Audio Engineering Society

Convention Paper 7833

Presented at the 127th Convention
2009 October 9–12 New York, NY, USA

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Desktop Music Production and the

Millennials: a challenge for educators,
researchers and the audio equipment and
music software industry
1
Jan-Olof Gullö
1
Royal College of Music, Stockholm & Södertörn University, S-14189 Huddinge, Sweden
jan-olof.gullo@sh.se

ABSTRACT

Music is very important for today’s youth the Millennials. They often listen to music for hours every day and many
also produce music by themselves. As a result young people now show different musical abilities compared with
earlier generations. New software for music production, combined with the development of less expensive but more
powerful computers, has made Desktop Music Production available to a large public. Producers of music production
software also show a growing interest in the educational market. This raises questions about what demands this puts
on the training and work of teachers in music production and audio education as well as the future challenges to
suppliers of music production software and music technology.

1. INTRODUCTION
The pupils and students of today are special. The
Millenials [1], born in the early 80’ to present day, are a
generation raised on “a diet of instant gratification and
limitless choice” [2]. They are the first generation to
grow up with computers, portable music and video
devices, mobile phones and video games. Millennials
are online, they are peer oriented and they are ethnically
and racially diverse. They don’t listen to radio or watch
television much unless it’s a sporting event or breaking
news. The Millennials use the Internet as their main
source for news and entertainment and they download
music a lot, legally or not.
The Millennials are not passive consumers of music and
other media products. Many create their own music
productions using computer equipment, MP3 players
Gullö
and now even with mobile telephones as their private
recording studios. And often they don’t have any
commercial interests when they produce and remix
music and communicate their productions with peers via
the Internet [3]. They do it for fun. To produce music
has become a lifestyle.
Currently, in Sweden, there are several pathways for
young people who wish to work professionally with
audio technology and music production. Many students
choose to study music production in higher education
establishments.
In this study the objective was to investigate what music
production students must learn during their education to
reach employability. The study included classroom
observations and interviews with music producers,
teachers in music production, students, pupils and their
parents. The results indicate that young music producers
and music production students show different technical
and musical abilities compared with earlier generations
and that they expect themselves to work together with
peers and to start their own business and act as self-
sufficient and multi-skilled freelance music producers or
sound engineers in the future [4].
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss
selected results from this study with a focus on
questions concerning the future demands on educators
in music production and sound technology and the
challenges suppliers of music production software and
music technology are facing.
1.1. Music Production in Sweden
All children in Sweden between 6-16 years of age must
attend school and music is a compulsory subject. As a
recreational activity many children sing or play musical
instruments and many take lessons in leisure time in
municipal music schools. More than 500,000 Swedes,
children, youth and adults, regularly sing in choirs [5].
The national evaluation of the compulsory school in
2003 shows large differentiation in how music
education is accomplished in different schools. Music
generally is an appreciated subject among pupils. What
pupils like most is singing and playing in groups and
creating music [6].
Music Production, including Sound Technology, is one
of the music subjects in Upper Secondary School. Some
Swedish universities and university colleges have
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Desktop Music Production and the Millennials
courses in music production as well as study
organizations and private schools. Also many municipal
music schools now have Music Production among the
courses offered. Music Production has become an
important part of music education in Sweden [7].
Sweden has actively promoted information and
communication technologies, ICT, in schools and higher
education for the last 20 years [8], [9]. Recent surveys
indicate that 99 percent of the Swedes between 30-65
today have at least one computer at home. 78 percent of
the Swedish homes have broadband high-speed Internet
access [10]. 99 percent of the young Swedes, 16-24,
daily use the Internet [11]. Other reports say that 82
percent of all Swedes shooting digital also use
computers to edit their pictures [12]. There are no
studies on how many Swedes regularly use computers to
edit music and audio. However, with the spread use of
computers it is plausible that more people than ever now
have access to audio equipment and software for music
production and are therefore able to produce good music
and high quality audio.
In Sweden design-intensive and cultural-products
industries, such as multimedia, fashion, and music, have
grown in recent decades [13] and music is often
described as a growing export industry [14]. Swedish
music producers and songwriters compose and produce
songs for international artists such as Celine Dion,
James Blunt, Britney Spears, Westlife, the Backstreet
Boys, Kelly Clarkson and Pink. Furthermore many
Swedish artists such as ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, the
Cardigans, The Hives and Robyn have made it big on
the global music scene [15]. The worldwide success of
