Facilitators and barriers to motivation in music production : Discovering opportunities for product companies to support motivation in music production

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Linköping University | Department of Computer and Information Science Bachelor thesis | Cognitive Science Program Spring term 2020 | LIU-IDA/KOGVET-G—20/018--SE

Facilitators and barriers to

motivation in music production

Discovering opportunities for product companies to

support motivation in music production

Henrik Holmberg

Tutor, Daniel Västfjäll Examinator, Anna Levén

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Copyright

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Abstract

In music production, along with other creative endeavors, there is a recurring phenomenon of loss of motivation during the process of creating. Within the community of music producers, there is no unified picture of what leads to lack of motivation. Little academic research has been done on motivation in music production specifically; however, when it comes to motivation in creativity, there is some research which suggest that intrinsic motivators are the primary regulators of motivation in creativity. Whether extrinsic motivators are detrimental to intrinsic motivation or can be used to facilitate intrinsic motivation, as well as what kind of extrinsic motivators that may facilitate intrinsic motivation, is still debated.

This thesis sets out to discover what facilitators and barriers to motivation can be found in the music production process of electronic music producers, and whether this knowledge can be applied to products for music production. To examine facilitators and barriers in music production, a phenomenology-inspired, bottom-up methodology of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis is employed on professional and enthusiast music producers.

The results show that while baseline intrinsic motivators such as the will to create are vital for motivation, there are a lot of extrinsic factors at play in sustaining motivation through music production as well. This thesis is presented with product companies that make products for electronic music production in mind, and through the results of this thesis, numerous suggestions on what to think about when designing for motivation in music production are presented.

Keywords: Motivation psychology, Qualitative research, Electronic music, Music production, Product design

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Acknowledgement

This thesis has been written independently with no company affiliations. A special thanks goes to the seven participants that took part in the interviews for this thesis, my tutor Daniel Västfjäll, as well as Daniel Holmer and Jonas Westling for providing some food for thought in the earliest stages of developing the core idea of this thesis.

Linköping in May 2020 Henrik Holmberg

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Introducing the framework 17 Intrinsic motivation 18 Self-determination theory 19 Task-focused motivation 19 Self-regulation 19 Goal-orientation 20 Flow 21 Extrinsic motivation 21 Informational and controlling motivators 21 Rewards, incentives, and reinforcers 21 Goals 22 External regulation 22 Method ... 23 Overview ... 23 Data collection ... 23 Interviews 23 Participants 24 Recruitment and ethics 24 Phenomenology and Thematic Analysis ... 25

Reflection on bias in analysis 26 Analysis ... 26

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Second cycle coding 27

Third cycle coding 28

Presenting the themes 28

Results ... 29 Overview ...29 Basic motivational aspects ...29

Active lifestyle and overall well-being are prerequisites to motivation 29 Willpower is essential for motivation 30 Freedom in creativity makes music production enjoyable 31 A sense of community is important to motivation for enthusiasts 32 Conflicting life situation limits motivation in enthusiasts 33 Freedom as a life quality is important to motivation in professionals 33

Extrinsic motivators ... 34

Tangible platforms of release and real deadlines is important to motivation 34 External validation can affect motivation 35

Motivation in relation to the process ... 36

Strong desire for Accessibility and efficiency 36 Producers are enjoying idea generation, exploration and learning the most 38 Song-making can be detrimental to motivation 39 Producers employ a process structured to cope with demotivation 41

Discussion ... 43 Overview ... 43 Basic motivation and comparing professionals and enthusiasts... 43

Implications for product companies 44

Boundaries are important ... 45

External validation is nice, but not necessary ... 47

Desire for efficiency and accessibility ... 48

Exploration is fun, and it is best to keep it separate ... 49

Concluding thoughts ... 52 Method critiques ... 55

Risk of bias in analysis 55 Multiple cycle coding may lead to data loss 55

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Theoretical foundation in interviews could lead to bias 55

Niche focus group 55

Motivation may not always be the root cause for behavior 55 Difficulty in finding the negatives 56

References ... 57

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Introduction

Within the community of creators it is not uncommon to see that people of various crafts report on a lack of ability in getting projects done, which is often attributed to lack of motivation, lack of creativity or lack of inspiration (Billard, 2020; Billups, 2016; GeoAnonymoose, 2014). According to Amabile (1997), these explanations are all closely related as she states that motivation is not only akin to creativity but, in fact, a prerequisite for creativity. E.g., if there is no motivation, there cannot be any creativity.

When it comes to music production, attempts to highlight what lack of motivation stems from and how to cope with it are taking various perspectives, such as “loving what you do”, “challenging yourself”, as well as “having an overall goal with what you do” (Nurmi, 2019; In The Mix, 2018; Huang, 2016). These perspectives are in line with theories on motivation such as self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) and theories on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (Reeve, 2018). However, there are no unified conceptions of what acts as facilitators and barriers to motivation in the process of music production, nor to which degree these different conceptions impact motivation during music production. This thesis aims to seek out these answers and apply the knowledge gained in the context of product design, and to what kinds of products that product companies could aspire to make to support motivation in music production.

It is important to note that there is no one kind of music producer; some music producers work in the context of producing for other artists, while other music producers produce music primarily for themselves, e.g., that they produce their own music, representing themselves as artists. This thesis is focusing on the latter kind. Depending on whether music producers are professional or do what they do by free-choice their way of working and their relationship to motivation may differ (Steele, McIntosh, & Higgs, 2017). Due to the potential discrepancy between professionals and those who produce music by free-choice, this thesis includes both

professional and enthusiast (free-choice) music producers. Albeit both focus groups are

considered proficient in their abilities to produce music, the differences do instead lie in whether they make a living from music production or have some other primary income.

Music producers may also work with different kinds of music, different genres, and different approaches and methodologies to music production and while this study is agnostic to methodologies, it focuses on music producers that creates electronic music, as according to Jean-Michel Jarre, electronic music is in itself a particular style of music that relies heavily on the technology (Bjørn, 2017), which is supposedly a suitable basis for finding out what facilitators and barriers to motivation there may be in certain products or technical processes.

