The Music BA: Music Business, Recording, and Production Track

When we watch films, listen to music, and play video games, it is often easy to overlook all of the people and labor behind the scenes. There is a sound engineer sitting at the mixer as an orchestra records a film score. There is a podcast editor trimming down a conversation. There are also lawyers drafting the licenses that allow artists to “sample” the music of others. If you want to become a professional in the music business, you'll need to learn how the industry works! The Music BA with a focus in music business, recording, and production approaches the study of music in just this way. In addition to taking traditional music history and theory classes, students take a sequence of courses in music technology, film and game scoring, music recording and production, and music entrepreneurship. Students will gain hands-on experience recording, producing, scoring, and drafting business plans through their coursework and final capstone project.

Every student declaring a Music BA elects to focus in either Music Performance; Musicology HiTEC; Jazz and American Music Studies; or Music Business, Recording, and Production. Regardless of their chosen area of focus, all students begin with a set of basic requirements that balance training in musicianship with methods for critical inquiry. Students electing to focus in Music Business, Recording, and Production complete additional, specialized coursework, leading to an individualized applied learning project. There is no audition, performance, or recital requirement for the Music BA track in Music Business, Recording, and Production. 

Degree Requirements (39 cr)

All students complete six courses (18 credits) of basic requirements:

  • MUSC 189 Elements of Music Theory
  • One course in the Elements of Musicology selected from:
    • MUSC 217 Jazz in America
    • MUSC 226 History of Western Music I
    • MUSC 227 History of Western Music II
    • MUSC 231 World Music
    •  MUSC 232 Folk Music in America
  • MUSC 256 Elements of Diatonic Harmony and Polyphony
  • MUSC 315 Music Analysis
  • MUSC 327 Thinking through Music
  • MUSC 330-9 Seminar in Musicology

Music Business, Recording, & Production courses (21 credits)

  • ACCT 102 – Introduction to Financial Accounting
    or ENON 110 – Introduction to Microeconomics
  • MUSC 102 - Introduction to Music Technology
  • MUSC 202 - Introduction to Music Business and Entrepreneurship
  • MUSC 302 - Music Recording and Production
  • MUSC 303 - Film and Game Scoring
  • MUSC 304 - Music Recording and Production II
  • MUSC 395 – Internship in Music Business or Production