Top Music Business Schools: 2022 List – Billboard

When Billboard’s most recent report on top music business schools was printed in late April 2020, we optimistically wrote that schools and universities had been “making ready to reopen” that fall.

Distant studying, after all, continued all through the previous 12 months as a result of persistence of COVID-19 and its variants. So like many college students, this report took a “hole 12 months” in 2021, awaiting the return of in-person courses, internships and encounters that gas the best academic experiences.

Billboard’s prime music enterprise faculties are chosen based mostly on {industry} suggestions, alumni info supplied by honorees from our a number of energy lists, info requested from every college and practically a decade of reporting on these applications.

At a time of cost-consciousness, we now have prioritized the inclusion of extra inexpensive public schools and universities. That is our most geographically numerous record so far. Additionally, two of the nation’s oldest traditionally Black universities, Fisk College in Nashville and Howard College in Washington, D.C., have been added to this 12 months’s record, together with BIMM Institute, the most important supplier of latest music training in Europe.

The colleges listed here are listed alphabetically. Scores of information factors — from admission charges to tuition and charges to commencement charges — can be found to potential college students by means of neutral sources similar to Faculty Navigator, a useful resource of The Institute of Schooling Sciences, a division of the U.S. Division of Schooling. (Notably, even Princeton College president Christopher L. Eisgruber, regardless of his college incomes No. 1 standing in U.S. Information & World Report, just lately wrote: “I’m satisfied … that the rankings recreation is a little bit of mishegoss — a barely wacky obsession that does hurt when taken too significantly.”)

The music {industry}, nonetheless, has good purpose to take the graduates of those applications very significantly.

These are younger women and men operating all features of on-campus report labels, crafting career-launching enterprise plans, partaking in knowledge evaluation and benefiting from on-campus audio system who characterize the very best ranges of the music enterprise, each artists and executives alike. Graduates of those establishments will show their diplomas proudly.

However even probably the most completed musicians can nonetheless relish receiving a level from a prime music enterprise college. In August, at a personal occasion in Santa Monica, Calif., attended by fellow artists together with Terri Lyne Carrington, Dianne Reeves, Esperanza Spalding, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, the Berklee Faculty of Music introduced an honorary diploma to Joni Mitchell.

“I want my dad and mom had been alive,” Mitchell stated. “My mom particularly could be actually happy with this as a result of she needed me to go to school. I went to artwork college, and I stop after a 12 months. She thinks of me as a quitter. So to see this achievement could be actually spectacular to her. I want I might share it together with her.” —THOM DUFFY

Abbey Highway Institute
London

Abbey Highway Institute moved to new headquarters at London’s refurbished Angel Studios in January, having outgrown its authentic dwelling on the well-known Abbey Highway Studios. Launched in collaboration with Abbey Highway proprietor Common Music Group in 2015, the institute affords superior one-year diplomas in music manufacturing and sound engineering, in addition to a five-month diploma in audio postproduction for movie and TV, offering hands-on coaching in all features of recording, mixing and mastering. Alumni have gone on to work with Madonna, Calvin Harris, Little Combine and P!nk, in addition to initiatives for Netflix and Common Music. Abbey Highway Institute Miami opened final 12 months, becoming a member of sister worldwide websites in Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Johannesburg and Frankfurt, Germany.

Occasion: In July, the institute held its first world commencement since 2019 to have fun the achievements of scholars at its a number of areas exterior the USA. The ceremony was held in Abbey Highway’s Studio Two, the place such luminaries as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Oasis and Adele have recorded.

Baldwin Wallace College
Berea, Ohio

Positioned about quarter-hour from downtown Cleveland, Baldwin Wallace College affords courses led by visitor school who work within the music enterprise and just lately added programs about {industry} developments, taught by the founding father of Different Press magazine, and music pageant manufacturing, taught by the founding father of Lambda Productions, producer of Bonnaroo, Governors Ball and Outdoors Lands. College students additionally purchase expertise at close by companies by means of partnerships with the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, Tragic Hero Data and impartial music venues like Beachland Ballroom & Tavern and Music Field Supper Membership. In 2021, the college, which homes a famend conservatory, was invited to develop into an academic affiliate of the Grammy Museum.

Occasion: Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame president/CEO Greg Harris introduced the keynote on the college’s 2022 Arts Innovation Summit.

