At LiveInnovation.org we have developed a series of studies focusing on understanding the general perceptions and behaviours of streaming and vinyl buyers.
Vinyl have interestingly reemerged, with a substantial amount of consumers shifting back to a tangible form of consumption. For example, recently the musician Liam Gallagher launched his most recent album titled “As You Were” and it sold 16,000 copies in its first week, representing the highest one-week vinyl sales in 20 years!
Considering the interesting consumer shift and the different behaviors involved with each product format (tangible and intangible), it becomes timely for marketers to understand who these consumers are, their perceptions and behaviors.
For this reason, we have developed a study to address some of those questions. The first stage of the study involved a structured online survey, measuring a number of factors such as involvement with music, purchase behaviors, preferences and much more.
Here we present a brief summary of some of the findings involving a valid sample of 142 vinyl buyers.
Summary of the Gender Analysis
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Sample Profile
- Gender Distribution
- Generally our sample (n=172) revealed a greater distribution of male buyers (n=97, 68.3%), compared to female buyers (n=44, 31%). Moreover, results from a Chi-Square test revealed a significant association between gender and vinyl purchase (p= 0.000).
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Perceptual Constructs
- Involvement with Music
- Results from an independent samples t-test revealed no significant difference among the groups. Overall, both groups revealed a very high involvement with music, measured on a five-point scale where 5 represented a high involvement (Males= 4,15; Females=4,14).
- The scale used indicated an acceptable score of .73 (Cronbach alpha).
- Attitude towards Vinyl
- Interestingly, despite being frequent vinyl purchasers and having described that their relationship towards music is best described through vinyl rather than streaming services, both groups revealed a very low attitude towards vinyl. The factor, which was also measured through a 5-point scale, indicated a mean of 2,78 for males and 2,58 for females.
- Further mean comparison revealed no significant difference across both groups and and reliability score (Cronbach alpha) for the scale used was acceptable:.86.
- Need for Rare Objects
- Need for rare objects is a factor that measures users’ desire for distinction while consuming and choosing products and services.
- Results indicated that vinyl buyers have a mild inclination for a desire of rare objects:
- Male (mean=3,44) and Females (mean=3,34).
- This represents an interesting factor to measure within this consumer group, as it is commonly associated with the stereotype of vinyl buyers: Individuals who purposely seek aesthetic and behavioral differentiation.
- And finally, no significant difference was observed when comparing both groups.
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General Behaviors
- New Vinyl or Secondhand Vinyl?
- Interestingly both groups revealed a preference for purchasing secondhand vinyl in comparison to new vinyl. Females displayed a greater predisposition for secondhand vinyl (mean=3,56) in comparison to new vinyl (mean=2,56), while males also preferred the secondhand option (mean=3,96) in relation to the new versions of the product (mean=2,37).
- No significant difference was found across genders, meaning they both have a similar more positive preference towards secondhand vinyl.
- A further analysis also revealed a significant difference for each gender in relation to the product category, reinforcing their preference for the used versions.
- Willingness to Pay for a Vinyl: Under or Over 15€?
- Vinyl prices can vary immensely depending on a number of factors such as: rarity and access to the product, credibility and popularity of the artist, and date of release. Here, we measured based on a differential point of 15€ (Euros).
- Both genders demonstrated a significantly higher willingness to pay for vinyl under 15€, (Females=3,16; Males=3,71, p:.000), when compared to over 15€ (Female=1,56; males=1,65).
- When to Listen to Vinyl?
Findings revealed interesting insights. For example:
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- Females listen more often to vinyl than males when doing bodywork, such as exercise (Females=3,34; Males=2,75).
- Males listen to vinyl exclusively more frequently than females. This means purely listening to the music being played, not multi-tasking or engaging in high cognitive activities (Males=3,82; Females=3,45).
Final Thoughts
The results presented here are a small sample based on our study that focused on streaming listeners and vinyl buyers. We have measured many more factors than the ones displayed here and soon we’ll share more of our data results.
IMPORTANT: Results must be interpreted with care, as the current sample size represents a limitation of the study.
However, despite the main limitation of sample size, the study presented a few interesting insights that allows us to understand gender differences an similarities in relation to the consumption of vinyl:
- Preference for secondhand vinyl
- Greater willingness towards lower priced vinyl
- Low general attitude towards vinyl, and;
- Different listening behaviors.
PS: Finally, we fully understand and recognize that the concept of gender is a very fluid one and that there are many approaches to it. However, for the understanding of the research questions, we have adopted a more common approach of classification. Which we also recognize that may represent a limitation of the study.