Searching for Sophia in Music Production: A Comparative Study of the Swedish Music Industry's Impact on Future Higher Education in Music

Abstract

Although Sweden is a small country with just ten million inhabitants, Swedish music exports have been very successful for many years. The international success of companies like Spotify, Cheiron, and Maratone and individuals like Max Martin and Shellback has resulted in a growing interest among students in Sweden to study music and music production. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the motives that exist among young people who choose to study music and to compare such motives with perceptions among leading music industry professionals. Firstly, we study various formal and informal learning processes relevant to music production and secondly, we focus on artistic aspects. A third aspect we study is technological development. But digitalization and online music distribution have not only led to new music production methods and business opportunities, it has also resulted in that established production traditions as well as the competencies among the professionals are challenged. The empirical data in this study consists of qualitative interviews with industry professionals and focus group interviews with students in higher education in music and music production. Learning theories as well as entrepreneurial theories were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicate some clear differences between what the students and the industry professionals value as important. One such difference is entrepreneurial skills, which are valued higher by the interviewed professionals. The results also indicate that many of the students who study music in higher education primarily aim at a career as artists, producers, or songwriters in popular music. This may be a potential problem as most of the music education offered not at all is focused on developing talents to full-fledged artists. The term Sophia [wisdom] refers to ancient Greek knowledge typology and is used to summarize the theoretical framework of the project.