Preference Analysis on Piano Music School Attributes among

Young Pianists using A Conjoint Analysis Approach

Leonard Steven Gunawan 1, Yogi Tri Prasetyo 2,3,4*,
1
Department of International Business Engineering, Petra Christian University, Siwalankerto No.
121-131, Surabaya 60236, Indonesia;
2
School of Industrial Engineering and Engineering & Management, Mapua University, 658
Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila 1102, Philippines;
3
International Program in Engineering for Bachelor, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road,
Chung-Li 32003, Taiwan;
4
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung
Road, Chung-Li 32003, Taiwan;
*Correspondence: ytprasetyo@mapua.edu.ph; E-mail: c13190104@john.petra.ac.id ; Tel.: +63-
(2)8247-5000 (ext. 6202)

Abstract

Piano music school has become a new business in several countries. The purpose of this
study was to analyze the preference of pianists regarding the piano music school attributes by
utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. 84 pianist’s voluntaries answered an online questionnaire
that was distributed through a purposive sampling approach. Several piano music school
attributes such as price, teaching preference, genre, schedule, certificate, duration, and location
would be analyzed simultaneously by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. The results
indicated that the duration was found to be the most important attribute (58.569%) followed by
price (13.934%), schedule (8.546%), genre (7.246%), location (5.202%), teaching preference
(4.552%), and certificate (1.951%). The piano music school should consider a minimum of 1
hour course time with the price less than 1,000,000 IDR per month. In addition, twice per month
or once per week would be more preferred among pianists. This study is one of the first studies
that explored the importance of the piano music school attributes. This research can be utilized
by piano business schools particularly to enhance their services. Finally, the conjoint approach in
this study can be expanded to analyze the preference of other music schools worldwide.

Keywords: piano school; conjoint; course duration; price preference;

 1. Introduction
Piano is the most famous musical instrument in the world. As an example, in developed
country, there are over 5,007 pianists in the United States. As shown in the table below, it is
shown that the unemployment rate of pianists especially in the United States decreases as the
time flies from 2010 to 2019 (Zippia, 2022), which explains that the jobs for pianists are
increasing and there are more potential in becoming successful pianists as the time goes by.

Table 1: Pianist Unemployment Rate by Year (Zippia, 2022).

Year Pianist Unemployment Rate

2010 7.36%
2011 8.26%
2012 8.21%
2013 6.42%
2014 6.38%
2015 6.59%
2016 4.13%
2017 4.83%
2018 5.95%
2019 4.11%

Not only in developed countries, Piano itself is also famous in developing countries. In
fact, Russia, as an example of a developing country, has produced world’s most outstanding and
talented pianists like Rachmaninov and Horowitz and more (Lebrecht. 2022). Thus, as the most
famous musical instrument with the greatest number of learners, piano music school is one of the
booming businesses worldwide.
 Figure 1. Pianists by education (Zippia, 2022).

Piano music school has become a new business in several countries. As the years went
by, music schools developed significantly worldwide which means that people’s interests
towards music is increasing rapidly. Nominated as the best music school for musicians in the
world in 2021 by APGuru (2021), Julliard School which is in New York’s tuition fee might
reach up to $52,250 per academic year, which equals to Rp. 731.500.000 when converted to
Indonesian currency. As a matter of fact, many pianists especially in the US earn a degree which
means many young pianists want to become professional pianists. One of the developing
countries that has a high number of music schools is Indonesia.

In Indonesia, there are many music schools which are spread all around Indonesia
continents and islands. Some famous music schools such as Sekolah Musik Indonesia, Melodia,
Go Music Indonesia, Orenji Music School, Yamaha Music School, and even The Piano Institute
are dominating the market Despite being an archipelago country, piano music schools can be
found in the big cities and even in the small towns since parents usually would their kids to get
engaged in the music and piano is known as a basic instrument to understand the fundamental
concepts of music theory. There are also some famous pianists in Indonesia and recently, an
Indonesian named Kasyfi Kalyasyena who is a 17-year-old pianist and saxophonist in Jakarta
won the 2019 VSA International Young Soloist Competition in the John F Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts in Washington DC, United States (News Desk, 2019). This explains that
there are young and talented pianists who are interested in musical instruments, especially Piano.