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The methodology used for approaching the subject is semi-structured interviews, analyzed through a hybrid method of phenomenology and thematic analysis. Seven participants have been recruited in total, three of which belong to the enthusiast music producer category, which have another main occupation, and four of the participants are professionals that make a living

from music production. The exposition of the study conducted in this thesis is an understanding of facilitators and barriers to motivation in the music production process in

professional and enthusiast music producers. The thesis is framed in a way that provides a

basis for product companies looking to support motivation in the music production process, primarily in producers that are already knowledgeable in music production.

Research questions

What are the experienced facilitators and barriers to motivation in music production?

What future implementations should product companies consider when aspiring to support motivation through the music production process?

Limitations

According to Jean-Michel Jarre (Bjørn, 2017), electronic music is a particular style of producing music that relies heavily on artifacts and technology; as such, the study will be limited to electronic music. Participating in the study are seven music producers from the two focus groups of professional and enthusiast music producers, first of which makes a living from their music production, and the other keeps it as a side-activity. To avoid unnecessary complexity surrounding the social aspects of music production, such as the dependability of band members and other factors that might be difficult to mend with any product; all participants are interviewed in terms of their solo productions rather than collaborations. Additionally, the study focuses on their original work, rather than work to specification.

There is no predetermined limit to the analysis. Depending on what themes appear during the analysis phase, the primary facilitators and barriers affecting motivation may be inside technical processes or in activities surrounding what happens in the studio, in both, or regarding completely different aspects.

Furthermore this thesis does not cover how to design for motivation to be had, rather it focuses on what variables there are at play in motivation in various aspects of electronic music production, which could be of help in supporting decisions on what kind of products to develop and roughly how they would have to work to support motivation under the conditions of music production.

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Motivation in music production

Introducing the context

This segment is a brief contextualization of the domain this thesis takes place in, e.g., electronic music production. The contextualization is partly derived from the interviews conducted in this study, and partly from online resources on what music production is.

What is a music producer?

In essence, a music producer is someone that produces music. Music production includes the entire process of song creation, from the initial idea - possibly by writing notes on paper, to recording, arranging, mixing, and mastering (Leviatan, 2017). Some steps in this production chain are skewed towards the technical end, while others are skewed towards being creative. However, all steps can be considered both creative and technical to some extent. Nevertheless, a music producer does not only go through this process of creating music itself, but a music producer also has a life, possibly a family, and a cat, much like the many of us. Music producers may or may not be working with what they do, and they are possibly not only thinking in terms of songs, but also albums, in terms of who wants to listen to their music, their own image, and in some cases they even play their music live. As such, there are many variables that may act as facilitators or barriers to motivation in a music producer. However, that does not mean that there are no recurrent patterns, and highlighting these recurrent patterns is the aim of this thesis.

When it comes to the choice of music production tools in electronic music production, there are in essence two overall setups that are usually dubbed as hardware; e.g., physical devices connected to each other via MIDI (Wikipedia contributors, MIDI, 2020) and routed to an audio mixer, and software; a virtual representation of a physical setup in what is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) (Wikipedia contributors, Digital audio workstation, 2020). In the extreme ends of the spectrum, these two routes are different approaches to making music,

software offers unlimited possibilities, but less directness, and hardware offers limited

possibilities accompanied with a high level of directness. Most common however are different kinds of fusions between these setups, and while this thesis will not go into every intricacy of each setup that the participants are working with, having a rough idea of what this can look like could be useful, and as such follows an illustration on how these setups can look in figure

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Figure 1. Illustration of a DAW

A simplified illustration that shows what the idea generation (1), arrangement (2), and mixing (3) sections may look like in a DAW.

Figure 2. Illustration of hardware music production tools

A simplified illustration of hardware music production tools, showing what the idea generation (1), arrangement (2), and mixing (3) sections may look like in terms of physical devices.

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The music production process

Following the illustrations in figure 1 and figure 2, one can tell that there is no one way of producing music; however, here follows a brief description of what the music production phase may look like based on the interviews in this study. In general, there are three overall stages of music production: Idea generation, arrangement, and mixing.

- Idea generation is the initial stage of coming up with a song idea. It is often described to begin as a “loop”. A loop is a repeatable musical sequence that consists of drum patterns, synth chords, arpeggios, a bass riff, or sequenced samples; just about any sound that repeats itself through a song. The loops are then stacked so that the producer can hear all of them playing together, and then the producer may do some different variations of these, some pre-mixing, or possibly adding some effects, to get an overall feel for the sound. Idea generation can be done as a separate activity and is often described as the most explorative part of music production, or it can be conducted when the producer has a specific idea in mind that he/she wants to perform. Additionally, when idea generation is conducted as a separate activity it sometimes takes the form as preparation to build a backlog of material where elements can be used in future song ideas.

- When the initial idea is ample to begin making a song, the music producer enters the arrangement phase where the actual song is made, which is done by putting out the different loops on tracks in a DAW (Figure 1) if one is used. Some producers work with MIDI, which is a standard for sequencing and triggering parameters of instruments via digital signals, while other producers record their instruments by recording audio into their DAW. Some producers prefer to “play” their instruments and trigger the loops live while recording audio on separate channels via an audio interface (Wikipedia contributors, Audio and video interfaces and connectors, 2020) to a DAW. No matter which methodology is used, adjustments must be made - which are usually (but not in all cases) done in a DAW, which is where most of the arrangement process takes place. The process of arrangement is conducted by moving around loops, recording automations (temporal parametric changes in instruments), and adding new elements to the song in terms of one-shot sounds or loops. At this stage, any new sounds are added to contribute to the song that is already there rather than as an attempt to come up with completely new ideas. To conclude, the arrangement process is where the song, in its entirety, is made.

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- The last stage; mixing, is the finalizing stage - the song is already there, adjustments are made to the levels of the audio, the audio is equalized, compressors and limiters may be added, the overall feel and liveliness, and channel mixing is done in the mixing stage. There is some interchangeability to this, mixing and arrangement may be done in parallel, but there is almost always a dedicated mixing stage where the final touches are done. Usually, when the mixing is done a track is mastered as well, a technical task which is conducted to make the song sound good in various audio systems, this step is always done last, but rarely by the producers themselves.

