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Topic: Digital Audio Survey (Draft) (Read 4388 times) previous topic - next topic
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Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Hi. I've been contemplating on how people use audio technology, such as computers, portable media players, etc. and their preferences about digital music. It's been my goal to maintain a public survey to gather information revolving around the use and preference of digital music amongst the general public around the world, so I made a survey questionnaire on it. At the moment, the survey is in its near completion stage, and I've already looked into survey sites to conduct the survey. I would love to hear any thoughts, plans, or criticism to the survey I made, and I am very interested in improving it. Here is a draft of the survey:

Digital Audio Survey

This survey revolves around the use and preference of digital music. Keep in mind that when the survey talks about music quality, it means the quality of the music on your computer, portable media player, etc. as opposed to how the music should be played. For instance the quality of the music on your computer/portable media player is either nearly the same or lesser than that on what you hear on a CD, or live music.

1.   Do you listen to digital music? Such as through a computer, portal media player (like an iPod), or CD?
a.   Yes
b.   No

2.   If so, then through what do you listen to music the most? (Check one that applies)
a.   A Computer
b.   A Digital Media Player
c.   CDs

3.   How often do you listen to music? (Check one that applies)
a.   Around a couple of hours or less a week
b.   Around a few hours a week
c.   Around several hours a week
d.   Around a couple of hours or less a day
e.   Around a few hours a day.

4.   If you use a portable media player, what brand is it/are they? (Check any that apply)
a.   Sony
b.   Apple
c.   Coby
d.   Phillips
e.   Microsoft
f.   Samsung
g.   Sandisk
h.   RCA
i.   Archos
j.   iRiver
k.   Other
l.   None

5.   If you use a computer, what operating system is it? (Check any that apply)
a.   Microsoft Windows (XP/Vista/7/etc.)
b.   Mac (OS X)
c.   Linux/Unix-Like
i.   If so, please specify operating system _______
d.   None

6.   If you use a portable media player, how much storage space/memory does it hold(Check one that applies)
a.   1 – 2 GB
b.   2 – 4 GB
c.   4 – 8 GB
d.   8 – 12 GB
e.   12 – 16 GB
f.   16 – 24 GB
g.   24 – 32 GB
h.   32 – 64 GB
i.   64 – 80 GB
j.   80 – 120 GB
k.   120 – 160 GB
l.   160 GB +

7.   If you use a computer, how much storage space does it hold?
a.   Around 10 - 30 GB
b.   Around 30 – 60 GB
c.   Around 60 -120 GB
d.   Around 120 – 300 GB
e.   Around 300 – 600 GB
f.   Around 600 – 800 GB
g.   800 GB +

8.   How important is the quality of your music to you?
a.   Little: Not very much. I don’t really mind if quality is good or bad
b.   Somewhat: As long as it sounds decent, and that I can hear it, it’s alright with me.
c.   Moderately: I don’t pay much attention to detail, but quality matters considerably
d.   Largely: Music quality means a great deal to me; I can tell in most cases if the quality is good/bad
e.   Very: Music quality is of the upmost importance to me

9.   How much music/songs do you have on your computer or digital media player
a.   Several songs
b.   Couple of albums, over a couple/few dozen songs
c.   Several albums, Around a hundred or more songs
d.   Around couple hundred songs, more or less
e.   Around a few hundered songs
f.   Around several hundred songs
g.   Over a thousand songs, More or less
h.   Around a couple thousand songs
i.   Around a few thousand songs
j.   Around several thousand songs
k.   Around 10,000 + songs
l.   None

10.   How much music/songs do you have on your digital media player
a.   Several songs
b.   Couple of albums, over a couple/few dozen songs
c.   Several albums, Around a hundred or more songs
d.   Around couple hundred songs, more or less
e.   Around a few hundered songs
f.   Around several hundred songs
g.   Over a thousand songs, More or less
h.   Around a couple thousand songs
i.   Around a few thousand songs
j.   Around several thousand songs
k.   Around 10,000 + songs
l.   None

11.   How many CDs do you own/have? (Check one that applies)
a.   Practically none
b.   A little amount, a couple or few of CDs
c.   A several amount of CDs
d.    Around a dozen or more CDs
e.   Around a couple dozen CDs
f.   Many CDs; around a few dozen
g.   Very many CDs; around several dozen or more

