- Andrew Butler,
Senior music business major
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Rose Marshack, associate professor of music business, helps a student with a group project before class. (Photo by Lynn Tangorra / Staff Photographer) |
Beyond the notes and rhythms, music is an ever-changing industry with universal influence. The music business major at ISU offers students the opportunity to merge the performance and business aspects of music to equip them for a career in the unpredictable industry.
According to Rose Marshack, associate professor of music business, the music business major provides students with an overall understanding of how the music industry functions and the role students play within it.
“The goal of the music business major is to expose students to the many aspects of the music industry; its parts, the flow of money through the industry, the different possible careers, and what it actually takes to make a living in this type of field,” Marshack said.
In addition to taking a handful of music classes including piano performance, music theory, and music history, the music business curriculum also requires students to venture into the School of Business for classes in marketing, accounting, or finance.
“There’s a bit of overlap of those concepts in the music business courses I teach,” said Marshack. “But in my classes, [students] also learn a lot more about social networking theory…they’ll get hands-on recording experience, and they’ll meet many speakers that I bring in through our classes [so that] they hear about real world scenarios in the music industry.”
For senior Andrew Butler, the decision to become a music business major after transferring from Iowa State University his sophomore year was a rational one given his musical background.
“It was a small major that was growing, and I had some interest in it,” Butler said. “I enjoyed mixing [music] and recording stuff; I had done a bit of it in high school and it seemed like the good route to go…if there’s any money in music I suppose you’ve got to find the business end of it.”
He added that the major is “more music and less business” with a curriculum that allows students to take classes from a variety of different art disciplines.
“I filled my electives with classes from the arts technology major and went a different direction with the music business degree. I went a little more away from business and went towards the production end of [the major],” he said.
Butler is currently enrolled in several sound engineering and design courses and hopes to one day develop video game audio for a major video game entertainment company such as Electronic Arts. When it comes to finding a career within the music industry, Marshack said it’s rare that students land the job they want to have right away.
“When they get out of college, there’s a good chance they’ll have a job that has nothing to do with the courses they took, and perhaps nothing to do with the degree itself,” she said. “My courses prepare my students to deal with this, make their own opportunities, network and learn as much as they can about everything because they may end up creating their own job in the field…maybe one that doesn’t exist right now.”
For Katie Steel, senior music business major, this is a reality she has learned to accept.
“I think that music business has prepared me to understand that it’s not going to be so easy,” Steel said. “I will need to put a lot of work and effort because my getting a job in this industry will be based on experience, not the fact that I have a degree in [music business].”
With her degree, Steele plans to travel to Toronto ON, Canada to become a concert-booking agent.
“My family is from Canada, and Toronto has a great music scene, so it seems like the perfect plan,” she said.
Prior to graduation, every music business major is required to complete a part-time internship of their choosing, paid or unpaid. Students must complete 48 hours of internship experience for every one credit hour that they sign up for.
“I have, in the past, found internships for students, but I don’t like to do that all the time because I’ve pulled some heavy strings to get a student an incredible internship only to have the student then decline to accept the position, so I let students find their own internships,” Marshack said.
Some internship possibilities include work at a local recording studio and audio technician positions at the Castle Theater in Downtown Bloomington.
Butler is currently in his third year as a student manager for the Bone Student Center’s production staff and works primarily with sound equipment that he operates for various performance venues throughout the school year. He said he feels his experience working with the production team has given him an upper-hand due to his ability to work hands on with a large variety of sound equipment on a daily basis.
While he is grateful for the knowledge the major has offered him thus far, Butler said the music business major could use some refinement.
“I think they could look at how much music, how much business, and how much the arts technology programs are all integrated and try to balance it all out a little bit more. There are a lot of options in the music business program, but at the same time it’s still limiting,” he said.
Steele echoed the need for improvements within the major.
“The biggest challenge of being a music business major is that it isn’t a very well developed program. We don’t have a ‘real’ recording studio or anything of the sort that students can use to gain more knowledge.”
Steel added that she would like to see the curriculum include more field-based study so that students are “able to gain a better sense of what we’ll realistically be involved in.”
Marshack said another challenge surrounding the music business major is the fact the music industry itself is constantly changing, so students and professors are forced to adapt more often than in most other majors.
Despite its shortcomings, Marshack said the music business major is one that is highly beneficial for majors and non-majors alike looking to be successful in the music industry.
“Our graduates are coming from a real, legitimate, accredited music program where they actually have to learn their ‘stuff,’” she said. “When they come out of the program they are very well-rounded and credible because they know technology, they know the business, and they actually are musicians, too.”