603 - Brief 01 - Primary Research

To better understand the audience I am targeting and get a better idea of how I want to focus the content more specifically to the viewers, I saw it necessary to carry out a questionnaire on Survey Monkey to gather some Market Research.

I started by planning out what I actually wanted to find out from the survey and attempted planning it out question-by-question..

1. Are you a student or employed?
2. Do you often listen to DJ mixes on platforms such as SoundCloud? Youtube? Or even Facebook? Tick appropriate, if not why?
3. Do you use DJ mixes as a good source of new music?
4. Would interactive live streams of DJ’s interest you? - So you can ask questions, request song titles, etc in real time whilst watching the DJs in action. If not, why? 
5. Would you rather have a DJ livestream rocking your pres before going out? - or would you rather listen whilst doing work/chilling?
6. By giving the audience an element of control over what is featured on the green-screen, do you think this will boost engagement and reach more successfully? 

I could straight away see how my examples given were way too specific and quite biased, leaning the audience towards certain answers. I needed to make sure I changed this to ensure they weren't leading questions, making them more un-biased to ensure more accurate results and data from the various members of my audience. 

To ensure I was pushing the questions to the right audiences I directly shared them through my own Facebook account and social circles - being very dance music industry focused through similar age groups as my own (18- 25, male and female) - but also through similar Facebook groups which contain my desired audience within - such as The Identification of Music Group (a 100 thousand closed-member group which is dedicated to sharing dance music such as House and Techno, etc), and more open groups such as Strictly Lo-fi and the Techno Bible (a 116k follower page on Facebook and Instagram owned by my mate! - a perfect in into the industry!!) 

Final Questions and responses:

This questionnaire is aimed at 18-30 year old dance music enthusiasts who like to interact with the industry online. I used a 100 person sample to be as diverse as possible through the free Survey Monkey platform..

This questions allows me to get a better understanding of when it is that people most interact with their social media account. It reflects how the evening - particularly 8pm onwards is the best time for live content to be interacted with. Which is perfect for the live streams!

The answers to this question reflect to me how most dance music enthusiasts will listen to their preferred genres no matter what they are doing/what time of day it is - so content will always be relevant and appreciated. However it does also show me how the second majority of people will also interact more whilst they are chilling, as well as making use of a music platform whilst pre-ing or actually partying if they do not have a live DJ.

In the least popular category I allowed for subjects to leave some other options to take into consideration and they suggested how dance music can be enjoyed particularly whilst at the gym, driving, travelling or doing house-work - reflecting how I must ensure the page has more on-the-go options to interact with streams - maybe through other external platforms too such as Mixcloud, to cut out the buffering time and distractions of having a video stream playing too - giving you just the audio so you can enjoy the mixes whilst on the move too.

For this question, I knew I needed to be more direct towards actually listening to DJ mixes rather than just songs through Spotify and Youtube playlists, etc. It portrayed to me how the audience I will be directing AV8 at do predominantly and regularly listen to actual DJ mixes, not just songs - 67% of which do to be precise.

I also accounted for a 'never' option, knowing that the audience for this sample was very broad and some may not even like the dance genres - but with this they had to give a reason/response justifying their answer so I can learn from this given data..

Most suggested how it is because they don't have time to search for new DJs and mixes to listen to; or because of the advert factor - so they just pay for Spotify instead. Another suggested how they think most mixes are not consistently good and they can't skip the songs they don't like as easy. 
Of which are fair points, but this suggests to me that maybe its just not for them as the passion and love for the practise of a DJ is not there; but I think the whole point of the AV8 page is that we will bring you new talent that you wouldn't have usually known about for you to effortlessly discover and interact with. And most of these guys will be local level and much cheaper to enjoy and actually go to see than on the likes of Rinse FM or even Yard Sessions for example. 

I think this question divides the sample up well into who would interact with and appreciate the content, as oppose to those who wouldn't as they lack interest.. which is fair enough, it's not going to be for everyone!

This question begins to reflect how the audience can be full of aspiring and practising DJs too as well as normal music lovers who are just wanting to enjoy and explore the fruits of the industry. An obvious lean towards the likes that would engage.

With this question, I was more direct to see who in the audience actually would engage with a DJ livestream - suggesting how they do already or would be more intrigued to in the future if approached in the right way.

I followed up from the last question and then applied it more specifically to what they prioritise in the content in which they interact with - audio or visuals. It is clear how yes audio is important, but more so that people would be more inclined if there was more eye-grabbing and engaging content going on aswell as the DJing. This is an opportunity to boost the interactivity of the audience, and get them involved in saying what they want to see behind the decks..

With the idea already hatching in my mind, I put out various options of stimuli that people could submit to be featured behind the decks during the streams. Directing it towards more funny and pleasing content, such as trippy pattern visuals and memes (relevant to the majority of the satirical content on Facebook now anyway!).

But it was interesting to see how actually most people thought it was an excellent idea to introduce a new branch of engagement and interactivity for the audience through getting them to submit their own artistic work - creating a platform of exposure now for not just music lovers, but building this bridge between that and the thriving artistic community, which does naturally merge over anyway. 

This questionnaire has definitely pointed me in a new and more considered direction for the project. Displaying how there is a market for what I am offering which needs satisfying! It has revealed my target audience more clearly to me which is 18-28 year old dance music enthusiasts which interact with the industry at a digital level (hence why the questionnaire was digitally distributed to the market I'm aiming at). It has brought me some new ideas of how I can be really precise with my mission statement / goal for AV8 - to really enhance what we are offering that is unique for the audience, which in turn, will be reinforced and reflected through this new identity for the music platform. This will be done through evidencing how it will cater for this cross-over of music-lovers and creative people.