12.   How important is the size/capacity of the music you listen to on your computer/portable media player? (Check one that applies)
a.   Little: I don’t pay attention much to the amount of songs I have or they amount of space they occupy
b.   Somewhat: I don’t tend to pay much detail to the space and memory my music library, but I check every now and then
c.   Moderately: I pay some attention to my music capacity; I often or sometimes check how much the capacity of my music library is
d.   Largely: I pay a great amount of attention and detail to the capacity of my music; I check the capacity of my music library on a regular basis
e.   Very: The capacity and storage of my music library is very important to me

13.   How often do you find that the capacity of your music library fills up or exceeds the storage of your digital music player or computer, if ever? (Check one that applies)
a.   Not usually, Never
b.   Sometimes, Occasionally
c.   Often
d.   On a regular basis
e.   Nearly all the time

14.   Whenever the capacity of your digital music player or computer is ever filled, how do you usually respond? (Check one that applies)
a.   I leave my music library as is, or refrain from adding any more music
b.   I delete some of my music
c.   I compress my music/ Make the music files smaller
d.   I take out some of my music (generally on a portable media player)
e.   I find a way to expand the capacity of my computer or portable media player (Through flash/usb drives, another hard drive, a new computer/digital media player, etc.)

15.   Would you ever compromise the quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)
a.   No, I would much rather keep the quality of music, even if it meant the capacity of my music would be spacious/large
b.   Perhaps, I probably would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but I’d rather maintain good quality
c.   To some degree. I would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but not a drastic amount
d.   Most likely. I would compromise most of the quality of my music to maintain some small amount of file size, but enough to make the quality of my music decent

16.   How do you respond when the music on your computer or portable music player tends to produce weird/annoying noises or when the quality isn’t as good as you would normally hear? (Check one that applies)
a.   I hardly notice any bad/annoying sounds
b.   I don’t pay much detail to annoying/bad sounds
c.   I sometimes notice these sounds, but I usually ignore them
d.   I often notice these sounds, and they sometimes annoy me
e.   I notice these sounds most of the time, and I am often annoyed by them.

17.   Where do you obtain your music? (Check any that apply)
a.   CDs, whether from a store or friend
b.   Online downloads, by paid music sites and/or programs
c.   Online downloads, for free through programs and/or networks

18.   Where do you often obtain your music? (Check one that applies)
a.   CDs, wither from a store or friend
b.   Online downloads, by paid music sites and/or programs
c.   Online downloads, for free through programs and/or networks

19.   If you do get your music online, what sites/programs do you use? (Check any that apply)
a.   iTunes Store
b.   Rhapsody
c.   Zune Marketplace
d.   eMusic
e.   Amazon MP3
f.   Walmart Music
g.   BuyMusic
h.   CD Baby
i.   7digital
j.   Amie Street
k.   Music Station
l.   Napster
m.   PayPlay.FM
n.   PlayNow
o.   Puretracks
p.   Streamwaves
q.   iMesh
r.   Peer 2 Peer Software (BitTorrent, Limewire, etc.)

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #1 –
Ok, well the survey certainly seems quite comprehensive, but here's a few suggestions anyway:

Question 1 refers to a 'portable media player', and question 2 refers to a 'digital media player'. Would it be best to have the wording consistent?

Could question 3A be shortened to simply be 'less than a couple of hours per week?' Otherwise, IMHO, it seems to conflict a bit with 3B.

Not a biggie, but for 5B and 5C, be aware that Mac OS X is also a unix-like system .

In addition to these, is there a need to have questions that can cover those who use networked media players such as a Squeezebox? AFAIK, these sort of players fall into a cetegroy that is seperate from Computers, portable players or CD players.

Hope this helps .
"Lifting Shadows Off a Dream"

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #2 –
The owned CD numbers are quite low at the upper end.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #3 –
Quote from: ezlez on
2.   If so, then through what do you listen to music the most? (Check one that applies)
a.   A Computer
b.   A Digital Media Player
c.   CDs

a = playback device
b = playback device
c = music source
??????