Previously, there were several studies related to music schools worldwide. In Slovenia,
Adam & Metljak (2022) conducted a survey regarding the experience in distance education
among music teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. They found that online learning has
significantly supports the traditional way of learning like interactivity and communication
between the students and teachers while at the same time, it helps to promote the use of
Information Communications Technology (ICT) in terms of education. Based on the study, it is
also revealed that the younger teachers have fewer problems using ICT rather than the
professional ones who have been teaching for more than 6 years (Adam & Metljak, 2022). In
Taiwan, Huang et al (2015) conducted a study related to the automated music composition in the
school that that the students in the experimental group using the automated music composition
teaching materials showed a better learning effectiveness at both reaction level and learning
level, than those of the students in the comparison group. Lastly, according to Huang and Nien
(2013), algorithmic composition implementation is based on the logic operation with music
parameters established in accordance with the desired music style or emotion. Thus, these studies
highlighted the advancement of music schools worldwide.

Despite the availability of several studies related to music schools in several countries,
there was no local study in Indonesia. Novrizal (2022) only studied about the influence of junior
high school students' musical preferences on the learning of basic music theory that aims to
determine whether different musical preferences affect the learning of basic music theory in
junior high school students. Prasetiyo (2013) however only discusses young people's musical
preferences. Lastly, Simanullang (2021) only focused on stigma music of human life in
Indonesia orchestral music. Thus, a study regarding piano music school is highly required and it
can be analyzed by a method such as conjoint analysis.

Conjoint analysis is a form of statistical analysis that is used by companies to conduct

market research in terms of understanding how customers value different components or the
features of their products or services (Stobierski, 2020). This method can be applied for
analyzing the preference of consumers regarding a certain attribute. Prasetyo et al (2014) only
conducted a study regarding the consumer preference with flute attributes. Annissa et al (2020)
also utilized this method to analyze Netflix consumer preference analysis. Thus, this method
could be utilized for analyzing the preference regarding the piano music school.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the preference of pianists regarding the piano
music school attributes by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. Several piano music school
attributes such as price, teaching preference, genre, schedule, certificate, duration, and location
would be analyzed simultaneously by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. This study is one of
the first studies that explored the importance of the piano music school attributes. This research
can be utilized by piano business schools particularly to enhance their services. Finally, the
conjoint approach in this study can be expanded to analyze the preference of other music schools
worldwide.

2. Methodology
2.1 Participants

Table 2 represents the demographic of the respondents. Based on this table, 60.7% of the
respondents were male and 39,3% were female. Most of the respondents were mostly 21-
25 years old (56,5%) with beginner skill level (58,3%).
Table 2. Demographics.
Attribute Category N %
Male 51 60,7
Gender
Female 33 39,3
16-20 33 39,7
21-25 47 56,5
Age
26-30 2 2,4
More than 30 1 1,2
Beginner 49 58,3
Skill Level Intermediate 21 25
Advance 14 16,7

2.2 Conjoint Design

Table 3 demonstrates the attributes and the levels of the study. Based on this table, there
were seven attributes: price in Indonesian Rupiah (500k – 1000k, 1000k – 1500 k, and more than
1500k), teaching methods is it private class or group class, genre (Pop, Jazz, Classic and not
specific), Schedule per week (Once per week, Twice per week, Three times per week),
Certification whether the student want to get certification or no certification, Duration in minutes
(30 – 40, 40 – 60 and above 60), and Course Location (Home and Music school).

Table 3. The conjoint design.

 Attributes Levels
Price 500k – 1000k, 1000k – 1500k, 1500k and above
Teaching Private class & Group class
Genre Pop, Jazz, Classic, and Not specific
Schedule Once per week, Twice per week, Three times per week
Certification Get certification and no certification
Duration 30 – 40 minutes, 40 – 60 minutes and above 60 minutes
Course Location Home and music school

Price was selected as the first attribute in this study. According to Akdogan (2021),
consumer really consider the price as one important attribute during the decision making. It is
thought that small changes in the prices of products (water, soft drinks, carbonated beverages,
cleaning materials, etc.) that can be offered in various sizes can create significant differences in
consumers preferences and therefore in the incomes of businesses. Qalati et al (2019) shows that
price play vital role in switching behavior from one service to another.
Teaching preference is important that it affects the how the students understand the
studies and for sure affects their score. According to Rawas (2020), group-based class yields
better overall test scores compared to individual class. Group-based student allows student to do
cooperative learning which is more effective in domains of application and integration while
individual learning don’t have cooperative learning (Cooper, 1990).
Genre is a category of music that characterized by a particular style or form which can
give impacts on human psychology. Chen (2018) found that different genres of music affects
cognitive abilities, stress, mood, and energy in adolescents, providing insights into the potential
benefits of listening to different genres of music for different occasions.
Course scheduling, According to Lee and Genovese (1988) and Willingham (2002), there
is evidence from psychology that distributed practice in which spreading out learning into
periods of less duration but with more frequency could improve the skill and long-term
recollection of the material that the students are learning. It is also proven by many studies that
changing the number of times that for any class meeting in a week has significant effect (Rettig
and Canady, 1995).
Certification is sometimes needed for students who want to go professional and credible
license for someone to teach piano. Dunn (2019) shows that certification credentials assure the
public that a person have acquired the specialized professional development needed. The
research done by Henry (2005), also clarify that certification is assessing qualification for
teaching through standardized testing.
Duration of the course was provided based on research that shows the importance of
duration affecting the student’s knowledge. Anderson and Anderson (2012) determined that extra
time in a course increased students' performance.
Course location determined whether students prefer to learn at home or directly learn at
music school. Thus, learning at music school is quite interesting where students can join music
events and gathering. Kaur (2018) show that students who learn at home will miss out several
activities that conducted at school.

