If This is Their Music, They Should Love You, Right?

When you do music research you obtain opinions from (usually) between 100 and 200 people.

You don't know in advance, but once the test is done you know:

• Which people feel similarly about the music you tested.
• Which people are really a mismatch with the room.

This involves a simple recipe:

• 1. Identify the person whose taste in music is least like everybody else. This involves a simple comparison of their opinion about each song with that of all the other respondents.
• 2. Remove that person.
• 3. Recalculate the test.
• 4. Repeat until you have a smaller group. Those still in the sample think alike (relative to the people you removed) about music.

There are a number of ways we can use that information, but I'd like to focus on one. And I'll do that by posing a question.

Within the total sample, a certain percentage are your P1 listeners - those who say they listen to you most. Typically in a library music test this will be 50% to 60%.

Think about the people who represent the common thinking about the music, not the independent thinkers we just tossed out of the sample. Consider that you chose these people because you want their input about your music. You chose songs that you feel give you the best body of music from which to construct a playlist.

Should you be more popular with this group?

For example, if your P1s were 50% of the total sample, once you focus in on the people whose taste is defining your format, should you P1 percentage increase, say to 55%?

Yes.

Yes it should. Every time. This is your test, your music, your people. If the people whose taste doesn't match the format actually are more likely to be a P1 to your station, then something is seriously wrong.

We call the people who are left in the sample after we clean out the odd people "Pure Core Format Fans". We call this Pure Core analysis. Only Steve Casey Research does it.

I want you to have this information. Because it works to well as an indicator of your station's health. At least it works well to show whether you are aligned with the format you think you're aligned with.

An Excellent Early Warning Indicator

In a shockingly high 35% to 40% of music tests we see a decrease in P1 conversion rate among the Pure Core format fans. And that is a very dangerous result. Knowing that is happening completely justifies the time and expense of the music test all by itself!

Responses, when the station isn't working better with the Format Fans:

• In most cases, you'll need to accept the result as a learning experience. You have not centered the station where the true center of the format is. Doing so will cause you to make much more sense to the listeners. Ratings will increase.
• Modify your demographics. Maybe what you want to do isn't valid for the demographic coalition you're trying to build. For example, the "River" format tries to meld 30-35 females, 36-40 females, and 30-40 males. Finding a combination that works for these demos has proven very challenging. Several research projects have shown the need to eliminate some of these people in order to focus the station enough for it to make sense.
• Change your music. This doesn't happen often. But it does happen. I've seen AC stations with inexperienced programmers create a music test list that was better suited to a genuine CHR. The result was a list that wasn't basically compelling. The thing that people came together on wasn't the music so much as it was an agreement that the music was wrong. It is almost always possible to avoid this. Show your planned test list to a number of experienced broadcasters. Ask them if it "makes sense" given your format and respondent demographic groups.

Remember that all listeners are not equal. Some really support your format. Proper analysis will tell you whether those people also really support your station. And getting that information from your AMT is something you should insist on. It will give the information you need to increase ratings, have more fun and get a raise.