Quote from: ezlez on
3.   How often do you listen to music? (Check one that applies)
a.   Around a couple of hours or less a week
b.   Around a few hours a week
c.   Around several hours a week
d.   Around a couple of hours or less a day
e.   Around a few hours a day.

Use real numbers, even if arbitrary.  Options A-D are vague enough to make the results nearly meaningless.

Quote from: ezlez on
6.   If you use a portable media player, how much storage space/memory does it hold(Check one that applies)
a.   1 – 2 GB
b.   2 – 4 GB
c.   4 – 8 GB
d.   8 – 12 GB
e.   12 – 16 GB
f.   16 – 24 GB
g.   24 – 32 GB
h.   32 – 64 GB
i.   64 – 80 GB
j.   80 – 120 GB
k.   120 – 160 GB
l.   160 GB +

50% of the people with a 4GB player are going to pick B and 50% are going to pick C, throwing off your results.  Remove the overlap from the choices.

Quote from: ezlez on
7.   If you use a computer, how much storage space does it hold?
9.   How much music/songs do you have on your computer or digital media player?
10.   How much music/songs do you have on your digital media player?
11.   How many CDs do you own/have? (Check one that applies)?

My last two comments apply to these questions here as well.  Don't use "wishy washy" words, and don't overlap your answer ranges.  Redesign questons where needed to enable yourself to create answer selections with firm borders.  Overlapping answers greatly diminish any value in the results.

Quote from: ezlez on
14.   Whenever the capacity of your digital music player or computer is ever filled, how do you usually respond? (Check one that applies)
a.   I leave my music library as is, or refrain from adding any more music
b.   I delete some of my music
c.   I compress my music/ Make the music files smaller
d.   I take out some of my music (generally on a portable media player)
e.   I find a way to expand the capacity of my computer or portable media player (Through flash/usb drives, another hard drive, a new computer/digital media player, etc.)

15.   Would you ever compromise the quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)
a.   No, I would much rather keep the quality of music, even if it meant the capacity of my music would be spacious/large
b.   Perhaps, I probably would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but I’d rather maintain good quality
c.   To some degree. I would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but not a drastic amount
d.   Most likely. I would compromise most of the quality of my music to maintain some small amount of file size, but enough to make the quality of my music decent

Not knowing the claimed income level of a respondent weakens this question.  In fact, you have collected zero demographic data and these are not the only question which will have likely variable results tied to demographics. 
Creature of habit.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #4 –
Is HD Radio digital music in this sense?
Kevin Graf :: aka Speedskater

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #5 –
Quote from: ezlez on
Hi. I've been contemplating on how people use audio technology, such as computers, portable media players, etc. and their preferences about digital music. It's been my goal to maintain a public survey to gather information revolving around the use and preference of digital music amongst the general public around the world, so I made a survey questionnaire on it. At the moment, the survey is in its near completion stage, and I've already looked into survey sites to conduct the survey. I would love to hear any thoughts, plans, or criticism to the survey I made, and I am very interested in improving it. Here is a draft of the survey:


8.   How important is the quality of your music to you?
a.   Little: Not very much. I don’t really mind if quality is good or bad
b.   Somewhat: As long as it sounds decent, and that I can hear it, it’s alright with me.
c.   Moderately: I don’t pay much attention to detail, but quality matters considerably
d.   Largely: Music quality means a great deal to me; I can tell in most cases if the quality is good/bad
e.   Very: Music quality is of the upmost importance to me


This strikes me as being too vaguely worded.  "quality of music" could relate to many things. Is this about technical quality of reproduction, or performance artistic skill?  I would think that the phrase "sound quality" would be used instead, at the minimum.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #6 –
Some of your questions need to be shorter.  Take for example

"16. How do you respond when the music on your computer or portable music player tends to produce weird/annoying noises or when the quality isn’t as good as you would normally hear? (Check one that applies)"

You've also got two questions here.  "Quality" can mean a lot of things (even a poor pair of earphones) and weird/annoying noises can mean something totally different (e.g. a technical failure).  So you are asking multiple questions.  If my PMP made weird noises I'd buy another one.

Questions should be simple, leave little room for subjective interpretation, and be as short as possible.  Your selected of answers should be the same.  So vague terms like "a few hours" should be reduced to 1-5 hours.  This will also increase the validity of your analysis since you know the interpretation of the response is similar between you and the person responding to the survey.

