Rate Music, Influence The Music Industry And Get Paid In CDs (songpeople.com)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	songpeople.com
Date:	10/02/03 (1206 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get 'paid' for listening to music and watching music videos

Disadvantages: Minor grumbles - blocking anyone without windows media player from participating, never updating the onsite winners lists and for their choice of CDs...

So you wanna be a music critic huh? Well aside from blathering on about CDs track by track at opinion sites there's another alternative to be found out there in the big wide world of that thing we call the internet. That site, well seemingly one of the best and most notably influential of them anyway for there are a few, is called Songpeople.com and there you'll find all you need to influence the people who hold the purse strings of the music biz. Or something. So far it seems to me you get to influence what gets shown on MTV and sometimes radio stations mainly although I have seen a few more interesting surveys too.

Why bother? Well, firstly it's kinda fun and you may discover some new artists and secondly because they are very good at sending CDs your way when you complete a survey. It's probably not costing them a whole heap of cash to do so as I would imagine a lot of them come as complementary copies from MTV and the record companies but so far I've had 4 CDs from them after completing around 10-15 enjoyable surveys - so who's grumbling? Anyhoo, how do you get your grubby mitts on a few CDs? 'Read' on MacDuff...

• Who The Hell Are They?

In their own words: "Songpeople conduct offline and online research for the music industry...Songpeople.com gives you a voice that will actually have a real impact on your music and TV world."

Songpeople are either a relatively new survey company or they've kept a low profile because every time I mention the site to people who usually know all of these places I get blank looks back! Their main office is based in London, England but the site suggests members are welcomed from around the globe by having numerous country's flags or 'other' to click to enter the site. Erm, it's worth noting that this always takes you to a site written in English with the same page URL as the UK site so erm...dunno really, it looks like you alwa
ys end up on the UK site to me lol. I assume international members are welcome and there are surveys etc. on the site for them but obviously I have no way of verfiying one way or another.

Anyhoo, Songpeople.com is one of the busier UK survey sites I've come across, often with 2 or more surveys a month to complete if you fit the required demographic and it's also worth noting that both Jackie and Peter who will send you email invites are very friendly and approachable if you like to touch base with those at the helm of the sites you deal with...which is always a plus point IMHO.

• What Do I Have To Do To Get Involved?

Well register first obviously. Most survey companies require a whole heap of yawnsome, privacy invading demographic detail from you and Songpeople are no different although they are more interested in your musical taste etc. as opposed to some of the more reaching personal questions others will ask you. Registration on the whole is pretty painless, you'll need to fill out the tiresome but brief questions they have and give them a valid email address as well so that they can contact you when a new survey is ready. If you want to get anything out of the site at all then you are wise to provide an email address which you check regularly as most surveys are time sensitive and if you don't check your email for a week or so you'll probably find you have missed the window of opportunity and the survey will be closed. With Songpeople it is more important than most because they often do quickie surveys where only the first 100 respondents will be rewarded when say, for example, MTV needs info in a hurry for their scheduling or something. I have mine set up to my Hotmail account and when the survey invitation arrives my MSN messenger pops up the invite and I'm therefore amongst those 100... As ever - you snooze, you lose Not all of their surveys are like this of course or I wouldn't be recommending t
he site but some are so it is worth bearing in mind.

• Now What?

As with virtually all survey companies, once you are registered then that's it, there is nothing else to do but wait. Unless your details change you really have no need to return back to the main site for any reason whatsoever. You go about your every day life as before and then occasionally an email invite will appear in your inbox inviting you along to take part in a survey with a link to the log in page. Click the link, log in and away you go. Simple as that. Don't sit around fidgeting because you haven't been sent a survey yet because it doesn't work like that with any survey site. You'll get one when they have one which matches your demographic profile - maybe none for weeks and then loads at once, you never can tell, but I can tell you this site DOES actually send out surveys(and regularly I find) which is more than can be said for a lot, if not most, of the others out there!

• What Are The Surveys Like?

There is one additional requirement to using Songpeople.com - you need to be able to download and play files through windows media player. If you can't then you can't take the surveys. The surveys I have received so far have either included music video clips or just the music playing and have had between 4 and 15 tracks to evaluate. Each of these clips will need to be streamed but the clips are rarely more than 30-45 seconds long so you are looking at a waiting time of around 2-3 mins maximum on a dial up modem(read an opinion or two here whilst waiting - I do ) or no time at all on faster connections. Most of the surveys I have had so far have been to influence MTV scheduling so the tracks to evaluate have been the standard MTV fare although I have also been asked to evaluate tracks for radio station playlists and some from the 'next big thing' before she actually gets thrust into the spotlight by her record comp
any which was kinda cool. Earlier today I was asked to register interest in a new and apparently interesting study coming up next Wednesday as well which sound all very interesting if a little mysterious!