Mamma Mia!, the jukebox musical based on the songs
of ABBA, has in recent years greatly contributed to the
increased value of the Swedish music exports. At the
end of 2008 STIM, the Swedish Performing Rights
Society, had more than 56 thousand registered
members, composers, lyricists and arrangers [16]. In
this perspective more than half a percent of the total
Swedish population has a personal economic interests in
music production as copyright holders.
Swedish companies that produce musical instruments,
software and equipment for audio and music production
also play an important part in the Swedish music
industry. Examples are: Propellerhead with Reason and
Record music production software; Clavia with Nordic
Lead keyboards; Hagström guitars and basses; EBS
amplifiers and speakers for bass players and
microphones by Milab and Pearl.
Gullö
2. NEW VERSUS ESTABLISHED MUSIC
PRODUCTION METHODS
Over the years different approaches for how to make
music productions have been observed (fig 1).
2.1. Documentation – Production
The recording is either documentation or production [7].
An example of the documentation-approach is when a
classical concert is recorded and the objective is to
make the recording sound, as much as possible, like the
actual concert sounded in the concert hall. In the other
strategy, production, there is no purpose at all to make
the recording sound like a genuine acoustic event. With
the production strategy the objective is to create reality.
Not to record it.
Figure 1. A three-dimensional music production model.
The documentation-approach is nowadays almost only
used when jazz or classical music is recorded. In
modern popular music production, with few exceptions,
the production-approach is used. But classical music can
also be produced with a production-approach. The
Decca producer John Culshaw’s studio recording of
Wagner’s Ring cycle 1958-1964 is a good example of
this [17].
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Desktop Music Production and the Millennials
2.2. Active – Passive
Different producers work with different strategies.
Some producers work actively and take part in the
actual recording sessions as the obvious production
leader. Other producers are more passive and take part
in the productions on a much more distanced basis. One
way to do this is to finance a project but not take part in
the actual production work, sometimes described as an
executive producer.
2.3. Supporting – Directing
Another distinction can be made between being a
supporting and a directing producer. One well-known
producer who can be described as a supporting producer
is Sir George Martin. He made the Beatles sound in a
unique way that only the Beatles could sound. This
strategy can be described as: the artist is the centre of
attraction. An example of the other approach, the
directing producer, is the American producer Phil
Spector. From 1961 and all through the sixties Spector
produced many hit records and the listener could hear
that it was a Spector-production no matter who the artist
on the cover was. In the extreme this strategy can be
described as: the producer is the centre of attraction.
2.4. New methods for music production
Until around the mid-1990s it was a common practice
that artists and songwriters were composing songs and
producers were planning their work at home or in semi-
professional studios. Then they went to a professional
studio when it was time to do the recordings. At this
time various experts were involved in the production
work, such as, artists, songwriters producers, sound
engineers, and musicians of various kinds. Production
work was at this time clearly divided into different
stages from preparation to recording, mixing and
mastering. At this time division of labor characterized
the process of music production.
When the digital recording equipment and software for
music came to be better, less expensive and more
available the next trend for artists and songwriters was
to compose as well as record the music, as far as
possible, in their own private studios and only use the
professional studios for mixing and mastering.
Now a trend among producers, songwriters and many
artists is to do all the production work up to mastering
in their private studios. However, one can choose to use
Gullö
a professional studio for acoustic reasons or to make
some ensemble recordings. But nowadays even the
mixing is often done in the private studio [4].
This development can be explained by economic
reasons simply because it costs less to locate the
majority of work in the private studio. But there may
also be artistic reasons to make the entire production in
the private studio. With modern audio equipment and
music production software is often no longer, for
technical reasons, necessary to record in the
professional studio. Some artists and producers even say
that they perform better and reach better results when
they work at their own private production studios
compared with doing parts of the production, the mixing
for example, in a professional studio [7].
Another trend is that mastering has acquired a
developed role in recent years. Since mastering
engineers often strive to get the music to sound as loud
as possible, sometimes described as the loudness war,
there is a risk that the music loses quality during the
mastering process when a stereo or 5.1 mix is used [18].
Therefore, experienced producers nowadays often
choose to compile the recorded music into subgroups, or
stems, instead of a final stereo or 5.1 mix when they
mix the music. With this method the mastering engineer
can process one stem without affecting the other. For
example, the background music can be processed
separately from the vocals. The final mix is
consequently made in the mastering studio. This
production method also has reduced the need to do the
mixing in a professional studio.
3. THE MILLENNIALS SHOW NEW ABILITIES
Results from this study indicate that there are at least
three areas where students and pupils of today show
