Business side of music new MSU emphasis
By TOMMY DILLARD
Staff Writer
Beginning next spring, the Murray State University music department will offer a third program for its undergraduate students. In addition to performance and music education programs, students will have the option to add an emphasis in music business.
Taking a cue from other successful programs that have benefited from close proximity to extensive music business opportunities in Nashville, the department will add an emphasis to its bachelor of science in music degree - an emphasis that will focus on the business side of music.
The new program gained approval from the MSU Academic Council in April. Currently, an advisory board made up of Murray State officials and Nashville music business professionals with MSU ties is currently meeting to determine the direction the program will take.
Pam Wurgler, department chair and member of the advisory board, said the department wanted to offer an option to music students who weren't satisfied with the two emphases on the table.
“There is a real interest in what could I do if I don't want to be a public school music teacher and what could I do if I don't want to perform professionally,” Wurgler said. “This is the route that says you're still a musician, you can still play or sing professionally, but you've got career options.”
The first course, introduction to the music industry, is slated to be offered for the first time beginning in January and will serve as a pilot of sorts, to test response and work out kinks. The class will be a survey course similar to other introduction courses and will be open to non-majors.
Once the program is fully implemented, three new classes will be offered - the introduction as well as two seminars in music business that will be offered at the junior level. The classes will serve to tie together concepts students have learned from their separate music and business classes.
“We'll take the business things they've learned about accounting, marketing, economics and public relations and put them into a music context,” Wurgler said. “In other words, what do musicians need to know about marketing? What do musicians need to know about copyright? And so forth.”
The department hopes to hire a new full-time professor by next fall to oversee the program, place students in internships and teach the three classes. Wurgler said she is currently looking for an adjunct to teach the introduction class in the spring.
In addition to requiring classes, the program will place students in an internship during their senior year in order to gain practical, real-world experience. Possible internship placements for early field experience could include the Carson Four Rivers Center in Paducah, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts in Madisonville and Riverpark Center in Owensboro. The department will attempt to utilize connections in Nashville and place students there for senior-level internships.
“We hope the members of the advisory board will be sources of placement for our internships as well,” Wurgler said. “Once they take interns, they can start giving us feedback and say ‘They were really prepared in this area, but they weren't prepared in this other area.' It will be an ongoing assessment, which is really good for a program like this.”
The program will prepare students for many different careers in the music industry, ranging from music publishing, artist management, copyright law and management in the recording industry. What the program won't do is train students to be actual recorders. It won't offer studio recording technology programs; those are better left to music business giants Belmont and Middle Tennessee State, Wurgler said.
“At this time we don't have that equipment,” she said. “We now defer students to (Belmont and MTSU). Those are the state-of-the-art schools in that area. We don't need to duplicate that.”
MSU used a music business program at Eastern Kentucky University as one of its models, Wurgler said. Music business is the biggest trend in university music education, she added, and it's important that MSU get on board.
“We found that the music business, or the non-performance part of music, is becoming a big thing everywhere at all the universities as far as another career for people who want to enter into a music program,” she said.
Wurgler said the program should attract students already enrolled in MSU's Department of Music as well as serve as a recruiting tool for the department. She stressed, however, that the program is directed strictly at students of music.
“It's for students that already play an instrument or sing and would like to have an option that's not public school music teacher or performance,” she said.
The next task at hand for Wurgler and the program is that it has to be approved by the department's accrediting agency, the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM).
“We have to show them what we plan to do, meet certain criteria, show what resources we have for the program, so that's what I'm working on this summer,” she said.
If all goes according to plan, the program should obtain accreditation this winter in time to prepare for a launching next fall.
“We're really excited about the program,” she said. “Our performance and music education programs are really strong, but this gives us a new aspect.”
Story created Jul 24, 2007 - 11:05:23 EDT.
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