PLATFORM Transformations of production technology in the online environment

• Kjus, Yngvar; Kraugerud, Emil & Skjerdal, Øyvind (2026). Tutoring, Selling, Gearfluencing, or What? An Exploration of the Motives and Methods of Online Introductions to Music Production Technology. In Andersen, Claus Sohn; Gullö, Jan-Olof; Hepworth-Sawyer, Russ; Marrington, Mark; Paterson, Justin & Toulson, Rob (Ed.), Innovation in Music: Current Research Perspectives. Routledge. ISSN 9781032757858. p. 44–54. Full text in Research Archive
• Schau, Live Haugejorden (2026). Composing an Immaterial Body: Deconstructing and Reconnecting Vocal Expressions in SOPHIE's “Immaterial”. In Andersen, Claus Sohn; Gullö, Jan-Olof; Hepworth-Sawyer, Russ; Marrington, Mark; Paterson, Justin & Toulson, Rob (Ed.), Innovation in Music: Innovative Creative Practice - 1st Edition. Routledge. ISSN 9781032757834. doi: 10.4324/9781003475644. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter dives into a musical example from the internet-bound genre “hyperpop” by the producer and artist SOPHIE, who has brought new and experimental sounds to the popular music scene while making music reflecting upon her identity as a trans woman. It includes close analyses of three sections of her song “Immaterial”: the chorus, the first verse, and the bridge. These analyses concentrate on the song’s vocal expressions as an auditory expression of SOPHIE’s identity, and especially how the use of the effects of formant shift, panned delay, hardtune, and compression mediate the song’s message by appearing to liberate SOPHIE from any physical limitations. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the vocal expressions as a collective representation of SOPHIE’s immaterial body and further reflection on how the song introduces a compelling form of diversity into popular music.

• Kraugerud, Emil & Coughlan-Allen, Joseph (2024). Framing intimacy: noise as a signifier of intimate silence. Sound Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. ISSN 2055-1940. doi: 10.1080/20551940.2024.2395729. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Noise is often conceived of as the opposite of silence. Yet, in the right context, certain kinds noise can contribute to the perception or interpretation of silence and quietness. Descriptions of this occurrence can be found in music recording discourse. Here, in certain contexts, noises generated by audio equipment, such as hiss, can sometimes be heard to signify silence. This, in turn, can elicit feelings of musical intimacy, which opposes conventional understandings of noise as creating a sense of distance between recorded music and its listeners. This article examines how noise might signify silence and elicit musical intimacy in the context of music recordings. We discuss conceptions of noise and silence before considering how understandings of noise in music recordings have been shaped by events in the history of record production. As a case study, we then turn to Mark Hollis’s eponymous solo album, with its persistent background noise. We analyse the album and surrounding discourse from hermeneutic and semiotic perspectives to investigate how noise can be understood both as silent and musically intimate.

• Kjus, Yngvar; Brøvig, Ragnhild & Wang, Solveig Margrethe (2024). Kvinners første møte med DAW: en fornemmelse av å være i gutteklubbens skygger. In Hagen, Anja Nylund; Solberg, Ragnhild Torvanger; Nærland, Torgeir Uberg & Duch, Michael Francis (Ed.), Når musikken tek form: Om skapande praksisar i musikk. Fagbokforlaget. ISSN 9788245047240. p. 437–463. doi: 10.55669/oa491112. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne studien springer ut av en nysgjerrighet på hvorfor det er færre kvinner enn menn som produserer musikk. Mer spesifikt ville vi vite mer om hvordan kvinner opplever sitt første møte med produksjonsteknologi (nærmere bestemt DAW). Studien tar utgangspunkt i introduksjonskurs i musikkproduksjon og baserer seg på intervjuer med åtte kvinnelige kursdeltakere samt tre kursholdere. For kvinnene vi snakket med, fremsto mestring av teknologien som nødvendig for å oppnå kontroll, eierskap og anerkjennelse for musikken de skaper. Samtidig tydeliggjør studien også behovet for kreative fellesskap. Informantene erfarte et stort mulighets- rom i å mestre DAW-teknologi samtidig som de pekte på ulike former for hindringer. En av disse er ulike former for mannlig dominans som til en viss grad kan begrense deres kreative utfoldelse og muligheter til å lære seg å bruke den nødvendige teknologien. Begrensningene spenner fra indi- rekte signaler om at musikkproduksjon ikke «er noe for jenter», til direkte avvisning av deres bidrag og tilgang til skapende roller. Studien diskuterer til sist hvordan introduksjonskurs i produksjonsteknologi rettet mot kvin- ner kan bidra til å utjevne kjønnsbalansen i musikkfeltet.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). The platformization of music production: How digital audio workstations are turned into platforms of labor market relations. New Media & Society. ISSN 1461-4448. p. 1–18. doi: 10.1177/14614448241304660. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Recent decades have seen the proliferation of digital music production technologies, led by digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Pro Tools and Live. The companies behind them, including Avid and Ableton, resemble music distributors in their ongoing process of platformization—that is, in making themselves the foundation of an increasing range of interactions and transactions. The article discusses economic, social, and cultural aspects of platformization before zooming in on key DAW enterprises and the ways in which they have extended their presence across adjacent markets, including record production, live performance, audiovisual media, instrument manufacturing, sample sales, and music education. These companies have gone beyond selling tools to reorganizing the music industry and rearticulating what is needed to prevail in it, thereby intervening in labor market relations in ways that should not remain hidden “backstage.”

