Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Here’s some information that we put together last year on various masters
programs, if you’re interested. This is in the context of a masters degree in
Arts and Entrepreneurship that I have proposed for Loyola. If it is accepted it
will be several years before it will be up and running, so it’s probably not for
you. But these others might be worth checking out. Some of them require you to
be a music student.
* Columbia College
<http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Graduate_Study/Arts_Ent_and_Media_Mgmt/index.php>
– The Arts, Entertainment and Media Management (AEMM) Graduate Program, 49 credit
hour, 2 year program. Has a core business/entertainment industry curriculum with
six concentrations: music business management, media management, small
business/entrepreneurship, performing arts management, visual arts management, and
“arts in youth and community development”.
* Belmont University
<http://www.belmont.edu/business/graduatebusiness/index.html> – MBA with a
specialization in Entertainment and Music Business, Graduate School of Business in
conjunction with Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, 18 months,
34 hours (24 hours of core MBA courses, 10 hours of electives in the music and
entertainment industry).
To summarize this competition, one degree is only online (Full Sail); one is a MBA
with some music business electives (Belmont); one is really more the graduates of
its own undergrad program (Miami); one is segmented, thinly sliced management
program (Columbia); one is very small and offered in the business school (Florida
Atlantic); NYU, which is the longest, the most expensive, and the most rigorous,
especially on a global level; and William Patterson, which has two portals of
entry and two separate degrees, one aimed at the musician, the other at the
business school student, but both made of combinations of courses from both the
College of Art and Communication and the College of Business.
Appendix B
Here are some suggested courses for a curriculum that I’ve designed, but you
should check out all of the above to see if anything fits you. This assumes, of
course, that returning to school is even an option for you. But at the very
least, these are the sort of things that you can look into on your own as well.
At least it’s some place to start.
The purpose of this course is to show the context and structure of the current
music and arts industries, of all types, all sizes, all services and products.
The course will provide students with an overview of the global businesses created
by music and art and provide them the skills to participate in this arena.
Students will be introduced to the disciplines of business and entrepreneurship
and how they apply to the creative work of the artist.
The purpose of the course is to examine the current business environment for music
and other aspects of the creative enterprise so that the search for answers can
take shape and direction as musicians and artists address the essential problem:
the Artist’s Dilemma. The dilemma of creating a plan and an method, through
innovation and distinction, to compete in an environment where there are no
barriers to entry, where there is a flooded market, where technology changes the
rules and the opportunities every day, and the “product” that can be had freely by
anyone with an Internet connection. The Artist’s Dilemma is, how does the artist
compete and survive in an environment where there are 5 million bands on MySpace
and the artist’s work product is essentially free on the Internet.
Topics include: the global entertainment business: money and markets, the
artist’s team: managers, agents, producers, marketing; communication methodology:
public relations, importance of narrative; structure and function of media
companies: what they do, what they don’t do; marketing: advertising, use of
Internet; distribution companies and functions; legal issues: copyright law,
publishing, songwriting deals; business structures and management: ethics,
strategic planning, organizational structures.
Artists create intellectual property and thereby possess legal rights and assets
that may be transferred, sold, and otherwise monetized. All of these
relationships imply legal agreements governing the transaction and the
consequences of it. This course will present the student with a thorough
understanding of how these agreements work and how the artist may better protect
and monetize his or her rights through this understanding.
Topics include: work-for-hire agreements, artist contracts with recording and
media companies, merchandising contracts, management contracts, performance
contracts, and all other relationships that might result from an artist’s work.
Strategic planning is most often of the goal-based model. But there are other
models. Students will become deeply familiar with these models. Emphasis will be
placed on the goal-based model involving the flow of purpose to action from the
mission and values of the organization (the artist) to the goals and objectives of
the organization, to the action plans that determine who will do what and by when.
But the issues-based and organic strategic planning models will also play an
important role.
Topics include: the role of asset creation and management in strategic planning,
the SWOT/TOWS analysis, writing a strategic plan and understanding the
hierarchical approach to planning and action, including mission statements,
organizational values, business objectives, organizational goals, strategies, and
plans.
The licensing of rights produces multiple revenue streams for the musician,
writer, and artist. The agreements that govern these various relationships
determine how these streams will be marketed, monetized, and accounted for.
Students will become intimately familiar with the language of the law and the
arcane formulations that govern the use of intellectual property.
Topics include: the history of copyright, the evolution of the current statutes,
the rights created and limitations of those rights, how those rights are
monetized, the agreements that govern those relationships, revenue streams for
intellectual property, contracts, lawyers, and negotiation strategies.
An artist creates property and the federal copyright law creates rights in that
property. After the artist has created the property, secured his or her rights,
produced a “product”, how is that product sold and brought to the attention of the
“market”? Artists are “global micro brands”. How do they monetize these brands?
How does an artist determine his or her market and how do they connect with it.
How are public relations and advertising different? What are the theories of
both?
Artists have the advantage in terms of authenticity. They are and seek to be
authentic, distinctive, and unique. Marketing is all about differentiation and
artists are naturally inclined towards their own individual, authentic expression,
so that in the case of the artist, the product is already differentiated and the
task of marketing is to simply make that known, not to create it. Again, we see
the nature of the artist come into alignment with the business practices.
