Ibrahim+Y.+Focus+Group+Report

TO: Music Team FROM: Yimaj Ibrahim SUBJECT: Music Focus Group Report DATE: March 25, 2010

Here is my report on a focus group I ran with two college age females, two college age males, and a mixed group with both genders on their concerns about piracy laws and downloading illegal music. I was able to cover all the questions developed by our team. Most participants reported they were not concerned about piracy laws and saw downloading music as an easy way to get songs for their iPods.


 * Focus Group Rationale**

The internet has completely changed the music industry. Because music can no longer be protected with copyright and more people than ever are downloading music for free, the old business models are become ineffective. Our focus group sessions were designed to determine exactly how Gen-Y consumers are getting their music. Information from these sessions will allow us to advise Proximity clients on how to best use music sites to connect with Gen-Y.


 * Setting and Participants

The 45 minute session was held in my apartment on Thursday, March 25, 2010. The participants were:

Two Females: **

Two Males: Mixed Group:
 * Diandra, 20, a Howard University Freshman;
 * Erika, 21, a Anne Arrundel C.C. Freshman Business Major
 * Jesse, 21, a Towson Univ. International Business Major;
 * John Bossidy, 21, a Towson Univ. Psychology Major
 * Beth, 21, a Towson Univ. Nursing Major;
 * Brent, 22, a Penn State Alumn.


 * Session Topics

We covered the following three topics during this session:

__Concerns about piracy laws__ Two participants, Erika and Diandra, both expressed a concern with piracy laws. Erika said that she is uncomfortable with the idea of" breaking the law" and prefers to purchase CD's to be safe. Diandra agreed with Erika because her mother works for the government and doesn't allow her to download illegal songs.

__Downloading free music__ Four of the participants, Jesse, John, Beth, and Brent, didn't express any concern with downloading free music. Jesse and John said that they prefer downloading individual songs, rather than buying a whole CD. Beth and Brent said they use the site beemp3 to download songs and haven't had any problems doing so.

__Use of free song download sites for mp3__ ** As expected, this topic prompted extensive responses which consumed most of the session. Diandra and Erika didn't have too much to say during this portion of the discussion. However, the other four participants claimed to use free song downloads to put on their mp3 players. Jesse said that he converts songs from youtube to an mp3 file for his iPod.


 * Findings**

The session revealed that the participants:


 * are generally unconcerned about piracy laws;
 * are generally downloading free songs on a regular basis;
 * see free song downloads as a means to obtain music for their iPods

In addition, music downloading is popular to Gen-Y because this generation grew up with free software such as Kazaa and Limewire. After the iPod was released, more and more Gen-Y users started to discovering other ways to get free songs. We should conduct follow up interviews to determine to see if our clients need to take special measures to address concerns that others may have about piracy laws.