Important to note is that music production is both a creative process and a technical process (MusicTech, 2013), as there are aspects of music production that are more technical, but still require some degree of creativity, such as the mixing process for example, and those which are less technical but demand a high degree of creativity, such as ideation.

Motivation in theory

Although there are many theories on what motivation is, where it comes from, and how it is produced, motivation in its most essential form can be defined as "internal processes that give behavior its energy, direction, and persistence" (Reeve, 2018). Alternatively, in even simpler terms, motivation can be defined as wanting (Baumeister, 2016). According to Amabile and

Collins (1998), early research on motivation in relation to creativity focused on latent attributes of creative people, which make them creative and motivated. However, reality points towards that even creative people go through rough patches where motivation is hard to achieve, or possibly - people that do not have these attributes that early theorists suggested were intrinsic to creative people, still find themselves in the position of doing creative tasks. In either case, finding out what facilitates and acts as barriers to motivation in relation to these tasks is vital when attempting to design products for music production that does not become barriers to motivation and does facilitate motivation.

In Amabile's componential model (Amabile, 1997) motivation is seen as a facilitator to creativity, and as motivation itself has facilitators that lead to the occurrence of motivation, figuring out what drives creativity is quite the conundrum. According to Amabile's componential model, creativity happens when motivation, expertise, and creative thinking skills converge (Amabile, 1997). In some theories, such as the self-determination theory,

competence is viewed as a part of motivation, and not external to motivation (Reeve, 2018);

however, this is not a study aiming to determine where motivation resides in relation to creativity, rather the focus are on the motivational aspects at play in relation to creativity.

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Creativity is in this case used as a proxy for music production as there are limited research on the relation between music production and motivation specifically.

As follows, the theoretical framework developed for this thesis is an extension of Amabile’s componential model (Amabile T. M., 1997) which considers motivational theories that may instill creativity. The framework is used as a foundation to facilitate discussions with music producers about motivation in music production, as well as a framework for discussing and understanding the results.

Introducing the framework

In Motivation and Creativity, Teresa Amabile and Mary Collins (1998) presents a brief history of motivational theory in creativity covering the needs and characteristics of creative people. Such characteristics are spanning from “the sense of purpose” (Cox, 1926), “devotion” (Bruner, 1962), and “driving absorption and persistence” (Newell, Shaw, & Simon, 1962), to needs like canalizing some “libidinal energy towards a creative goal” (Freud, 1959). These needs and characteristics can be roughly mapped to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943), which is a good proxy for baseline motivation. However, for this study, a framework that also considers task motivation needs to be utilized; one such framework is the two-pronged hypothesis by Amabile (1983). The two-pronged hypothesis suggests that task motivation is first and foremost divided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Strong intrinsic motivation may according to Amabile (1983) be a product of motives such as “engaging in a task for the task itself”, “by own interest”, “high personal involvement”, “due to the satisfaction of it” and “to challenge oneself”. Extrinsic motivators could be “to meet some goal”, “to get a reward”, “win a competition”, “meeting some requirement”, “external recognition” or due to “external direction”. The two-pronged hypothesis can be viewed as the innards of the motivational part of Amabile’s componential model of creativity (Amabile & Collins, 1998). However, even at this abstraction level, there is no explanation of what facilitates motivation. There are no explanations as to why an actor would be highly involved in a task. Amabile’s componential model offers insight into the characteristics of creative actors but does not offer enough detail to proxy the actual mechanisms of motivation.

In an attempt to add some tangibility to this slightly reductionist view, Logan M. Steele, Tristan McIntosh and Cory Higgs (2017) are expanding upon Amabile’s work by emphasizing self-regulation as an important aspect of motivation, by doing this, the authors are adding an active part to motivation, that can be intrinsically or extrinsically manipulated during the creative process. This taps into the question of whether extrinsic motivators are detrimental to intrinsic motivation or not, the former is considered the traditional view, but Amabile and Collins (1998) suggest that it is circumstantial, and that certain processes which might be

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perceived as less creative may actually gain from extrinsic motivators by, for example, adding a deadline.

To get a better understanding of the “why” that goes into a goal pursuit, Steele et al. (2017) suggest to turn to Self-determination theory, which consists of autonomy, competence, and

relatedness, and in essence, describes the substance to why an actor may intrinsically perform

a task - e.g., by having freedom, opportunity to learn, and the feeling of relatedness. Self-determination theory may also be interpreted as a prerequisite for motivation to happen through the sense of feeling autonomous, competent, and belonging to a certain context (Reeve, 2018). Steele et al. (2017) also suggest that goal-orientation, e.g., the characteristics of the perceived purpose of a goal may be of importance when talking about intrinsic motivation. Goal-orientation theory covers two main characteristics of goals; mastery and performance, where the desire of the actor may be to either achieve or avoid.

Amabile and Collins (1998) also suggest a couple of additional theories that may be at play when it comes to intrinsic motivation, those are Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory, which is signified by a desired state of intense interest and curiosity (Csikszentmihalyi & Getzels, 1976), and task-focused motivation. Based on Amabile’s componential model and two-pronged hypothesis (Amabile T. M., 1983), and the extensions suggested by Steele et al. (2017), a custom theoretical framework revolving around extrinsic and intrinsic motivation has been developed for this study. The framework consists of theories on intrinsic motivation such as self-determination theory, task-focused motivation, self-regulation, goal-orientation, flow theory, and extrinsic motivators in terms of informational and controlling motivators, rewards, incentives, reinforcers, goals, and external regulation.

Intrinsic motivation

According to Johnmarshall Reeve (2018), intrinsic motivation can be described as a natural inclination toward exploration, spontaneous interest, or environmental mastery that emerges from strivings towards personal growth and experiences that satisfy a psychological need. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943), such needs may consist of a need to achieving one’s full potential (self-actualization), a need to feel accomplished (esteem), a need for friendship and sense of connection (belonging), a need for security and safety, or purely physiological needs such as rest, food, and water. In an essay from 1968, Maslow presented an observation where creative individuals were less likely to cling to the familiar and certainty, e.g., “safety” from Maslow’s hierarchy (Maslow, 1968), however, this may be due to the safety need being already satisfied. Creative individuals are also less likely to feel succumbed by society’s standards (Maslow, 1968), and less afraid of what others might say or even their own impulses, e.g., a characteristic for creative people is that they are less inhibited. While the needs and characteristics of creative individuals may be a good predictor for some baseline

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motivation, it does not give away much of how motivation during a certain process happens. To understand this, we must turn to some additional theories.