• Kraugerud, Emil (2024). Intimate acoustic environments on record. In Matthews, Emma-Kate; Burry, Jane & Burry, Mark (Ed.), The Routledge companion to the sound of space. Routledge. ISSN 9781003347149. p. 87–97. doi: 10.4324/9781003347149-8. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  When recorded sounds are described as intimate, it is often a proximate-sounding, non-reverberated, soft-sung voice that is referred to. In popular music research, intimacy has largely been understood in terms of Edward T. Hall’s conception of intimate proxemic distance, that is, the closest of four categories of distance at which people communicate. If we look beyond music research, however, familiar places like the home and specific parts of the home are often regarded as spaces of intimacy. This chapter explores the notion of intimate domestic space and the ways in which such space can be represented in recorded music. Moreover, it investigates the ways in which home-like spatialities can provide a sense of intimacy in a recording, by arguing for a connection between realism, vulnerability, and intimacy, while acknowledging the role of technology in the conveyance of such spatialities. The chapter concludes with a reflection on how the availability and potential affordances of new recording technologies may impact on recorded spatiality in ways that align with notions of domestic intimate space.

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• Kjus, Yngvar (2026). How AI-tools feed on cross-industry collaboration: The case of music and computer games. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar; Kraugerud, Emil & Skjerdal, Øyvind (2026). Teknologi gjør musikkbransjen mer individualistisk og mindre likestilt - Forskningsnytt. [Internet]. Forskningsnytt - Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I dag kan musikkskapere gjøre «alt» selv, men mange kjenner på en ambivalens og et stadig press om å lære seg nye ting.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2026). Book launch & panel: How can traditional academic research inform and support creative and performative practices? Full text in Research Archive
• Skjerdal, Øyvind (2025). In isolation: DAW technology and the hard work of solitary music production. Full text in Research Archive
• Skjerdal, Øyvind (2025). DAWs, affordances and project work. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar & Stordalen, Fabian (2025). Composing the music of video games: Negotiating a complex technological and sociocultural environment of popular music. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2025). Specialized tools or all-purpose solutions? A comparative analysis of three DAWs. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2025). Sonic citizenship: To what extent is the use of technological opportunities gendered? Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2025). Orality and Literacy: What is a song? Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2025). Towards an interface theory of digital audio workstations. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2025). Remastering Music and Cultural Heritage: Case Studies from Iconic Original Recordings to Modern Remasters. By Stephen Bruel. London and New York: Routledge, Perspectives on Music Production, 2024. 144 pp. ISBN 978-1-03-201229-2. Popular Music. ISSN 0261-1430. doi: 10.1017/S0261143025000157. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar & Stordalen, Fabian (2025). Jumping from platform to platform: How game music composers negotiate the industries of music, games and technology. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2025). Welcome to the Symposium on the Platformization of Music Production. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2025). Plattformisering av musikkproduksjon: Nye verktøy, nye arbeidsforhold? Musikkmagasinet Ballade. ISSN 0805-5041. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2025). Concepts of music production in digital audio workstation interfaces. Full text in Research Archive
• Schau, Live Haugejorden (2024). Deconstructing and reconnecting vocal expressions in SOPHIE´s 'Immaterial'. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). Musicians in the flow of technology: A study of how music makers relate to new technology and the implications for creative practices, roles, and rights. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar; Kraugerud, Emil & Skjerdal, Øyvind (2024). Tutoring, selling, gearfluencing, or what? An explorative study of the players, motives, and methods of online introductions to music production technology. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). Musikksnakk: Musikk på Spotify - hvordan funker algoritmene? Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2024). Diversifying DAW culture. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). The technologizing of music making: How digitization is entwined with the competencies and careers of performers, songwriters and producers. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2024). Musikksoftwareselskapers bruk av kunstig intelligens. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar & Skjerdal, Øyvind (2024). Skaperundersøkelsen etterlyser flere deltakere – særlig kvinner. [Journal]. https://www.ballade.no/forskning/. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar & Fabian, Stordalen (2024). Spillkomponisters bruk av kunstig intelligens. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  PLATFORM-prosjektet inviterer til et åpent seminar om utviklingen av KI-baserte verktøy for musikk.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). Perspektiver på musikk og kunstig intelligens. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  PLATFORM-prosjektet inviterer til et åpent seminar om utviklingen av KI-baserte verktøy for musikk.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). Endelig rettferdig? Norsk musikkbransjes forventninger til EUs direktiv om opphavsrett i digitale markeder. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2024). Panelsamtale under lanseringen av boken "Parody in the age of remix". Full text in Research Archive
• Schau, Live Haugejorden (2023). Empowerment in 'Immaterial' by SOPHIE. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2023). Working on the (value) chain: A study of how technology companies intervene in music production in the online era. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2023). The rise of music production platforms. Full text in Research Archive
• Bjermeland, Monica (2023). Podkast: Robotmusikk og følelser. [Radio]. Universitetsplassen. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2023). Robotmusikk og følelser. [Radio]. https://www.uio.no/om/aktuelt/universitetsplassen/nyheter/20. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar & Kraugerud, Emil (2023). Transformations of production technology in the online environment. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil & Coughlan-Allen, Joseph (2023). Framing intimacy: Reimagining noise as a signifier of silence and intimacy. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2023). Impact of software design on creative diversity, or the production and reproduction of space in DAWs. Full text in Research Archive
• Kraugerud, Emil (2023). Spatial mediation of music production in DAWs. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Existing research on the design of digital audio workstation (DAW) software has largely been concerned with its relations to recording hardware, and the concept of skeuomorphism has been adopted as a way of distinguishing DAWs referring to a tape recorder and mixing desk workflow from other allegedly more innovative approaches to user interface design. Whereas the former approaches tend to incorporate horizontal representations of recorded sound in a linear manner, the latter by contrast often uses vertical layouts of musical building blocks. In this paper I expand and nuance this opposition between skeumorphic and non-skeumorphic design by proposing to think of interfaces in music production software as virtual spaces that are organized in terms of verticality, horizontality, foreground, background, and time. These spaces, in turn, are linked to the different performance and production paradigms that have informed the design of the various DAWs in the first place, and as such they carry information about what kinds of users and practices that are inscribed in the software by its designers. While the use of DAWs to varying extents will be affected by those inscriptions, actual users may also find ways to go beyond the script in incorporating the software into their own musical practices. The research in this paper is based on interface analyses of Ableton Live’s user interface, along with analyses of the Ableton’s online outreach in tutorial videos and blog posts.

