<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I want to work for Sony Music Entertainment as part of the financial/accounting/marketing aspect someday. Would majoring in Music Industry at Drexel University be any help at all in this case? Should I focus more on a Business/Accounting major instead?</p>
<p>Thanks,
Jess</p>
<p>I know someone who works for Sony, he mostly audits music distribution accounts at Sony branches around the world. He did his undergrad in accounting at a Cal State school and his grad degree at UCLA (also in accounting) He got his job at Sony right after his great internship at Price Waterhouse here in LA.He never studied music business.</p>
<p>IMHO, accounting and marketing are two separate skills sets. If you want to combine a passion or flare for either WITH an enduring interest in music, you might want to consider a double major in the first discipline (marketing or accounting) with the second or a minor music industry.</p>
<p>musica - I was going to chime in and agree wholeheartedly with your point, but let me play devil’s advocate for a moment. My (largely uninformed) observation is that the music business (both classical and popular) seems to be becoming increasingly specialized. </p>
<p>While even as recently as 5-10 years ago, one could go into music industry or arts admin jobs by applying skills picked up in other fields, I think it’s harder now. Hiring managers may find it “easier” to select a candidate whose credentials specifically reference their field than to make the leap that, say, an amateur bassoonist with degrees in photography and journalism could be just the right person for the job.</p>
<p>It’s the same sort of thing we’ve seen over the past generation, where some of my children’s music teachers told us they “only got serious” about music when they entered college and marvelled at the rep some of their students were already playing in middle school or high school. It’s hard to imagine that someone whose only music lessons were given during school orchestra and didn’t even know how to tune the strings when arriving at college (!) would be able to make it professionally today. (And the person I’m thinking of is an excellent teacher who also plays professionally with a smaller orchestra, does gigs etc., not a dud.)</p>
<p>I can see positives and negatives in this trend - if it is even a trend. I’m willing to be shouted down by the many people here who are much more informed about these things than I. :)</p>
<p>Our friend who works for Sony (actually the son of a friend), graduated and started working at Sony five years ago. The people at Sony, like any other large corporation, are looking for competent accountants and not necessarily someone with a passion for music. The OP needs to understand that there is nothing really glamorous or creative about such a job. Numbers are numbers.
Although I know many in the business who would say that accounting itself IS one of the more creative aspects of the entertainment industry. ;)</p>
<p>While there are certain areas of accounting that have specilized features such as oil and gas accounting, I agree with musica that the solid basis in accounting is of foremost importance. Rather than look to music programs, look to schools with well known accounting programs such as University of Illinois (there are many others). These schools will offer specialized accounting courses as well. You will likely end up in public accounting with a firm, get your CPA, and then you are most useful to a public corporation such as Sony. If you go with a firm, try to pick a firm that has music industry clients, work with those clients, and you will be set for the openings that occur. With marketing, you will likely need to go the MBA route.</p>
<p>Stradmom, while I don’t disagree with your observations about trends in specialization, I would argue that the typical music industry course does not delve sufficiently deeply into a discipline such as accounting or even high level marketing to provide adequate credentials to hire in at Sony.</p>
<p>If the OP wants direction as to where to go to school, try and find out where the grads of accounting programs get their internships. If you want to work here in LA, check out the MBA programs at USC Marshall and UCLA Anderson.</p>