Belmont College — Curb Faculty of Leisure & Music Enterprise
Nashville

Bonnaroo returned this 12 months, and college students within the Belmont at Bonnaroo program had been again behind the scenes for 3 weeks of hands-on analysis, backstage conversations with {industry} leaders and per week of dwelling with friends on a tour bus. One other well-liked course at Belmont — which is dwelling to 4 studios reserved solely for scholar use and historic studio areas on Music Row that double as distinctive lecture rooms — is the eight-week Contained in the Company program, in affiliation with Inventive Artists Company. In 2022, Belmont Service Corps college students have attended the Grammy Awards and labored at occasions together with the MusiCares Particular person of the 12 months and Black Music Collective galas.

Occasion: Belmont just lately hosted an unique efficiency and Q&A session with alumna Trisha Yearwood and husband Garth Brooks, which 1,000 college students attended. The artists mentioned the enterprise of music and the craft of songwriting.

Berklee Faculty Of Music
Boston

The Berklee Faculty of Music affords two levels for college kids pursuing careers within the {industry}: a bachelor of music in music enterprise/administration and a brand new bachelor of arts in music {industry} management and innovation, which debuted within the fall. The Berklee In style Music Institute, which is a part of the faculty, affords the three-semester BPMI Reside course comprising on-site expertise at festivals together with Lollapalooza, Osheaga, Music Midtown and Essence. Berklee artists get an opportunity to carry out on the festivals, whereas college students enrolled within the class be taught from executives who work throughout A&R, artist growth, live performance manufacturing, reserving, promotion, publicity, social media and sponsorships. In October 2020, Berklee named as its new president Erica Muhl, the founding govt director of the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Younger Academy on the College of Southern California.

Berklee Faculty Of Music
Valencia, Spain

Boston-based Berklee Faculty of Music’s sister campus in Valencia affords a one-year grasp’s diploma in world leisure and music enterprise, attended by college students from across the globe and providing concentrations in dwell leisure, entrepreneurship and the report {industry}. College students can work on the on-campus report label Disrupción Data and be taught from visitor audio system which have just lately included Ithaca Holdings/SB Initiatives founder Scooter Braun and Sophia Chang, who helped information the careers of Paul Simon and Wu-Tang Clan. The Berklee International Profession Summit, held yearly in January, is a four-day boot camp that focuses on skilled growth and profession paths by means of a sequence of keynotes, panels, workshops and particular person mentoring periods.

Course: College students within the Information Analytics within the Music Business course look at real-world examples of how analytics considerably enhance administration choices, methods and artist success.

BIMM Institute
Brighton, England

The BIMM Institute is the most important supplier of latest music training in Europe, internet hosting over 7,000 college students every educational 12 months, with schools in Eire, Germany and all through England. It gives industry-focused coaching at diploma, grasp’s and diploma ranges, together with music efficiency, songwriting, manufacturing, enterprise, advertising and occasion administration. Alumni embrace artists George Ezra, James Bay, Ella Mai and Fontaines D.C. The institute just lately partnered with Spotify to supply scholarships and mentoring alternatives with Spotify executives for college kids from underrepresented backgrounds.

Certification: In July, the U.Ok. Division for Schooling granted the BIMM Institute full college standing.

The BRIT College
Croydon, England

Since The BRIT College opened its doorways in 1991, over 10,000 college students have attended the tuition-free inventive arts establishment, together with Adele, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Cush Jumbo and Tom Holland. Co-founded by the British authorities and the British Document Business Belief (the charitable division of U.Ok. labels commerce group BPI, which presents the BRIT Awards), the varsity affords coaching in music and music expertise, dance, theater and digital design for 1,400 pupils between the ages of 14 and 19. In March, the varsity — positioned 12 miles exterior central London — launched a ten million pound ($11.6 million) fundraising marketing campaign to construct on its legacy.

In Memoriam: After the Sept. 8 dying of Queen Elizabeth II, the varsity posted images of the monarch’s July go to to the campus as a part of her Golden Jubilee celebration.

California Institute Of The Arts — The Herb Alpert College of Music
Santa Clarita, Calif.

CalArts’ Herb Alpert College produces college students who haven’t solely discovered concerning the music enterprise but in addition skilled it as creators. Even those that intend to pursue nonperforming roles have interaction in performing, composing, producing or in any other case creating music. On the {industry} facet, the varsity affords programs together with inventive producing for music, a digital recording studio and a hands-on exploration of the do-it-yourself/release-it-yourself tradition that spans producing, performing and advertising. That course attracts on examples from advertising within the punk rock period to the digital distribution of experimental sound works.