Take for example this question "15. Would you ever compromise the quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)"

I imagine a large percentage of the population has no idea about the differences between lossy, lossless, CDs, etc.  So people can interpret this in a lot of different ways.  So what does their response mean exactly?  Again, this validity of this question is weak because the question allows for a lot of subjective interpretation.  Also, you say "capacity of it."  Capacity of what?  The capacity of the music?  Maybe music has different capacities for quality?  This is how people may see this question.

I don't know about your experience with designing Survey items (questions).  But I seriously recommend you find a textbook that discusses survey design and read over it.  Many textbooks addressing educational research have a chapter on Survey design.  I think this will greatly help improve the validity of your questions.

I can recommend a popular textbook if you are interested.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Hengest on
Ok, well the survey certainly seems quite comprehensive, but here's a few suggestions anyway:

Question 1 refers to a 'portable media player', and question 2 refers to a 'digital media player'. Would it be best to have the wording consistent?

Could question 3A be shortened to simply be 'less than a couple of hours per week?' Otherwise, IMHO, it seems to conflict a bit with 3B.

Not a biggie, but for 5B and 5C, be aware that Mac OS X is also a unix-like system .

In addition to these, is there a need to have questions that can cover those who use networked media players such as a Squeezebox? AFAIK, these sort of players fall into a cetegroy that is seperate from Computers, portable players or CD players.

Hope this helps .



Quote from: Soap on
Quote from: ezlez on
2.   If so, then through what do you listen to music the most? (Check one that applies)
a.   A Computer
b.   A Digital Media Player
c.   CDs

a = playback device
b = playback device
c = music source
??????

Quote from: ezlez on
3.   How often do you listen to music? (Check one that applies)
a.   Around a couple of hours or less a week
b.   Around a few hours a week
c.   Around several hours a week
d.   Around a couple of hours or less a day
e.   Around a few hours a day.

Use real numbers, even if arbitrary.  Options A-D are vague enough to make the results nearly meaningless.

Quote from: ezlez on
6.   If you use a portable media player, how much storage space/memory does it hold(Check one that applies)
a.   1 – 2 GB
b.   2 – 4 GB
c.   4 – 8 GB
d.   8 – 12 GB
e.   12 – 16 GB
f.   16 – 24 GB
g.   24 – 32 GB
h.   32 – 64 GB
i.   64 – 80 GB
j.   80 – 120 GB
k.   120 – 160 GB
l.   160 GB +

50% of the people with a 4GB player are going to pick B and 50% are going to pick C, throwing off your results.  Remove the overlap from the choices.

Quote from: ezlez on
7.   If you use a computer, how much storage space does it hold?
9.   How much music/songs do you have on your computer or digital media player?
10.   How much music/songs do you have on your digital media player?
11.   How many CDs do you own/have? (Check one that applies)?

My last two comments apply to these questions here as well.  Don't use "wishy washy" words, and don't overlap your answer ranges.  Redesign questons where needed to enable yourself to create answer selections with firm borders.  Overlapping answers greatly diminish any value in the results.

Quote from: ezlez on
14.   Whenever the capacity of your digital music player or computer is ever filled, how do you usually respond? (Check one that applies)
a.   I leave my music library as is, or refrain from adding any more music
b.   I delete some of my music
c.   I compress my music/ Make the music files smaller
d.   I take out some of my music (generally on a portable media player)
e.   I find a way to expand the capacity of my computer or portable media player (Through flash/usb drives, another hard drive, a new computer/digital media player, etc.)

15.   Would you ever compromise the quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)
a.   No, I would much rather keep the quality of music, even if it meant the capacity of my music would be spacious/large
b.   Perhaps, I probably would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but I’d rather maintain good quality
c.   To some degree. I would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but not a drastic amount
d.   Most likely. I would compromise most of the quality of my music to maintain some small amount of file size, but enough to make the quality of my music decent

Not knowing the claimed income level of a respondent weakens this question.  In fact, you have collected zero demographic data and these are not the only question which will have likely variable results tied to demographics.



