<p>The music distribution in Sweden and the world is rapidly changing. The music industry, however, has been reluctant to change the way they distribute music. The consequence has been that illegal music files have been available for downloading to anyone with an Internet connection. Because of the illegal downloading a new law have been implemented in an attempt to stop this behaviour. Our theory is that in implementing the IPRED-law, the sites that were hosting most of the illegal material will experience a severe decrease in traffic. Because of this, small un-established artists will have an even harder time reaching an audience and spreading their music, since less people will visit the sites where they have uploaded it. In order to investigate the issues these artists face we conducted a qualitative ethnographical investigation among artists and people working in the music industry. We also followed the debate about IPRED in the media, in order to get a good base to stand on for our investigation. Out of the data collected from the qualitative investigation we made a documentary, in addition to this report, showing the consequences un-established artists must handle in order to continue spreading their music. Taking on the artist perspective, we asked ourselves the question: “How will I now get famous?” We found that the artists believed that the law would cause more trouble then it would take care of, but that it in the long run would have no significant impact on the consumers downloading behaviour. In the end, our results showed that un-established artist would have to find new ways to make their music know to the public. Music services such as Spotify and MySpace showed to be considered the main channels for successful future distribution.</p>

This independent study has the intention of bringing forward increased knowledge about  methods that may be used by an artist, music producer or songwriter in order to reach out with their own music independently without a record company being involved. Through artistic research, four musical pieces have been produced of which two consequently were released on different digital music streaming platforms. The study includes on one hand the process of creating the music, and on the other hand the entrepreneurship regarding the music release, i.e. the digital distribution and even subjects regarding publishing rights and marketing. The result of the study is presented as actual sound recordings and also in an analysis of how the music was received by the listeners on the different digital platforms. The conclusion of this study shows that the fastest and easiest way of obtaining many stream listenings (for example on Spotify) was to succeed in getting the music included on Spotifys own playlists. More followers of a playlist means more listeners. The more streams the song gets the more lists it can get included on. In conclusion the discussion contains the skills needed in order to release music and secure royalties for the artistic effort. / Detta självständiga arbete syftar till att bidra till ökad kunskap om metoder för att som artist, musikproducent och låtskrivare publicera och nå ut med sin musik på egen hand, utan att vara signad till ett skivbolag. Genom konstnärligt utforskande har fyra verk komponerats och producerats och denna musik har sedan släpps digitalt på olika musikstreamingplattformar. Arbetet innehåller både en del om det konstnärliga skapandet och en del om entreprenörskapet i publiceringen av musiken, alltså om den digitala distributionen av musiken men även om rättigheter och marknadsföring. Resultatet av arbetet redovisas dels klingande, i bilagd ljudinspelning, och dels i en analys av hur musiken togs emot på de olika digitala plattformarna. Det visade sig att det snabbaste och lättaste sättet att få många lyssningar på t.ex. Spotify var att få låten placerad på deras egna spellistor. Ju fler följare en spellista har desto fler lyssningar får låten. Ju fler lyssningar låten får desto fler listor hamnar låten på, till exempel i form av användares Discovery Weekly-listor. Avslutningsvis diskuteras flera av de färdigheter som behövs för att på egen hand kunna släppa sin musik och få in intäkter för den.

The music distribution in Sweden and the world is rapidly changing. The music industry, however, has been reluctant to change the way they distribute music. The consequence has been that illegal music files have been available for downloading to anyone with an Internet connection. Because of the illegal downloading a new law have been implemented in an attempt to stop this behaviour. Our theory is that in implementing the IPRED-law, the sites that were hosting most of the illegal material will experience a severe decrease in traffic. Because of this, small un-established artists will have an even harder time reaching an audience and spreading their music, since less people will visit the sites where they have uploaded it. In order to investigate the issues these artists face we conducted a qualitative ethnographical investigation among artists and people working in the music industry. We also followed the debate about IPRED in the media, in order to get a good base to stand on for our investigation. Out of the data collected from the qualitative investigation we made a documentary, in addition to this report, showing the consequences un-established artists must handle in order to continue spreading their music. Taking on the artist perspective, we asked ourselves the question: “How will I now get famous?” We found that the artists believed that the law would cause more trouble then it would take care of, but that it in the long run would have no significant impact on the consumers downloading behaviour. In the end, our results showed that un-established artist would have to find new ways to make their music know to the public. Music services such as Spotify and MySpace showed to be considered the main channels for successful future distribution.

