"I wouldn’t dare losing one": How music artists capture and manage ideas

Abstract

Establishing, maintaining, and using collections of ideas and sources of inspiration is a common and important practice for music artists. Yet, it is underexplored in research. We therefore examine the research question of how do music artists capture and manage their ideas. To get an overview of the general patterns in the workflows of music artists, as well as in-depth understandings of these practices and the perceptions of music artists, our method combines qualitative surveys (n=51) with in-depth qualitative interviews (n=15). We find that a set of values are foundational to idea management routines that originate in music artists’ perceptions of what makes an idea “good”. We also identify the different forms that musical ideas can take in idea collections, what drives their retrieval, characteristic development approaches, and different styles for collaborating on ideas. Finally, we discuss recommendations for the design of tools for supporting idea management in music.