<p>i'm new here so i'm not sure exactly where i should ask this question :/</p>
<p>i originally am going to a community college to get my general classes in order so i can eventually transfer for journalism. however, i recently discovered belmont and learned about their music business degree and i'm very interested in it. i've always wanted to go to school for music, i just never thought it was plausible.</p>
<p>i plan on eventually living in nashville and trying to pitch some of my songs (though of course i know that that can't how i make my income) so i figured that a music business major would be perfect for me because i'd still be around music and doing what i love (i'd just, of course, be in the background). </p>
<p>is a music business major realistic, though? i just don't want to spend all that money on a degree in something that wouldn't help me in the long run. would it be something i'd want to do for the rest of my life? yes, it'd be a dream job. i know you can get up to 10 internships through them, so that could help in meeting the right people. i just don't know the statistics or job placement averages for that certain career. i don't want something that would be so competitive that i'd never be able to find work :/</p>
<p>I would think it would depend on what type of career you are looking for.</p>
<p>I don’t think that a music business major would help you that much in a career of journalism, but any degree is better than no degree. There are many jobs that just require a degree, doesn’t matter what it is in.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a career in the music businesses, then it might be more helpful.</p>
<p>There are no guarantees about anything, ever.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you why my son is majoring in music management at the Hartt School. He could not see himself living without music in his life, and wanted to continue studying music in college. However, he is not sure that he is interested in performing for a living. He is interested in being involved in the music business and being involved with other musicians. Plus, even if he does not get into the music business, he will still have some business related transferrable skills.</p>
<p>Take this with a grain of salt… Family friend in the music business in Nashville said that to keep the music business in perspective: for every performer on stage there are 100 people behind him or her working with lights, sound, timing, accounting, booking, etc. Music business seems like a better bet than performance for a career. However we do have several family friends whose kids graduated as music business majors and are now pursuing other options since they were unable to obtain a job in the industry. As imagep stated there are no guarantees in life.</p>
<p>I think music business is going to be just like music performance, based on what I know about the music industry as it exists today. The record companies are retrenching and the traditional model of music production is rapidly dying off or devolving or whatever you call it, so it is going to be competitive. The concert industry has become the province of a few firms (live nation comes to mind), so again, it is going to be competitive, too.</p>
<p>I suspect that like music as a performance degree, it will take someone who has the desire to really do it to succeed. It might be, for example, someone who creates their own label doing digital downloads, it might be someone who creates a site for music kind of like Smashwords for writers, where they can put their music for download for a fee, and share it with the site operator, etc…</p>
<p>The other thing is as a music business major I would assume you have to learn the basic business skills you do in other business programs (haven’t looked into Belmont’s program to what they specifically teach), and that is probably transferable. </p>
<p>If you are risk averse or looking for something with more steady job prospects there probably are a lot of majors with better prospects of a job, but if it is something you really would love to do, think it will make you bull doggedly work at it, then it may be worth the shot:)</p>
<p>The Belmont music business program is an accredited business school program that provides a Bachelor of Business Administration degree so it should be widely applicable to industries other than music should one not find employment in the music industry (at least that is what I am hoping in my daughter’s case!!!)</p>
<p>Making it as a music business major depends on what you know about business, the trends in the music business, and what your knowledge is of musicians and their marketability. My daughter is studying performing/songwriting/recording but also plans to be her own music business person as well. If she should be so lucky that the music she makes is also what many others hope buy, she will be looking for the most networked music business person that she can find, and one that also helps her with contracts, lawyers, scheduling and protecting her song rights. If you want to be in that business, you can make money, but just plan on being really good at it so people seek you out.</p>