BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

ELECTRONIC MUSIC FANS

2015 BRET EWEN, GRADUATE STUDENT, BERKLEE COLLEGE OF
MUSIC, VALENCIA (USA & SPAIN)
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A survey was undertaken in which 4,404 respondents participated to share their behavioral
habits with regard to their interaction with music and its marketplace. Analysis of the
responses was performed in order to discover differences in behavior between those who
identify as electronic music fans and those who identify as fans of other genres.

Various behaviors were questioned in relation to listening habits, social media engagement,
spending history, willingness to pay, and more. The data show that electronic music fans do
behave differently from fans of other genres in a variety of respects (e.g. price expectations,
music format preferences, and social media habits among others).

The motivation to conduct this research stemmed from several music industry reports and
other studies that have shown that the business and the consumers surrounding electronic
music have certain characteristics that differ from the rest of the music market. This research
aimed to expand upon the existing information and provide a deeper analysis of why this is the
case. The intention was to find answers for any previously observed cross-genre behavioral
anomalies as well as to explore other potential differences in behavior not yet studied.
MOTIVATION & PRECEDENCE
One example highlighting the differences between electronic music and other genres was a
2012 Nielsen industry report which showed that digital track sales of electronic music grew
36% that year while overall digital track sales growth for the industry was a mere 5%. An
assumption was made that in order to achieve such a relatively high level of growth,
consumers of electronic music must be behaving differently than consumers of other styles of
music. [1]

Upon further investigation, this assumption was supported by a 2013 study performed by
ticketing company Eventbrite in partnership with the Harris Interactive Service Bureau. The
study took the form of a survey of 1,019 respondents through which they were able to show
some clear differences in the behavioral patterns of electronic music fans compared to fans of
other genres. For instance, the study found that 67% of electronic music fans heard about the
events that they attended via social media compared to only 40% for other concertgoers. The
study also found that 73% of electronic music fans report that seeing friends post about
attending an event on various social media platforms makes them want to attend the event
more. This was compared to other music fans where only 36% held the same response.[2,3]

1. Nielsen Holdings. The Nielsen Company & Billboards 2012 Music Industry Report. BusinessWire.com.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130104005149/en/Nielsen-Company-Billboard%E2%80%99s-2012-Music-Industry-Report (accessed June 20, 2014).
2,3. EDM Fans: Not Your Average Music Fans. Eventbrite.com. http://blog.eventbrite.com/edm-fans-are-not-your-average-music-fan/ (accessed June 20, 2014).
RESULTS
PREFERRED MUSIC GENRES
RESPONDENTS WERE CHOSEN ACROSS THE BOARD

36%

26% 25%

13%

Rock Electronic Hip Hop *Others

*Includes: Pop, R&B, Folk, Jazz, Country, and Classical

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WILLINGNESS TO BUY
Q: WOULD YOU BUY MUSIC THAT IS LEGALLY AVAILABLE TO STREAM FOR FREE?

35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Yes, Digital Yes, Physical No
Format Format
Electronic Other Genres
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PREFERRED FORMATS
Q: WHEN YOU PURCHASE MUSIC, WHICH FORMATS DO YOU SEEK?

128kbps MP3

320kbps MP3

Uncompressed/Lossless

CD

Vinyl

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Electronic Other Genres
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PREFERRED STREAMING SERVICE
Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC ONLINE?

Electronic Fans Other Genre Fans

Pandora Pandora
Spotify 6.43% 12.76%
Soundcloud SoundCloud YouTube
20.62% 13.97% 38.86%
46,01%
YouTube Spotify
26.94% 34.40%

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LISTENING HABITS
Q: HOW MANY HOURS PER DAY DO YOU SPEND ENGAGED IN LISTENING TO MUSIC?

45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
< 1 hour 1-3 3-6 >6
Electronic Other Genres

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LISTENING HABITS
Q: HOW MANY DIFFERENT ARTISTS DO YOU LISTEN TO IN A GIVEN WEEK?

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
1-5 5-20 20-50 50+

Electronic Other Genres

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SPENDING HABITS
Q: HOW MUCH HAVE YOU SPENT ON RECORDED MUSIC IN THE PAST YEAR?

