The music business is one of the industries most affected by digitalization of content and distribution channels. As industry revenue shifted from principally physical to digital channels in 2015, while being the business with the largest presence and most popular accounts in virtually all social media platforms - the current state of the music industry is change. This has led industry professionals into searching for new and innovating ways of reimagining the business model of music distribution. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of video live-streaming as an addition to the current social media channels used to market artists. This was done through looking into what industry professionals think of the subject in terms of strategic reasoning and potential, observing an interactive live-stream with a Swedish boy band, and a questionnaire directed towards end-users and listeners of Swedish popular artists to define what their stance is towards music-related social media in general, and live-streaming in particular. The findings show that live-streaming certainly has a gap to fill in the social media tool-box at music companies through facilitating the defining process of superfans based on data analysis gathered from live-stream consumers, and that the channel has potential to create engagement beyond that of other social media platforms. Furthermore, end-users want to consume more live-stream content from Swedish artists. They want content that feels more personal and revealing, while utilizing the abstract feeling of “here and now” in order for it to be more interesting than other content on social media - something that the music industry professionals agree is important in live-streamed music content. / Musikbranschen är en av de branscher där digitaliseringen av innehålls- och distributionskanaler haft störst påverkan. Industrins inkomst skiftar från att huvudsakligen komma från fysiska till digitala kanaler samtidigt som musikbranschen har den största närvaron och de mest populära kontona i praktiskt taget alla sociala medier - musikindustrins nuvarande tillstånd är förändring. Detta har lett branschfolk in i letandet efter nya och innovativa sätt att återuppfinna affärsmodellen för musikdistribution. Således är syftet med denna studie att undersöka potentialen för video live-streaming som ett tillägg till de nuvarande sociala media-plattformar som används för att marknadsföra artister. Detta gjordes genom att titta på vad branschfolk tycker om ämnet vad gäller strategiska resonemang och potential, observera en interaktiv live-stream med ett svenskt pojkband, samt en enkät riktad till användare och lyssnare av svenska populära artister för att definiera vad deras inställning är till musikrelaterat innehåll i sociala medier i allmänhet, och live-streaming i synnerhet. Resultaten visar att live-streaming har en lucka att fylla i musikföretagens sociala medier-verktygslåda genom att underlätta definitionsprocessen av superfans baserat på dataanalys som samlats in från lives-streams, och att kanalen har potential att skapa engagemang utöver det som genereras av andra sociala medierna. Dessutom vill användare konsumera mer live-stream-innehåll från svenska artister. De vill ha innehåll som känns mer personligt och avslöjande, samtidigt som man utnyttjar den abstrakta känsla av "här och nu" för att det ska vara mer intressant än annat innehåll på sociala medier - något som musikindustrins yrkesverksamma också tycker är viktigt i live-streamat musikinnehåll.

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The purpose of this study was to identify potential threshold concepts in the music industry as perceived by expert music industry professionals; the data collected may possibly inform postsecondary music industry degree program curriculum design. Threshold concept theory emerged in the early 2000s largely due to the research of Meyer & Land (2003, 2005) as a means to illuminate discipline-specific criteria that irreversibly transform a learner’s positionality within a professional discipline. Through the mastery of a threshold concept, a learner becomes aware of discipline specific norms, and may experience a reconstitution of their own identity as a professional. This is the first study to explore threshold concepts within the music industry. This study is also aimed to contribute to a growing body of research at the intersection of threshold concepts and business education. Utilizing qualitative research informed by phenomenology, semi-structured interviews based on the primary tenets of the threshold concept theory framework were conducted. “Expert” music industry professionals were asked to reflect upon their lived experiences regarding their assimilation into the music industry and maintenance of a sustainable career in the discipline. The data collected were aligned with the threshold concept theory framework in order to illuminate potential threshold concepts specific to the music industry. Results indicate that there exist possible dispositional and disciplinary threshold concepts relative to becoming a music industry professional. The identification, prioritization, and utilization of threshold concepts are applicable to curriculum planning at both the macro- (program creation, execution, and evaluation) and micro- (course creation, planning, instruction, and evaluation) levels for post-secondary music industry education.

