| The music industry is currently experiencing change as MP3 music-swapping gains popularity and record labels layoff thousands of staff while cutting hundreds of acts from their rosters. Even profitable artists are causing problems as they lobby California to protect new artists from unfair contracts and labor practices. Such a change in California's current law would cut into label profits and release many artists from their contracts. The bad publicity has further tarnished the public's perception of music labels while waking up executives to the need for more focused marketing and product development strategies to reduce costs. Knowing more about music consumers could help companies to prepare for the future; however, there is little published research that focuses on the business of music. Therefore; this research will attempt to add to the public knowledge of consumer types. An on-line survey was conducted on the University of Missouri campus during the fall of 2002. More than 800 students responded to an invitation to become involved in the research. Students answered questions about their uses for music and gratifications received from music. Questions were also asked about respondent innovativeness and opinion leadership.; By using factor analysis, three groups were identified. The Opinion Seeker's most distinguishing characteristic is that they are most interested in seeking advice about music from others. However; this group does not buy a particularly large amount of music, so they don't seem to be acting on this advice. In addition, the Opinion Seeker also tends to favor classic rock, and is the only of the three groups to admit using music to relieve loneliness (although not at a statistically significant level).; The Private Fan enjoys novelty seeking, and will refrain from hitting the scan button to avoid new music. However; for all the knowledge that they acquire, they do not seek to influence others, and they will not seek advice of others as the Opinion Seekers do. With respect to music preference, they were the only group to significantly favor classical music. They are the shy version of the last consumer group, the Aficionados.; Aficionados not only love music, they love to advise about music. They are one part innovator and one part opinion leader. Although Aficionados were not fans of country or pop, they did like alternative rock and punk music. Together, these three groups give researchers valuable insight into the best practices for managing and marketing music.; The industry recommendation that springs from this study is to use viral marketing in its most basic form for all artists due to its low cost and how effective it is when embraced by fans. This research also makes it clear that viral marketing alone is not a sound recommendation because of it's unpredictable nature. Beyond these generalizations, specific genre and fan based results in this research will help conclude how much of the marketing budget should be committed to viral marketing. |
