Music Biz’s mission is to create unity among all industry stakeholders that will result in a prosperous future for the entire music industry. Music Biz established the Academic Partnership program as a way to assist the next generation of music business leaders to succeed us in this endeavor.
Through this program, partner colleges and universities with a music business, technology, or entertainment law program gain access to special membership benefits including:
For more information on the program, contact JJ Farrell at jj.farrell@musicbiz.org or download this one-sheet that tells you how music business-minded colleges & universities benefit from the program. See below for a list of participating academic institutions:
Washington, DC
The Kogod School of Business’s “Business and Entertainment” major is truly unique offering at American University. Positioned in the business school, BAE students take a full-business core in addition to entertainment specialty classes in film, music, television and other related fields. The BAE also plays on AU’s interdisciplinary and experiential strengths in the nation’s capital with many adjuncts and guest speakers from trade associations, television networks and other entertainment companies located here.
Nashville, TN
Ranked No. 7 in the Regional Universities South category and named for the fourth consecutive year as one of the top “Up-and-Comer” universities by U.S. News & World Report, Belmont University consists of approximately 6,400 students who come from every state and 25 countries. Committed to being a leader among teaching universities, Belmont brings together the best of liberal arts and professional education in a Christian community of learning and service. The university’s purpose is to help students explore their passions and develop their talents to meet the world’s needs. With more than 75 areas of study, 20 master’s programs, and four doctoral degrees, there is no limit to the ways Belmont University can expand an individual’s horizon.
Boston, MA
More than a college, Berklee has become the world’s singular learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow. Berklee is a microcosm of the music world, reflecting the interplay between music and culture: an environment where aspiring music professionals learn how to integrate new ideas, adapt to changing musical genres, and showcase their distinctive skills in an evolving community. They are at the center of a widening network of industry professionals who use their openness, virtuosity, and versatility to take music in surprising new directions.
Philadelphia, PA
Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design goes about teaching design, media, and the performing arts in a different way. Their undergraduate and graduate degree programs empower students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed in highly competitive creative fields. Westphal encourages students to build upon what they’re learning in classes by participating in college enterprise … working with bands signed to our MAD Dragon Records label, creating our lifestyle magazine D&M, staging a fashion show with top professional models, producing for our television station, tackling interior design projects for major regional developers, doing research on a government or industry sponsored Digital Media project, or working for our student-run Graphic Design firm. Drexel University is one of two universities in Philadelphia to be ranked in the top 100 by US News & World Report. Drexel believes in a well-rounded education in the humanities and sciences beyond the rigorous course of studies offered in our nationally-ranked and accredited programs.
Big Rapids, MI
It takes more than just musicians to put on a concert, produce and distribute a great recording, or get that new guitar in the hands of the player. It takes many people doing the “business of music” and the Music and Entertainment Business Program at Ferris State University prepares qualified students for a variety of career paths. Appropriate studies in music compliment thorough training in business. On campus, students produce live shows and other events throughout the year as a member of the Music and Entertainment Business Association that functions as a student-run production company. Students have the responsibility of booking the artists/venue as well as promotion, hospitality, stage set-up, sponsorship, and merchandise. Music and Entertainment Business students are further prepared to enter the field through internships that are a fundamental component of the program.
Nashville, TN
Fisk University is ranked #6 among historically Black universities, according to U.S. News and World Report, and is the oldest institution of higher learning in Nashville, TN. Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s international reputation for academic excellence. Music has occupied a central role in the Fisk experience since the University’s opening in 1866. The Fisk Jubilee Singers’® first historic tour established a reputation for excellence in musical performance and preserved the rich heritage of the Negro Spiritual. Today, Fisk continues to provide students the opportunity to develop individual talent, appreciation, and aesthetic sensibility. A Fisk education prepares our students to become beacons in servicing the community and well-rounded leaders and scholars in their respective fields.
Five Towns College
Dix Hills, New York
Five Towns College is a private college in New York, dedicated to providing a top education to a diverse creative group of musicians, artists, movie producers, and performers. Located on Long Island, halfway between New York City and the Hamptons.
At Five Towns College, students receive the hands-on-experience needed to compete in the worlds of Music, Media, Music Business, Interactive Computer Graphics and Entertainment. We pride ourselves on achieving the right balance of proficiency and uniqueness while allowing the students to develop their own competitive edge. Our facilities include a radio station, MIDI, MAC and PC labs, audio, film/video and television studios. Our students gain valuable experience through their collaboration on musical recordings, films and other artistic work while being mentored by professional faculty.