Författare: Terese Gustafsson och Fanny Janson Handledare: Kjell Arvidsson
 Examinator: Mikael Lundgren   Titel: “Det handlar inte om att skicka iväg raketer, utan det handlar om att sätta hela skogen i brand”. En studie om organisering och klusterbildning inom svensk musikbransch.   Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att genom undersökning och analys av hur den organisatoriska uppbyggnaden av svensk musikbransch ser ut komma fram till vilka faktorer som kan ligga bakom en branschs framgångar.   Metod: En kvalitativ forskningsmetod har använts i fallstudien och primärdata har samlats in genom genomförande av åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer.   Slutsats: Vi fann att organiseringen och det kluster som en bransch verkar i har stor betydelse för dess framgång. Socialt kapital utgör stor vikt i ett kluster och att komma in på den sociala arenan är därför av vikt, men det kräver att redan etablerade aktörer är villiga att släppa in nya aktörer på den sociala arenan. Samarbeten som överskrider branschgränser har blivit viktigare i takt med att globaliseringen satt ökad press på innovation och kreativa lösningar på problem. Att verka i kluster ger organisatoriska fördelar som nära samarbeten, kunskapsutbyte och ökad kreativitet, men kan skapa nackdelar som homogenitet och inskränkthet. Bättre resultat uppnås när aktörer samverkar och idéen om "Do It Yourself" stämmer inte. / Abstract   The Purpose of this paper is to, through analysis of how the organizational structure of the Swedish music industry looks, come to a conclusion of what factors might be behind an industry's success. The case study have been done by using a qualitative research method and the primary data is collected by semi-structured qualitative interviews   We came to the conclusion that how an organization and the cluster an industry operates within, is of great importance for its success. Social capital is important in a cluster. It is therefore of great importance to be part of the social scene, but it requires that actors within the social scene accept new actors to enter. Collaborations that exceed industry boundaries have become of more importance as globalization have put increasing pressure on innovation and creative solutions to solve problems. To operate within clusters provide organizational benefits like collaborations, knowledge spillover and increased creativity. But it can also give negative effects such as homogeneity and parochialism. Better results are achieved when stakeholders work together and the idea of "Do It Yourself" is not true.

This thesis examines the nature of transition expertise which enables individuals to make repeated successful transitions over the course of their career. It addressed four areas that contribute to transition expertise: 1) cognitive flexibility that enables the generalisation of expert knowledge and processes; 2) inferential and inductive cognitive mechanisms that enable expertise to be generalised; 3) personal intelligences that are used to support transitions; and 4) practical intelligence as it supports performance contextually during transitions. The study used retrospective interviews to gather data from elite performers in three fields who had made successful career transitions: sports people who become national coaches or heads of national bodies; successful musicians who become heads of faculty or principals of a conservatoire; successful business people who become senior vice presidents or CEOs. Participants were able to generalise expert knowledge and processes beyond their primary domains, contrary to widely held views about the domain specificity of expertise. Cognitive flexibility enabled this generalisation and was developed through broad based training, early exposure to multiple domains and the early use of generative cognitive processes during the development of primary domain expertise. Inductive, inferential and analogical cognitive mechanisms were the main tools through which expertise was generalised during transitions. Personal intelligence contributed to transition expertise. Intrapersonal intelligence enabled individuals to understand how their abilities, values and motivations shaped their career progression. Interpersonal intelligence enabled individuals to respond effectively to the requirements of their peers, direct reports, stakeholders and organisational context. Contrary to expectations, self regulatory processes did not play a central role in the management of transitions. Practical intelligence enabled transition expertise. It involved more than applying subject-area and tacit knowledge. It encompassed the abilities to: identify and resolve problems; manipulate environmental objects in the form of administrative tasks, schedules and plans; utilise resources in terms of people and materials; and shape their environment, corporate structures and culture. Transition expertise develops and evolves over the course of a career as it uses convergent and divergent cognitive processes, inductive mechanisms, personal awareness and cognitive pragmatics to address issues of increasing scope and implication. While motivational factors, self belief and personality resiliency are important contributors to transition expertise they did not form part of this study.