Self-determination theory

Self-determination theory, or SDT for short, is a motivational theory and framework where motivation emerges from the combination of competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2017). SDT assumes that people are prone towards learning, mastering, and connecting with other people, however, this is not necessarily an innate tendency, but requires supportive conditions (Ryan & Deci, 2017). In the SDT framework, competence, autonomy, and

relatedness are needs, which are satisfied at optimum satisfaction. Competence concerns the

need for feeling mastery over a craft, a sense of growth and possibility to succeed, and is satisfied at optimal challenge, positive feedback, and opportunities of growth (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Autonomy equals the need for ownership over one’s actions and is supported by experienced value and interest in the subject matter, and undermined feeling externally controlled (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Relatedness concerns a sense of belonging and connection, which is supported when the need for being cared for and respected is satisfied (Ryan & Deci, 2017).

Task-focused motivation

According to Sternberg and Lubart (1992), it has been found that people do their most creative work when their motivation is task-focused and intrinsic, as opposed to being goal-focused and extrinsic. What this means is that the goal of conducting the task is the task itself, rather than being external to the task.

Self-regulation

According to Steele et al. (2017), the creative process continues until the actor perceives their work as a success or a failure. In other words, the creative process lasts as long as there is a sense of progress (Simon, 1978). In self-regulation there are two aspects at play; the process of evaluating whether a project is either finished or a failure, and the sense of progress. A prerequisite to evaluate whether a task is finished is a goal, and in relation to this goal is an ongoing process of evaluating progress, modifying affect, behaviors, and cognitions to get an understanding of the discrepancy between the current state and the goal state (Carver & Scheier, 1998). According to Steele et al. (2017), the general model of self-regulation assumes that lower-level tangible goals are pursued in place of higher-level abstract goals (Carver & Scheier, 1998). The focus for self-regulation, however, is not what the goals may consist of, but rather the process itself towards achieving those goals and how the involved actor sets goals and strives towards them by doing what is necessary for the sake of achieving those goals, and

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regulating their own affect through regulatory processes, by possibly revising set goals accordingly (Diefendorff & Lord, 2008).

Sitzmann and Ely (2011) bring up three main regulators present in the majority of theories surrounding self-regulation; these are regulatory agents, mechanisms, and appraisals. In most self-regulation theories, the main regulatory agent is believed to be the goal itself, a regulatory mechanism, on the other hand, may consist of “planning, monitoring, metacognition, attention, learning strategies, persistence, time management, environmental structuring, help-seeking, motivation, control, and effort” (Steele et al., 2017). Regulatory appraisals then include self-evaluation, attributions, and self-efficacy (Steele et al., 2017). Progress in this sense may be both internal and external, goals can reside within the actor and manifest itself in a learning goal for example, which has been proven to be a dependable predictor of intrinsic motivation (Dweck, 1986). It could also be related to receiving a reward of some sort, where the causal relationship between effort and reward may be considered a stronger predictor for motivation (Steele et al., 2017).

Steele et al. (2017) suggest that self-regulative processes can be grouped into two categories; explorative processes and exploitative processes. The former comes into play when a task is more explorative, such as when an actor is seeking information, discovering new ideas, or taking on different points of view (Steele et al., 2017). Exploitative processes such as self-efficacy and meta-cognition are primarily employed to refine a current strategy or to improve one’s performance in a task.

Goal-orientation

Goal-orientation could be explained as one's reason to strive for a goal. According to Steele et al. (2017), most of the research on goal-orientation has been conducted in learning environments, where it has been demonstrated that there are two primary goal-orientations. Those are goal-orientations that seek to develop competence, and goal-orientations that seek to demonstrate competence (Steele et al., 2017). Goal-orientations that are skewed towards developing competence are the strongest predictors of motivation (Steele et al., 2017). Goal orientations skewed towards demonstrating competence have two characters; performance avoidance and performance achievement, where the former's orientation seeks to avoid situations of demonstrating competence, while the other seeks opportunities to demonstrate one's abilities (Steele et al., 2017). The stronger predictor of motivation between the two are those orientated towards demonstrating competence.

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Tapping into aspects like "engaging in a task for the task itself" or "enjoyment", are Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory, which describes a state of great enjoyment, in which of an actor can be when there are clear goals, immediate feedback to one's actions, a balance between challenge and skill, when actions and awareness are merged, when distractions are excluded from consciousness, and there is no worry for failure (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997).

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation is often contrasted against intrinsic motivation and represents a category of motives that are external to the inherent satisfaction produced by conducting a task in itself (Ryan & Deci, 2017). According to Amabile and Collins (1998), extrinsic motivators are often viewed as detrimental to intrinsic motivation; however, that is not necessarily true, as extrinsic motivators can under the right circumstances act synergistically to intrinsic motivation. Informational and controlling motivators

In the chapter Motivation and Creativity, Amabile and Collins (1998) describe informational motivators as motivators that confirm one’s competence or performance ability; these could be rewards, recognition, positive feedback, as well as constructive feedback that holds information on how to improve. Controlling motivators, on the other hand, are extrinsic motivators that set restrictions on behavior by surveillance, task constraints, contracted-for rewards, evaluation, and competition (Amabile & Collins, 1998).

Rewards, incentives, and reinforcers

Incentives and reinforcers are two categories of extrinsic motivators. Incentives are entities in the environment that may initiate or repel someone from initiating a specific course of action (Reeve, 2018); for example, one may help an acquaintance to move with the incentive to gain a new friend. Incentives are learned from experience; for example, one will not react positively to a perfume, unless one has positive associations with that specific scent. Reinforcers, on the other hand, are objects or events that increase behavior, such as receiving a compliment for an already undertaken course of action, or a paycheck that reinforces employees to keep coming to work (Reeve, 2018). Reinforcers increase behavior because they satisfy some urge, decrease arousal (such as anxiety), increase arousal (such as excitement), are valued and attractive to the subject, feels pleasurable, or because it allows one to do something fun afterward - e.g., doing a boring task, so that one can have fun when the boring task is done (Reeve, 2018). A reinforcer may be a reward such as a paycheck, however not all rewards are reinforcers, as not all rewards reinforce behavior. As follows, it may prove difficult to figure out what rewards

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work as reinforcers, as they have to be of some meaning to those who receive them (Reeve, 2018).