It has been said that musicians and artists are inherently entrepreneurial, in
that they have to employ the traits of the entrepreneur to do what they do, to
learn their craft as well as learn how to communicate with it. Entrepreneurship is
about taking risk, it’s about innovation and invention, it’s about destroying what
is and creating the new, it is about spending time and emotional as well as
monetary capital to pursue an uncertain venture; it’s about leading the way and a
keen sense of resource management.
This describes the process of art. Students will learn how to apply the attitudes
and skills that characterize them as artists, to the disciplines and opportunities
of business entrepreneurship and thinking of themselves as the business, the
product, and the asset. This requires an understanding of the subject as a
historic discipline for which principles have developed. This requires an
understanding of economics, people and asset management, accounting and finance,
marketing and distribution, and developing a culture of innovation.
Students will become familiar with the “communities” involved in their pursuits as
artists and arts entrepreneurs. As artists, they will become keenly aware of the
importance of becoming a part of that community, just as they create a community
of fans for their art – for their music and their products. Networking is not only
a social skill, it is a performance, an opportunity for an artist to constantly
seek and receive up-to-date stimulus both for their art and their business.
· Financial Accounting
An artist or musician can be one or more businesses and those businesses must be
conducted according to basic accounting principles for many reasons, not the least
of which is the health of the organization itself. Accounting is the language of
business and the information that it provides is useful on all levels of decision
making, including creditors, investors, management, stake holders, and the owners.
Students will become familiar with the major types of financial statements, their
construct them and to interpret them. The emphasis will be on using financial
information as well as creating financial information, including bookkeeping.
Students will become familiar with accounting terminology. It’s not just a matter
of understanding your accountant; it’s a matter of interpreting what your
accountant tells you so that you can make informed long-term and short-term
decisions about your assets and activities.
Given that the music and intellectual property industries have industry specific
methods and customs, experts from the media world of finance will be brought in to
class to teach students about these specific accounting characteristics. Students
will, therefore, gain a vertically integrated understanding of the role,
responsibilities, and opportunities of “financial accounting” with respect to
their pursuits.
The musician, the artist IS a music enterprise and the rules apply. Managing an
enterprise has multiple facets, from asset management and acquisition, to the art
of convincing other people to do what you want them to do. Management is about
goals and the ability to express them, it’s about leadership and the ability to
make people care, it’s about the informed and innovative deployment of people and
resources, including, in the case of the artist, herself.
Again, the contention of the program is that artists and musicians are naturally
inclined to moving people from one place to the next, to making them care, to
acquiring “assets” (by spending many hours of the rehearsal room), and as such,
already act in ways that are consistent with the principles of management.
The course will connect the discipline of management with the characteristics of
the artist already has and employs. Managing people and being responsible for all
facets of an enterprise are the characteristics required of any bandleader. In
this course, these intuitive skills will be given structure and organization and
methodologies to enhance continuous innovative action. In this course the idea
of local entrepreneurship will be examined in the context of the global economy
and global opportunity.
Technology, computer hardware and software, audio and video production and post-
production programs – the electronic paint brushes of the artist are only one side
of the coin. The other side is the use of technology to monetize music and art,
the use of it to connect directly with those who share your values as an artist
and are interested in what you do, whether they be 5 or 5 million.
The balance of the course is between knowing the why as well as the how, the
production technology as well as the marketing and distribution technology. In
short, this course is pivotal for the musician and the artist as it concerns the
process of creating music and art as well as the process of creating a career out
of the results.
Students will come to this course with a range of knowledge with respect to
producing, creating audio and video productions, films, concerts and events, and
other multi-media activities. For that reason, the basics will be offered as
online modules for students to avail themselves of as their experience dictates.
Students will also gain a first hand knowledge and understanding of video
electronics and operations, production techniques, and lighting. Students will
become familiar with various visual forms including documentaries, live
performance recording, conceptual/film projects, music videos, instructional
videos, and video press kits. Students will gain an introductory understanding of
various editing formats, including Final Cut Pro and Avid.
The purpose of the course is to give students the multi-media tools to make and
monetize art. Artists are naturally inclined to the use of technology, especially
musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and designers. This is another example of
the artist having skills that parallel the skills needed to monetize their art.
This course will connect those dots.
· Internship/Apprenticeship Program
If the student wants to apply their skills and knowledge to a particular media
enterprise, that is where the internship should be. If the student wishes to work
for an existing company as a step towards an entrepreneurial goal, the internship
should be at that or similar company.
There will be a gap in the student’s own enterprise that the student may wish to
fill with an internship with someone who has expertise in that area.
The capstone project is the student’s future itself. The student will already
have created a strategic plan, a business plan, and all of the attendant plans
consistent with thorough business planning. The student will already have his or
her publishing company, website that engages in commerce, marketing plan, even
media in the form of audio and video recordings. All of the pieces will be in
place that are consistent with the each student’s career goals and plan.
This course will attempt to put these elements to work. This course will be about
the implementation of plans so that the plan is either put in to action or
continued in action. All faculty will be involved to the extent of their
expertise, in advising and assessing the student’s career project and plan and
their implementation.