Audio system: Jace Clayton, who penned the e book Uproot: Travels in twenty first Century Music and Digital Tradition, and percussionist-composer and worldwide cultural coverage marketing consultant Sidney Hopson have just lately shared inspiration with college students.

California State College, Northridge
Los Angeles

Whereas copyright, publishing, licensing and recording contracts are among the many {industry} matters explored within the classroom, the Music Business Research program at CSUN prides itself on experiential studying and entrepreneurship. College students obtain expertise by means of Vove, a student-run report label for which they choose, report, promote and handle an “artist of the 12 months,” together with arranging dwell performances and helping with copyright and performing rights registration. Underneath the varsity’s internship requirement, all attendees should earn 4 credit working in a sector of the music enterprise, from publishing to labels to dwell occasions.

Alumnus: Singer-songwriter-producer Andy Grammer’s 2014 single “Honey I’m Good” peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Songs (and No. 9 on the Hot 100) and has been licensed triple-platinum by the RIAA.

Delta State College — Leisure Business Research
Cleveland, Miss.

College students in Delta State’s Leisure Business Research program can discover a variety of skill-building programs from audio engineering expertise to leisure {industry} entrepreneurship. An training associate with Grammy Museum Mississippi and an Avid Studying associate, the varsity is located within the coronary heart of the Mississippi Delta and affords a collection of picks for these looking for real-world information of ideas, expertise and practices within the leisure sector, together with an entrepreneurship class that caters to college students looking for a nonperforming function within the music enterprise.

Speaker: Shelter Music Group artist supervisor Tom Storms, who has managed the careers of India.Arie, Collective Soul, Higher Than Ezra, Uncle Kracker and Sugar Ray, just lately visited the campus.

Drexel College — Westphal Faculty of Media Arts and Design
Philadelphia

In a category taught in tandem with knowledge analytics firm Chartmetric, college students at Drexel’s Westphal Faculty of Media Arts and Design have the chance to create fashions to foretell artist success based mostly on efficiency metrics. The college affords different data-based studying, similar to programs in the way to choose the strategies, fundamentals, environments and events to use knowledge evaluation, in addition to the way to write queries and formulation in a number of programming languages. Extra courses in copyright, publishing, music manufacturing and listening methods allow college students to each perceive {industry} ideas and construct a vocabulary to higher talk about music.

Alumna: Peloton Interactive supervisor of worldwide music technique Sarah Detwiler oversees the corporate’s on-line All for One Music Competition, which showcased 33 artists throughout 160 of its courses in August.

Fisk College
Nashville

In June 2021, Fisk College turned the nation’s first traditionally Black school or college to hitch the educational partnership program of the Music Enterprise Affiliation (aka Music Biz). “The combination of the HBCU neighborhood into Music Biz’s membership is an crucial step for us to attain our aim of additional diversifying the music enterprise,” the affiliation’s president, Portia Sabin, stated upon the partnership’s announcement. At Fisk, Dr. Paul T. Kwami, music self-discipline coordinator and director of the famend Fisk Jubilee Singers, added: “I’m assured that Fisk college students will benefit from this partnership and notice the alternatives that exist at Fisk and throughout the music enterprise.” This system gives taking part faculties with sources of scholarships, entry to Music Biz’s biannual #nextgen_u scholar summits and extra.

Full Sail College
Winter Park, Fla.

College students enrolled in Full Sail’s music enterprise bachelor of science program achieve expertise talent-scouting and pitching, creating belongings, creating social media advertising and producing occasions for musicians taking part in this system’s artist growth initiative. Business-themed workshops every Friday concentrate on tech expertise and profession matters on the college, which has 5 undergraduate music and recording diploma program choices in audio manufacturing, music enterprise, music manufacturing, recording arts and present manufacturing. Full Sail can be dwelling to a sturdy visitor speaker circuit that has included executives — and potential employers — from Microsoft Recreation Studios, Fever, Samsung, Disney and Carnival Cruise Line.

Alumnus: Gary Rizzo gained the Academy Award for greatest achievement in sound mixing in 2011 and 2018 for his work on Inception and Dunkirk, respectively.

Hofstra College
Hempstead, N.Y.

In 2021, Hofstra’s music enterprise program added a bachelor of arts music enterprise main for nonperformers — simply one of many developments beneath program director Terry Tompkins, the veteran artist supervisor, label govt and pageant organizer who joined the school in 2017. Since Tompkins’ arrival, enrollment in this system has risen 204%, in line with the varsity. Hofstra’s shut proximity to Manhattan permits for ample internship alternatives at music-related corporations of all stripes and a busy schedule of visitor audio system that just lately included AEG Presents senior vp of selling and artist growth Wealthy Holtzman. The campus additionally now homes new music manufacturing amenities, together with a state-of-the-art MIDI laptop lab accomplished in January, and by the tip of 2022 will unveil recording studio amenities renovated by Criterion Acoustics.

