The purpose of this dissertation is to describe, explain and understand how record companies identify and develop new music and new talent. The analysis is carried out on three levels: individual, organizational and sector level. In a record company, this task formally goes to A&R (Artist and Repertoire). This dissertation takes its point of departure in how the capacity for discovering new talent can be understood in terms of knowledge, creativity and competence and how this capacity is affected in the meeting between the record company and the industry. The theoretical framework of the dissertation spans two sociological fields: the sociology of organizations and the sociology of knowledge. While it takes its organizational starting point in the Knowledge Company Approach, it employs a practice-based approach to discuss knowledge. I argue that within the Knowledge company approach there are two contrasting ways to understand knowledge; a distinction is made between knowledge- and creativity-intensive enterprises. The results show that the record industry’s polarized structure can be seen as a result of the Knowledge Company’s typical problems. The A&R’s work is described as including two phases, one intuitive and one analytical. The intuitive assessment is direct, unconscious and without reflection. This ability has been described as "intuition" and "gut feeling". The analytical phase adds analysis and reflection based on knowledge. The results from the interviews with A&R’s reveal the limit of formal and explicit knowledge not only in the choice of music but also in the marketing strategies. The overarching picture is one in which record companies move in a space characterized by tension between dichotomous forces – art and commercialism, creativity and knowledge, culture and economy, chaos and order, but where opposite poles are not mutually exclusive but complementary.

<p>I denna uppsats genomförs en empirisk analys av den svenska skivmarknaden och den nedgång i skivförsäljningen som skett under senare år. Fokus ligger på att undersöka om nedgången orsakats av illegal fildelning, eller om andra faktorer kan ligga bakom. Analysen sker genom en genomgång av relevanta aggregerade data för skivförsäljning, videoförsäljning, internetanvändande m.m. En enkel ekonometrisk analys görs också, och sammantaget visar resultaten att den växande konkurrensen från DVD-film troligen är en viktig orsak till den minskade skivförsäljningen. Inga tydliga bevis för att fildelningen haft en signifikant påverkan hittas. Brist på detaljdata gör dock att alla slutsatser måste tolkas försiktigt.</p>

I denna uppsats genomförs en empirisk analys av den svenska skivmarknaden och den nedgång i skivförsäljningen som skett under senare år. Fokus ligger på att undersöka om nedgången orsakats av illegal fildelning, eller om andra faktorer kan ligga bakom. Analysen sker genom en genomgång av relevanta aggregerade data för skivförsäljning, videoförsäljning, internetanvändande m.m. En enkel ekonometrisk analys görs också, och sammantaget visar resultaten att den växande konkurrensen från DVD-film troligen är en viktig orsak till den minskade skivförsäljningen. Inga tydliga bevis för att fildelningen haft en signifikant påverkan hittas. Brist på detaljdata gör dock att alla slutsatser måste tolkas försiktigt.

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe, explain and understand how record companies identify and develop new music and new talent. The analysis is carried out on three levels: individual, organizational and sector level. In a record company, this task formally goes to A&amp;R (Artist and Repertoire). This dissertation takes its point of departure in how the capacity for discovering new talent can be understood in terms of knowledge, creativity and competence and how this capacity is affected in the meeting between the record company and the industry. The theoretical framework of the dissertation spans two sociological fields: the sociology of organizations and the sociology of knowledge. While it takes its organizational starting point in the Knowledge Company Approach, it employs a practice-based approach to discuss knowledge. I argue that within the Knowledge company approach there are two contrasting ways to understand knowledge; a distinction is made between knowledge- and creativity-intensive enterprises. The results show that the record industry’s polarized structure can be seen as a result of the Knowledge Company’s typical problems. The A&amp;R’s work is described as including two phases, one intuitive and one analytical. The intuitive assessment is direct, unconscious and without reflection. This ability has been described as "intuition" and "gut feeling". The analytical phase adds analysis and reflection based on knowledge. The results from the interviews with A&amp;R’s reveal the limit of formal and explicit knowledge not only in the choice of music but also in the marketing strategies. The overarching picture is one in which record companies move in a space characterized by tension between dichotomous forces – art and commercialism, creativity and knowledge, culture and economy, chaos and order, but where opposite poles are not mutually exclusive but complementary.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka hur skivbranschverksamma personer kan resonera kring inspelning av fullängdsalbum samt distribution av dessa nu i en tid när musik distribueras såväl genom digitala releaser som fysiska utgivningar. Forskningsfrågorna behandlar hur dessa personer ser på den intresseförändring som skett under de senaste 20 åren inom branschen gällande inspelning av fullängdsalbum, samt om man helst väljer att släppa musik digitalt eller på ett fysiskt medium. Intervjuer med tre stycken mycket erfarna personer inom skivbranschen har genomförts, där informanternas utsagor sedan har analyserats med begrepp hämtade från en darwinistisk teori. Undersökningens resultat indikerar att det har skett en intresseförändring under de senaste 20 åren och att skivbranschen idag fokuserar mer på digitala releaser än fysiska utgivningar samt att singlar premieras framför fullängdsalbum. Undersökningens resultat överensstämmer väl med den tidigare forskningen inom kunskapsområdet.

The record industry has been around for just over 100 years and it’s an industry that mostly has been growing and growing ever since its inception. New technology has always pushed the industry forwards and helped it grow bigger and bigger with almost each year. But when the internet came in the early 2000’s it changed everything. It caused a stir in the industry when the music consumers now had the possibility to rip CD's, download music files illegally and share them with the world for free. In desperate actions to try to save the record labels from going bankrupt they did all in their power to fight the change. What eventually happened was that other actors came in and saved the business with services that embraced the change from a physical way of consuming music, to a new digital one.   This is a study of how that change has been perceived and affected the record labels and their ways of working. By using Paul Hirschs modell charting the organization of the pop music industry and the four processes that Tschmuck describes as the core activities of a record label, we’ve interviewed six record labels in the Stockholm area in an attempt to describe the new core activities and organization of the industry now that the digitization has changed the way the customers consume music.   Our findings show that the value added chain that Hirsch modelled has changed drastically, with several actors losing importance in it, while others actors has traded places. The core activities that Tschmuck described remains the same, but the ways they are executed has become more effective thanks to the new technology.