2.3 Statistical Analysis

IBM SPSS 25 was utilized to run the conjoint analysis with an orthogonal design. A total
of 16 stimuli extra 2 holdouts were generated and tested to the participants in 7-points Likert
scale. 1 represented “Strongly Not Preferred” and 7 represented “Strongly Preferred”.

3. Results
Table 4. Utilities
Table 4 and Table 5 show the utilities and the importance values respectively. Based on
these tables, the duration was found to be the most important attribute (58.569%) followed by
price (13.934%), schedule (8.546%), genre (7.246%), location (5.202%), teaching preference
(4.552%), and certificate (1.951%). The best combination was the price between 500k-1000k
IDR, private, pop genre, twice per month, with certificate, more than 60 minutes, and in the
music school.

Utilities

Utility Estimate Std. Error

500k-1000k .241 .080

Price 1000k-1500k -.211 .093

> 1500k -.030 .093

Private .074 .060
Type
Group -.074 .060
Pop .120 .104
Jazz .030 .104
Genre
Classic -.036 .104
No specific -.114 .104
Once per week .088 .080
Schedule twice per week -.183 .093
twice per month .094 .093
With certificate .032 .060
Certificate
No certificate -.032 .060
30-40 mins -1.014 .080
Period 40-60 mins .129 .093
> 60 mins .885 .093
Location Home -.084 .060
 Music School .084 .060
(Constant) 4.394 .069

Table 5. Importance Values

Importance Values

Price 13.934
Type 4.552
Genre 7.246
Schedule 8.546
Certificate 1.951
Period 58.569
Location 5.202

Averaged Importance
Score

After completing the survey using Google Forms, it was interesting to see that students
who wanted to study piano ranked duration above piano certification, which wasn't as significant
to them.

Table 6. Correlations

Correlationsa

Value Sig.

Pearson's R .993 .001

Kendall's tau .962 .001
Kendall's tau for Holdouts 1.000 .

