Music Business Education

Appendix A Here’s some information that we put together last year on various masters programs, if you’re interested. This is in the context of a masters degree in Arts and Entrepreneurship that I have proposed for Loyola. If it is accepted it will be several years before it will be up and running, so it’s probably not for you. But these others might be worth checking out. Some of them require you to be a music student. * Florida Atlantic University – Master of Science in Music Business Administration, the College of Business. This is a 36 credit hour, two-year program aimed at musicians and non-musicians who want to pursue a career in the commercial music industry. It is partially the result of the success of the undergraduate program in the Commercial Music Department of Music at FAU. * Full Sail – Entertainment Business Masters Degree (MBE), 13 month, 47 credit hours, online ns on campus program, for those interested in the entertainment, musicians and non-musicians alike. There is also a Master of Arts with a Major in Music Degree requiring 30 credit hours. * NYU – Master of Arts in Music Business, 2 years and one summer, 54 credit hours. Aimed at undergraduates who are musicians as well as non-musicians and want a very specific entrepreneurially based program based a structural understanding of the creative businesses and how that affects the approach of the entrepreneur. * Columbia College – The Arts, Entertainment and Media Management (AEMM) Graduate Program, 49 credit hour, 2 year program. Has a core business/entertainment industry curriculum with six concentrations: music business management, media management, small business/entrepreneurship, performing arts management, visual arts management, and “arts in youth and community development”. * Belmont University – MBA with a specialization in Entertainment and Music Business, Graduate School of Business in conjunction with Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, 18 months, 34 hours (24 hours of core MBA courses, 10 hours of electives in the music and entertainment industry). * University of Miami – Masters of Music in Music Business and Entertainment Industries, 30 hours (12 in business school), requires pre-reqs of the Bachelor of Music in Music Business and Entertainment Studies. For music majors only. * William Patterson University – MBA with a Concentration in Music Management , which is 48 credit hours hours, 2 years, and a combination of a standard MBA degree plus 18 hours of music business courses. The Master of Music in Music Management is 36 credit hours and is aimed at the music student. It is a combination of 21 credit hours in the College of the Art and Communication and 12 credit hours in the College of Business, and it has an audition requirement.

* There are several very small programs in the southeast at the University of the Incarnate Word, West Texas A&M University, and Jacksonville University. To summarize this competition, one degree is only online (Full Sail); one is a MBA with some music business electives (Belmont); one is really more the graduates of its own undergrad program (Miami); one is segmented, thinly sliced management program (Columbia); one is very small and offered in the business school (Florida Atlantic); NYU, which is the longest, the most expensive, and the most rigorous, especially on a global level; and William Patterson, which has two portals of entry and two separate degrees, one aimed at the musician, the other at the business school student, but both made of combinations of courses from both the College of Art and Communication and the College of Business. Appendix B Here are some suggested courses for a curriculum that I’ve designed, but you should check out all of the above to see if anything fits you. This assumes, of course, that returning to school is even an option for you. But at the very least, these are the sort of things that you can look into on your own as well. At least it’s some place to start. ·

Introduction to Music and Arts Industries

The purpose of this course is to show the context and structure of the current music and arts industries, of all types, all sizes, all services and products. The course will provide students with an overview of the global businesses created by music and art and provide them the skills to participate in this arena. Students will be introduced to the disciplines of business and entrepreneurship and how they apply to the creative work of the artist. The purpose of the course is to examine the current business environment for music and other aspects of the creative enterprise so that the search for answers can take shape and direction as musicians and artists address the essential problem: the Artist’s Dilemma. The dilemma of creating a plan and an method, through innovation and distinction, to compete in an environment where there are no barriers to entry, where there is a flooded market, where technology changes the rules and the opportunities every day, and the “product” that can be had freely by anyone with an Internet connection. The Artist’s Dilemma is, how does the artist compete and survive in an environment where there are 5 million bands on MySpace and the artist’s work product is essentially free on the Internet. Topics include: the global entertainment business: money and markets, the artist’s team: managers, agents, producers, marketing; communication methodology: public relations, importance of narrative; structure and function of media companies: what they do, what they don’t do; marketing: advertising, use of Internet; distribution companies and functions; legal issues: copyright law, publishing, songwriting deals; business structures and management: ethics, strategic planning, organizational structures. ·

Legal Issues in the Music and the Arts

Artists create intellectual property and thereby possess legal rights and assets that may be transferred, sold, and otherwise monetized. All of these relationships imply legal agreements governing the transaction and the consequences of it. This course will present the student with a thorough understanding of how these agreements work and how the artist may better protect and monetize his or her rights through this understanding.

