XTRA NEWS
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Xtra Research Takes On Music Master For Windows
The world’s first truly custom music scheduling software
system, Music Master for Windows is now available
and supported in Australia through Xtra Research.%202-20.gif)
Music Master is essentially a ‘toolbox’
full of advanced components that allow Programmers to build a
custom music scheduling solution to fit your specific needs. Required
features can be added and fields and rules not required can be
eliminated. With the user-defined database, scaleable rules and
goal-seeking technology, each installation becomes unique! The
result is a perfect music log generated automatically.
The features found in Music Master for Windows
represent significant advancements over older DOS-based systems.
Even with other Windows-based scheduling systems on the market
Xtra Research is confident Music Master will
eventually dominate the market with its flexibility, analysis
and scheduling capabilities. This, combined with a “Buy
It, Own It” cost plan, makes Music Master great
value for money. At last there is a genuine, cost effective, locally
supported alternative to music scheduling software available downunder.
Xtra Research looks forward to demonstrating
Music Master for Windows to Radio station programmers
around Australasia in the near future.
For any enquiries or to make a time for a Music Master
for Windows demonstration please contact Blair
Sullivan on 0408 736573.
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Xtra Music Clusters
Xtra Research announces
a powerful new addition to our Digital Music Tests... Xtra Music
Clusters
If
people's oipinions about music were totally random there wouldn't
be a point to XTRA MUSIC CLUSTERS. But we know
opinions aren't random. That's why formats work. And even within
formats there are patterns. We can capitalise on these patterns
to help balance our music programming. With XTRA MUSIC
CLUSTERS we conduct a cluster study INSIDE your music
test so you can identify the degree to which the songs are liked
by the same group of people. Every song is related to every other
song in terms of how differenct they are.
With
the addition of XTRA MUSIC CLUSTERS to your Digital
Music Test you can get a bigger picture on your audience's music
tastes that will help you make better decisions about which songs
to play and which ones to avoid.
XTRA
MUSIC CLUSTERS condisder how listeners rate the invidual
songs played at your Digital Music Test. They form "naturally"
when based on statistical relationships between each song.
What
Are The Benefits?
1.
Discover what the critcal music clusters are with your target
audience.
2.
Find out how big each of those clusters is.
3.
Understand how the different cluster groups work with each other.
4.
See every song in your Digital Music Test by each cluster group.
5.
Determine the "centering" sound for your radio station.
6.
Use them to support the digital song score results and build your
playlists.
7.
Create a cohesive and distinct sound for your radio station that
can improve TSL and give you another edge over your competitor.
How
It Works
Xtra
Research will still deliver your results the day after your Digital
Music Test and as usual you'll be able to improve and implement
positive changes straight away . However within 10 working days
you'll be sent an updated version of the Xtra Analyst containing
the addtional information reflecting the new XTRA MUSIC
CLUSTERS columns. You will have the crtitcal new information
to help you understand your target better and further refine your
playlist.
Find
Out More
To
learn more about XTRA MUSIC CLUSTERS or to have
them compliment your next Digital Music Test, contact Paul Amos
at Xtra Research.
Phone +61 (0)
7 3117 2549
Mobile
+61 (0) 412 409917
Email
paulamos@xtraresearch.com.
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The Evolution of Auditorium
Music Testing
Over
the years, many reputable research firms, including Xtra Research,
Pinnacle Media Worldwide, Broadcast Architecture, , and others,
have dedicated ourselves to minimizing the inherent biases in
auditorium music testing. Our technology was developed by programmers
who, over the years, saw consistently troubling flaws in the "old
style" analog approach.
We know that music testing remains one of the most valuable tools
you have available and we are committed to empowering you with
the most accurate information.
We invite you to take a look at what those of us using interactive-digital
technology have learned over the last seventeen years, as music
testing has evolved.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC TESTING ANALOG vs. DIGITAL
In 1988, long before the launch of Xtra Research,
in a conference room in Princeton NJ, Frank Cody and Owen
Leach of Broadcast Architecture began examining the flaws,
impracticalities, and numerous problems that programmers had
uncovered through traditional, paper & pencil music testing.
Before hailing what emanated from those meetings, including the
development of electronic data collection, or Interactive-digital
methodology
– it is most important to outline what those inherent flaws were
at the time and in fact, still are today.
It was actually programmers within the industry,
not researchers, who began to notice some consistently,
troublesome occurrences during the course of their paper & pencil
music tests. The following is a summary of the issues addressed
as we examine how these issues have been remedied though the means
of technological advances.