a. Correlations between observed and estimated

preferences

4. Discussion
Duration of the course were found to be the most crucial attribute for piano music
students. 60 minutes duration of course is preferable rather than below 60 minutes because
students have already paid a lot and needs time to understand the material. The difference of
importance values between duration and other attributes is very significant, which means that
students really consider about course duration rather than price. Based on research that
conducted by Anderson and Anderson (2012) about the importance of duration affecting the
student’s knowledge it shows that extra time in a course increased students' performance.
 Price was selected as the first attribute in this study, and it turned out become the second
most important attributes, with students preferring prices under one million rupiah since lower
prices are actually preferred. Akdogan (2021) asserts that when consumers are making decisions,
they really take the cost into account. Small price modifications for goods that may be sold in
different sizes, such as water, soft drinks, carbonated beverages, cleaning supplies, etc., are
believed to have a major impact on customer preferences and, consequently, corporate profits.
Price has a significant part in a customer's decision to migrate from one service to another,
according to Qalati et al (2019).
Teaching preference is important that is proven by importance value rank, teaching
preference become the third most important attribute. It affects how the students understand the
studies and for sure affects their score. According to Rawas (2020), group-based class yields
better overall test scores compared to individual class. Group-based student allows student to do
cooperative learning which is more effective in domains of application and integration while
individual learning don’t have cooperative learning (Cooper, 1990).
Genre was the next most important attribute. According to Chen's (2018) research,
different musical genres have an impact on teenagers' cognitive functioning, stress levels, moods,
and energy levels. This finding provides light on the possible advantages of listening to various
musical genres at various times. The students especially enjoy pop genre since it is a large part of
contemporary music.
Subsequently, the course schedule was found to be the fifth most important attribute. The
participants would prefer twice per month rather than once a week or twice a week. According to
Lee and Genovese (1988) and Willingham (2002), there is evidence from psychology that
distributed practice in which spreading out learning into periods of less duration but with more
frequency could improve the skill and long-term recollection of the material that the students are
learning. It is also supported by Rettig and Canady (1995) who mentioned that changing the
number of times that for any class meeting in a week has significant effect.
Course location determined whether students prefer to learn at home or directly learn at
music school. Thus, learning at music school is quite interesting where students can join music
events and gathering. Kaur (2018) shows that students who learn at home will miss out several
activities that conducted at school. According to Gough and Millar (2012), musical activities to
students in a music curriculum environment is essential. This practice is important because it
gives students the chance to evaluate their feelings and express them in a variety of healthy
ways. According to Sinaga et al (2018), music school activities provide students the chance to
discuss their musical experiences in groups, classrooms, and by themselves. Additionally, they
may exchange musical ideas with one another to enhance their skills.
Interestingly, even though certification is occasionally required for students who wish to
pursue professional and credible licenses for piano teachers, certification was considered to be
the least relevant feature. According to the important ratings, certification is not a huge matter
for piano music students as it only received (1.951%), a very low score compared to the other
feature. According to Dunn (2019), certification qualifications reassure the public that an
individual has obtained the necessary specialized professional growth. The study conducted by
Henry (2005), makes clear that certification is an evaluation of teaching ability through
standardized testing. According to the conjoint study, the majority of students just desire to learn
music for personal enjoyment, not for academic credit.
4.1 Managerial Implications
The purpose of this paper is to help piano school business owners or those who are interested in
piano school businesses. In this case, there are four points that are most important in terms of
customers’ preferences in piano schools.
Firstly, it is suggested that piano classes should be more than 60 minutes. Classes below 60
minutes would not be effective for the students, especially to those who just started to learn
piano. In this case, business owners need to make sure that they have packages or set their
classes with a minimum duration of 60 minutes or more.
Second is about pricing. In terms of price, business owners should consider their prices to be
under one million rupiah. It is important to make sure that the business targets the right market as
students might prefer to choose other places or competitors with cheaper price.
As for the third point, it is important to provide private classes as students prefer it to be private
for their teaching preference. For some students, they could feel burdened if they are combined
in the same class with other students who might be smarter or could learn faster than them. At
the same time, they might unconsciously compete with the other students. As a result, it is
important to have private classes for students to focus more on themselves rather than comparing
themselves with other students.
Finally, it has been proven that certificates are not too important for the students. It has been
proven that if their skills are excellent, certificates will not be necessary to prove anything. At the
same time, when students register for any competitions or probably want to enroll themselves as
piano teachers in piano schools, the employers or academy would not ask for certificates, yet will
ask them to prove themselves whether their skills are qualified or not.
4.2 Limitations and Future Research Directions
Despite the substantial innovation and contributions of the study, the authors would like
to mention several limitations of the current study. First, this study was limited to the preference
of the piano school. In fact, there are many available musical instruments in the world like
strings, woodwinds, brass, and even percussions. A future research to find the preferences
regarding other musical instruments would be a very substantial research direction. Second,
regarding the demographic of the respondents, the majority of the respondents were below 30
years old. A wider range of age would result in a better understanding of the preferences across
generations. Last, the majority of the respondents were from Surabaya. A future research should
analyze the different preferences of the respondents from different cities.
 5. Conclusion
Piano music school has become a new business in several countries. The purpose of this
study was to analyze the preference of pianists regarding the piano music school attributes by
utilizing a conjoint analysis approach. 84 pianist’s voluntary answered an online questionnaire
that was distributed through a purposive sampling approach. Several piano music school
attributes such as price, teaching preference, genre, schedule, certificate, duration, and location
would be analyzed simultaneously by utilizing a conjoint analysis approach.

The results indicated that the duration was found to be the most important attribute
(58.569%) followed by price (13.934%), schedule (8.546%), genre (7.246%), location (5.202%),
teaching preference (4.552%), and certificate (1.951%). The piano music school should consider
a minimum of 1 hour course time with the price less than 1,000,000 IDR per month. In addition,
twice per month or once per week would be more preferred among pianists. Interestingly,
certificate was found as the least important attribute, indicating that the students do not put
emphasize on it.

This study is one of the first studies that explored the importance of the piano music
school attributes. This research can be utilized by piano business schools particularly to enhance
their services. Finally, the conjoint approach in this study can be expanded to analyze the
preference of other music schools worldwide.

6. References

Adam, T. B., & Metjak, M. (n.d.). Experiences in distance education and practical use of ICT during the

COVID-19 epidemic of Slovenian primary school music teachers with different professional

experiences. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 5(1).

