In Finland, at the end of general upper secondary education, all students take a matriculation examination (Finnish National Agency for Education, n.d.). In 2029, music—along with visual arts and physical education—will be included for the first time in Finland’s national matriculation examination. This is a high-stakes assessment that has long structured the hierarchy of school subjects and carries significant weight in university admissions. This policy shift marks a substantial repositioning of music within upper secondary education. Drawing on Ball’s (1993) conceptualizations of policy as text, policy as discourse, and policy enactment, this paper examines the emerging reform and its implications for what counts as legitimate knowledge and competence in music education.The study employs a time-ordered, multi-level document analysis of all relevant documents, memoranda, and statements produced between 2023 and 2025. At the time of writing, the reform remains in development, opening space for conceptual inquiry: What ideological assumptions are embedded in the move to assess music within the national examination framework? How might this shift reshape the national music core curriculum, pedagogical practices, teacher autonomy, and students’ musical subjectivities?This paper contributes to policy scholarship in music education by anticipating how music’s inclusion in high-stakes testing—which in itself enhances the status of music in education—may reconfigure its educational purposes and position. It invites dialogue on the tensions between assessment-driven accountability and the intrinsic values and aims of music education.