Grasp Class: A latest partnership with Mother + Pop Music supplied a grasp class A&R sequence and one-on-one mentoring periods with Mother + Pop staff similar to label founder Michael “Goldie” Goldstone.

Howard College — Warner Music/Blavatnik Middle for Music and Leisure Enterprise Fellowship Program
Washington, D.C.

In March 2021, the Howard College College of Enterprise introduced a $4.9 million reward from Warner Music Group and the Blavatnik Household Basis Social Justice Fund. Howard, one of many nation’s most prestigious traditionally Black schools and universities, used the reward to create a brand new music and leisure program fellowship inside its enterprise college. “This reward honors the historic legacy Black individuals have made within the {industry} whereas making an important funding in as we speak’s college students who will develop into the leaders of tomorrow,” stated Howard College president Wayne A. I. Frederick.

Alumnus: WMG govt vp/head of enterprise and authorized affairs Julian Petty, who can be a member of the advisory board of the Blavatnik Household Basis Social Justice Fund.

Indiana College — Jacobs College of Music
Bloomington, Ind.

Introduction to Music Entrepreneurship, a course included as a part of a certificates in music entrepreneurship, is obtainable to all undergraduate college students within the Jacobs College of Music. It’s linked to a campus-wide certificates by means of the college’s Kelley College of Enterprise and is only one instance of the varsity’s collaborative surroundings, which mixes a world-class conservatory with a curriculum geared toward producing leaders in music analysis, training, enterprise and administration. In July, the varsity named Abra Ok. Bush the David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean. Bush, former senior affiliate dean of institute research at The Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute, is Jacobs’ first feminine dean and one of many few girls main a distinguished U.S. music college.

Occasion: The college’s Group Engagement Summit in November 2021 included Sphinx Org president Afa Dworkin, Play On Philly director Stanford Thompson and American Composers Orchestra president/CEO Melissa Ngan as keynoters.

Kennesaw State College — Joel A. Katz Music and Leisure Enterprise Program
Kennesaw, GA.

The Joel A. Katz Music and Leisure Enterprise program (MEBUS) was based in 2010 beneath the Coles Faculty of Enterprise with the help of Katz, a number one music {industry} lawyer. Residence to Katz’s intensive memorabilia assortment, which incorporates items from James Brown, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, MEBUS affords three capstone programs in music and the leisure enterprise, audio manufacturing and expertise, and video manufacturing and expertise, and college students can examine in London. In 2019, MEBUS and the Faculty of Computing and Software program Engineering launched the KSU Disney Interactive Leisure Examine program, a four-week session held on the Walt Disney World Caribbean Resort in Orlando, Fla., specializing in music, movie, TV, video video games, 3D modeling and animation.

Occasion: MEBUS Mixers, held every semester at MadLife Stage & Studios in Woodstock, Ga., embrace 25 scholar performers, scholar stage managers, promoters and video and audio producers.

Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts
Liverpool, England

Co-founded by Paul McCartney in 1996, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, often known as LIPA, gives a big program of university-level inventive and performing arts coaching, together with a just lately launched grasp’s diploma qualification in music {industry} skilled administration. Different core music programs on the institute — positioned on the positioning of McCartney and George Harrison’s former college, and the Liverpool Artwork Faculty, which John Lennon as soon as attended — cowl songwriting, efficiency, sound expertise and manufacturing, with latest internships supplied at Warner Music, Reside Nation and Sentric Music Publishing. Sean McNamara succeeded co-founder Mark Featherstone-Witty as principal and CEO final 12 months.

Macca’s Again: McCartney, who continued his annual songwriting mentorship periods on-line in the course of the pandemic and took part in a web based Q&A with college students, attended LIPA’s commencement in July for the primary time since 2019.

Los Angeles Faculty Of Music
Pasadena, Calif.

LACM’s music enterprise program is rising. The college will launch its grasp’s diploma program in fall 2023, and a grasp of arts in music {industry} might be among the many first choices obtainable. In the meantime, LACM’s bachelor’s program addresses features of the music enterprise similar to A&R, the historical past of the digital revolution and music advertising, whereas its affiliate programs concentrate on areas together with manufacturing instruments and the fundamentals of songwriting and performing. LACM continues to draw a robust roster of visitor audio system, together with Stefan and Jordan Johnson of songwriting/manufacturing staff The Monsters & Strangerz, and the varsity just lately held a grasp class with songwriter-producer-performer Tim Pagnotta, whose credit embrace Stroll the Moon, Weezer and Blink-182.