Reeve (2018) further expands upon rewards by dividing them into expected rewards and rewards that come by surprise, where it has been demonstrated that rewards are only detrimental to intrinsic motivation when rewards are expected and not when they come as a surprise. Reeve (2018) also divides rewards into verbal and tangible rewards, where tangible rewards such as money, awards, and food generally decrease intrinsic motivation, and verbal rewards such as praise and positive feedback do not (Reeve, 2018). This phenomenon is likely due to the locus of why an actor needs to perform a task is altered in rewards that are expected or tangible, as it effectively decreases an actor’s ability to self-regulate towards a goal they set for themselves (Reeve, 2018). Additionally, Amabile and Collins (1998) suggest that certain processes that are perceived as less creative may benefit from extrinsic motivators by adding a deadline. While deadlines are examples of reinforcers of controlling character, the deadline itself could be a positive or negative reinforcer, if the actor is unable to be done on time, the deadline may act detrimentally to motivation and vice versa.

Goals

When goals are employed in extrinsic motivation, the goals are closely related to reinforcers and incentives in the sense that the goals an actor is striving for are external to the self. A learning goal that develops one's abilities is an intrinsic motivator. A goal to get a good grade in a class is an extrinsic motivator. If a student is primarily motivated by grades (extrinsic motivators), removing the grades will kill the student's motivation; in this sense, extrinsic motivators are detrimental to intrinsic motivation.

External regulation

To further expand on extrinsic motivation, Deci and Ryan (1985) introduced a theory called

organismic integration theory, a sub-theory of Self-Determination Theory that describes four

different kinds of extrinsic motivators with various levels of ego-involvement. According to Deci and Ryan (1985), extrinsic motivators can be of four kinds: Externally regulated

behavior, which is behavior that stems from external demand. Introjected regulation of behavior, for example by demonstrating one’s abilities to one’s surroundings which may be

followed by appraisal and increased self-esteem. Regulation through identification, which is behavior that stems personally valuing the goal, and Integrated regulation, which occurs when one is fully integrated with the external regulators, such as beliefs about personal needs.

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Method

Overview

For this study, a hybrid method of phenomenology and thematic analysis was employed to try to understand the phenomenon of experienced motivation in music production. According to Sternberg, Contway, Ketron, and Bernstein (1981), there is a distinction between “academic intelligence” and “everyday intelligence”, where academic intelligence is what can be known by utilizing a theoretical understanding of a phenomenon, and everyday intelligence is what can be observed of a phenomenon. The methodology used for this thesis was custom designed to accommodate for the lived experience of motivation in music production, in relation to what is known from a theoretical standpoint about motivation. To get to the essence of the phenomenon of motivation in music production, semi-structured interviews based on the theoretical framework presented in this thesis were conducted on seven participants, four of which were professional music producers, and three were enthusiast music producers. The interviews were designed to make the interviewees reflect upon their experience of motivation in relation to various aspects of music production. The data from the interviews were then transcribed and analyzed through three stages of analysis, which took a bottom-up approach independent of the theoretical framework. The codes were then quantified, and as such all presented themes are derived from codes that occur in a significant number of participants.

Data collection

Interviews

To make sure that the interviews remained relevant to motivation, the interview questions were based on a review of theories on motivation psychology. The interview itself was of semi-structured character and was designed to facilitate reflection upon the lived experience of motivation. Semi-structured interviews are commonly used in phenomenological research (Fejes & Thornberg, 2015), and is characterized by being open-ended, yet retaining relevance to themes and topics, as well as being interactional in the sense that meaning is created in interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee (Edwards & Holland, 2013). By doing interviews this way, interviews can be steered in directions that is not pre-determined, while still being topic-relevant. An essential part of designing the interviews was to consider aspects relevant to music production, current products, methodologies employed by music producers to increase motivation, as well as overall motivational concerns.

The interviews were conducted as video interviews via a video call software called Zoom and lasted between 40 minutes and 1 hour and 40 minutes. The interviews were recorded by audio.

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Participants

According to Steele et al. (2017) there is a discrepancy between free-choice behavior and job performance. As such, the recruited participants consist of both professional and enthusiast music producers regarded with a proficient level of domain expertise. Seven participants were recruited - three enthusiasts and four professionals, which were chosen based on a combination of typical sampling and theoretical-construct sampling (Tracy, 2013), typical as in typical to a certain culture of electronic music producers with some interest in studio technology, and theoretical in the sense of them being either professionals or enthusiasts.

All the participants were found from extensive research on electronic music producers residing in Sweden, and then handpicked and contacted based on recent activity, level of proficiency, and how many years of experience they had. All participants are primarily solo producers that produce electronic music of genres such as Ambient, House music, and Techno. This subset of music producers is known to be quite technology-centric and is not necessarily representational for all music producers.

Recruitment and ethics

During recruitment, participants were contacted via e-mail or personal messages on social media platforms. All participants received a PDF with an agreement prompting participants to approve of:

- That their participation is confidential

- That audio and video will be recorded, and that all data collected will be locally stored until June 2020

- The thesis will be publicly published

The PDF agreement was signed by confirming participation in an e-mail or message on social media. And the confidentiality has been honored by not sharing anything that could connect the participants with their real identities throughout the thesis.

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Phenomenology and Thematic Analysis

According to Fejes and Thornberg (2015), phenomenology as a methodology is suitable to find out the essence of a phenomenon. The reason to use phenomenology as a methodology is when the point of interest is not to validate the theories themselves, such as the theory to why X yields Y, but rather to investigate what notions that can be derived from the lived experience of the participants in the study. However, as the subject is profoundly complex, motivation theory is used as a framework to better understand the relevance to motivation in the data.