In this thesis I ́m trying to to find out whether we need to make our art into a product and I am using myself and my career as an example of a product. I wanted to use the word “product” in a positive way and inspire people to think about music management and personal branding as something they could use as a tool when working with something creative. I ́m writing about my own journey as a folk musician and solo artist and wish to turn something personal into something common and shared. ! I approached my research question “How much of a product would you have to be in order to be a successful artist at the Nordic folk music scene?” from three angels. Firstly, I ́ve gathered information that I have from my years as a freelance musician. Secondly, I interviewed a few professionals, and finally I read a lot of material and wrote about the basics of music business and working life of a folk musician in the Nordic countries. My theory is that we ́re all selling a product when selling our music and playing for money, that is why we need to know this product, love and respect it and have a need to share it. I believe that finding your artistic me is a spiritual journey and when you start searching for your “core” you ́ll become a better musician since you ́re getting better in recognising and handling your own emotions. I ́m trying to diminish the polarisation between music business and being a genuine artist. I believe that knowing your core gives you power to work better in the field which is continually changing and demands a lot. This spiritual journey into yourself is also an artistic journey and I see personal branding as a fun and inspirational tool for anyone who wants to get to know oneself and build a personal brand which is true, likeable and also selling. / <p>Master konsert: ILMOI; medverkande Anna Fält, Joonas Ojajärvi, Jenni Venäläinen</p>

An overview of a project based thesis that did not have the support or funding to be carried out to completion. The project was based around starting up a summer recruitment program for the East Tennessee State University Music Department. The program would consist of various summer events for high school students used to recruit for the department as well as encourage music and fine arts degrees.

In recent years, there has been extended research on the Big Five and social media, especially Facebook. Snapchat, a fast-growing photo-sharing app, has however not been thoroughly researched yet. This paper aimed at closing this research gap and at investigating the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and Snapchat users and nonusers. Additionally, it researched the potential of the app to advertise new music published by music labels. The sample consisted of 124 self-selected Snapchat users and non-users (94 Snapchat users and 30 Snapchat non-users), between the ages of 18 and 55. Approximately 53% of the participants were from Sweden, 24% from Germany and the rest from other countries. Participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire comprising the Big Five Inventory and demographic questions. Snapchat users also completed a Snapchat usage questionnaire. Additionally, a short interview about Snapchat was held with a representative of a music label. The results showed that there are only minor differences between Snapchat users and non-users regarding the Big Five personality traits. However, male Snapchat users tend to be more open to new experiences. The usage of specific Snapchat features could be connected to more extraverted, neurotic and conscientious individuals. The overall interest for musicrelated content on Snapchat was rather low. Therefore, Snapchat can be used as a complementary marketing action to raise awareness, but cannot stand alone. / Under de senaste åren har det gjorts utökad forskning om Big Five och sociala medier, särskilt Facebook. Snapchat, en snabb växande bilddelning app, har dock inte undersökts noggrant. Detta examensarbete syftade till att undersöka det outforskade området kring förhållandet mellan Big Five personlighetsdrag och Snapchat-användare och icke- användare. Dessutom undersökte den möjligheten för skivbolag att annonsera ny musik i appen. Urvalet bestod av 124 självvalda Snapchat-användare och icke-användare (94 Snapchat-användare och 30 Snapchat-icke-användare), mellan 18 och 55 år. Ungefär 53% av deltagarna var från Sverige, 24% från Tyskland och resten från andra länder. Deltagarna blev ombedda att fylla i ett online frågeformulär som omfattade Big Five Inventory och demografiska frågor. Snapchat-användare slutförde också ett Snapchat-användningsformulär. Dessutom hölls en kort intervju om Snapchat med en representant från ett skivbolag. Resultaten visade att det endast finns mindre skillnader mellan Snapchatanvändare och icke-användare angående Big Five-personlighetsdragen. Manliga Snapchat-användare tenderar att vara mer öppna för nya upplevelser. Användningen av specifika Snapchat-funktioner kan kopplas till mer extravert, neurotiska och samvetsgranna individer. Det övergripande intresset för musikrelaterat innehåll på Snapchat var ganska lågt. Därför kan Snapchat användas som en kompletterande marknadsföringsåtgärd för att öka medvetenheten, men inte som enda marknadsföringsåtgärd.

