You might be thinking…..

Mind.Is.Blown.

What on earth is STDM ADaM?! Well Lets first break it down before we get into telling you why major record companies are finding these datasets extremely valuable. STDM stands for Study Data Tabulation Model. This system creates and maps data which has been collected from raw sources. ADaM on the other hand stands for Analysis Data Model which helps generate figures, listings and tables from data. This ensures that data is readily available to be analysed by whoever needs it. The main benefit of this system is its levels of traceability and therefore truthfulness. The two models go hand in hand together nicely as a way to store and understand collected data. Here is how big record companies in the music industry are using it to improve and grow their business.

Importance Of Market Research

Market research is the key to understanding what your target consumer wants to purchase and what they will want to consume in the future. By carrying out market research you can gather data that will be invaluable to your company for a very long time. For example you can do some field research on a newly released album to find out what consumers liked and didn’t like about the sound. You can ask consumers various questions from fashion & styling, to relevancy of the sound and lyrics and even how likeable the musician is. Record companies will go at lengths to ensure they make a profit, and a large one at that, on an album so it has been known that a musician will receive coaching on their ‘likeability’.

Collecting market research and storing it for future reference is a great way to forecast what consumers will be listening to in the future. Take Grime music as an example – industry giants were able to forecast the popularity and growth of this genre by signing new names and using marketing to promote them. Grime emerged from London in the early 2000s drawing influence from hip hop, rap and dance. Artists from this genre of music faced a lot of discrimination in many venues across the UK as unfortunately this genre was linked with violence and crime. Since then MPs have worked hard to abolish this discriminations and thankfully with the rise of artists such as Skepta and Stormzy discrimination has lowered and record sales have risen dramatically.

Future Marketing Strategies

Market research is all about collecting relevant data and STDM ADaM is about translating that data so it can be easily analysed. Now producers, marketers, record company executives and even the musicians themselves can come up with a marketing strategy which will increase the popularity and awareness of the artist which will then lead to better sales of the record and a potential future opportunities for the musician.