help exploring music careers and oppertunities

Hey,

Check out Berklee School of Music ( http://www.berklee.edu ). I'm thinking about going there after I finish my current degree in Computer Science from another University.

Josh

There's a difference between 'stable career' and 'steady job'.

It's possible to build a music career - many people have done that (including me, so I'm sure it's possible). It's also possible to find a 'steady job' in the music biz, but off the top of my head I can only think of a half dozen:

1. School band teacher. You'll need teacher certification, and need to be able to teach at least the basics of every instrument in the band. These jobs pay $25-100K, and competition is tough - many school music programs have been cut, and I know a bunch of former band directors now pursuing other fields. Look for a program that specializes in music education, like Vandercook in Chicago.

2. Orchestral musician. There are still a few hundred professional orchestras here, and many more in Europe. For this you'll need to play a symphonic instrument, and be among the best at it. Jobs pay $10-250K (at the high end you'd need to be 'first chair'). Look at programs like Julliard.

3. Staff songwriter. There aren't as many of these jobs as there used to be, since many artists now write their own tunes. But some publishing companies still hire songwriters. They won't care about your education... they'll care about how many good songs you've written. You'll need to have sold at least a half-dozen tunes that have been recorded by artists to be considered. Jobs pay about $10K plus royalties.

4. Entertainment attorney. Get a law degree from a top law school (Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago, etc.), and network your way to a firm that specializes in intellectual property law. These jobs pay big bucks, but there aren't very many of them.

5. Instrument retailer. Any business degree helps, but isn't really required for entry-level (i.e. minimum wage) jobs. At store manager/director level the big chains pay $50-100K or more.

6. Wholesale sales. Most instrument manufacturers have a few sales reps who call on music stores and distributors. Other industries, like software companies, may also have product lines that serve the music business. These jobs usually pay a low base salary plus a commission. Like retail sales, any degree helps, but sales ability helps more.

Pretty much every other music job I can think of isn't a 'job' with a paycheck - it's an entrepreneurial effort. The trick to building a career is to put together enough of these to build your own income.

As far as what school you should look at for the best shot at these non-'job' careers, you need to define exactly what you want to do... because your competition KNOWS what they want to do!

Only after you figure that out can you pick the best place to study. For example, if you want to write music for films there are programs at Roosevelt, Berklee, and dozens of other schools that will teach you 'how'... and then there's the program at USC, where you'd not only learn 'how', but also make contacts with people who buy music for films.

How + who = the best place to study. And that 'best place' will be different for every sector of the business.

NoteBoat,

So how do you know what "who"s will be at what places of study? For instance, I'm interested in writing original songs and recording them either by myself or with two or three band members (with me playing guitar + keyboards). For that kind of situation, what's the best school?

Josh

I'd go with one that attracts talented students (so you can meet prospective band mates), and one that has a program for audio engineering (so you can find/meet people to do your mixing and possibly produce).

Ideally you should also have faculty that have worked or are working in performance, because they'll know of opportunites.

You don't need to find all of that in one place. You could, at a place like Berklee... or you might consider schools located in a major music center like LA or Nashville, and network outside of class.

Noteboat, when you mentioned Staff Songwritter, that appealed to me a lot. But thinking about it now, why write music for somebody else to play when I could maybe write and record my own music. Does that sound very practical, or should I stick to something that I could have a better chance at doing? Any advise?

There's also good money to be made as a free-lance musician doing pit and recording work in large cities.

Most larger cities have 4 or 5 or more play houses that do plays that need pit musicians (though the number drops every year as more and more go to recorded soundtracks). Combine that with private lessons and studio gigs and you can make a very nice living.

It's scarier -- you're basically a contractor working for yourself. But it also gives you the ability to set your own schedules.

Pit musicians are typically more orchestral, though guitars are plentiful as well.

You'll never get rich doing this (it's not nearly as good as top tier orchestral jobs!) but it can be fun and many people do it and do well for themselves.

The reason staff songwriters existed in the first place was that some people were very good at writing songs, but not as good at performing (or they didn't look good enough to market - Steven Stills got turned down at an audition for the Monkees because his teeth weren't good enough for TV)

The Beatles really changed that; they showed that it was possible for a band to write their own marketable music*. After that, anyone who could write also wanted to be a star.

In the 60s and 70s there were a lot of new record labels, and signing bands with ready-made material made sense. The last 25 years or so have seen a lot of consolidation among larger labels, and with big bucks at stake, the majors are moving back to what they did pre-Beatles: create bands/acts. Britney, Hannah Montana, etc. are creating a new role for good writers.

In contrast, recording technology has advanced to the point where artists can easily put out their own music. Some of these artists, like Ani DiFranco, do quite well.... most don't.

But why chose either/or? R&B artist Shaffer Smith has had his own stuff in his own voice hit #1 under his stage name Ne-Yo... but he's also had his tunes become hits by Britney, Celine,Whitney...

In my opinion, that's the best way to go :)

*- Dylan and other folk artists were always writing their own stuff, but Dylan wasn't a big hit in the US until after the Beatles.