Artisten - den osynliga tillgången? : En kvalitativ studie om synen på musikrättigheter och artistvarumärken som immateriella tillgångar i musikbolag.

Sammanfattning: Abstract Artists – the invisible assets; a qualitative study about the view on music rights and artist brands as intangible assets within music companies. This paper is a study of what view representatives from Swedish music companies have on activating music rights and artist brands as intangible assets. Throughout the paper, a discussion is held regarding what the representatives think about activating these intangible assets. From this, we have identified and analyzed possible pros and cons to such activation. Our interest to this question was brought to us when we realized that most music companies in Sweden have intangible assets without activating them. This is, even though these are their main source of income. To examine this question we have carried out a qualitative study with an abductive research approach. Our primary data has been collected through personal interviews and secondary data has been collected through scientific articles, literature and annual reports from music companies. The study resulted in personal views regarding intangible assets of three representatives from music companies. Also, the view of a chartered accountant was collected. Central aspects of their views have been analyzed with background in account theory relevant to us, such as accounting principles, account characteristics and users of annual reports. Lastly, as a respond to our aim, a discussion is held concerning if and what pros and cons there are to activating music rights and artist brands as intangible assets. One of our findings is that the conditions for Swedish music companies to activate intangible assets could be better. Also, the conditions for valuation of music rights and artist brands need to be improved. If the relevance in the balance sheets of the music companies is to be kept, these companies need to be given the possibility to re-examine the value of music rights and artist brands annually.  This is a requirement if the annual reports are to live up to the claim of true and fair view.