In Edmund Husserl’s Ideas (2013), he introduces the concept of intentionality, which is the experience of the material side as an ideal, e.g., the division between the physical and what is mentalized as the physical, or the ‘horizon’ as Husserl calls it. Husserl calls these different aspects of intentionality by ‘noema’; the object-correlate and ‘noesis’; the subject-correlate (Ihde, 1977). In phenomenology, it is of importance to reflect upon one’s potential biases to the matter, as the subject-correlate is not equal to the object-correlate. The data gathered from interviews do not speak for themselves, and the results of a phenomenological study will always be highly dependent on the researcher who is doing the interpretation. Additionally, the object, e.g., the physical reality, may not be what is represented in the data, as the data itself is a result of thoughts, reflections, and feelings surrounding actual physical and mental objects (Moustakas, 1994). In this case, however, as the object of study is the lived experience and not the physical and psychical objects, the object of study is the data derived from the interviews as it is interpreted by the researcher.

To cope with bias as a phenomenological researcher, one could make use of what Husserl (2013) calls “bracketing”, e.g., putting aside any preconceptions one might have about a phenomenon, by looking at the phenomenon from the viewpoint of itself. In this study bracketing was applied in the first cycle of coding where all units of interest in the data were coded, no matter if relevant to motivation or not, and then patterns were looked for both within-person and within-group to try to get a better understanding on what potential themes from a phenomenological standpoint there may be.

Another way of coping with subjectivity as a researcher is to limit the analysis to descriptive categories (Moustakas, 1994); however, this was deemed insufficient to make the best use of the intricacies of the transcriptions. Furthermore, as Husserlian phenomenology does not provide much guidance on how to move on from the first cycle of coding, and first cycle coding was not sufficient to map found codes to a motivational foundation, Thematic analysis was used as an overall basis of analysis, where the first, phenomenological cycle of analysis became a part of an overall thematic analysis framework. Thematic analysis is a widely used and flexible approach to qualitative analysis within psychology, where the goal is to identify, analyze and report patterns in a set of data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Thematic analysis can be either

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inductive or theoretical, where patterns are either looked for as emerging from the data itself, or in relation to a theoretical foundation (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the case of this study, an inductive approach has been taken, which is the only approach that is compatible with phenomenology.

In The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, Johnny Saldaña (2016) elaborates on different approaches to coding that one might have to consciously interpret the data from different viewpoints, or by considering different aspects of the data in terms of codes. In essence, a code is a short phrase that symbolizes an entity that relates to this short phrase, according to Saldaña (2016) codes are “a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute of a portion of language-based or visual data”. E.g., codes are minified representations of units of interest in a data set, and patterns occur when units of interest, represented by codes occur multiple times. In multi-cycle coding, codes are re-coded, and re-coded codes are re-interpretations of the material based on pre-defined understandings of the researcher (Saldaña, 2016). For example, the researcher may look at the data with the intention of only coding processes or causalities, and as such, all units of interest that are coded in that particular coding cycle will be of said character.

Reflection on bias in analysis

While one can strive to be unbiased during analysis by bracketing preconceptions, it is unlikely that all preconceptions are suspended. One way to cope with preconceptions is by making personal biases explicit, and in the case of this study, the author has a professional background in arts and media spanning almost ten years, has worked in event management, and is himself an enthusiast music producer. This may have affected the emergent codes and themes towards what the author perceives relevant in the context of music production in a completely different way than someone with less or more experience in the subject matter. Additionally, as the author has done theoretical research in before the analysis, the author may have had some theoretical preconceptions on what motivation is as well.

Analysis

When the interviews were finished, they were manually transcribed in the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 12, which was used to help with managing codes derived from the transcription. Two categories of participants were created in NVivo; professionals and

enthusiasts, but the analysis itself was agnostic to which category they belonged to until the

last stage of analysis. Apart from offering a distinct coding system, thematic analysis also offers a formal way of distinguishing between codes and themes, and this study has followed

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Saldaña’s approach of grouping codes into themes (Saldaña, 2016), allowing the data to speak for itself to a higher degree, which brings the analysis closer to the phenomenological approach. In practice, coding was done by analyzing the material in multiple cycles by looking at the data in different ways for each cycle. In the first stage of this process, the transcription was looked at on a within-person level to find recurrent units of interest, and then comparing these units between each participant, to find recurring patterns within the group. The analysis for this study was conducted through three cycles of coding and re-coding.

First cycle coding

For first cycle coding Johnny Saldaña (2016) recommends using an initial coding method, which is a way of sorting and structuring data based on units of interest in the data in itself. E.g., very similar to what is done when bracketing preconceptions in a phenomenological analysis. This initial analysis phase is important as it helps with capturing units of interest that may not have been estimated, e.g. free from biases and preconceptions (Saldaña, 2016). Second cycle coding

When the first cycle coding was finished, the second cycle was conducted on the data categorized during the first cycle coding. At this stage, no quantification had yet been done, and as such, all units of interest from the first cycle were re-coded with three different coding methods. The three coding methods employed were descriptive codes, process codes, and

concept codes; these were employed on data represented by codes from the initial coding stage.

According to Johnny Saldaña (2016), descriptive coding is a coding method where the created codes represent what is actually said, e.g., descriptive themes in wordings found in the actual transcripts (Saldaña, 2016). Some codes are also more interpretative in their nature, e.g., wordings that are interpreted by the researcher as certain codes (Braun & Clarke, 2006), both

process codes and concept codes are of this nature, where process codes are codes that

represent processes, actions and things that people do, and concept codes are representative “big picture ideas” represented by the data (Saldaña, 2016). Furthermore, these variations of codes were each divided into ‘facilitating motivation’ codes, ‘neutral to motivation’ codes and ‘barriers to motivation’ codes. This type of coding is called magnitude coding (Saldaña, 2016), and are deemed as good to use for sub-coding, e.g., complementary to the primary coding, and in this case serves the coding process by adding a positive, negative or neutral magnitude to each code. At this point, a theoretical foundation was getting phased into the process of analysis, as assuming that there can be dimensions to motivation and positive/negative correlates is part of a theoretical understanding of motivation.