Alumna: Amber Dundee, a producer and tour supervisor at 3T Leisure, has labored with Iyla, G-Eazy, Too $hort and The-Dream.

Los Angeles Movie College — The Los Angeles Recording College
Los Angeles

Publish Malone, Kehlani and Snoop Dogg are among the many superstars who’ve shared insights with college students on the L.A. Recording College, which is housed within the coronary heart of Hollywood on Sundown Boulevard and affords a variety of levels together with an affiliate of science in audio manufacturing or music manufacturing, and a bachelor’s diploma in audio manufacturing, media communications or music manufacturing. The college is dwelling to skilled recording studios the place college students can prepare as in the event that they had been in a real-world work surroundings and a program focus in music enterprise that covers advertising methods, model growth, A&R and tour administration.

Alumnus: Throughout his decadelong profession, producer and engineer Daniel Zaidenstadt has contributed to over 30 gold and platinum albums, working with Bruce Springsteen, Woman Gaga and Zayn Malik.

Loyola College — Faculty of Music and Media
New Orleans

New Orleans’ uniquely vibrant tradition units the tempo at Loyola, the place the Faculty of Music and Media homes the newly mixed and renamed College of Music and Theatre Professions. Loyola’s bachelor of arts in music {industry} research permits college students to concentrate on core coursework in authorized points, administration, advertising, contracts and compensation, entrepreneurship and music expertise. In a metropolis recognized for dwell efficiency, college students assist run stage administration and manufacturing and have alternatives to carry out at French Quarter Fest, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Competition and lots of of New Orleans’ dwell venues, together with Tipitina’s and Home of Blues. They’ll additionally function recording engineers within the college’s state-of-the-art studios which have hosted Lil Wayne, Tank and others.

Alumnus: Carter Lang co-wrote and produced Publish Malone’s “Sunflower,” which earned two Grammy nominations in 2019 and spent 33 weeks on the Billboard Scorching 100.

Center Tennessee State College — Faculty of Media and Leisure
Murfreesboro, Tenn.

MTSU is positioned simply an hour from Nashville, and alternatives abound for college kids within the college’s Division of Recording Business to take part in {industry} occasions from Bonnaroo to the CMA Music Competition to the CMT Awards. An on-campus venue, the Chris Younger Cafe, hosts programs similar to venue administration and dwell sound optimization, whereas student-run label Match Data gives the framework to review music enterprise and superior songwriting. Different programs embrace live performance touring and promotion, advertising of recordings, digital methods for the music enterprise and superior publishing administration. Six recording studios and 7 manufacturing labs are open 24/7. Visitor audio system together with Barry Gibb and Alison Krauss have taken the stage on the division, which was established in 1973 and is without doubt one of the nation’s oldest music enterprise applications.

Alumnus: Mike Molinar, GM of Massive Machine Music, was key to the corporate opening an L.A. workplace in January 2002.

Monmouth College — Music and Theater Arts Division
West Lengthy Department, N.J.

Residence of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Middle for American Music, Monmouth affords a hybrid mannequin that mixes traditional enterprise coursework from the college’s enterprise college with its music and music enterprise curriculum. The report label methods class is straight related with Blue Hawk Data, a student-run label, by means of which college students assume all roles of a up to date music firm. Every semester college students take part as A&R representatives, managers, producers, inventive and distribution brokers, artists and/or session musicians as they conceive, produce and launch a brand new compilation album, accompanied with the manufacturing of a dwell showcase. This spring, the scholars within the class launched their twentieth compilation album on Blue Hawk Data. Monmouth Artists for Range & Inclusion, created final 12 months by a gaggle of school and music {industry} college students, additionally launched an album on Blue Hawk. The group’s founding members had been awarded a joint senatorial and gubernatorial proclamation from the State of New Jersey for contributions to society.

New York College — Steinhardt College of Tradition, Schooling and Human Improvement
New York

The music enterprise program at Steinhardt combines a world focus with entry to New York’s assets. College students can examine on campuses in three cities together with Nashville, in a program Steinhardt designed in partnership with Common Music Group or in any considered one of 12 world websites together with London, Prague, Paris and Shanghai. Courses are as various because the locales. A course in music innovation and social change is taught by the director of the NYU Music and Social Change Lab; the rising fashions and markets class is delivered in Rio de Janeiro. By means of Village Data, a required course within the undergraduate music enterprise program of examine, college students work with impartial music artists on profession growth in such areas as dwell efficiency, sound recording, product administration, publicity, administration and fan engagement.