new musical abilities compared with earlier generations:
rhythm and timing, knowledge about musical
instruments and orchestration and repertoire knowledge.
One more observed aspect is that the Millennials show
limited interest in audio quality.
3.1. Rhythm and timing
For researchers in music and education rhythm is an
important subject. In the 1930’s the music psychologist
Carl Seashore pointed out: “Rhythm finds resonance in
the whole organism. It is not a matter of the ear or the
finger only; it is a matter of the two fundamental powers
of life, namely, knowing and acting” [19]. Timing is
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Desktop Music Production and the Millennials
closely related to rhythm and in western music
musicians almost never play with a chronometrical
norm. Both tempo and durational values normally
deviate from what mechanically is perfect [20]. When
the Swedish music psychologist Alf Gabrielsson in
1982 described his thoughts, as a skilled musician,
about how it feels to play with a rhythm-box, he
compared it to torture [21]. This was no doubt a valid
statement then. To play with a steady external beat, or a
click track, was something only skilled session
musicians did before the mid 80’s. Musicians trained in
the European classical music tradition could normally
not do it. If a Swedish popular music producer at that
time needed a large string ensemble or some good horn
players the best option was to go abroad, to London,
New York or Los Angeles where classical musicians
were more experienced in music recording.
The music teachers I have interviewed describe their
students and pupils as rhythmically skilled in general.
For example they enjoy playing and singing syncopated
rhythms. And a polyrhythmic structure in music is not a
problem for them. When they work with Desktop Music
Production the students often compose complex rhythm
patterns. This in combination with singing and playing
to music minus one records or songs downloaded from
the Internet is one plausible explanation to their rhythm
and timing skills. To play or sing with an external beat,
such as a click-track, can no longer be seen as torture, at
least not for the young generation. The Swedish
producers no longer have to go abroad to find skilled
musicians for the recording sessions. Also the Swedish
string and horn players can play with a steady external
beat nowadays.
3.2. Knowledge about musical instruments
and orchestration.
Orchestration can be described as the study or practice
of writing music for musical ensembles including
transcription, arrangement and instrumentation.
Handbooks in orchestration often take a central part in
education of composers. Only 15-20 years back
knowledge about orchestration was something
exclusively for those with special training. But today the
situation is quite different. The music teachers I have
interviewed say that their pupils and students like to
compose music and that they are often very good in
choosing which instrument to use to express something
in the music.
Gullö
The orchestration skills that the pupils and students
show are seen as a result of the frequent use of
computers with music production software. In such
software hundreds or thousands of instruments or
variations of instruments can be chosen from banks of
instrument presets. Often the software interface includes
some sort of search engine that makes searching for
instruments or sounds similar to a search on the web.
But having direct access such a palette of instruments
can also cause problems. During an interview, in a
recent research project, one music teacher told me that a
problem with the modern music technology was that his
pupils would spend far too much time in searching for
different sounds. And the pupils sometimes complained
that they couldn’t find the correct instrument sounds and
therefore didn’t create any music. The teacher’s
comment to me and to his student was: “We must not
forget that a Steinway grand piano only has one preset
and that is all you need to create good music!” [4].
3.3. Repertoire knowledge
The Millennials listen to music for many hours every
day. On the Internet music is available 24 hours a day 7
days a week and it’s easy to buy and download music in
MP3-format. In P2P-network users share their music
with others and whether it’s legal or not it is done on a
big scale and causing problems for the copyright
owners. Some listen to music on line while others
download music and store the files on their computers.
And it is easy to transfer music to a portable music
device, an Apple iPod for example, on which many
hours of music can be stored.
Some of the music teachers I have interviewed say that
the students and pupils they meet today have
extraordinary repertoire knowledge. They don’t only
listen to the music on the charts. They listen to
everything. Students and pupils use the Internet as a
research tool and learn a lot about the musical genres or
styles that interests them. In these cases the students are
the experts, not the teachers.
3.4. Limited interest in audio technology
Today’s music production and audio technology
students are not very interested in technical issues such
as the difference between digital and analogue audio
and the difference between special brands of audio
equipment [22].
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Desktop Music Production and the Millennials
One example of this is a small study where the students
were assessing the price level and appropriate use of
various dynamic microphones. Five dynamic handheld
microphones with a price range from $25 to $500 were
included in the survey. All five microphones had a
cover of black PVC electrical insulation tape and
colored acoustic-foam microphone windscreens and the
participating students were therefore not able to identify
the different types or brand names. During the test the
students used a portable SQN-mixer and a pair of Sony
headphones and they were free to test the microphones
