"This is as much about the way all businesses operate in all fields; using market research to establish a realistic level of investment etc."

My advice is never to trust the findings of market research. In my experience many marketing departments first decide what answers they want and then bully the researchers into 'designing' the test such that it gives them, the marketeers, the desired answers.
I went into my bank, the other day, to conduct some business. Everything went smoothly but, at the end, the lady I had been dealing with handed me a customer service questionnaire and instructed me to tick the 'top box' because head office had decided that the branch needed to increase its 'customer service levels' from 87% to 95% (or something). This is, of course, totally absurd but it illustrates perfectly the way that these people think. So much for the objectivity of much market research!
I wouldn't be surprised to find that some music industry marketing mogul somewhere has decided that Seth Lakeman et. al. are the 'top of the folk charts', or whatever, and then fixed the market research to give that result. I always want to say to such prats, "why waste money on the f...king research in the first place, if you know what the answers are going to be?"