Music-Tec music testing is clearly a fundamentally better methodology, and it has proven to avoid all the old pitfalls of auditorium tests.

• No fatigue
  That's a sentiment you hear a lot at auditorium tests. They seem to go on and on and on…for a good reason. They actually do go on and on and on…usually a full two hours, and sometimes even longer. As the respondents become more and more fatigued, what do you think happens to the scores of the songs they are rating? That's right, they go down. In fact, the last 200 songs in a test normally get scores that are depressed as much as seven points in positive votes when compared to the first 200 to 300. So what kind of data are you getting from an auditorium test? Maybe not bad on the first 200 to 300 titles, but after that…
  
  If you'd like to get absolutely dependable scores on 100% of the titles you test, there's only one way…Music-Tec. When respondents participate in a Music-Tec test, they do so when it's convenient and comfortable, usually in small, easy-to-take sessions of 20 to 25 minutes each, so they simply don't get fatigued. They're not in a hurry to get out of some hotel and go home because they already are at home. That's where they take the test.
  
  
• Digitally complete and correct scoring of each song
  There is no tape. The old technology was analog tape. The new technology is fully digital. Any possibility of order bias is totally eliminated because each person who takes the test hears the songs in a different order. The first person starts at song 1, the second person starts at song 10, the third person at song 20, etc. Therefore, score bias caused by the order in which the songs appear on an auditorium test tape is eliminated.
  
  
• No "professional test takers"
  Auditorium tests, of course, need people to test the songs. Problem is it is virtually impossible to get real people - people recruited at random who are normal listeners - to come out to these tests held in the dark of night in some hotel. Normal folks just don't want to do it. After all, would you?
  
  But there is a group of people in every town who will take auditorium tests. They are the "professional test takers," people who have indicated to a local research company that they are willing to participate in all kinds of research in exchange for getting paid. Local research companies really couldn't function if they didn't have a database of professionals like this that they could count on. Now, when these local companies recruit for an auditorium test, they theoretically call from that database list on some random basis, but that's along way from recruiting normal listeners totally at random from all over your metro.
  
  You can only get that with Music-Tec testing. Respondents in our tests are recruited throughout the entire metro completely at random. They're happy to take the test because (1) they don't have to leave their home to do it (2) they find taking the test interesting and easy, and (3) they earn incentive money without having to deal with the hassles of an auditorium test.
  
  
• No "referrals" or "coaching" of respondents
  Whether you catch wind of it or not, in most auditorium tests many people know each other. Why is that? Two reasons. First, many respondents are reluctant to come out in the dark of night to some strange hotel without the company of someone they know. So they agree to participate if a friend can also come. The recruiting company asks them for the names of a few friends, then they call and try to recruit at least one of them. The local recruiter's common term for this (and, trust us, it is common) is "referrals." Auditorium tests are often loaded with friends because it's the only way to get people to come to them, especially women. Referrals, of course, kill the basic research precept of randomness. You have to wonder if recruiters don't occasionally cut corners or "coach" the people they call when trying to get someone's friend to come. After all, they either get two people to come (if the friend can be made to pass the screener) or no one.
  
  Second, if people are willing to come, they usually only come to a hotel from a 5 to 10 mile radius, not randomly from all over the metro. It's more of a neighborhood test than a market test. Music-Tec testing uses no referrals…zero.
  
  
• Totally random recruiting across the full metro
  Everyone is recruited completely at random. And, since there is no hotel that people have to drive to, the recruiting takes place over the full metro.
  
  
• Ability to focus on hot zip codes
  Everyone is recruited completely at random throughout the full metro-area; in addition, many of our clients supply us with a list of their station's hot zips for recruitment targeting to those zip codes.
  
  
• No distractions affecting scores
  Distractions are always possible when it comes to music testing. In an auditorium test, people who have bad coughs or colds, or who smoke, can be very distracting. Noise in the hotel ballroom adjacent to the music test room can drive people crazy, and people who are openly expressive about how much they like or hate certain songs affect the voting of all the people around them. Occasionally, you get a participant who's had a little too much to drink. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about most distractions with auditorium methodology.
  
  With Music-Tec testing, you don't get those kinds of distractions because respondents take the test at home and, research shows they are normally alone in a quite environment when they do it.
  
  But, other types of distractions can still happen. A person's child can come into the room, someone could turn on the TV loudly in the next room, or someone could come to the door. The difference is that there is something you can do about it with Music-Tec testing. Music-Tec tests are specifically designed to handle and neutralize the effect of any interruptions because, with Music-Tec testing, the participants are repeatedly encouraged to hang up the phone if they have any kind of distraction. When they have time to come back to the test, the system picks up exactly where they left off. If the distraction is just a momentary one, a respondent can simply hit the zero key on their telephone and the last song will play again to quickly re-orient them.
  
  Distractions are not problems with Music-Tec tests. They are expected and planned for so that they don't effect song scoring.
  
  
• Elimination of order bias
  Any possibility of order bias is totally eliminated because each person who takes the test hears the songs in a different order. The first person starts at song 1, the second person starts at song 10, the third person at song 20, etc. Therefore, score bias caused by the order in which the songs appear on an auditorium test tape is eliminated.