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

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, and 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.