• Kjus, Yngvar; Kraugerud, Emil & Skjerdal, Øyvind (2023). Frokostseminar på Popsenteret om musikk, kreativitet og teknologi. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  På mandag 24. april har vi invitert Hanne Hukkelberg, Kristine Hoff, Christian Blom og Fartein Orestad for å snakke om hvordan musikk skapes, med hvilke metoder og teknologier. Vi som inviterer har startet et forskningsprosjekt om musikkproduksjon i digitale omgivelser, og ønsker nå å få informasjon, inspirasjon og tilbakemeldinger om hvordan kreativt arbeid med musikk foregår i vår tid.

• Kraugerud, Emil (2022). Closeness beyond closeness: The technological facilitation of acousmatic hyperintimacy. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2022). Is music production undergoing platformization? If so, how, and with what effects? Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar; Brøvig-Hanssen, Ragnhild & Wang, Solveig Margrethe (2022). Getting onto the platforms of music production: How women negotiate the creative opportunities of digital audio workstations. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The topic of this paper is the encounter with new technology and the exploration of its potential in creative work. More specifically, it looks at experiences with digital audio workstations (DAWs), such as Ableton and Logic, which during a few decades have been established as almost indispensable software for composing songs, shaping sounds and refining expressions, among other things. We ask what characterizes the early and potentially formative encounters with DAWs, probing how beginners relate to opportunities and obstacles for their creative ambitions. Our study focuses on female creators, who often are underrepresented in music production. The study will shed light on the conditions of, and the potential barriers for, women to take part in contemporary music production, thereby also illuminating the pathway for others who begin to use DAW platforms in their music making. There exists considerable research on the development of new music technology and on the creative processes of production, including how the use of DAWs entail innovations in musical expression (e.g. Bennett and Bates 2018, Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen 2016, Kjus 2018, Zagorski-Thomas 2012). There are few studies, however, on how creators encounter technology which is new to them. This can be seen as an explorative sense-making process that music makers go through when they discover the tools and techniques they want to use. Insights from research on perceptual processes can contribute to our understanding of how individuals chart possibilities and limitations in their environment, over time developing awareness of nuances and variations in the musical affordances of tools and technologies (e.g. Clarke 2005). We are interested in how beginners explore the architecture of DAW programs and how they develop competency in the use of different functionalities and effects. Moreover, we are interested in the significance of DAWs for creative processes, whether they are used to continuate existing workflows or to develop musical materials, effects and structures in new ways. We are thereby interested in how the use of DAWs stimulates (or obstructs) different kinds of creativity, and will thereby lean on literature on creative processes (e.g. McIntyre 2011, Csikszentmihalyi 1996). One aspect of creativity is the ability to identify problems as well as solutions, which for music makers involves various issues regarding the construction and articulation of sounding expressions. One of the things we explore is the extent to which the problems/solutions of music making is being entwined with the problems/solutions of using DAWs. The primary method of the study is qualitative interviews with female musicians, probing various aspects of their experience with using DAWs with specific attention to their accounts of creative gratification as well as to technology-induced frustrations. Our informants (n=11) are recruited from DAW introduction courses, where we also carried out field observation and interviews with experienced instructors as part of our ambition to identify patterns in the appropriation and utilization of DAWs.

