Stacey and Pete...
Wanted to thank you personally for doing the survey. It was a fascinating
thing to do.
And speaking as one of the Twangfest organizing committee, I also wonder
whether it might not be possible, if/ when the survey is done again, to
include some questions that would indicate "consumer" stats: how many CDs
bought in a year, how much radio listened to, magazines, how often they
see live shows, buy musical equipment, how many purchases they make over
the net, etc.
The reason I ask this is that we have just made Twangfest into a
not-for-profit entity, making it possible to go after bigger sponsors with
the lure of tax-deductible donations, etc. Part of what would lure
larger, possibly corporate sponsors, is obviously the prospect of
increased or more positive visibility in a specific market-demographic
group.
Now, it strikes me that this is possibly a peculiar use of the survey and
not a good idea. To add a dimension like this to a survey in the P2
community, which has always been shielded from commerical spam and
such, I suspect it would be best to be upfront and exlain that numbers
could be used in talking up potential sponsors for Tfest, etc. And to
insure anonymity, etc.
On the other hand, insofar as it would give us some numbers to put in our
presskit for sponsors, it would contribute to the ongoing Twangfest and
annual P2 compilation CD projects that we organize. It could be a
tremendous help from that perspective.
So let me know what you think of this notion. Stacey, I know you're
moving, and there's no rush since it's too late for this year's
sponsorship-raising cycle anyway. But it's an idea that occured to me on
reading your survey, in any case. Marie Arsenault, another member of the
Tfest committee, brought up the possible advantage to be had from such
numbers some time ago, in fact. Sponsorship has always been the most
difficult part of organizing Tfest and the possibility of attracting
larger sponsors will make putting on the entire event vastly easier.
Best, hope to talk with you soon.
--junior.
PS. Pete, I've got an undergraduate doing a directed reading this
semester on the construction of taste in pop music and he's working his
way through your book this week <g>.