Topics include: work-for-hire agreements, artist contracts with recording and media companies, merchandising contracts, management contracts, performance contracts, and all other relationships that might result from an artist’s work. ·

Strategic Business and Event Planning and Implementation

An artist without a plan is a business without a rudder. This course is designed to instill in students the methodology and importance of strategic planning. Artists and arts enterprises need to determine where it is going over the next year or more, how it’s going to get there, and how will it measure whether it got there. The strategic plan is about the overall enterprise and it includes various business plans for various products and services. Strategic planning is most often of the goal-based model. But there are other models. Students will become deeply familiar with these models. Emphasis will be placed on the goal-based model involving the flow of purpose to action from the mission and values of the organization (the artist) to the goals and objectives of the organization, to the action plans that determine who will do what and by when. But the issues-based and organic strategic planning models will also play an important role. Topics include: the role of asset creation and management in strategic planning, the SWOT/TOWS analysis, writing a strategic plan and understanding the hierarchical approach to planning and action, including mission statements, organizational values, business objectives, organizational goals, strategies, and plans. ·

Copyright, Publishing, Licensing and the Artist

When a songwriter commits a song to paper or in audio files, he or she is a publisher. Artists make businesses. It is essential for students to appreciate their rights under the US copyright statues and similar statutes internationally. One of the main sources of income for music, literary, and any other suitable copyrighted work, is “publishing”, the business of marketing, licensing, and selling copyrights, including songs and books. The licensing of rights produces multiple revenue streams for the musician, writer, and artist. The agreements that govern these various relationships determine how these streams will be marketed, monetized, and accounted for. Students will become intimately familiar with the language of the law and the arcane formulations that govern the use of intellectual property. Topics include: the history of copyright, the evolution of the current statutes, the rights created and limitations of those rights, how those rights are monetized, the agreements that govern those relationships, revenue streams for intellectual property, contracts, lawyers, and negotiation strategies. ·

Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations (the Art of the Narrative)

An artist creates property and the federal copyright law creates rights in that property. After the artist has created the property, secured his or her rights, produced a “product”, how is that product sold and brought to the attention of the “market”? Artists are “global micro brands”. How do they monetize these brands? How does an artist determine his or her market and how do they connect with it. How are public relations and advertising different? What are the theories of

both? Artists have the advantage in terms of authenticity. They are and seek to be authentic, distinctive, and unique. Marketing is all about differentiation and artists are naturally inclined towards their own individual, authentic expression, so that in the case of the artist, the product is already differentiated and the task of marketing is to simply make that known, not to create it. Again, we see the nature of the artist come into alignment with the business practices. How important is a “story” in marketing and selling a “product” or art of story telling is the art of marketing and art. Artists are storytellers and this makes them marketers. Knowing how to connect with the discipline and tenants of marketing will allow the artist apply their greatest talent to their greatest need.

service? The natural this ability and musician to

Topics include: target markets, psychographics, value-marketing, the marketing plan, statistics, the 3 P’s, distribution, branding, identifying customers – their needs, their key characteristics, their wants and expectations, psychographics, financial data, market research, kinds and uses of advertising, story-based PR, among others. ·

Entrepreneurship in the Arts (Networking)

It has been said that musicians and artists are inherently entrepreneurial, in that they have to employ the traits of the entrepreneur to do what they do, to learn their craft as well as learn how to communicate with it. Entrepreneurship is about taking risk, it’s about innovation and invention, it’s about destroying what is and creating the new, it is about spending time and emotional as well as monetary capital to pursue an uncertain venture; it’s about leading the way and a keen sense of resource management. This describes the process of art. Students will learn how to apply the attitudes and skills that characterize them as artists, to the disciplines and opportunities of business entrepreneurship and thinking of themselves as the business, the product, and the asset. This requires an understanding of the subject as a historic discipline for which principles have developed. This requires an understanding of economics, people and asset management, accounting and finance, marketing and distribution, and developing a culture of innovation. Students will become familiar with the “communities” involved in their pursuits as artists and arts entrepreneurs. As artists, they will become keenly aware of the importance of becoming a part of that community, just as they create a community of fans for their art – for their music and their products. Networking is not only a social skill, it is a performance, an opportunity for an artist to constantly seek and receive up-to-date stimulus both for their art and their business. ·

Financial Accounting

An artist or musician can be one or more businesses and those businesses must be conducted according to basic accounting principles for many reasons, not the least of which is the health of the organization itself. Accounting is the language of business and the information that it provides is useful on all levels of decision making, including creditors, investors, management, stake holders, and the owners. Students will become familiar with the major types of financial statements, their construct them and to interpret them. The emphasis will be on using financial information as well as creating financial information, including bookkeeping.