• Kjus, Yngvar; Brøvig, Ragnhild & Wang, Solveig Margrethe (2022). Encountering new technology: A study of how female creators explore DAWs. Full text in Research Archive
• Kjus, Yngvar (2021). Comparing the platforms of cultural production: Music, film, game. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A key development in the creative industries is the spread of large digital services and tools in numerous countries. Such utilities and technologies are often presented and perceived as platforms that are able to accommodate countless users and uses. Their emergence has been highly visible in the area of distribution, with the proliferation of online services such as YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, the operations and growing dominance of which has triggered much research (for an overview, see Hesmondhalgh 2020, Spilker 2018, Van Dijck et al. 2018). The 2000s and 2010s have also seen pervasive developments in production tech¬nology, including digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Logic Pro and Live as well as more recent entrants such as AudioTool and BandLab, but their establishment as platforms of music making in the online environment remains comparatively under-researched. This is also the case for neighboring sectors, such as computer games, which leads Foxman (2019: 9) to conclude that “platform tools remain seriously understudied.” To understand how different production platforms develop–and what sets them apart–can be a powerful inroad to understand how cultural content is produced and then channeled into different distribution platforms. The development of products and services that thrive on the internet is a process of platformization, which has been defined as the “penetration of infrastructures, economic processes and governmental frameworks of digital platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life” (Poell et al. 2019). It is the hypothesis of the current abstract that the developers of production technology, as well as their various user groups, are all involved in a platformization process which are having profound but also distinctive cultural, social, and economic ramifications for different creative industry sectors.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2021). Transformations in the creative roles and modes of music production. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This talk will present key aims and issues of the project “Platformization of music production: Developer and user perspectives on transformations of production technology in the online environment”. The project focuses on digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Logic Pro and BandLab and the ways in which these networked clusters of music technologies are reshaping the foundations of creative audio work, including composition, performance, and collaboration. One of the project’s key questions is: To what extent is platformization involved with transforming creative roles and modes of music production? The hypothesis is that new platforms influence key professions in the value chain of music. The central roles of composer, performer, and producer are already reflected in the protection afforded by copyright law and the associated right of remuneration, but DAWs represent a growing range of functionality, including algorithmic automatization and networked cooperation, that challenges these established roles.

• Kjus, Yngvar (2021). Collective musicking on DAW platforms? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This talk will present key aims of the project “Platformization of music production: Developer and user perspectives on transformations of production technology in the online environment”. The project focuses on digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Logic Pro and BandLab and the ways in which these networked clusters of music technologies are reshaping the foundations of creative audio work, including composition, performance, and collaboration. This presentation will discuss the extent to which the response (ranging from comprehensive employment to rejection) to technological advances is conditioned by collectives, whether they are informal genre communities or more formalized institutions of art and education. Music making entails various forms of collaboration, and the project will examine how online production resources stimulate or challenge them. It aims to carry out in-depth case studies of genres with specific social characteristics, including rock/pop (with bands involved in long-term projects) and rap/hip-hop (where artists engage in projects more flexibly with other artists and producers). The benefits of this approach will be compared with the insights that might be found by examining how contemporary production platforms are introduced and taught at music education institutions (including the Norwegian Academy of Music), unpacking how the platforms are incorporated into courses on computer music and laptop musicianship, as well as more traditional courses on composition and performance. The talk will discuss how these approaches might shed light on the routes and milieus, informal and formal, through which a new generation of music makers is brought to these new platforms.

• Skjerdal, Øyvind; Kjus, Yngvar & Stordalen, Fabian (2026). Skaperundersøkelsen: Rapport fra en spørreundersøkelse om musikk, teknologi og mangfold. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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