Winter Park, FL
Full Sail University is an award-winning educational leader for those pursuing careers in the entertainment and media industry. Founded in 1979, Full Sail has been recognized as one of the Best Music Programs by Rolling Stone Magazine, one of the 2014 “Top 25 Music Schools,” and one of the 2013 “Top Music Business Schools with Buzz” by The Hollywood Reporter. Full Sail was named the 2014 “School/College of the Year” by the Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges, received the “21st Century Best Practices in Distance Learning Award” from the United States Distance Learning Association, and was recognized as one of the Top 100 Social Media Colleges by Studentadvisor.com. Full Sail University is a Graduate and Undergraduate degree-granting institution offering on-campus and online degree programs in areas related to Art & Design, Business, Film & Television, Games, Media & Communications, Music & Recording, Sports, and Web & Technology. Full Sail graduate credits include work on OSCAR®, Emmy®, GRAMMY®, ADDY®, MTV Video Music Award, and Video Game Award nominated and winning projects.
Saint Charles, MO
Real Experience. Real Success. Geared toward the 21st century music industry, the Music Business degree at Lindenwood University exposes students to a wide cross-section of specialties. Emphasis is placed on production, recording, digital music creation, and entrepreneurship to ensure that students graduate with intent and purpose as they enter the workforce.
Murfreesboro, TN
Middle Tennessee State University is a comprehensive university that embraces its role as the destination of choice for Tennessee undergraduates while expanding its reach nationally and internationally through signature programs and select master’s and doctoral programs. The University generates, preserves, and disseminates knowledge and innovation and uses scholarship to enhance teaching and public service. The University is committed to preparing students to thrive in their chosen professions and a changing global society. Music Industry is one of the leading concentrations in MTSU’s School of Music. The program prepares students who want to pursue music as a core career path and profession to work in the music industry. Not all music majors are interested in public school teaching or performance; if this describes you, Music Industry may be just the ticket. Graduates still take the core courses, and they still learn an instrument at a high level and are given opportunities to orchestrate and arrange music and to develop audience skills. Proximity to Nashville gives students opportunities to expand their knowledge, including gaining experience through an internship program, and to land a career after college.
Millersville, PA
Millersville University’s new BS of Music Industry degree offers students tracks in Music Management and Music Production preparing them for careers in the music business through courses based in computer applications for music production, audio recording, artist management, international music business, music marketing, and more. All students in the program will take courses in music performance, music business and audio production, giving them a broad background in all facets of the industry before deep diving into their concentration for the rest of their curriculum. Students will be able to promote a concert for major national artists on campus; promote a showcase at SXSW; perform with national recording artists; produce music in one of Millersville’s three state-of-the-art recording studios, and learn about the music industry during one of many study abroad opportunities. And through a partnership with Clair Global (a global leader in live audio production and design), Millersville students have the opportunity to study live audio at Clair Global’s headquarters with industry professionals.
West Long Branch, NJ
Monmouth University is an independent, comprehensive institution of higher education committed to excellence and integrity in teaching, scholarship, and service. Through its offerings in liberal arts, science, and professional programs, Monmouth University educates and prepares students to realize their potential as leaders and to become engaged citizens in a diverse and increasingly interdependent world. Monmouth’s commitment to transformative learning is founded on three core principles: an intellectually challenging and rigorous academic experience built on a strong foundation in the liberal arts; learning experiences that are both immersive and that extend beyond the classroom; and preparation for life after Monmouth.
Murray, Kentucky
The music department at Murray State University has been a member of the National Association of Schools of Music since 1936, and has a long and outstanding tradition of excellence. Graduates with degrees in music from Murray State serve as leading musicians in such roles as opera singers, popular recording artists, professional symphony musicians, jazz educators, songwriters, recording engineers, television writers, public school music teachers, university music department chairs, instrument technicians, church musicians, and college music teachers. Within this academic framework, the department provides a comprehensive music education for the aspiring professional teacher, performer and composer. Interaction with the university community provides students with rich leadership experiences such as the All-Campus Sing, Campus Lights music production, local church choirs, social group ensembles, chamber groups and local bands. Murray State’s outstanding faculty, facilities and resources are why this department is held in such high regard as the musical center of the region.