Students will become familiar with accounting terminology. It’s not just a matter of understanding your accountant; it’s a matter of interpreting what your accountant tells you so that you can make informed long-term and short-term decisions about your assets and activities. Given that the music and intellectual property industries have industry specific methods and customs, experts from the media world of finance will be brought in to class to teach students about these specific accounting characteristics. Students will, therefore, gain a vertically integrated understanding of the role, responsibilities, and opportunities of “financial accounting” with respect to their pursuits. ·

Managing Music Enterprises and Arts Organizations (Leadership)

The musician, the artist IS a music enterprise and the rules apply. Managing an enterprise has multiple facets, from asset management and acquisition, to the art of convincing other people to do what you want them to do. Management is about goals and the ability to express them, it’s about leadership and the ability to make people care, it’s about the informed and innovative deployment of people and resources, including, in the case of the artist, herself. Again, the contention of the program is that artists and musicians are naturally inclined to moving people from one place to the next, to making them care, to acquiring “assets” (by spending many hours of the rehearsal room), and as such, already act in ways that are consistent with the principles of management. The course will connect the discipline of management with the characteristics of the artist already has and employs. Managing people and being responsible for all facets of an enterprise are the characteristics required of any bandleader. In this course, these intuitive skills will be given structure and organization and methodologies to enhance continuous innovative action. In this course the idea of local entrepreneurship will be examined in the context of the global economy and global opportunity. ·

Technology and Its Application for Musicians and Artists

Technology, computer hardware and software, audio and video production and postproduction programs – the electronic paint brushes of the artist are only one side of the coin. The other side is the use of technology to monetize music and art, the use of it to connect directly with those who share your values as an artist and are interested in what you do, whether they be 5 or 5 million. This includes an understanding of website construction, basic design software, online selling, technology for online marketing and distribution, the new technology for presenting and packaging music and other intellectual property. All of these considerations will be addressed in this course. The balance of the course is between knowing the why as well as the how, the production technology as well as the marketing and distribution technology. In short, this course is pivotal for the musician and the artist as it concerns the process of creating music and art as well as the process of creating a career out of the results. Topics include: MIDI, sampling and syntheses, sequencing, recording graphics, social networking, multimedia authoring systems, audio/video streaming, basic animation, HTML/image editing, as well as a survey of the various computer languages.

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Audio Video, Interactive Media Production

Students will come to this course with a range of knowledge with respect to producing, creating audio and video productions, films, concerts and events, and other multi-media activities. For that reason, the basics will be offered as online modules for students to avail themselves of as their experience dictates. Beyond that, students will gain an understanding of the operating principles behind digital audio and video workstations and consoles. They will be able to use various software interfaces and gain the skills of editing, routing, automating, mixing, recording, import and export of files. Students will gain a proficiency in the theories of equalization, dynamics and time-based effects. Students will also gain a first hand knowledge and understanding of video electronics and operations, production techniques, and lighting. Students will become familiar with various visual forms including documentaries, live performance recording, conceptual/film projects, music videos, instructional videos, and video press kits. Students will gain an introductory understanding of various editing formats, including Final Cut Pro and Avid. The purpose of the course is to give students the multi-media tools to make and monetize art. Artists are naturally inclined to the use of technology, especially musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and designers. This is another example of the artist having skills that parallel the skills needed to monetize their art. This course will connect those dots. ·

Internship/Apprenticeship Program

In the arts and music, the relationship of the apprentice/master is an ancient, honorable and inevitable. It is not only how artists learn it is how masters perpetuate the art. In a sense, it is this idea of apprentice/master that characterizes the proposed program itself. We treat our students as apprentices. The internship/apprenticeship class is an organized approach to this traditionally ad hoc process. The internship/apprenticeship will depend on the student’s goals. It will be positioned as the penultimate step towards the student’s post-graduate future. If the student wants to apply their skills and knowledge to a particular media enterprise, that is where the internship should be. If the student wishes to work for an existing company as a step towards an entrepreneurial goal, the internship should be at that or similar company. There will be a gap in the student’s own enterprise that the student may wish to fill with an internship with someone who has expertise in that area. The internship/apprenticeship will be monitored by the program director and monthly reports will be required, as well as onsite visits and consultations with the student’s supervisor. ·

Capstone Project - Career Plan

The capstone project is the student’s future itself. The student will already have created a strategic plan, a business plan, and all of the attendant plans consistent with thorough business planning. The student will already have his or her publishing company, website that engages in commerce, marketing plan, even media in the form of audio and video recordings. All of the pieces will be in place that are consistent with the each student’s career goals and plan.

This course will attempt to put these elements to work. This course will be about the implementation of plans so that the plan is either put in to action or continued in action. All faculty will be involved to the extent of their expertise, in advising and assessing the student’s career project and plan and their implementation.