them make decisions
on where to sell their music and how well they can do in particular regions of the
market. This will help artists and record labels gain the maximum amount of
profit.
Production Research
Production research in music videos will allow the people involved to recognise
what will be needed to perform the specific music video. It would also allow them
to understand how much profit on average the video will make in the industry.
The purpose of production research is to make sure you save money for your
production. For the production research to be successful you need to research
multiple different things such as: Staff, equipment, locations and risk
assessments.
Its usually a good idea to have a large variation in the people you ask when
researching, whether theyre professionals or just ordinary people. This will make
sure that you get a large view on things and it will help you make decisions.

Other research techniques

There are also more types of research such as constructive research which is
used by professionals, usually scientists, to find answers to problems such as
finding new renewable sources of energy. This isnt used in research in the music
industry as much, though. This technique can help find ways of making
something better. For example, someone will give you constructive criticism on a
certain topic and from this information you can fix the problems which you
wouldnt necessarily realise yourself.

Conclusion

In conclusion, research is very important in the music and media industry as it is

the best way to find out information which you would not be able to find in any
other way. Its the best way to learn about your target audience and where
companies want to aim their products at. Its the best way for companies to find
out any questions they need answered about their customers or anything they
need to know. For example, if a company needed to know how much people were
willing to spend on their latest product, they can simply create a survey and get
people to fill it out or simply just ask people in person.

Bibliography
1. http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-isquantitative-research2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research
3. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/course/is4800sp12/resources/qualmethods.pdf
4. http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-isqualitative-research5. http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/food-standards-agency/market-researchand-consumer-protection/primary-and-secondaryresearch.html#axzz3TX3hRgj6
6. http://www.knowthis.com/data-collection-low-cost-secondaryresearch/what-is-secondary-research
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_research
8. http://www.learnmarketing.net/primaryresearch.htm
9. http://classroom.synonym.com/types-primary-data-4719.html
10.http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=about_organisation
11.http://www.esfmedia.com/page/Unit+3+Assignment+1%3A+Research+Me
thods+%26+Techniques
12.http://www.audiencedialogue.net/kya1a.html
13.http://schniz-n-tish.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/market-and-productionresearch-in-media.html
14.http://www.studententerprise.ie/phases/phase-2/module4/what-is-marketresearch/
15.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_research
16.http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135964
17.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/product+research
18.https://kingb94.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/the-purpose-of-audienceresearch-market-research-and-production-research/