The surveys are actually quite long or very short depending upon how many tracks you are asked to evaluate. The 15 track ones can take over half an hour and bordering 45 minutes if you have a slow connection like mine and it's a music video one(it's the streaming which takes the time) but 30-45 mins of listening to music whilst watching TV or reading ops in the downloading section really isn't the most taxing of things now is it?! You aren't asked many questions on the music itself, generally whether you liked it, if you think it matches a radio station/music channel's 'style' of output and that kind of thing. Generally there are just 5 or 6 multiple choice questions attached to each video/song clip so definitely nothing which makes you think too hard!

I find the surveys to be fun but it does depend on the music. The one 15 track RnB/garage survey I had was a little painful and I think I rated everything as below average and not my scene in the end lol.

• So What's The Pay Like?

Well there really does seem to be no fixed payment scheme here to be honest but I'll give you some idea if I can. Not all surveys reward in some way, other than letting you voice your opinion on what's what in the music world and perhaps influencing a radio station or suchlike to play more of what you like...whilst perhaps convincing them to dump that track they've been playing 20 times a day for the last 52 weeks. Why do they do this? Grr. Anyhoo, not all reward your time in material ways whilst other select surveys do. You may choose to complete them all or only the ones which pay you in some way, it's up to you. You will be informed of what's on offer in the invitation email so you can pick an
d choose whether you enter or not. Whether receipt of more paying surveys is dependant upon your activity with non-paying ones is anyone's guess, personally I do the non-paying ones if I have some time to kill and seem to get potentially rewarding ones quite regularly these days but I've nothing to compare this against.

Rewards for paying surveys are typically in the form of CDs, I have never yet seen anything else on offer so if it's cash you're after, then you're out of luck! Sometimes you get to choose a CD of your choice, other times they offer you a choice out of several options and sometimes they just send you one of their own choosing(which is why I have three copies(two from them, one I already owned!) of By The Way by The Red Hot Chili Peppers now - ebay here I come lol). When I got the choice of CD I wanted it came winging it's way to me via CD-WOW, when it was their choice it took an eternity to arrive...but they have always arrived, so there are no worries there.

• Is My Personal Information Safe?

As ever this site has a strict privacy policy and doesn't sell your details to third parties or share anything other than group demographics with their clients. I've not seen an increase in spam as a result of joining this company, nor have I been contacted in other ways than emails for surveys from the site itself so I'd say you have no worries there. They do point out that they link to external websites as well who may not have such strict policies so at such times you are wise to check their privacy policies as well. Same pack drill really as per all other similar sites.

• Minor Grumbles

A few times I have had the connection time out when completing a survey which was a pain and when you do reach the end of the survey you are presented with a flat blank white screen as opposed to a thankyou message or anything else to let you know you have completed the survey! At f
irst I assumed the survey just hadn't completed correctly but now I know that *is* the survey completed correctly, so it's worth remembering that if you register and get an invite! There is also no on-site tracking so you find yourself emailing to say you have completed a survey and in that and other ways it does feel a little amateurish. These are minor grumbles though as you can see. I suppose I could grumble and say it would be better if it paid in cash or if they always allowed you to choose your own CD but they don't so erm, ho hum.

• Verdict

I can imagine there are those who have joined this site, completed a number of surveys and have got nothing out of it but to view a few music videos and influence a couple of MTV schedulers. Many of the earlier surveys rewarded in terms of a first come first served basis which personally I was lucky with but was never too happy about but more recently the structure of rewards seems to have changed to a more comfortable, all encompassing basis of either a straight prize draw for all who have completed the surveys(which I'm not keen on but at least it's fairer) or a direct reward for participation for ALL who complete the survey. As I said, so far I have received 4 CDs from this site so can vouch that they do honour their promises and can say that the surveys are some of the most interesting and non-taxing around as well. On the whole I find Songpeople.com to be kinda fun, kinda nicely rewarding if you like music and definitely worth a look in my opinion if nothing else. One star knocked off for quibbles, minor grumbles, blocking anyone without windows media player from participating(does that mean no Mac users?), never updating the onsite winners lists and for their choice of CDs...

• That address again?

http://www.songpeople.com

• Can you about any other sites like this one?

Sure, visit http://www.geocities.com/lazycatsurveys and you
'll find plenty more like this one.

Summary: