Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and small CSOs are critical to European music ecosystems. Given continuous technological and societal disruption, it is important for these small players to access reliable data on music consumption and production. however, most lack market research competence. Public data, such as those collected by Eurostat and Eurobarometer, could help fill this gap, but requires technical expertise to access.
SurveyHarmonies is a solution inspired by “survey recycling”: i.e., using variables and questions from prior best-practice surveys. This solution builds on our prior work with CEEMID, which used survey recycling to increase data quality in prior music surveys in Central Europe. SurveyHarmonies will build a “bank” of best-practice questions on music consumption and production; develop an app that imports these questions into a DIY surveying tool; and integrate survey findings with open data using R.
The SurveyHarmonies project was selected for funding under the European Commission‘s MusicAIRE program, and is currently underway. Between August 2022 and May 2023, SINUS will cooperate with CEEMID founding partner Reprex to build the SurveyHarmonies toolkit and pilot test it with selected music industry MSMEs.
As musicologists, we‘re aware of the challenges facing music MSMEs and committed to helping them navigate the changing marketplace. SurveyHarmonies will level the market re-search playing field for small players in the music sector, and set a new best practice in the creative and cultural industries as a whole.
