A music streaming giant wanted to better understand the people who spent the most time on its platform. Who were these high-frequency listeners, what role did music play in their lives, and how could the brand deepen their engagement?
The Task
Plum’s task was to define and profile this audience, identify meaningful differences within it, and help the client prioritise the opportunities each group presented. This called for an approach that could explain listeners’ experiences and establish how those patterns were distributed across the audience.
The Approach
We designed a mixed-method study, using qualitative exploration to shape the quantitative research that followed.
Qualitative: A 2-day digital diary followed by in-depth interviews revealed their rituals, behaviours, experiences as listeners and relationship with music. In-depth interviews with competitor users highlighted unique characteristics of this cohort.
Quantitative: Our qualitative insights shaped an in-app survey that maximised our reach. The quantitative survey enabled us to segment this audience and understand their usage habits and preferences.
The Outcome
By bringing qualitative and quantitative findings together, we identified four distinct listener segments, explaining what mattered to each, sizing their presence within the audience and prioritising them by opportunity.
This gave the client a strategy for tailoring engagement to different types of frequent listeners. Qualitative research supplied the context needed to understand each segment, while quantitative research established its scale and helped the brand decide where to focus.
