your kid needs to do both.
when we started talking about colleges, my DS was SURE he wanted to go to an “east coast” LAC. So we visited the EC during June after his Jr year, , after school was out, and he changed his mind big time.
Kids need to see the options available to them, before they spend all the time applying. Besides, music depts at top colleges will want your DS to audition before accepting them into a music program, even if he only want to minor in a music area- so that means visiting BEFORE admissions decisions are made by the colleges.
IF music is to be a BIG part of his college life, I suggest you head over to the Music majors forum and start asking questions.