New York, NY
Great cities are engines of creativity, and New York University takes its name and spirit from one of the busiest, most diverse and dynamic cities of all. The University lives within New York and other great cities, from Abu Dhabi to Shanghai, Paris to Prague, Sydney to Buenos Aires—all magnets for talented, ambitious people. Thriving beyond borders and across academic disciplines, NYU has emerged as one of the most networked and extensive worldwide platform for learning, teaching, researching, building knowledge, and inventing new ways to meet humanity’s challenges. Its students, faculty and alumni feed off the stimulating power of swirling intellectual and cultural experiences by mastering academic disciplines, expressing themselves in the arts, and excelling in demanding professions.
Boston, MA
Northeastern University’s Bachelor of Science in Music with Concentration in Music Industry program is designed for students with a passion for any aspect of the music industry, including songwriting, recording, production, live performance, technology, products, label operations, promotion, marketing, management, data analytics, finance, economics, legal issues, licensing, intellectual property, and music industry studies. The Music Industry Program is strengthened by cooperative education (co-op), the University’s cornerstone experiential learning program. Co-op provides students the opportunity to explore or refine potential career paths, make valuable industry connections, broaden perspectives, and acquire the skills and knowledge needed to succeed —all while learning and growing outside the comfort zone of the classroom. The program encourages learners to become entrepreneurial thought leaders and ethical change agents in the music industries.
Pittsburgh, PA
Point Park is a private liberal arts university located in the heart of Pittsburgh’s downtown business district where students experience limitless cultural and entertainment opportunities that only a world-class city can offer. The university’s Rowland School of Business is home to the sports, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) major, which is among the most innovative business programs in our region. Students are empowered to become innovative SAEM professionals by combining transformative experiential learning with a rigorous, forward-thinking business curriculum culminating in the Bachelor of Science degree. Our urban Pittsburgh location seamlessly integrates our students, faculty, business partners, and community. We have academic partnerships with Stage AE, iHeart Media, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Red Caiman Studios. Additionally, there are more than 100 organizations we partner with to offer our students a variety of shadowing and internship opportunities. Unique among colleges and universities in the Pittsburgh region, Pioneer Records is a Point Park University-operated record label managed by the SAEM department, and housed at Red Caiman Media, a commercial recording studio in Pittsburgh’s Uptown section. Our students have a classroom space at Red Caiman with access to the studio’s recording and production rooms, allowing them to acquire first-hand experience on the various aspects of a record label. To learn more, visit www.pointpark.edu/saem.
Pop Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg
University of Popular Music and Music Business
The Pop Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg – in Germany, this name stands for quality and competence in the academic education of young musicians and aspiring managers. After more than 50 years of pop culture, we were the first in Germany to offer academic degree programs focused on the areas of popular music and the music business. Since its foundation in 2003, the Pop Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg has quickly become one of the most renowned names in the European music and media landscape.
The Pop Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg sees itself not just as a higher education institution but also as a competence centre for all aspects of the music industry, underpinning this with numerous projects in the areas of international cooperation, regional development and business development.
Philadelphia, PA
The Media Studies & Production major in the Klein College of Media & Communication at Temple University offers a focus in recording industry studies where courses in music production and business are taught by active industry professionals including a GRAMMY winner, a GRAMMY nominee and other successful music entrepreneurs. We offer a flexible curriculum that capitalizes on the growing media landscape for music creators. Opportunities for minors in Temple’s nationally recognized Fox School of Business and Boyer College of Music are also available. Capstone options include regional, national and international internships, and a practicum built around a student-run, commercial record label. Our graduates have gone on to careers with Sony, Warner Bros, Live Nation, the Philadelphia Eagles, and a variety of production companies. They’ve won GRAMMYs in Hip-Hop, Latin and new age, and even one Album of the Year. One was even inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
Los Angeles, CA
UCLA’s primary purpose as a public research university is the creation, dissemination, preservation and application of knowledge for the betterment of our global society. To fulfill this mission, UCLA is committed to academic freedom in its fullest terms: We value open access to information, free and lively debate conducted with mutual respect for individuals, and freedom from intolerance. In all of our pursuits, we strive at once for excellence and diversity, recognizing that openness and inclusion produce true quality. These values underlie our three institutional responsibilities.