Alumna: Lynn Gonzalez, just lately promoted to govt vp of enterprise affairs and enterprise growth at Def Jam Recordings, is on the coverage committee for UMG’s Activity Pressure for Significant Change.

New York College — Tisch College of the Arts, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music
New York

Jack Antonoff, 100 gecs and Columbia Data A&R govt Katie Vinten are amongst latest artists- and executives-in-residence on the Clive Davis Institute — now totally ensconced on the college’s new state-of-the-art campus in Brooklyn that contains a reconstruction of the Beastie Boys’ iconic recording studio, Oscilloscope Laboratories. This summer season, Vinten hosted an eight-week accelerator program, considered one of many new programs on the institute. The skilled growth initiative rolled out earlier this 12 months and bridges the varsity’s educational {and professional} follow, providing personalized coaching, mentorship, assets and networking occasions. Juniors examine overseas for a semester by means of considered one of NYU’s many world applications and, as of fall 2021, all college students obtain centered enterprise mentorship all through the whole lot of their enrollment. In 2021, the institute appointed a brand new advisory board, with members together with Binta Niambi Brown, Dream Hampton, Drew Dixon, Meshell Ndegeocello, Sylvia Rhone and Wendy Ong, to enrich the work of its school and workers.

Convention: NPR’s Ann Powers moderated “The Method Again Residence: How Musicians Navigate Race and Borders,” a multi-artist keynote that includes musician Youssou N’Dour and others, on the college’s Pop Convention in April.

Occidental Faculty
Los Angeles

At Occidental Faculty, the examine of music enterprise is embedded throughout the liberal arts curriculum, the place many nonperforming music college students double-major in disciplines starting from economics to laptop science to movie research. Positioned in L.A., one of many facilities of the worldwide music {industry}, the varsity affords plentiful entry to internships and has developed programs similar to introduction to music enterprise, the place college students collaborate to create artist profiles and enterprise plans that they then execute by means of digital service suppliers similar to Bandcamp and Spotify, in addition to offline. Occidental just lately added a state-of-the-art music studio and laptop lab, the Choi Household Music Manufacturing Middle, designed by Peter Grueneisen of nonzeroarchitecture, who’s recognized for his work for Sony Music, DreamWorks and Hans Zimmer.

Occasion: In March, Occidental Faculty president Harry J. Elam Jr. presided over a panel dialogue that includes Stephen Cooper, alumnus and Warner Music Group CEO; Charlie Cohen, alumnus and WMG president of TV, movie and dwell theater; and Craig Kallman, a mum or dad of an Occidental sophomore and chairman/CEO of Atlantic Data.

Oklahoma State College — Greenwood College of Music
Stillwater, Okla.

OSU’s bachelor of science in music {industry}, established in 2017, is now the second-largest and fastest-growing music program on the college, fueled by the Greenwood College of Music’s new amenities, which opened in 2021, and its entry to {industry} expertise. Living proof: OSU’s most well-known alumnus, Garth Brooks, will current in-person periods on the music {industry} this fall. The music {industry} program homes student-run music firm Poke U, which contains a report label, music writer, live performance promotion and musical merchandise divisions. Music {industry} majors even have the chance to start out an MBA program throughout their senior 12 months, incomes a grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration by means of OSU’s Spears College of Enterprise accelerated MBA program in just one extra 12 months.

Residency: The college’s McKnight Middle for the Performing Arts and the New York Philharmonic in March introduced a three-year residency that may deliver the orchestra repeatedly to Stillwater to profit college students at OSU and native public faculties.

Pepperdine College — Institute for Leisure, Media and Sports activities
Malibu, Calif.

For greater than six years, Pepperdine’s Institute for Leisure, Media and Sports activities has tapped the experience of the college’s Graziadio Enterprise College for each undergraduate- and graduate-level research immersed within the inventive financial system. This summer season, Pepperdine introduced Graziadio will now home IEMS to help the institute, which continues to bolster pathways to employment and management alternatives in leisure, media and sports activities each domestically and overseas. For 2022, in cooperation with the enterprise college, IEMS partnered with two organizations which are serving to to guide the {industry}’s digital transformation: Hollywood IT Society (HITS) and OTT.X.