1-
Intellectual Responses
For years, music had always been tested
intellectually. We were asking people to score songs using a 5 or
7 point scale making respondents feel as if they were taking an
SAT style test forcing them put a number to a product that they
simply did not use that way. Music simply is not a product of
intellect – it is one of emotion & passion. In fact, most
researchers and programmers will agree that the station generating
the most emotion will earn the distinction of the most compelling,
superlative product. The task was to identify statistically
reliable and accurate methods that would be able to measure and
harness that emotion. Simply put, people listen to the radio and
react emotionally, changing stations when they dislike a song and
turning it up when they love it!a
2-
Too Many Questions in Seven Seconds
Once a hook begins, much like driving a car, there
is a couple of seconds of reaction time. So now you only have
five seconds left to make the several calculations and
intellectual decisions required. Within those five seconds, the
first question asked in a paper and pencil test is, “do you know
that song?” or, “is it familiar”?
Next, they must score the song by first translating
their emotional response of, “I Iove it, I like it, it’s just ok,
I don’t like it, or I hate it” to a number from 1-5, and then
transpose that score onto a scantron sheet by filling in an SAT
style bubble. Next, again within the same five seconds, they must
determine if they are “tired of the song” (and quite often) “to
what degree”. Finally, in some cases they are asked, “on what
station would you most expect to hear that song”?
It was the King of Pollsters, George Gallup, who
pointed out that the best research only asks only one question at
a time! There was simply too much information to intellectually
process in a seven second period.
We learned after studying and interviewing hundreds
of respondents after these style tests, that they would end up
falling behind very quickly, and as a result, would often just
fill in bubbles arbitrarily, or copy a neighbor’s responses just
to keep up with the count…which leads to:
3-
Keeping Track of the Slate Numbers
With paper & Pencil music tests, it is imperative
to have song slates before each title so the respondent can be
certain the scores on the scantron sheet are matching the correct
songs. One of the greatest threats to accurate research,
resulting from this problem was that often, people actually either
left bubbles empty, or got to the end and realized that they had
miss-matched the last hundred songs with each score off by one.
Slate numbers were most often perceived as yet another piece of
information which respondents had to process and also led to:
4-
Extreme Fatigue
Inarguably, six or seven hundred titles represent a
great deal of material to present to respondents regardless of the
methodology. All research companies agree that a top priority is
getting what is needed with as little fatigue as possible. The
number one complaint consistently received during this long period
of “method testing” was the sheer volume of material. Yet
traditional music testing achieved the worst grades and added
insult to injury by not only inserting two seconds before each
cut, but reminding them every seven seconds of just how many
titles they have heard (i.e. “song # five-hundred and
seventy-three”). With up to four responses for each song, the
level of fatigue becomes great and translates to over 2800
calculations within a two-hour period.
5-
Position Bias
Many firms using paper & pencil methodology had
conducted only a single session, with all respondents in the room
at one time. There is without a doubt, definitive
correlation to fatigue and test position. With any
methodology, the songs actually testing in the beginning and the
end, do exhibit statistical variances with those songs tested in
the middle. In second and third sessions, some firms would
simply reverse the order, assuming that this would adjust for the
inherent bias, however moving titles from the middle to the
beginning and end, has become the preferred method. There is yet another bias that is not considered
when testing in only one session:
6-
Lifestyle Variables and Sample Quotas
While single sessions may appear more efficient and
are certainly more cost effective, they do not take into account
the various life-styles and abilities of the sample. A single
session minimizes the ability to randomize your sample properly by
limiting it to only those people who are able to attend one
specific time. Research is much better served by offering session
time options to respondents, which in turn, make it more practical
when meeting the quotas outlined within the screener.
However, we must mention that conducting one music
test over a 3-4 week period, in order to avoid any “single night”
bias is in itself flawed in that the variable of “time and age” of
the song has passed. New songs tested in the first or second week
of their life cycles that are tested four weeks later will impact
the final scores. That song now has its own age as a variable
that can no longer be quantified, especially by those testing burn
and familiarity, since time is the variable that has the greatest
impact on those responses.
The
Biases of ALL Music Research
It must be said that all research has some inherent
bias. The German physicist Werner Heisenberg developed the
“Uncertainty Principle” which simply states that you can not truly
observe something without introducing variables that disturb it.
Here’s a list of variables that impact ALL research regardless of
methodology:
-
No environment can exactly match those in which
listeners use the product.
-
Only those people willing to participate are even
included in a research project. (The silver lining to that of
course, being they are the same people who will agree to fill
out a diary.)
-
Only those willing to answer their phone when
being recruited can participate.
-
No one ever listens to only the hook of a song
-
Moods of
respondents based on their day, activities, stresses, etc are
all variables out of our control.
The list actually goes on but the best research
minimizes these variables and attempts to “level the playing
field” so all things are equal. In the imperfect world of
research, that must remain a most important goal.