in any adequate way. The overall result was that the
students could not hear the difference between low
budget and expensive microphones. Many of the
participating students could describe differences
between the microphones in the test but they couldn’t
tell good from bad since they thought all of the
microphones were more or less okay for most purposes.
Some of the students participating in the study also
expressed that they were much more interested in
developing new sounds and creating music than
technological issues such as being able to hear
differences between different microphones [23].
The students I have interviewed generally don’t see the
process of music production as an industry
characterized by division of labor. They don’t expect to
be employed as sound technicians or music producers
because that’s not how the Swedish music industry
works anymore. They expect themselves to work
together with peers and to start their own business and
act as self-sufficient and multi-skilled freelance music
producers or sound engineers [4].
4. COMMERCIAL INTEREST FOR MUSIC
PRODUCTION IN EDUCATION
There’s no doubt that education has become more
important for music production software producers.
When Avid Technology, a producer of video editing
software, bought Digidesign, the manufacturer of the
Protools audio software, in 1995 the purpose was to
reinforce Avids’ position in professional video and
audio editing.
In august 2006 Avid Technology announced that it had
acquired Sibelius Software Ltd., one leading music
applications software company with products for
professionals, educators, and students who want to use
computers to write, teach or learn music. The headline
this time was not about professional music production.
Gullö
It was: “Avid Acquires Sibelius, Expands Reach into
Global Education Market” [24].
A problem for schools wanting to offer good education
in music production is the cost of computers and
software and other necessary equipment. Investments of
this kind have a limited lifespan and for the teachers the
lack of technical support from the manufacturers and
suppliers of software and music production equipment
sometimes is a genuine problem. Even if the educational
market is interesting for the industry very few products
are developed with education in mind. Here is one
example: One of the music teachers I interviewed
described technical problems when he connected a
number of audio interfaces, Digidesign Mbox, to a
sound mixer. In his classroom there’s a number of
digital audio workstations and he wanted to connect
these to a mixer to be able play back audio in a high
quality monitor system. When he connected one Mbox
everything worked fine. But when he connected two or
more there was a disturbing high frequency noise. The
music teacher had no experience to solve it. And he
could not get any proper help from the supplier or from
the owners’ manual. An expert was required. The
solution was to let the audio signals from the
unbalanced output connectors pass through split boxes
with transformer-isolated outputs. This was not a
complicated technical solution but far beyond the
competence of many music teachers.
5. FINAL REFLECTIONS
Some of the results I have presented in this paper
indicates possible problems that educators face when
they meet young students of the Millennials generation.
What do teachers need when they meet students who
already have advanced knowledge of music production,
and Audio technology, and are eager to learn more?
Unlike the teachers, who usually themselves have
experienced the last decades of significant technological
development, the young students have completely
different references. The students have grown up with
good access to advanced equipment for music
production. Therefore advanced technical equipment
isn’t very exiting for them. As a result they rather focus
on other things, like writing good songs, than to strive
for outstanding audio quality.
A decade or two back the only place to find multiple set
ups of compressors, delay lines, high quality reverbs
and other tools for music production was in professional
recording studios. Today anyone can purchase music
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Desktop Music Production and the Millennials
production software for a few hundred dollars, like
Propellerhead Record, and recall any number of
compressors, delay lines or reverbs. Therefore the focus
for the young students isn’t to have access to good
equipment for music recording. It’s all about how to use
it.
This inevitably raises the question of what demands this
puts on the training and work of teachers in music
production and audio education as well as what future
challenges suppliers of music production software and
music technology are facing. I believe we need much
more research on these questions. We also need more
cooperation between educators, researchers and the
industry for future development.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Howe, N. & Strauss, W. “Millennials Rising: the
next great generation,” Vintage Books, New York,
2000.
[2] McBride, T. & Muhle, B. “Meet The Millennials:
Fans, Brands and Cultural Communities,”
Musictank & The University of Westminster,
London, 2008.
[3] Partti, H. “The on-line music communities – a
threat or a possibility?” Paper presented at Second
European Conference on Developmental
Psychology of Music, Roehampton University,
England, 2008.
[4] Gullö, J-O. “Musikproduktion och musikpedagogik
[Music Production and Music Education],
preliminary rapport, Royal College of Music,
Stockholm, 2008.
[5] Reimers, L. “Swedish music education,” Royal
College of Music, Stockholm, 1998
[6] “National evaluation of the compulsory school in
2003,” Skolverket, Stockholm, 2004.
[7] Gullö, J-O. “Desktop Music Production,” Royal
College of Music, Stockholm, 2003.
[8] “ITiS Lärandets verktyg - nationellt program för IT
i skolan,” Regeringens skrivelse 1997/98:176,
Stockholm, 1998.
Gullö Desktop Music Production and the Millennials