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Third cycle coding

The third cycle of coding were the causation coding stage (Saldaña, 2016), where all codes recurring in more than 50% of participants through both categories (professionals and

enthusiasts), that were either facilitative to motivation or barriers to motivation, were re-coded

into causal codes, e.g., codes that represent some relationship between facilitators and motivation, as well as barriers and demotivation. This stage of coding highlighted which processes, concepts, and descriptive occurrences in the data that were truly affecting motivation, and it also helped to rid out some noise from previous cycles.

Presenting the themes

In a sense, the third stage of coding could be described as the bridge between the data and the theory, as the theoretical framework was based on the notion that there are barriers and facilitators to motivation. However, in every other regard, all the way to presenting the themes, the theoretical basis was not explicitly considered in any other way than to whether the codes were facilitative to, neutral to, or barriers to motivation.

The themes of the analysis were created by grouping codes into bigger units, and the names of the themes were chosen based on the sentiment of the codes in the themes. For a theme to be considered relevant for presentation the same theme had to occur in a substantial number of participants; in this case, themes were primarily selected based on significant occurrence of codes across both groups of participants (professionals and enthusiasts). Additionally, some themes were selected due to recurring in only one of the groups (professionals or enthusiasts). In total, twelve themes were found. Such an approach does also assist in reducing selection bias of themes as the codes have to be recurrent to be considered relevant.

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Results

Overview

In this section, the twelve themes that were found through the thematic analysis are presented. Nine of the themes recur across both focus groups, and three recur in only one of the groups. Each recurrent theme is grouped into one of three overarching categories consisting of Basic

motivational aspects, Extrinsic motivational aspects, and Process motivational aspects, based on where the theme is considered to belong. E.g., if found facilitators and

barriers were characteristics/needs, external, or dependent on the process of music production itself or certain technologies.

Basic motivational aspects

Basic motivational aspects are a found category of motivational aspects that need to be in place for motivation to happen, or may act as barriers to motivation if they are in place. The themes in the ‘Basic motivational aspect’ category are skewed towards needs and attributes. Although most themes presented here are recurring equally well in both professional and enthusiast music producers, three themes, all of which are part of this section occurred in only one focus group each, e.g. freedom as a life quality, a sense of community and conflicting life situation. Active lifestyle and overall well-being are prerequisites to motivation

One of the most prominent themes when it comes to basic motivation was that participants reported that they gained energy and inspiration from an active lifestyle, or that a prerequisite for motivation to happen was overall wellbeing and love of life. To get this balance in order participants reported that they like to do athletics, seeing friends, going to clubs and live shows, as well as occasionally taking a break. The purpose of such activities is said to be to help find new ideas to pursue, to reset the mind, and promoting overall energy.

Part of an active lifestyle is variation in environments, which was particularly well highlighted by one of the participants:

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Eng. translation:

I enjoy being out in nature, hiking and winter hiking. Which can of course yield inspiration, I usually carry some kind of instrument with me, for example my phone, I've even had synths and power banks with me out in the woods to sit by some lake and make music.

Original:

Jag gillar att vara mycket ute i naturen, vandra och vara på vintertur. Det kan naturligtvis ge inspiration, jag brukar ha med mig någon form av instrument, t.ex. telefonen, jag har till och med haft med mig syntar och powerbanks ut i skogen för att sitta vid nån sjö och göra musik.

Willpower is essential for motivation

Five out of seven participants are describing a “want” or a “will” that drives them to create music. This will is described as an intrinsic experience of wanting something to the extent that any barriers that may lie in the way are disregarded.

Sometimes I can have technical problems, or it is stressful, everyday life comes in the way, and I feel like 'now I’m just going to stop creating music'. But then I regret it because I realize that I want to make music, even if it is a complication of my everyday life.

Original:

Ibland kan jag ha tekniska problem, eller så är det stressigt, vardagen kommer i vägen, och jag känner att ‘nu lägger jag ner det här med musik’. Men sen ångrar jag mig för att jag inser att jag vill, även om det är en tillkrångling av vardagen.

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Freedom in creativity makes music production enjoyable

Seven out of seven participants reported increased enjoyment with music production when they have creative freedom and can realize their visions to full extent.

Sometimes I feel like just doing a beat, and then maybe I do, even though I have never released a beat, I probably have 10-15 beats here on the computer, I have lots of techno I have not released. I think it should be as free as possible, do what one wants in the moment. Then one can cull out and conceptualize the material during the process of picking out what to release.

Original:

Ibland är jag sugen på att göra ett beat bara, och då kanske jag gör det, även om jag aldrig har släppt ett beat så ligger säkert en 10-15 beats här på datorn, jag har massa techno jag inte har släppt. Jag tänker att det ska vara så fritt som möjligt, göra det man har lust för i stunden. Sen så kan man välja ut och

konceptualisera det i själva släpp-processen.

While this quote is about freedom in creativity at the time and place of creating, this theme also extends to producing the material that producers want to produce in a greater perspective as well:

...I like being able to do what I want without anyone telling me what to do. So that's probably my goal [in creating music], to constantly feel that I have fun in a world without boundaries.

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Original:

...jag gillar att kunna göra vad jag vill utan att någon säger till mig. Så det är nog målet kanske [med mitt musikskapande], att hela tiden känna att man har kul i en värld utan gränser.

A sense of community is important to motivation for enthusiasts

Particularly interesting is that all three enthusiast producers reported that a relevant social context is an essential part of their overall motivation. E.g., to have a community of some sort where they can discuss music, gain, and give feedback, and even release music to. However, none of the professional producers stressed this as particularly important and said that they either did not have much of a community as of now, or that they would probably be mostly unaffected if it would disappear. Below is a quote from one of the enthusiast music producers.

Context is everything, I believe. Because I'm a pretty social person. I had

probably listened to music a lot, but I would probably not have created as much music without a context. Then I would probably have had some other hobby.

Original:

Sammanhang är allt tror jag. För jag är en ganska social person. Jag hade nog lyssnat mycket på musik oavsett, men hade nog inte skapat på samma sätt utan det. Då tror jag att jag hade haft någon annan hobby.

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Conflicting life situation limits motivation in enthusiasts

All of the enthusiast producers reported that their life situation was one of the main limitations for motivation to happen when creating music, mainly due to lack of time and energy, which in turn is due to that their main occupation is not music production.

