Survey: Sustainability, Consumer Behaviour, and Cultural Significance in Music Technology

Lorne Malvo said:
Be nice people.

FWIW the little information we have on our guest checks out.

But perhaps you'd like to share a some more of your background and Falmouth University credentials to put our members at ease @POLYETHENOL ?
Click to expand...
Hi Lorne, no one has accused me of being a bot in the other forums yet (Elektronauts, SOS, WATM, VI control, etc.), so that's pretty good going.

I'm enrolled in the Music Business MA program at Falmouth, and I've been making tunes on and off for years. I began looking into this because I wrote an essay on the Loudness War and framed it within the endless pursuit of fidelity. The second chapter was on commodity fetishism and its psychological effects on musicians and creatives (GAS, essentially).

This led me to undertake this current piece of research. It has elicited some lovely and thoughtful responses and some proper harsh ones, which is good,

I assure you I'm not a bot. You can email my uni email, and I'll respond instantly. I do, however, want to preserve some privacy here.
 
How does this question:

How likely are you to choose a music technology product designed for easy disassembly and recycling? (Choose one)

give you any meaningful data, without a qualifier? Such as, "...if it only increased the price by less than 5%?" "...10%." "...15%" Without that qualifier, my own answer is "It Depends."
 
TSJMajesty said:
How does this question:

How likely are you to choose a music technology product designed for easy disassembly and recycling? (Choose one)

give you any meaningful data, without a qualifier? Such as, "...if it only increased the price by less than 5%?" "...10%." "...15%" Without that qualifier, my own answer is "It Depends."
Click to expand...
Brilliant, thank you for this! There are myriad issues with the survey, but as an initial piece of research, I need all of the feedback I can get so I don't make the same mistakes in the future. Thanks for this, mate, seriously.
 
I don't see any merit in this question:

How much do you weigh the following environmental factors when considering a music technology purchase? (Pick one from each column)​


I would choose "none." (But my reason is important...)

And let's assume 60% of the responders also choose "none."

Would your survey then determine that most buyers don't care about environmental factors, or that the vast majority of manufacturers simply do not include any information regarding that aspect of their products?

Because I can tell you, it matters to me, but I never see that info posted anywhere, when I make a purchase (which is rare for me anyway. I don't buy much music tech at all.)

(Perhaps your survey takes this into account within other questions; I'm only looking at them individually.)
 
POLYETHENOL said:
Brilliant, thank you for this! There are myriad issues with the survey, but as an initial piece of research, I need all of the feedback I can get so I don't make the same mistakes in the future. Thanks for this, mate, seriously.
Click to expand...
I dated a brilliant girl in research. She holds a doctorate in Education, and did a lot of surveys herself. I once asked her, "How do you factor into your surveys, the fact that some people's answers may not be worth anything, due to a variety of reasons? Such as,

They weren't educated enough to understand the questions, and/or,

They survey was too long, they didn't realize how long the survey was until they were halfway through it, so, in order to simply get it finished, they simply started blowing through the questions, quickly?

She actually had an answer to this, and it had a name/term for it, but I cannot recall what it was.

I'm at that point in your survey. :crazyIt's kinda long, it's a Sunday morning, and some questions are making me think harder than I want to atm. (But I'm trying, because I feel this is an important topic.)

So hopefully you have this aspect accounted for..., because I doubt I'm alone.
 
TSJMajesty said:
I dated a brilliant girl in research. She holds a doctorate in Education, and did a lot of surveys herself. I once asked her, "How do you factor into your surveys, the fact that some people's answers may not be worth anything, due to a variety of reasons? Such as,

They weren't educated enough to understand the questions, and/or,

They survey was too long, they didn't realize how long the survey was until they were halfway through it, so, in order to simply get it finished, they simply started blowing through the questions, quickly?

She actually had an answer to this, and it had a name/term for it, but I cannot recall what it was.

I'm at that point in your survey. :crazyIt's kinda long, it's a Sunday morning, and some questions are making me think harder than I want to atm. (But I'm trying, because I feel this is an important topic.)

So hopefully you have this aspect accounted for..., because I doubt I'm alone.
Click to expand...
Just do it when you poop, and don't overthink it too much..... :rofl
 
I could not even get through the first form because some questions have clearly wrong options (agree/disagree with a question that seems to require a totally different answer set), and some that seemed to malfunction where you could not pick an option for all the rows but instead it used your choice for a different row.
 
laxu said:
some that seemed to malfunction where you could not pick an option for all the rows but instead it used your choice for a different row.
Click to expand...
Because it wanted you to rank them. I found that too. I wanted to put "none at all" for all of the choices.