Akdogan, C. (2021). A Study on The Effect of Price On Consumer Purchase Decision-Making.

IBANESS Congress Series on Economics, Business and Management.

Anderson, T. I., & Anderson, R. J. (2012). Time compressed delivery for quantitative college courses:

The key to student success. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 16.

Annissa, I., Susilawati, W., Suseno, N., & Hamdani, N. A. (2020). Netflix Consumer Preference

Analysis. Jurnal Pendidikan Manajemen Bisnis, 20(2).

Canady, R. L., & Rettig, M. D. (1995). Block Scheduling: A Catalyst for Change in High School.

Chen, J. (2018). The Impact of Different Genres of Music on Teenagers. International Journal of

Psychological Studies, 10(4).

Cooper, J., & Mueck, R. (1990). Student Involvement in Learning: Cooperative Learning and College

Instruction.

Dunn, D. (2019). The Meaning and Value of Certification. AORN Journal, 110(3).

15 Best Music School In The World, 2021 from AP Guru. (n.d.). AP Guru. Retrieved November 1, 2022,

from https://www.apguru.com/blog/top-10-music-schools-worldwide-for-undergraduates

Gough, M., & Millar, P. (2012). Curriculum Support Teacher for Music. London:Neelbg Jamalus.

Henry, M. L. (2005). An Analysis of Certification Practices for Music Educators in the Fifty States.

Journal of Music Teacher Education, 14(2).

Huang, C. F., & Nien, W. P. (2013). A Study of the Integrated Automated Emotion Music with the

Motion Gesture Synthesis via ZigBee Wireless Communication. International Journal of

Distributed Sensor Networks, 11.

Huang, C. F., & Nien, W. P. (2015). Learning effectiveness of applying automated music composition

software in the high grades of elementary school. Computers & Education, 83.

Kaur, G. (2018). Home Schooling - Advantages and Disadvantages. International Journal of Trend in

Scientific Research and Development, 2(2).

lebrecht, n. (2022, April 2). Why Russia still produces the best pianists - SlippediscSlippedisc | The

inside track on classical music and related cultures, by Norman Lebrecht. Slipped Disc.
 Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://slippedisc.com/2022/04/why-russia-still-produces-the-

best-pianists/

Lee, T. D., & Genovese, E. D. (1988). Distribution of Practice in Motor Skill Acquisition: Learning and

Performance Effects Reconsidered. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 59(4).

Novrizal, R. S., Nandiyanto, A. B. D., Kurniawan, T., & Bilad, M. R. (2022). The Influence of Junior

High School Students' Musical Preferences on the Learning of Basic Music Theory. Indonesian

Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2(1).

Piano Player Demographics and Statistics [2022]: Number Of Piano Players In The US. (2022,

September 9). Zippia. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.zippia.com/piano-player-

jobs/demographics/

Prasetiyo, A. (2013). Preferensi Musik Di Kalangan Remaja. Jurnal Pengkajian, Penyajian dan

Penciptaan Musik, 1(1).

Prasetyo, Y. T., & Suzianti, A. (2014). Consumer Preference Analysis on Flute Attributes in Indonesia

using Conjoint Analysis. International Conference on Advanced Design Research and

Education.

Qalati, S. A., Li, W., Iqbal, S., & Hussain, R. Y. (2019). Impact of Price on Customer Satisfaction;

mediating role of Consumer Buying Behavior in Telecoms Sector. International Journal of

Research, 6(4).

Rawas, H., Bano, N., & Alaidarous, S. (2020). Comparing the Effects of Individual Versus Group Face-

to-Face Class Activities in Flipped Classroom on Student's Test Performances. Health

Professions Education, 6(2).

Simanullang, P. (2021). Stigma Music of Human Life in Indonesia Orchestral Music. Postgraduate

Program of Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, 9(2).

Sinaga, S. S., Susanto, S., Ganap, V., & Rohidi, T. R. (2018). Musical Activity in The Music Learning

Process Through Children Songs in Primary School Level. Harmonia Journal of Arts Research

and Education, 18(1).

Stobierski, T. (2020, December 18). What Is Conjoint Analysis, and How Can It Be Used? HBS Online.

Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-conjoint-analysis

2022 VSA International Young Soloists Competition. (n.d.). John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing

Arts. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from

https://thekennedycenter.smapply.io/prog/2022_vsa_iys_competition/

Willingham, D. (2002). How We Learn. Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Allocating Student Study Time.

"Massed versus "Distributed" Practice. American Federation of Teachers.