Quote from: Arnold B. Krueger on
Quote from: ezlez on
Hi. I've been contemplating on how people use audio technology, such as computers, portable media players, etc. and their preferences about digital music. It's been my goal to maintain a public survey to gather information revolving around the use and preference of digital music amongst the general public around the world, so I made a survey questionnaire on it. At the moment, the survey is in its near completion stage, and I've already looked into survey sites to conduct the survey. I would love to hear any thoughts, plans, or criticism to the survey I made, and I am very interested in improving it. Here is a draft of the survey:


8.   How important is the quality of your music to you?
a.   Little: Not very much. I don’t really mind if quality is good or bad
b.   Somewhat: As long as it sounds decent, and that I can hear it, it’s alright with me.
c.   Moderately: I don’t pay much attention to detail, but quality matters considerably
d.   Largely: Music quality means a great deal to me; I can tell in most cases if the quality is good/bad
e.   Very: Music quality is of the upmost importance to me


This strikes me as being too vaguely worded.  "quality of music" could relate to many things. Is this about technical quality of reproduction, or performance artistic skill?  I would think that the phrase "sound quality" would be used instead, at the minimum.



Quote from: odigg on
Some of your questions need to be shorter.  Take for example

"16. How do you respond when the music on your computer or portable music player tends to produce weird/annoying noises or when the quality isn’t as good as you would normally hear? (Check one that applies)"

You've also got two questions here.  "Quality" can mean a lot of things (even a poor pair of earphones) and weird/annoying noises can mean something totally different (e.g. a technical failure).  So you are asking multiple questions.  If my PMP made weird noises I'd buy another one.

Questions should be simple, leave little room for subjective interpretation, and be as short as possible.  Your selected of answers should be the same.  So vague terms like "a few hours" should be reduced to 1-5 hours.  This will also increase the validity of your analysis since you know the interpretation of the response is similar between you and the person responding to the survey.

Take for example this question "15. Would you ever compromise the quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)"

I imagine a large percentage of the population has no idea about the differences between lossy, lossless, CDs, etc.  So people can interpret this in a lot of different ways.  So what does their response mean exactly?  Again, this validity of this question is weak because the question allows for a lot of subjective interpretation.  Also, you say "capacity of it."  Capacity of what?  The capacity of the music?  Maybe music has different capacities for quality?  This is how people may see this question.

I don't know about your experience with designing Survey items (questions).  But I seriously recommend you find a textbook that discusses survey design and read over it.  Many textbooks addressing educational research have a chapter on Survey design.  I think this will greatly help improve the validity of your questions.

I can recommend a popular textbook if you are interested.


I made some significant edits to the survey based upn what you guys have said, so here are the revised/new questions:

"This survey revolves around the use and preference of digital music. Keep in mind that when the survey talks about music quality, it means the sound/technical quality of the music on your computer, portable media player, etc. as opposed to how the music should be played. For instance the quality of the music on your computer/portable media player is either nearly the same or lesser than that on what you hear on a CD, or live music."

1.   Do you listen to digital music? Such as through a computer, portal media player (like an iPod)?
a.   Yes
b.   No

2.   If so, then through what do you listen to music the most? (Check one that applies)
a.   A Computer
b.   A Portable Media Player

3.   How often do you listen to music? Give an estimate. (Check one that applies)
a.   0 to 1 hour a week
b.   2 to 4 hours a week
c.   5 to 7 hours a week
d.   0 to 1 hour a day
e.   2 to 4 hours a day.
f.   5+ hours a day

6.   If you use a portable media player, how much storage space/memory does it hold? (Check one that applies)
a.   1 – 2 GB
b.   3 – 4 GB
c.   5 – 8 GB
d.   9 – 12 GB
e.   13 – 16 GB
f.   17 – 24 GB
g.   25 – 32 GB
h.   33 – 64 GB
i.   65 – 80 GB
j.   81 – 120 GB
k.   121 – 160 GB
l.   161 GB +

7.   If you use a computer, how much storage space does it hold? (Check one that applies)
a.   Around 10 - 30 GB
b.   Around 31 – 60 GB
c.   Around 61 -120 GB
d.   Around 121 – 300 GB
e.   Around 301 – 600 GB
f.   Around 601 – 800 GB
g.   801 GB +