Under 2000-talet har nya tekniska innovationer både förändrat hur musik spelas in, distribueras och konsumeras. Därmed har nya möjligheter skapats för Sveriges oetablerade artister, samtidigt som utbudet blivit större och svårare att tränga igenom. Uppsatsen undersöker vad oetablerade artister har för åsikter om läget idag och fokuserar kring tre huvudområden; musikutgivning, artistens egen karriär samt musikbranschen i stort. Med djupintervjuer som metod syftar studien till att undersöka vilka problem som står i vägen för en artist som försöker etablera sig och nå ut med sin musik till en större publik. Studien har visat på att artister nuförtiden mycket enkelt kan spela in och ge ut sin musik vilket skapat en direkt länk till allmänheten. Det är dock mycket svårt att få den uppmärksammad, varför branschkontakter fortfarande värderas högt i artisters ögon. Det finns samtidigt en viss misstro mot den etablerade branschens kommersialism men varierar stort beroende på vilken typ av aktör det rör. Genom mer kunskap om fler musikrelaterade uppgifter har artisterna däremot självsäkerheten att själva kunna välja samarbetspartners utifrån var den egna kompetensen brister.

Studien behandlar digitaliseringens påverkan på musiklandskapet i Sverige. Syftet med studienär att förstå om och hur musikdistributionen i ett förändrat musiklandskap, Spotifys spellistekulturoch spellistan Hits idag påverkar P3s musikval. Studien är en empirisk studie som har samlat datagenom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys som jämför spellistor, strukturerade intervjuer med tvåbranschverksamma och en fokusgrupp som diskuterat ämnet. Studien underbyggs av forskninginom medieutveckling, public service och spellistekulturen vilket lägger en grund för enjämförelse med resultatet som visar hur P3 distribuerar musik, hur spellistorna förhåller sig tillvarandra och musikbranschens syn på ämnet.I studiens slutsats framgår det att den digitala utvecklingen har lett till ökad konkurrens för P3vilket kan leda till att de lägger fokus på att öka sina lyssnarsiffror snarare än att bidra med denspetskompetens och kvalitet som ligger i deras uppdrag. Studien påvisar, trots att P3 ska hålla enoberoende ställning mot aktörer med ekonomiska intressen, att P3 har påverkats av Spotifysspellistor. Om Spotifys egna spellistor skapade av musikredaktörer eller algoritmer blir denfrämsta plattformen för musikkonsumtion, riskerar kulturen att bli fattigare, vilket stärker behovetav en samhällsaktör som arbetar i motsatt riktning. Det har också identifierats ett samband mellanmusikbolagen, Spotify och Sveriges Radio där dessa aktörer har en inverkan på varandra,konsumenterna, samhället och på musikutvecklingen. / This study discusses the effect of digitalization on the music landscape within Sweden. The aimwith the study is to understand if and how the public service radio channel P3 is influenced bythe music distribution in a modified musical landscape, Spotify's playlist culture and the playlistHits idag. This paper is an empirical study and the data is collected through a quantitative contentanalysis which compare playlists, structured interviews with two people working within the musicindustry and a focus group who discussed the subject. The theory is reinforced by research fromscientists within media development, public service and the playlist culture. This forms a groundfor discussion of the result that shows how P3 distribute music, how the playlists relate to eachother and what the music industry thinks about the subject.The conclusion shows that the effect of digitalization is a growing competition of P3's consumerswhich could lead to a great focus on increasing the number of listeners instead of producingquality and expertise, which the public service commission tells them to do. The study shows thateven if P3 should be independent from companies with financial interests P3 is affected bySpotify's playlists. If Spotify's own playlists, produced by editors or algorithms, becomes theultimate platform for music consumption there is a risk that the culture becomes inadequate whichstrengthen the need of an independent part who works in the opposite direction. The study hasalso identified a relation between the major music labels, Spotify and Swedish Radio where themajor players affects each other, the consumers, the society, and development of music.