My View of a Music Industry Program

©2002 Robert Willey

A Music Industry program should take place in a broad-based liberal arts curriculum which includes work in the artistic, scientific, and humanistic domains.  In addition to courses in music, students gain perspective from work in the natural, physical, and social sciences.

The Music Industry major helps students develop a combination of music and business skills, preparing them to work in the production of music, support services, and management.  The program is broadly based and developed in five areas: studio, performance, business, context, and theory.

The intersection between each pair of main areas results in a related area of study, for example, music theory and studio production are combined to do song writing.  Each pair of related topics has its own sub topic in common, for example, literature and publishing come together on the Internet.  The sub topics are themselves points of intersection between the main areas and Music Industry, for example, publishing and management intersect in marketplace products, which is where business and industry converge.

At the center of the program is the internship, which gives students practical experience in the field, allowing them to test themselves and experience the industry first hand.  Contact with industry professionals is developed throughout the program through the incorporation of guest speakers and visitors who come to campus to talk with students.


Curriculum for the BA in Music Business at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette