Methodology

The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from November 3 to December 7, 2003, among a sample of 809 self-identified artists, 18 and older, who were interviewed in past Tracking surveys. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 4 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

The artists who responded to our callback survey were self-identified. Our method of identifying artists was modeled after an identification method previously utilized in an Urban Institute study of support structures for artists in the U.S.²⁶ We recruited for the artists survey through several general population surveys throughout 2003. Respondents to our general population surveys were asked if they “study, practice, or do” any of the following activities: drawing or painting, creative writing, music, acting, dancing, filmmaking, or any other type of artistic activity.

At least 10 attempts were made to complete an interview at every household in the sample. The calls were staggered over times of day and days of the week to maximize the chances of making contact with a potential respondent. Interview refusals were re-contacted at least once in order to try again to complete an interview. The final response rate was 57.8%.

Non-response in telephone interviews produces some known biases in survey-derived estimates because participation tends to vary for different subgroups of the population, and these subgroups are likely to vary also on questions of substantive interest. In order to compensate for these known biases, the sample data are weighted in analysis. The final sample of completes was weighted to match the demographics of the original callback sample. The weights were derived using an iterative technique that simultaneously balances the distribution of all weighting parameters.

Musicians online survey

The Musician Web Survey, sponsored by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, obtained online interviews with a non-random sample of 2,793 musicians, songwriters and music publishers. The interviews were conducted online, via WebSurveyor, from March 15 to April 15, 2004. Details on the design, execution and analysis of the survey are discussed below.

Sample Design/Contact Procedures

Sample was recruited via email invitations to the current membership/subscriber lists of the following music organizations: The Future of Music Coalition, Just Plain Folks, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, CD Baby, Nashville Songwriters Association, Garageband.com, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, American Federation of Musicians.

Altogether, email invitations to participate in the survey were sent to approximately 300,000 members of these various organizations. These invitations provided a direct link to the survey and contained the following language:

Dear Members,

[ORGANIZATION NAME HERE]

Now’s the time to make your voice heard.

We invite you to take about 20 minutes of your time to share your opinions and experiences through this important survey.

Visit http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/11719/Music.htm from March 15 – April 15, 2004 to participate.

Your contribution will have a valuable impact, as the findings from this survey will be widely circulated and discussed.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to speak up on behalf of artists!

Sincerely,

[ORGANIZATION REP]

In addition to sending email invitations to their members, The Future of Music Coalition, Garageband.com and The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists posted a notice about the survey on their websites that provided a direct link to the survey front page. The Future of Music Coalition also printed flyers announcing the survey, including the URL, and distributed them at several musicians’ conferences held during the survey field period. Both the website postings and the flyers contained the following text:

Musicians, performers, and songwriters: What do you think about peer-to-peer file-sharing and music on the Internet? How has the Internet impacted the way you create, promote, or distribute your music?

[ORGANIZATION NAME HERE]

We’ve all heard speculations about what musicians are “really thinking” in the changing digital landscape. Yet, from our vantage point inside the music community these projections have always seemed too narrow to represent the complex concerns we regularly experience in our discussions with musicians.

It’s time to stop projecting our thoughts and preferences onto musicians and, instead, ask musicians to share their own experiences and opinions.

To that end, CD Baby, Just Plain Folks, Nashville Songwriters Association, AFTRA, and AFM, the Future of Music Coalition and the Pew Internet & American Life Project have designed an online survey that asks musicians a variety of questions about music, technology, copyright, peer-to-peer filesharing, emerging best practices, and the public domain.

We urge musicians, songwriters and performers of all types to take this online survey so we can better understand the complexity of these changes and the diversity of our community.

Visit http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/11719/Music.htm from March 15 – April 15, 2004 to participate.

When the survey is complete the results will be published and distributed to those who have a critical stake in the current debate. We hope they will open another channel in the discussions about how music will be enjoyed, and how musicians will be compensated in the future.

About the Future of Music Coalition:

The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. The FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space. The FMC also aims to identify and promote innovative business models that will help musicians and citizens to benefit from new technologies.

About the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

The Pew Internet Project is a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank that explores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care, and civic/political life. The project aims to be an authoritative source for timely information on the Internet’s growth and societal impact. Support for the project is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The project’s Web site: www.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet

Completion Rate

Based on figures supplied by WebSurveyor, PSRAI has calculated the following completion rate for the Musician Survey:

In Table 1, total hits (5,702) indicate the number of times the survey link was accessed, or roughly the number of potential respondents who reached the survey’s title page, though no control was in place to prevent someone from accessing the link more than one time. The link took people to the survey title page, which gave the following brief description of the survey and its sponsors, along with instructions for how to complete the survey:

Welcome to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s musician survey. The goal of this survey is to measure the impact of the Internet on songwriters and musical performers. Thanks so much for taking the time to help us better understand how the Internet affects your music, as well as how you communicate with other artists, artists’ organizations, and fans.

Our survey will take most respondents about 20 minutes to complete, though it may be longer or shorter for some people. Most questions give you response categories from which to choose. Others are followed by a blank text area where you can write your answers. The text areas will hold up to 300 words, so feel free to make your answers as long as you like. You must provide an answer to each question in order to move to the next; once you answer a question and move on, you will not be able to return to that question to change your answer.

Please complete the survey only once.

If you have questions about the survey, or if you’d like to send us additional input later, we’d be glad to hear from you at Music@pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

As with all studies we conduct with our survey research firm, Princeton Survey Research Associates International, all of your answers are completely confidential. Responses are analyzed only in the aggregate, and are never linked to the individual completing the survey. No identifying information is required to complete this survey, other than basic demographic characteristics.

If you have any questions about this survey, or concerns about confidentiality, please feel free to contact MusicSurvey@psra.com or the Pew Internet & American Life Project at Music@pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/internet.

Go to https://www.pewresearch.org/internet for more about the Pew Internet & American Life Project, or go to http://www.psra.com for more about Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

Total starts (3,918) indicate the number of people who, upon reading the title page, clicked the “next” button to self-select into the survey. Based on screening questions in the survey, 130 of these respondents were deemed ineligible because they were not part of the target population of musicians, songwriters or music publishers, and thus were removed from the final sample. That left 3,788 total eligible starts. Total completes (2,793) indicate the number of eligible respondents who completed the survey. The final completion rate for the survey is computed as the number of eligible completes (2,793)/the number of eligible starts (3,788), or 74%.

Questionnaire Development

The questionnaire was developed by PSRAI in collaboration with staff of the Pew Internet & American Life Project and their partners in the music community. Many questions were originally asked in Pew Internet RDD telephone interviews with previous samples of adults age 18 and older and self-identified artists. Where appropriate, questions were modified to focus on music only (as opposed to artistic work in general), and to reflect the principles of online survey design, which varies in some ways from telephone survey design.

General population tracking survey

This report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates between November 18 and December 14, 2003, among a sample of 2,013 adults, 18 and older. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 2 percentage points. For results based Internet users (n=1358), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

The sample for this survey is a random digit sample of telephone numbers selected from telephone exchanges in the continental United States. The random digit aspect of the sample is used to avoid “listing” bias and provides representation of both listed and unlisted numbers (including not-yet-listed numbers). The design of the sample achieves this representation by random generation of the last two digits of telephone numbers selected on the basis of their area code, telephone exchange, and bank number.

New sample was released daily and was kept in the field for at least five days. This ensures that complete call procedures were followed for the entire sample. Additionally, the sample was released in replicates to make sure that the telephone numbers called were distributed appropriately across regions of the country. At least 10 attempts were made to complete an interview at every household in the sample. The calls were staggered over times of day and days of the week to maximize the chances of making contact with a potential respondent. Interview refusals were recontacted at least once in order to try again to complete an interview. All interviews completed on any given day were considered to be the final sample for that day. The final response rate was 31.3%.

Non-response in telephone interviews produces some known biases in survey-derived estimates because participation tends to vary for different subgroups of the population, and these subgroups are likely to vary also on questions of substantive interest. In order to compensate for these known biases, the sample data are weighted in analysis. The demographic weighting parameters are derived from a special analysis of the most recently available Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (March 2003). This analysis produces population parameters for the demographic characteristics of adults age 18 or older, living in households that contain a telephone. These parameters are then compared with the sample characteristics to construct sample weights. The weights are derived using an iterative technique that simultaneously balances the distribution of all weighting parameters.