ELECTRONIC FANS: $146.70

OTHER GENRE FANS: $174.40

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PRICE EXPECTATIONS
Q: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE A REASONABLE PRICE FOR THE FOLLOWING FORMATS? ($USD)

Avg. Price (Electronic Avg. Price (Other Genre

Format
Fans) Fans)
128kbps MP3 $0.63 $0.73

320kbps MP3 $1.07 $0.99

.WAV (or other
uncompressed/lossless $1.35 $1.11
format)

CD $9.90 $10.11

Vinyl $15.41 $16.42

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SHARING HABITS
Q: HOW MANY TIMES PER MONTH DO YOU SHARE MUSIC ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

ELECTRONIC FANS: 8.73

OTHER GENRE FANS: 6.04

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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 1: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRIENDS

50,00%

45,00%

40,00%

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 2: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ARTISTS (E.G.

THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA)

40,00%

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 3: CUSTOMIZED RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SMART

PLATFORMS (E.G. PANDORA, ITUNES GENIUS, SPOTIFY
DISCOVER, ETC.)

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 4: MUSIC BLOGS

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 5: FORUMS & ONLINE COMMUNITIES

50,00%

45,00%

40,00%

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 6: LIVE MUSIC EVENTS

50,00%

45,00%

40,00%

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 7: FESTIVAL LINE-UPS

50,00%

45,00%

40,00%

35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 8: RECORD LABEL ROSTERS

60,00%

50,00%

40,00%

30,00%

20,00%

10,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS?

METHOD 8: RADIO/PODCASTS
35,00%

30,00%

25,00%

20,00%

15,00%

10,00%

5,00%

0,00%
At least once/wk At least once/month At least once/year Never
Electronic Other Genres
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DISCOVERY METHODS (CONTD)
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DISCOVER NEW ARTISTS? (CONTD)

An additional comment field for other responses was given to all respondents.

More common to Electronic Fans:

Beatport
Remix competition submissions Common to both categories:
DJ mixes Hypemachine
YouTube
iTunes/Amazon/Online Retail
More common to Other Genre Fans:
Torrents
Physical CD stores
Soundcloud
TV/Movie/Game soundtracks
Magazines
Bandcamp
Wikipedia
Public library
Collaborations between artists

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RESULTS SUMMARY
Electronic music fans have shown themselves to be a much more digital crowd. They more
strongly prefer higher quality digital formats of recorded music. Additionally, they are willing to
pay more than fans of other genres to obtain those high quality digital files. Unsurprisingly,
they are less willing to pay for physical formats such as CDs and vinyl records. Even if the
music they desire is available to stream, electronic music fans are still more likely to purchase
the high quality digital files (if available) than they are to refrain from purchasing the music all
together.

Not only are electronic fans listening to more music, but also they are listening to more artists
overall not just repeating their favorites. They are discovering more and consuming more
than fans of other genres. Their methods of discovery also differ somewhat significantly.

Electronic music fans have shown that they are individually contributing less money per year
to recorded music than fans of other genres. However, they are sharing music more often via
social media. The relative value of social media shares to dollars is unknown, but
undoubtedly sharing does provide some indirect financial contribution.

Lastly, electronic music fans have shown a unique preference for online streaming of music.
While Soundcloud was preferred roughly three times less than YouTube for fans of other
genres, it was the most preferred platform overall for electronic music.

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INTO THE FUTURE
During the course of this research, several areas stood out which could be investigated
further. The primary topic of interest is the relationship between social media sharing and
financial contribution. Social media sharing is a form of marketing for artists, and marketing
certainly has value in generating sales of music. The key piece of missing information is how
much sharing it takes to indirectly generate a certain amount of money. This question is
undoubtedly very complex and could be looked into more deeply in new research to try to
discover a monetary value in social media sharing.

Another topic to look into could be the relationship between streaming platforms and what
could be causing the divide in preferences among genres. The streaming platforms in this
research were not found to explicitly cater to any one genre more than another, but perhaps
there are some underlying features, some aspect of marketing, or something else that tends
to skew the genre preference of the listeners.

The form of this research as a mostly quantitative survey was limited in several ways, which
could also call for more research to be completed using new methodology. The self-reporting
involved in this type of research is prone to bias issues from respondents and more research
is needed to draw accurate conclusions. The full details of the methodology used here along
with complete data sets can be obtained from the Berklee Valencia library.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bret Ewen is a recent graduate who holds an M.A. in Global Entertainment & Music Business from Berklee
College of Music and a B.S. in Music Industry from the University of Southern California. For more details on this
project and other inquiries, reach out to him at bretewen@gmail.com .

This work has been supervised by Dr. Alexandre Perrin, Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music
Valencia campus. This campus offers a one year Master in Global Entertainment and Music Business managed
by MIDEM speaker, Dr. Emilien Moyon. This academic program offers a global vision of the music industry to
understand the emergent tendencies across music genres, technologies and places.

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