A growing number of educational institutions give students the opportunity to learn about the music business with hands-on experience and classes taught by teachers active in the industry. The 6 schools listed here respond to the changes shaping the education and music business, preparing students to be successful across a diverse range of skills:

1. Berklee College of Music (Boston)

The Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE) aims to prepare students for careers as entrepreneurs in music management. The Institute encourages new products, services and businesses in the creative industries. Among the program’s offered is the Berklee ICE Tempo Accelerator which is both a research lab and a room for new business products and ideas. Berklee is the first non-profit organisation to offer an online bachelors of professional studies degree in the music business.

2. Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University (Nashville, TN)

The need for critical thinking and problem solving is a constant in music management and this is incorporated into the Curb College approach to the changing music business workplace. Curb College takes full advantage of its location in Music City with intern-ships for their students in central Nashville.

3. The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY)

Students seeking the bachelor of science in the music industry at Saint Rose complete an intern-ship with a music company and take courses in music business, song-writing/composition, and record engineering and production. Student performing groups include commercial music ensembles that develop and record original material, as well as jazz ensembles, orchestras and choirs.

4. Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, Tenn.)

The department of recording industry is one of the largest programs of its kind, with an enrolment of around fifteen hundred students. With excellent faculty, facilities, intern-ship programs and a student-run record label, the department offers courses in digital media, new business models, soundtrack design, song-writing and branding, together with traditional programs in publicity, concert promotion and artist management

5. The Harris Institute (Toronto)

Through its arts management program, the Harris Institute offers a fast-track one-year diploma program that features sixty courses that focus on evolving technologies and business models to entrepreneurial opportunities. Students are taught by professionals who are currently active in the field, who cover all areas of the industry.

6. New Jersey City University (Jersey City, NJ)

The music business program provides students with a cooperative education experience, arranging for intern-ships at major record labels, talent agencies, cultural arts venues, publishers, artist management firms and other areas of student interest. The curriculum is flexible to respond to new business models, yet is grounded in best practises and a thorough knowledge of the history and development of the music business.