I have limited time and it is a hobby. But as long as I have the time, I never find it difficult to finish a track.

Original:

Jag har begränsad tid och det är en hobby. Men så länge jag har tid så tycker jag aldrig det är svårt att få en låt klar.

Freedom as a life quality is important to motivation in professionals

For professional music producers, on the other hand, extra emphasis was put on freedom, not only in creativity - but also as a lifestyle, to be able to live and work under their own conditions:

I don’t think it’s a pain to go to the studio every day. I think it is fun. I can go there on Saturday again; it feels like a dream to get to work doing something I truly enjoy.

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Original:

Jag tycker inte det känns jobbigt att åka till studio varje dag, jag tycker det känns kul. Jag kan åka dit på lördagen sen igen, det känns som en drömtillvaro att få jobba med något sånt.

Extrinsic motivators

Extrinsic motivators are motivational themes that are external to the self, as well as external to the process of creating music.

Tangible platforms of release and real deadlines is important to motivation

A recurring pattern in both focus groups were the importance of time constraints such as deadlines, and platforms that limit the scope of what is going to be done. It is emphasized by most participants that deadlines have to be real - e.g., negotiated with a record label, as opposed to internal hypothetical deadlines that producers set for themselves. Platforms, on the other hand, are contexts that limit the character of the music that is produced; for example, producers may produce music for a specific venue, of a specific genre, or for a specific label that releases music of a certain type. The key to the ‘platform motivational aspect’ is to limit the possibilities in what producers can do, before actually doing it, so that the producer can strive towards making a specific kind of song. To put it in other words, if it is too open-ended, there is nowhere to go, and even if there is energy to do something, there is no direction for this energy to travel. However, one of the participants also notes that albeit controlling factors are needed, the controlling factors need to be realistic and fun:

Motivation is about having a plan in your head that you think is fun and

reasonable. And also to arrange a plan that one manages to live up to. If one sets a deadline in two days to make an album, it will probably not go so well. A goal that is obtainable. A goal should be exciting and reachable for it to be fun.

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Original:

Motivation handlar ju mycket om att ha en plan i huvudet som man tycker är rolig och rimlig. Och även sätta upp en plan som man klarar. Man kan inte sätta en deadline om två dagar för att göra ett album, för det går ju inte liksom. Ett mål som är uppnåbart. Ett mål ska vara peppande, men gå att nå, för att det ska vara kul.

I've started to think in terms of rooms and contexts, like where am I going to play this song? How long should it be? What style and context?

Original:

Jag har börjat tänka i termer av rum och sammanhang, vad ska jag spela den här låten i för rum? Hur lång ska den här låten vara Vad för stil och

sammanhang?

External validation can affect motivation

External validation may be a goal in its own right, for example, by striving towards being out playing live for the positive feedback achieved when playing live. Or it may promote motivation in such cases when positive feedback is received, which facilitates motivation. E.g., This same live show with an excited audience can be both a goal - to finish one’s music so that one can get there, but also a boost that makes producers feel like they want to make more music. In either case, it is some sort of extrinsic motivator, no matter if it acts to push or pull producers in a direction. On the question of what makes up a successful song, one of the participants replied:

A successful song is a song that makes a difference. Something is happening. Lifting one's career in some way, spreading awareness about one... If I play a

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song and it is well received, then there is some mystery in that, you know if the vibe goes up or down, I don't know what it is, but I also don't want to say it's not there. Because it is quite obvious that it is.

Original:

En framgångsrik låt är en låt som gör lite skillnad för en alltså. Det händer något. Lyfter ens karriär på något vis, sprider awareness om en… Om jag spelar en låt och den tas emot väl, så finns det ju nån mystik i det där, man känner om vibben går upp eller ner, jag vet inte vad det är, men jag vill heller inte säga att det inte är där. För det är ju helt uppenbart liksom.

Motivation in relation to the process

Several motivational aspects were found that reside in relation to the process of creating, in the tasks, the technologies, or the producer involved in conducting the task.

Strong desire for Accessibility and efficiency

One of the strongest process-related themes is the desire to be efficient. Efficiency is enabled by producer’s own abilities to use the tools at hand, however, by some of the participants; it is pointed out that easy to use interfaces helps in achieving this. In effect, this means that both the interface and the producer interfacing with the interface is of importance in trying to achieve efficiency. On top of this, accessibility to the right technologies are also reported as being of high importance for motivation to be instilled, to begin with, having all equipment plugged in and ready to go is vital to motivation.

Ideally, everything should be set up so you can just press play and be going. It is actually damn important that it is easily accessible. It is likely connected to my person that if I notice that a synth is standing three meters away and is not connected, then the chance that I would use it is much lesser.

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Original:

Helst ska det bara vara att trycka på play och så är allt inkopplat i mixerbordet och sådär. Det är faktiskt jävligt viktigt, att det är lättillgängligt. Det är säkert kopplat till min person, att om jag märker att en synt står tre meter bort och inte är ikopplad, så är chansen mycket mindre att jag använder den.

In addition, some of the participants reported on specific equipment that they found particularly enabling, although they reported that this might be because they are simply used to the specific technologies. Two of the most recurring specific products reported were a bass synth called Roland TB-303, and a DAW called Ableton Live, due to them being easy to use. Other participants were more agnostic about their tools and pointed towards the “directness” of hardware interfaces being particularly good for efficiency, and hence also motivation.

I like Ableton for the possibilities, to realize combinations between different styles and instruments, which you used to do externally and can now do in the machine [in the same system], so you can test things much faster. That's Ableton's strength. Then also, I know it so extremely well...

Original:

Jag gillar Ableton för möjligheterna, att realisera kombinationer mellan så olika stilar och instrument, som man brukade göra externt kan man nu göra i

maskinen [på samma ställe], så man kan testa saker mycket snabbare. Det är Abletons styrka, Sedan för det andra så är det att jag kan det så extremt bra…

Interesting to note is that the ‘Why’ to efficiency is sometimes stated to be related to cognitive demand and that the producers lose their creativity when they need to think too much, and that efficiency is also important to be able to test ideas out fast.

Facilitators and barriers to motivation in music production : Discovering opportunities for product companies to support motivation in music production