Syfte och forskningsfrågor Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur kvinnliga musikartister går tillväga för att lansera sitt artisteri oberoende av de större skivbolagen. Eftersom musikindustrin till större delen är dominerad av män samt beroende av de större skivbolagen riktar sig denna forskning in på det kvinnliga entreprenörskapet inom musikindustrin. De framtagna forskningsfrågorna handlar om hur kvinnliga musikartister tar sig fram när det kommer till lansering av sitt artisteri oberoende av de större skivbolagen. Alltifrån hur lanseringen ser ut, vilka redskap som kan användas samt vilka möjligheter och begränsningar som existerar för kvinnliga artister i musikbranschen. Metod Denna studie innehar en kvalitativ metodundersökning med en induktiv ansats. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in via fem stycken intervjuer genomförda med kvinnliga självständiga artister som alla är aktiva i dagens musikbransch. Därefter har en framtagen analys tydliggjort svaren av forskningsfrågorna. Slutsatser Det som gör att en kvinnlig artist i musikbranschen kan klara sig oberoende av de större bolagen handlar om att ta hjälp av det kvinnliga musiknätverket. Med en noggrann utveckling av det personliga varumärket och en utförlig lansering kan man genom det kvinnliga musiknätverket som redskap ta sig fram i musikbranschen oberoende av de större bolagen. / Purpose and research questions The purpose of this essay is to examine the way that female musicians work to launch their artistry independent of larger record labels. Since the music industry is prominently dominated by men and dependent on the larger record companies this research will focus on the entrepreneurship of women in said industry. The research questions will therefore focus on how female music artists make their way when it comes to launching their artistry independent of larger records companies. How does the launch work, what tools are used and what possibilities and limitations do the women of the music industry face? Method This study features a qualitative method research with an inductive approach. By gathering the empiric material through five interviews with female independent artists that are currently active in the music business. Thereafter an analysis produced has made the answers to the research questions clear. Conclusion The conclusion of what makes a female artist successful in the music business, independent of the larger record labels, is the social network between female musicians. With a thorough development of the personal brand and a detailed launch you can use the social network between female musicians to make their way in the music business.

Record Companies in Sweden- 100 years of music business institutionalisation This thesis is about the development of Record Companies in Sweden over more then hundred years. The Aim is to understand the role of the record company in the change of the music industry by narrating and interpreting its development. The Record Companies did dominate the music industry in Sweden from its birth 1903 until after year 2000, when new forms of music business were born. Despite this the remaining record companies still have similarities with the firs gramophone company from 1903. The empirical story is based on some 20 interviews with central actors in the music industry together with a mapping of the independent music producers, published 2004 and material from other studies on the music business. The story is in it self an important contribution to research since it appears to be the first one done in this way. The conception of the record company as the dominant actor in the organisational field, the music industry, very soon became an institution. This institution has been created and developed in an institutional process that here is analysed in four themes: delimitations, dominant logics, and organising and ownership structure/actors. During the process the limitations for the record company and the organisational field is changing. The logic is being push towards either art or comers during different periods, different forms of organising are created and developed and actors turn up and disappear. A main conclusion is that the cognitive processes highlight the institutionalisation but also the normative and the regulative processes helps to explain. At the same time this must, as in the model developed in the thesis, be connected to the four themes in order to create the holistic understanding of the institutionalization of the music business in Sweden being demanded in the aim of the thesis. In the model the actors are being emphasized as most important in the creation, remaining, developing, changing and at the and also liquidation of the institutional conception of the record company as the dominant form of music business. Partly this could be explained by and in itself explain the lack of a strong common organization in the music business together with the rather limited impact from attempts of regulations. New and old actors are now defined as institutional entrepreneurs as they are creating the new music industry, forcing the record companies to step aside from its dominant role in the same way as the music publishers once did. They might even give the dominance back to the publishers, or maybe there will not bee yet another institution in the music industry or any dominant role. Maybe it will change into something completely different? The model developed and used in this thesis is proposed for use in other longitudinal studies especially in other art businesses and similar organizational fields. / Avhandlingen framlagd vid Göteborgs universitet.