This chapter presents and evaluates the methodological approach to the research discussed in subsequent chapters, explaining how data was identified, collected, and analysed. It describes how the project began with a consideration of existing research and secondary data, including relevant policy and briefing documents and reports published before and during the duration of the project, allowing us to establish a broad understanding of the ethnographic landscape shaping the lived experiences we set out to understand. The chapter then describes and evaluates the approach we took to the collection and analysis of primary data, based on an online survey and series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with freelance and self-employed live performers in the UK.