8.   How important is the sound quality of your music to you? (Check one that applies)
a.   Little: Not very much. I don’t really mind if quality is good or bad
b.   Somewhat: As long as it sounds decent, and that I can hear it, it’s alright with me.
c.   Moderately: I don’t pay much attention to detail, but quality matters considerably
d.   Largely: Music quality means a great deal to me; I can tell in most cases if the quality is good/bad
e.   Very: Music quality is of the upmost importance to me
9.   How much music/songs do you have on your computer? Give an estimate (Check one that applies)
a.   None
b.   1 to 10 songs
c.   11 – 48 songs
d.   48 – 72 songs
e.   13 – 100 songs
f.   100 – 200 songs
g.   201 – 400 songs
h.   401 – 700 songs
i.   701 – 1000 songs
j.   1,001 – 2,000 songs
k.   2,001 – 4,000 songs
l.   4,001 – 7,000 songs
m.   7,000 – 10,000 songs
n.   10,000 + songs

10.   How much music/songs do you have on your portable media player? Give an estimate (Check one that applies)
a.   None
b.   1 to 10 songs
c.   11 – 48 songs
d.   48 – 72 songs
e.   13 – 100 songs
f.   100 – 200 songs
g.   201 – 400 songs
h.   401 – 700 songs
i.   701 – 1000 songs
j.   1,001 – 2,000 songs
k.   2,001 – 4,000 songs
l.   4,001 – 7,000 songs
m.   7,000 – 10,000 songs
n.   10,000 + songs

11.   How many CDs do you own/have? Give an estimate. (Check one that applies)
a.   None
b.   Between 1 to 5 CDs
c.   Between  6 – 10 CDs
d.   Between 11 - 25 CDs
e.   Between 26 – 40 CDs
f.   Between 41 – 70 CDs
g.   71 + CDs

15.   Would you ever compromise the sound quality of your music over the capacity of it? (Check one that applies)
a.   No, I would much rather keep the quality of music, even if it meant the capacity of my music would be spacious/large
b.   Perhaps, I probably would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but I’d rather maintain good quality
c.   To some degree. I would compromise some quality of my music for file size, but not a drastic amount
d.   Most likely. I would compromise most of the quality of my music to maintain some small amount of file size, but enough to make the quality of my music decent

16.   How do you respond when the sound quality music on your computer or portable music player tends to produce weird/annoying noises?
a.   I hardly notice any bad/annoying sounds
b.   I don’t pay much detail to the annoying/bad sounds
c.   I sometimes notice these sounds, but I usually ignore them
d.   I often notice these sounds, and they sometimes annoy me
e.   I notice these sounds most of the time, and I am often annoyed by them.

20.   How much would you’d be willing to pay for each song/album you buy?
a.   I’d be willing to pay around  $.99 for a song or around $9.99 for an album
b.   I’d be willing to pay for a music subscription service  with a monthly of around $15
c.   I’d rather get my music for free through websites that offer free music legally
d.   I’d rather get my music for free through peer 2 peer networking/ file sharing, either

21.   What is your age?
a.   1- 12
b.   13 – 17
c.   18 – 21
d.   22 – 25
e.   26 – 30
f.   31 – 40
g.   41 – 50
h.   51 – 60
i.   61+

22.   What’s your own yearly income?
a.   Less than $10,000
b.   $10,000 - $19,999
c.   $20,000 - $29,999
d.   $30,000 - $39,999
e.   $40,000 - $49,999
f.   $50,000 - $69,999
g.   $60,000 - $69,999
h.   $70,000 - $79,999
i.   $80,000 - $89,999
j.   $90,000 - $99,999
k.   $100,000 - $149,999
l.   More than $150,000

23.   What’s your total household income, including all earners in your household?
a.   Less than $10,000
b.   $10,000 - $19,999
c.   $20,000 - $29,999
d.   $30,000 - $39,999
e.   $40,000 - $49,999
f.   $50,000 - $69,999
g.   $60,000 - $69,999
h.   $70,000 - $79,999
i.   $80,000 - $89,999
j.   $90,000 - $99,999
k.   $100,000 - $149,999
l.   More than $150,000


I changed to wording of most of the questions to actual arbitrarily choosen numbers to give the data more meaning as Soap advised, so yeah. I also changed the meaning of "quality of music" to "sound quality", to make more sense. What do you guys think?