Oh, and see post #27
 
laxu said:
I could not even get through the first form because some questions have clearly wrong options (agree/disagree with a question that seems to require a totally different answer set), and some that seemed to malfunction where you could not pick an option for all the rows but instead it used your choice for a different row.
Click to expand...
This is how one learns to be a better data collector. Learning how to ask questions, and the answers chosen by the asker, can definitely have an unforeseen outcome, as far as the data integrity is concerned.
 
likitlikeyoulikeit said:
This is how one learns to be a better data collector. Learning how to ask questions, and the answers chosen by the asker, can definitely have an unforeseen outcome, as far as the data integrity is concerned.
Click to expand...
I don't agree with that. It should be taught by the professor! He's using this info for a dissertation; he should already know how to conduct a well-thought-out survey. IMO
 
TSJMajesty said:
I don't agree with that. It should be taught by the professor! He's using this info for a dissertation; he should already know how to conduct a well-thought-out survey. IMO
Click to expand...
I understand this. That is the theory side....this is the practical, the application of the theory, side. We learn many different ways, I encourage critique and discourse.

Not everyone is perfect, this includes instructors.

Not making excuses.

This person has handled all the criticism well and is trying to make it better....next time. That is all one can hope for, in anything in life.

:beer
 
Studyi
TSJMajesty said:
I don't agree with that. It should be taught by the professor! He's using this info for a dissertation; he should already know how to conduct a well-thought-out survey. IMO
Click to expand...
Studying remotely and finding the right time to reach my HOD is part of the issue. All of these criticisms will be delineated in my methodology; I spent so long on the research trying to frame and connect each question to various established models and theories that I overlooked how to properly implement a survey and ensure it's watertight before reaching you guys. I have learnt so much in the past few days and feel that conducting a second survey will be much more reflective of my target audience. I only have experience writing and researching for my writing. This is a massive lesson for me, one I don't take lightly. As I said, my methodology will dive into the limitations and the feedback, hopefully not nullifying the dataset but contextualising it.
 
POLYETHENOL said:
Studyi

Studying remotely and finding the right time to reach my HOD is part of the issue. All of these criticisms will be delineated in my methodology; I spent so long on the research trying to frame and connect each question to various established models and theories that I overlooked how to properly implement a survey and ensure it's watertight before reaching you guys. I have learnt so much in the past few days and feel that conducting a second survey will be much more reflective of my target audience. I only have experience writing and researching for my writing. This is a massive lesson for me, one I don't take lightly. As I said, my methodology will dive into the limitations and the feedback, hopefully not nullifying the dataset but contextualising it.
Click to expand...
So, to put it another way..., you learn some stuff at college, then the real-world, useful stuff, later...? I'm kidding with you. But only halfway. :beer
 
Finished the survey, but not sure most of the questions really hit the mark. I think it's very hard to evaluate e.g sustainability without some concrete examples. I think the "which sustainable practices you engage in" was good because I didn't really think about them as such.

I don't think about sustainability when I buy something used for example, I think about getting a piece of gear for less money than new, or getting something I can try and sell forward without any cost if I don't like it.

Sustainability becomes a bigger matter if I buy a product that turns out to have known issues. I'm not necessarily thinking about its eco-friendliness, but how long will it last before I need to replace it.

I'll give you an example of my Samsung Fold 4 phone. It's an excellent phone when it works, but it has a common issue where it stops unfolding completely, or the inner screen protector breaks and can damage the screen if not removed or replaced. These were not known issues when it released, but now I worry how well it will last past the 2 year warranty that ends in October. It has already had the screen protector swapped and the hinge, inner screen and batteries replaced because the hinge failed. All under warranty so no problem for me, but what if that happens next year? I'm shit out of luck and upgrading to a newer model is very expensive (whereas US buyers get massive trade-in subsidies).

By comparison, music gear not lasting is generally a much smaller concern. Guitars are very durable, and apart from a few brands and models (e.g Fender Blues Jr, HRD, Blackstar amps), amps and pedals can last decades.

They are however becoming increasingly hard to repair and unless repair shops can pivot to expertly swapping surface mount components, the gear's original manufacturers may become the only ones capable of repairing them by just swapping parts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top