[9] Selg, H. “Studenternas användning av Internet i The Virtual; Designing Digital Experience. 2006,
studierna – En kortfattad översikt,” Swedish M3 research platform, Södertörn University
University Computer Network SUNET, 2004. College, Handen, 2007.

[10] Findahl, O. & Zimic S. “Unga svenskar och
Internet 2008,” World Internet Institute,
Hudiksvall, 2008.
[11] “Internet och bredband i svenska hushåll 2009,”
World Internet Institute, Gävle, 2009.
[12] Segeholm, G. “Åtta av tio redigerar sina bilder,”
Kamera & Bild, Stockholm, June 2005.
[23] Gullö, J-O. “Uppfattningar om fem olika
dynamiska mikrofoner – en studentundersökning“
[Perceptions of five different dynamic microphones
- a student survey], Royal College of Music,
Stockholm, 2009.
[24] “Avid Acquires Sibelius, Expands Reach into
Global Education Market,” 2006 Avid Technology,
Tewksbury, Press release, August 2, 2006.

[13] Hallencreutz, D. “Populärmusik, kluster och

industriell konkurrenskraft: en ekonomisk-
geografisk studie av svensk musikindustri,”
Kulturgeografiska institutionen, Uppsala, 2002.

[14] Forss, K. “Att ta sig ton: om svensk musikexport

1974-1999,” Fakta info direct, Stockholm, 1999.

[15] Burnett, R. & Wikström, P. “Music Production in

Times of Monopoly: The Example of Sweden,”
Popular Music and Society, 29:5, p 575-582, 2006.

[16] “STIM Annual Report 2008,” STIM (the Swedish

performing rights Society), Stockholm, 2009.

[17] Burton, H. “The Golden Ring,” Decca, London,

1992.

[18] Vogel, H. “Bob Katz Masteringguru: Fredskämpe i

loudnesskriget” Musiker Magazinet MM.
Göteborg, May 2009.

[19] Seashore, C. “Psychology of Music,” Dover, New

York, 1967.

[20] Bengtsson, I. “Notation, motion and perception:

some aspects of musical rhythm,” Action and
perception in rhythm and music: papers given at a
symposium in the Third International Conference
on Event Perception and Action, Royal Swedish
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[21] Gabrielsson, A. “Musikpsykologi: Tredje rytmiska

avsnittet,” Musikterapi 1982:1, Svenska förbundet
för musikterapi, Göteborg, 1982.

[22] Gullö, J-O. “Desktop Music Production:

Remediation in a music education perspective,”

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