Athens, GA
The University of Georgia, a land-grant and sea-grant university with statewide commitments and responsibilities, is the state’s oldest, most comprehensive, and most diversified institution of higher education. Its motto, “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things,” reflects the University’s integral and unique role in the conservation and enhancement of the state’s and nation’s intellectual, cultural, and environmental heritage. The University of Georgia shares with the other research universities of the University System of Georgia the following core characteristics: a statewide responsibility and commitment to excellence and academic achievements having national and international recognition; a commitment to excellence in a teaching/learning environment dedicated to serving a diverse and well-prepared student body, to promoting high levels of student achievement, and to providing appropriate academic support services; a commitment to excellence in research, scholarship, and creative endeavors that are focused on organized programs to create, maintain, and apply new knowledge and theories; that promote instructional quality and effectiveness; and that enhance institutionally relevant faculty qualifications; a commitment to excellence in public service, economic development, and technical assistance activities designed to address the strategic needs of the state of Georgia along with a comprehensive offering of continuing education designed to meet the needs of Georgia’s citizens in life-long learning and professional education; and a wide range of academic and professional programming at the baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral levels.
Memphis, TN
In a city known for doing things our own way is a University that’s driven to do the same. At the UofM, we think differently about education. On both our Memphis campus and Lambuth campus in Jackson, we blur the outdated lines of academic pursuits and active ones. Because the best way to learn is to simply do.
Miami, FL
The University of Miami Frost School of Music is one of the largest and best music schools located in a private university in the U.S., and one of the most comprehensive and relevant in all of higher education. With over 700 students and 100 faculty members, it is a top choice for instrumental, keyboard, and vocal performance as well as composition, music business, music education, music engineering technology, music therapy, songwriting, jazz, studio music, and more. It is one of two schools created in 1926 when the University of Miami was founded. Its Music Media & Industry department is home to a number of preeminent academic programs, including the Music Business and Entertainment Industries, Music Engineering Technology, Arts Presenting and Live Entertainment Management, and the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Programs.
West Haven, CT
The University of New Haven, Division of Performing Arts community is a creative microcosm of the artistic world, rich with cultural, social, and intellectual diversity. Our mission is to prepare leaders and innovators in all aspects of music and theater. In our recording studios, student artists lay down tracks in sessions run by student producers and engineers. Their music is then promoted by our music industry students at concerts on campus and in the Greater New Haven area. In the same way, student playwrights collaborate with student dramaturgs, directors, designers, actors, and technicians on the development of new works for the stage in our Student New Works Festival. With an eye toward their future, we create opportunities for students to interact with creative professionals through performances, internships, workshops, and events.
Denton, TX
The Career Development and Entrepreneurship in Music program is the College of Music’s avenue to produce successful 21st century musicians. We help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset to build financially sustainable and professionally satisfying arts careers that positively impact their communities. Our program includes academic coursework, internship opportunities, a music entrepreneurship competition, an innovative music programming competition, a related field in music entrepreneurship, frequent guest speakers, one-on-one career advising and mentorship, community engagement, networking opportunities, a Student Artist Entrepreneurs organization (S.A.E.), and other events. Our students are launching their own businesses as a result of our program offerings. To learn more visit: www.career.music.unt.
Los Angeles, CA
Founded in 1884, and today the oldest continually operating cultural institution in Los Angeles, the USC Thornton School consistently ranks among the top one percent of the nation’s music schools and conservatories. Blending the rigors of a traditional conservatory-style education with the benefits of studying at a leading research university, the Thornton School offers students a thorough music education in a real-world context. Located at the center of Los Angeles, the school is the collegiate partner of choice for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy, to name a few. In addition to their work with these ensembles, Thornton students are a constant presence in local classrooms, reaching out to the next generation of musicians through music education and appreciation courses. For more information, visit www.music.usc.edu.
Wayne, NJ
The Music Management program at William Paterson offers a general introduction to the industry, focusing on the multifaceted entertainment industry and offering course work in licensing, touring, intellectual property rights, public relations, media use, law and ethics, and personal management. The program is designed to allow students the opportunity to develop a high level of musical competence while becoming knowledgeable about the theoretical and practical aspects of the industry. The music portion of the curriculum maintains the core of content and standards equivalent to the other Bachelor of Music programs in the Music Department.