I also added some demographic questions relating to age and self/household income. I think a "How much do you spend on entertainment a month?" and/or "How much do you spend on music a month?" question(s)  would be great, but I don't know how to estimate the spending amounts. Here's a rough draft:

24.   How much do you spend on entertainment monthly (Movies, Video Games, Music, etc)? Give an estimate
a.   Under $50
b.   $51 – $100
c.   $101 – $199
d.   $200 - $299
e.   $300 - $499
f.   $500 - $699
g.   $700 - $999
h.   $1,000 - $1,999
i.   $2,001 +

25.   How much do you spend on music/songs monthly (Movies, Video Games, Music, etc)? Give an Estimate
a.   Under $50
b.   $51 – $100
c.   $101 – $199
d.   $200 - $299
e.   $300 - $499
f.   $500 - $699
g.   $700 - $999
h.   $1,000 - $1,999
i.   $2,001 +

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #8 –
Also, I've decided that the survey will be avaliable on Surveymonkey.com

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #9 –
The highest response for number of CDs owned is 71 plus. What??????? I'm closer to 7,000.  Seems like you're leaving out a lot of potential variance in this variable.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #10 –
Quote from: garym on
The highest response for number of CDs owned is 71 plus. What??????? I'm closer to 7,000.  Seems like you're leaving out a lot of potential variance in this variable.


I guess so; why not? The highest I'll go is 1,000 +

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #11 –
What do you plan to do with the results? Is there some hypothesis you're perusing? Do you plan to give the survey again sometime later so that you can identify trends?

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Notat on
What do you plan to do with the results? Is there some hypothesis you're perusing? Do you plan to give the survey again sometime later so that you can identify trends?


The goal of the survey gather information on the use and preference of music playback through computer's and PMP's. I want to contribute to the use of digital audio technology in terms of what types of audio files are used to provide good quality music and sufficient memory size from the data of this survey. For instance, the results may show that most people tend to have a moderate storage spaces within their PMP's/computers and that most people would rather prefer quality over file size, so maybe the data would carry on to developers.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #13 –
The survey will go online within a couple of hours. I've done some  revisions to it, but most of the survey from the original post will still be on the online versions. I'm limited to 1,000 responses, and and anything over that will cost $0.05, so I will stop it when it reaches 1,200.

By the way, if you feel that any detail needs to be added/re-edited for the survey, feel free to say anything.

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #14 –
I don't know how you are going to recruit participants.  This is something to be very mindful about because this can greatly skew your results due to a restricted/biased sample.  The opinions of people on many web forums is not necessarily representative of the majority population.  A large number of people on audiophile forums will have a particular type of idea about CDs versus lossy/lossless compression.  You'll get somewhat of the opposite view from many people who frequent HA

What percent of the population in the world actually knows what an "mp3" is beyond being a file you store on your computer/PMP?  Most people I know have no idea that lossy files are lossy or that they can sound different from a CD.  High Bitrate?  Low Bitrate?  Will this person know what lame -v7 vs lame -v2 means?  Fuggedaboutit.

Be careful when you make inferences to the larger population based on your sample.  Understand your sample well before you make inferences.
 

Digital Audio Survey (Draft)

Reply #15 –
Quote from: odigg on
I don't know how you are going to recruit participants.  This is something to be very mindful about because this can greatly skew your results due to a restricted/biased sample.  The opinions of people on many web forums is not necessarily representative of the majority population.  A large number of people on audiophile forums will have a particular type of idea about CDs versus lossy/lossless compression.  You'll get somewhat of the opposite view from many people who frequent HA

What percent of the population in the world actually knows what an "mp3" is beyond being a file you store on your computer/PMP?  Most people I know have no idea that lossy files are lossy or that they can sound different from a CD.  High Bitrate?  Low Bitrate?  Will this person know what lame -v7 vs lame -v2 means?  Fuggedaboutit.

Be careful when you make inferences to the larger population based on your sample.  Understand your sample well before you make inferences.


I'm inviting people from a variety of places, so it shouldn't be to much of a problem. As for asking people in the survey regarding lossy/lossess codecs - there is really only one question in the survey that talks about lossy/lossless formatting, and it doesn't even mention those words. The survey is geared more towards how the public use their playback machines, and their preferences with them.