<p>You’d be SUPER lucky to start at $40k.</p>
<p>You need to decline NYU now. Do not go. </p>
<p>Research which schools in your country are “music industry” strong and maybe look and see which CUNY’s are as well. Apply to those.</p>
<p>This NYU idea is just a life-killer.</p>
<p>Did you read post #19? Not all music industry is in NY. Belmont is in Nashville, center of Country Music.</p>
<p>The funniest/most depressing part about this is that the OP would experience quite a bit of difficulty working in the US after graduation since he’s an international going for a position that many Americans both want and have the skills for.</p>
<p>^Yes I know, I applied to nyu just for the hell of it and I actually got in… I was blinded by the NYC glamor I guess. I’m even reconsidering the field I want to pursue… I mean, what does music business even mean? It is a bachelor of music and I don’t think it is a “legitimate” degree that will hold up in the real world… What do you guys think about the legitimacy of NYU’s bachelor of music in music business?</p>
<p>And I think I’ll hold out for a semester or a year and stay in Canada… Then hopefully I’ll be able to move to NY!</p>
<p>Music business is a legitimate field.
Now it sounds like you’d rather study something else than go study in Nashville. ok.
Look for a Cuny that has dorms. Be aware it’s primarily a commuter school so you won’t have the ‘typical’ college experience.
You can also look at Fordham</p>
<p>I see. I have no problem going to Nashville, its just that my ultimate goal is to live and work in NYC. My friend just told me that it’ll be very very difficult for nyu music business majors to break 6 figures due to the competition… Is this true?</p>
<p>And yes, I’ll most likely put off going to nyu… I just want all questions answered before I make my final decision.</p>
<p>You’ll be very lucky making 40,000 which is below living wage in NYC.
If your goal is ‘to break six figures’ you need to major in engineering or Cs anywhere - Waterloo ? 
- or math with finance from a feeder school .
email Belmont and ask them what the salary prospects are for their music business majors.</p>
<p>If you wanna still go to NYU, major in something employable. Economics, Computer Science, Finance, Business, Engineering, Nursing… Minor in music if it’s something you like.</p>
<p>After that, if you still want to do music business, go get an MBA.</p>
<p>I think it is a good move to back out of NYU. While the music business program there will get you decent internships and maybe some contacts, it is not worth the money if you have to go into the kind of debt you mention.</p>
<p>No one has to have a degree in music business to work in the music business. There are jobs in the PR, Promotions, and talent management and A&R at agencies and labels. The entree to a job is usually, strike the, ALWAYS through unpaid internships so you gain contacts and build a resume and hope to land a likely low paying job. You can do this with an English, Communication, Journalism, Music Business and more types of degrees. If you don’t know what the music business is then it is ridiculous to major in it.</p>
<p>After you get your no pay and low pay job, you will have to work and prove yourself. You will be building your own career through your contacts and networking. You need skill and drive and luck. You have to want to live and breath it to make it through the competition. The people who ‘make it’ and break 6 figures are just a small percent. They make agent at a name firm, or go into A&R surviving endless rounds of weeding out the weak and under performing. Or they go into business for themselves promoting or managing. </p>
<p>So get a decent well priced Canadian education. Try interning in the summers. Note this link for tips on how to find internships:
[9</a> Steps To Getting A Job In The Music Business | CyberPR Music](<a href=“http://cyberprmusic.com/2011/10/18/getajob/]9”>9 Steps To Getting A Job In The Music Business - Cyber PR Music)</p>
<p>Save your $$$$ and go to a Canadian school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys! I think I cab back out of NYU right now without losing much money, and go to a school in Canada. Hopefully I’ll come to the US for grad school, as I would be able to save a ton of money from a Canadian education! :D</p>
<p>Glad you decided on this; it’s the right choice.</p>
<p>As a side note, there are thousands - probably millions - of young professionals living in NYC trying to make it - “make it” being dependent on their field. I’m one of them, although I am getting a graduate degree rather than trying to break into a creative field.</p>
<p>You can certainly live in NYC on a young professionals’ salary ($30-40,000 a year) and you won’t starve, either. However, you WILL be quickly disabused of the notion that the NYC life as a 20-something is glamorous.</p>
<p>-Most neighborhoods in Manhattan are off-limits to you; even Harlem is getting too much to afford these days, in the nice parts. More than likely you’ll either have to take East Harlem, Wash Heights, Inwood, or neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Queens. And not the trendy Brooklyn or Queens neighborhoods like Williamsburg or Astoria. Those are as expensive as some of the nicer ones in Manhattan. (Look at this page: <a href=“http://www.worstroom.com/[/url]”>http://www.worstroom.com/</a> LOL! These are exaggerations, but it’s still indicative of how horrible the housing market is here.)</p>
<p>-You will have roommates. Period. You will be lucky if you have ONE roommate.</p>
<p>-All that clubbing and barhopping you see people do in movies about NYC? 20something people who work minimum wage jobs (or no job)? HA! It’s a myth. Not that you won’t party; you will, but you won’t be able to afford to do it nearly as often as it looks in the movies.</p>
<p>-Everybody moves to NYC to become an artist, an actor, or a musician. So you, wanting to go into the music business, will be in competition with thousands of others who are just as talented as you (maybe more) and have the same or similar degrees as you.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong; I have developed a fondness for NYC after living here for 5 years. But the exuberant excitement I had when I first moved here has worn off because it’s not what you think it is. It’s so unaffordable when you’re young. I think you need to make at least $60-70,000 to live a decent middle-class lifestyle in NYC.</p>
<p>There are a lot of other cities that have music industries. Others have mentioned Nashville, of course. There’s also Atlanta, which has a thriving media business and is less than half the CoL than NYC. I’m biased because I’m from there and I want to go back, but check this out ([Cost</a> of Living Calculator: Compare the Cost of Living in Two Cities - CNNMoney](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/]Cost”>Cost of living: How far will my salary go in another city? - CNNMoney)). A person making $40,000 in Atlanta would have to make $90,000 in New York to afford the same things. Another way of putting that is that making $40,000 in NYC is like making $18,000 in Atlanta.</p>
<p>Food for thought!</p>
<p>Good decision M&L. Any debt over $20 or $30 k is a headache. $200k would literally ruin you. Get a great education in Canada, and then consider graduate school in the US.</p>