Increases In Composer Success Based On Musical Genres

Abstract

This was a secondary analysis of the study "Taking Note: A Study of Composers and New Music Activity in the U.S.", conducted in 2008 by J. Jeffri. The researchers used logistic regression analysis to estimate differences in the odds of composers increasing their activities (e.g., royalties, performances) based on composer genre (e.g., classical, rock), while controlling for composer demographics. We used odds ratios and significant predictors of the odds of increased activity to determine which traits and genres determine a certain level of success, which was reported by the respondents. This was done by manually categorizing each of the composers into a category of genres, looking at the first genre that each respondent said that they composed in. We found that in general, younger composers tend to have more success than older composers, as the odds for an increase in commissions, performances, recordings and locations decrease for each year of age. We also found that successes for composers in the electronic genre are lagging behind not only the classical genre, but most of the other genres as well. In the future, we would like to see composers distribute their music to a more broad audience, along with artists and their teams reaching out to various music festivals and clubs to try to target more locations for performances, enabling for a larger audience.