Occasion: IEMS partnered with HITS on the Leisure Evolution Symposium, which was held in September and centered on the influence of expertise and analytics in leisure, media and sports activities.

Rhodes Faculty — Mike Curb Institute for Music
Memphis, Tenn.

The traditionally wealthy and artistically vibrant metropolis of Memphis is woven into the expertise of all college students at Rhodes Faculty’s Mike Curb Institute for Music. Based in 2006, the institute fosters consciousness and understanding of the distinct musical traditions of the South and music’s results on its tradition, historical past and financial system. The institute additionally immerses college students within the {industry} at massive. In 2019, a gaggle of Curb fellows traveled to New York to satisfy with executives starting from attorneys who negotiate label offers to model relationship entrepreneurs to PR expertise to journalists overlaying the {industry}. Deeply rooted in Rhodes’ broader liberal arts focus, the institute goals to provide graduates who not solely know the way to work within the {industry} but in addition the way to assume broadly concerning the world.

Occasions: In 2006, institute namesake and music enterprise veteran Mike Curb purchased the home at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis — the primary dwelling Elvis Presley purchased with royalties he earned from “Heartbreak Lodge” in 1956. At this time, it hosts the Audubon Classes, a student-produced live performance sequence.

State College Of New York, Faculty At Oneonta
Oneonta, N.Y.

SUNY Oneonta’s music {industry} program affords alternatives each out and in of the classroom that put together college students for profitable music enterprise careers. With programs starting from music advertising and merchandising to audio arts manufacturing, the varsity trains college students in all features of the {industry} who then put course studying to follow by producing dwell occasions on campus, together with the annual O-Fest live performance, and thru an intensive internship program that locations them in nonperforming music, media and leisure {industry} settings throughout the nation. The faculty additionally affords scholar grants to assist fund off-campus studying and networking experiences, together with a faculty-led journey to the annual NAMM commerce present in L.A. and Bonnaroo music pageant “externships.”

Occasion: Alumnus Rit Venerus, considered one of Billboard’s prime enterprise managers, just lately organized for a digital class assembly with Grammy-winning artist John Mayer.

Syracuse College — Bandier Program for Recording and Leisure Industries
Syracuse, N.Y.

Except for a pandemic pause, the Bandier program’s weekly Rezak visitor lecture sequence has taken place in individual for over 10 years, providing college students the chance to satisfy one-on-one with audio system from throughout the {industry}, be part of them for a small dinner after which lead a big group dialogue. This 12 months, audio system included Tat Tong, head of A&R for Sony Music in Larger China; alumna Jacqueline Saturn, president of Virgin Music Label & Artist Companies; and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo (Andra Day’s “Rise Up”) amongst a various group of greater than 25 music luminaries. It’s simply one of many methods this system, a inventive neighborhood housed throughout the bigger, high-spirited scholar physique of Syracuse, fortifies its industry-facing curriculum.

Course: Social media and knowledge for the music enterprise helps upcoming graduates achieve a flair for creating options to real-world {industry} situations.

College Of California Los Angeles — Herb Alpert College of Music
Los Angeles

Already well-entrenched within the music enterprise scene in L.A. and past, UCLA’s Herb Alpert College of Music continues to broaden its choices. Its new bachelor of arts in music historical past and {industry} launched in 2020 and builds on the varsity’s bachelor’s diploma in musicology and its music {industry} minor, with elements together with a yearlong capstone course and an internship program. The college’s school can be putting chords. This summer season, inaugural dean Eileen Strempel was named to the board of administrators of the Worldwide Council of Advantageous Arts Deans, a multinational alliance of govt educational visible and performing arts, design and media directors representing establishments of upper training.

Endowment: A serious reward from former Warner Bros. Data chairman Mo Ostin, who died in July, funded development of the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Middle, which gives college students with entry to the newest advances in music expertise. Ostin additionally was a member of the dean’s board of advisers at UCLA.

College Of Colorado Denver
Denver

CU Denver’s Faculty of Arts & Media, dwelling to the music and leisure {industry} research program, employs an activist-in-residence, and college students work intently with Youth On Document and different nonprofits advancing the music {industry}. This system bolsters its sturdy music enterprise curriculum with up to date research of constituencies, advocacy, coverage implications and alter company throughout the music and leisure industries, and programs supplied embrace girls within the music {industry}, music cities, present points within the music {industry} and revolutionary media. Not too long ago, college students and alumni assisted within the growth, advertising and analysis of the acclaimed Amplify Music program and have introduced on the Music Cities Conference, NAMM and different boards.

Alumnus: J.J. Italiano, former head of music programming at YouTube North America, was named head of worldwide hits at Spotify in Could.

College Of Miami — Frost College of Music
Miami

These enrolled in Frost’s music {industry} program profit from its small dimension (roughly 100 college students) throughout the bigger music college and college. They’ve entry to extracurricular choices together with a number of student-run enterprises (together with ’Cane Data, Cat 5 Music and Frost Sounds), a campus radio station, a campus live performance manufacturing group, quite a few live performance halls and a music {industry} scholar affiliation — to not point out the various music {industry} neighborhood in Miami itself. Up to now 12 months, Republic Data CEO Monte Lipman and president/COO Avery Lipman and world famous person Pitbull have spoken to college students.

Alumnus: Rell Lafargue is president/COO at Reservoir Media.

College Of North Texas — Faculty of Music
Denton, Texas

Positioned on the northern fringe of the Dallas-Fort Value metroplex, UNT continues to broaden the choices of the nation’s largest public college music program. The college’s MBA in music enterprise graduated its second class in spring 2022, and this system continues so as to add new school and programs to organize college students for jobs starting from A&R to arts venue administration to union management and publishing. In 2021, the Yamaha Establishment of Excellence program included the UNT Faculty of Music in its inaugural record of 10 distinguished schools and universities recognizing extraordinary dedication to innovation within the examine of music. Earlier this 12 months, Tom Sumner, president of Yamaha Company of America, visited campus to talk with college students.

School: The Faculty of Music just lately appointed Jessica Muñiz-Collado assistant professor of music enterprise, Federico Llach assistant professor of business music within the division of jazz research and Jeffrey Hepker assistant professor of business music within the division of composition research.

College Of Southern California — Jimmy Iovine and Andre Younger Academy
Los Angeles

Iovine and Younger Corridor, which formally opened in late 2019, is buzzing with college students engaged within the college’s distinctive academic expertise, which gives interdisciplinary information and expertise important to creating breakthrough applied sciences, merchandise, programs and companies. From reimagining digital live performance occasions to constructing a brand new synthetic intelligence-driven music platform, college students on the academy — endowed by {industry} entrepreneurs Jimmy Iovine and Andre “Dr. Dre” Younger — immerse in cutting-edge experimentation and graduate on the forefront of driving innovation within the music {industry} and past. The academy now affords a bachelor of science within the arts, expertise and the enterprise of innovation and a grasp of science in built-in design, enterprise and expertise.

Course: A brand new minor combining the experience of the Iovine Younger Academy with USC’s Annenberg College for Journalism and Communication affords the course advancing journalism with human-centered design.

College Of Southern California — Thornton College of Music
Los Angeles

USC Thornton has supplied an expansive undergraduate music {industry} program for greater than 20 years and continues to counterpoint its choices. Within the fall of 2018, the varsity launched a grasp’s diploma within the music {industry}, an 18-month graduate program comprised of programs in copyright, live shows, artist administration, advertising knowledge and evaluation, and a one-semester internship. After they immerse in programs about matters similar to touring, advertising, branding, enterprise and legislation, all college students have the chance to work in quite a lot of {industry} sectors from report labels and publishing to administration to promotion and touring.

Occasion: Thornton’s Music Business Symposium, led by Warped Tour founder and affiliate professor of follow Kevin Lyman, produced a profession networking occasion that introduced collectively 131 college students and professionals by means of their avatars in an immersive digital occasion.

William Paterson College
Wayne, N.J.

The ultimate class taken by college students in William Paterson College’s music and leisure industries program focuses on private administration within the music and leisure {industry}, placing the ideas they’ve discovered — from the function of information and analytics to creativity to contracts and budgeting — to the take a look at in real-world conditions and places a bow on the college’s deep perception in graduating future decision-makers with expertise. College students full three to 6 internships whereas enrolled on the college, positioned simply 30 miles east of New York, which attracts professors who maintain day jobs as artist managers, enterprise managers and different {industry} roles. Members of the latest graduating class are already engaged on tour with Tyler, The Creator, with Mint Expertise Group and on the PNC Financial institution Arts Middle in Holmdel, N.J.

Occasion: Lorde’s supervisor Alex Sarti, from Crush Administration, and Jamie Kinelski, vp of inventive for Kobalt, have spoken to college students in latest months.

Contributors: Cathy Applefeld Olson, Thom Duffy, Richard Smirke

This story originally appeared in the Oct. 8, 2022, issue of Billboard.