25 years ago Madison Avenue developed an
alternative to traditional focus groups that enabled them to
capture the emotional appeal of television commercial concepts and
TV pilots. Shortly thereafter, film studios picked up on the
growing trend to test “rushes” of films in production, and
political campaigns began using the technology in focus groups and
auditorium studies for testing candidates. This new methodology
came with the advent of digital, interactive, data collection. In
1988 we first began exploring how to best utilize this technology
to test music and soon discovered its ability to harness true,
emotional appeal. Taking into account all the flaws outlined, the
dials quickly made it apparent that they didn’t minimize
those biases – they eliminated them.
1-
Intellectual Responses
Xtra Research uses a
scale of 0-100. They are instructed to do what they do when listening to
the radio. When they like a song they turn it up.
When they don’t like it they turn it down. The
degree to which they turn up or down tells us how much they like
or dislike the song. We learned to ask respondents to tell us how
they “feel” about the song today.
We must note that “burn” is truly a function of
current music and in fact we utilize this in online research.
Burn was developed in order to track the life-cycle of new music,
which is usually 20-25 weeks, at which time it either disappears
or makes it into library. As a result, respondents are asked to
use their dial to reflect how they feel about the song today. How
they used to feel is irrelevant. What programmers
need to determine is how people feel about songs…not
why and avoid forcing them through too many hoops.
Testing Relative Product Quality
With the advent of digital technology came another
tremendous advantage. We discovered an ability to measure actual
on-air music mixes of the client station, as well as their
competitors. By scoping down music from each station
we could now measure the “relative product quality” of one station against several
others. This would become one of the most empowering and
compelling points-of-differentiation between dials and paper &
pencil. How does one’s core and cume respond to each station,
what is their “intent-to-listen” to each station’s mix, and are
they able to correctly attribute each to the proper radio
station?
Less Fatigue
After doing several side-by-side tests using dials
and paper & pencil, we learned that respondents felt the dial was
more like listening to the radio, more emotional, more accurate,
and far less fatiguing with complaints over the amount of test
material far lower. Since the dial is read second-by-second, and
data is recorded in synchronization with every song respondents no
longer need to keep track of the songs. Therefore, there are
no slates, making participants work less and completing the same
number of songs in less time. As a result, we are afforded nearly 25 more minutes than paper & pencil, to ask
perceptual questions and test other types of material:
Digital Testing Other Content
Digital-Dial technology also offers the option of testing morning shows and personalities, as
well as TV spot campaigns (including those of competitors),
keeping in mind that the technology was first developed for this
purpose. Along with testing on air music mixes (and even
prototypical pods) this translates into wonderful opportunities to
turn a simple “music test” into something far more valuable, while
still realizing the limits of a tactical sample.
Immediate Results
One advantage that clients enjoy is the viewing
room and next-day results. During a Digital Music Test clients are in a hidden, adjacent room
watching the results on the screen in real time. They can “see”
how the sample “feels” moment-to-moment, giving them an actual
snapshot of their audience during any song. You can literally and
graphically see when they tune out and when turn it up. Data from
all sessions is then crunched overnight with final results
presented to the client the next morning less than 12-hours after
testing is complete.
Winner of the “Most Asked Question” Award
The most common question asked by first time users
is whether or not the previous song will impact the way one
responds to the next song. There are a few points that must be
made here:
A)
If previous songs impact the way one feels about
the next song then all music testing is superfluous, since once we
put them on the radio, and place them next to other songs, what we
learned about the song in the test has now become meaningless,
since the previous song they heard has an impact on how they feel
about the song on the air right now.
B)
If it’s true with dial technology then it’s true
with paper & pencil since neither method asks the respondent to
forget the previous song before scoring the next song however…
C)
Paper & pencil testing actually affords more chance
of previous songs impacting subsequent songs by what is called the
“rule of the 3’s”. Paper and pencil testing keeps a running
history of how they scored all previous songs – it’s truly right
in front of them and they begin to examine what they should score
next, based on how the previous answers look. If a respondent has
scored a sequence of three straight 5’s the temptation to vary
their answer for upcoming songs becomes greater. We have all
experienced this on standardized testing when we see too many
answers that appear the same, our temptation was to just change it
up. With dials there is no previous history to bias subsequent
songs. All they see in front of them is the current second.
D)
If previous material had an impact on subsequent
material then it would also affect the personality testing as
well. Many research firms use dial methodology for this purpose
and notice no variance in their content testing.
E)
This continues to be tested time and time again by
simply placing the same song in the same study, multiple times.
These songs always test within acceptable statistical variance.
This is actually something never tested using paper & pencil but
occurs at least four or five times in every music test we do,
mostly because as-is pods end up playing a few of the same songs
in head-to-head battles.
We, like many others have learned that, “insisting
on doing things the same way means you could be doing them wrong.”
If not, we would all still be watching VHS tapes, be playing vinyl
records, have cassette players in our cars, and heaven help us
all…talking on pay phones!
Xtra Research would like to
thank Pinnacle Media Worldwide for their contribution of this
article.
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