A fair question I get asked every couple of days is the following:
“Is college even necessary for a music career?”
I get what they are asking…
Beethoven did not go to college for music. Neither did Taylor Swift.
It is true that plenty of musicians did not go to college for music.
At the end of the day, what is true no matter what is that as long as you play music that people like, or do something in the music industry that is valuable, you can make a career.
So, it might sound like I am saying that you don’t need a degree…
But the truth is hardly this simple.
Let’s examine the facts and see if a music degree is necessary…
Employment Opportunities in Ensembles
If you plan to be an employed musician, such as in an orchestra, university, opera, or even in Broadway, you most certainly need a degree in music.
Well over 99% of all musicians employed in a major professional orchestra, opera company, and in tenured professorships have music degrees.
Classical Music and the Bachelor’s degree are forever intertwined…
The world of classical performance is dominated by degrees.
Even the absolute most famous, rarefied individuals in the world of classical music, people like Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Lang Lang, Renee Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Nico Muhly, Joshua Bell…
Even these people have degrees from major music institutions.
But it does not end at classical music…
Almost everyone performing on Broadway either has a degree in music, or at least some level of university training.
Music Producing & Technology
It is true you can point to some very famous producers, such as Calvin Harris, and note that they never went to school for music.
The majority of musicians who make a living producing did go to college for music technology, production, and engineering.
Why is this?
Most musicians start their producing careers producing for other artists or for major companies.
The tasks one must be able to do include a variety of knowledge-intensive jobs; recording, mixing, mastering, editing, microphones, are all fair game.
When a professional artist, or sound company, is looking for someone to do work for them, they want to be assured that this person has tremendous experience.
These people, especially the corporations, know that four years studying the ins and outs of music production, recording, and technology at a university is more than enough time to learn the essentials.
As a result, most employed professional producers have a degree in music.
And I am not simply talking about solo electronic music producers.
I am talking about the majority of producers, those who run live sound for venues, recording for studios, programming for artists…
Almost all of these people went to school to do what they loved.
Becoming a Music Teacher
Far and away, the most popular music profession in the country is music education.
Teaching music can be extremely rewarding for the right individual.
If you are a musician now, don’t you remember who first taught you music?
Imagine being able to give that gift to dozens of people.
It can be one of the great professions.
However, unless you are planning on only teaching privately outside of any institution, you will need a degree.
Public K-12 institutions typically require their teachers to have degrees in music.
And, it is almost always a requirement at the university level. VERY FEW professors do not have a degree – they would have to be unbelievably accomplished to get a job without a Master’s or Doctoral degree.
Being a Solo Musician, Songwriter, or Independent Professional
This is the one that many people think has a large grey area.
It is technically true that you don’t need a degree to make it as a solo artist or independent professional.
However, it is for these kinds of careers exactly that a degree is entirely useful.
When you are starting out your first 5 years as a professional, where do you make your first contacts?
How do you establish a network of other professional musicians?
Where can you find a mentor who is also successful guiding you through this landscape?
After all, would you rather do everything on your own and make every mistake in the book, or would you rather study under a mentor who is successful and can show you the way towards success?
Now you are starting to realize why nearly everyone that did not go to school don’t make it.
These are some of the intangibles that a college education bridges the gap in.
College introduces you to many of the people that will help you in your own career.
Even myself, as someone who ended up as a professional college consultant instead of composer, still utilize, on a weekly basis, very valuable contacts I made during my undergraduate degree at University of Michigan.
Without a college degree, many musicians do not even know where to begin…
Maturity and Growth
If you are reading this and have already gone to college, how different were you before college vs. after college?
You would say probably pretty different, and for the better.
Outside of all the technicalities of whether a degree is necessary, simply going to college is entirely beneficial for someone’s social skills and growth.
Learning to collaborate with other people, working in team settings, getting a well-rounded education…
These are beneficial for anyone’s soul.
Other Music Professions – Setting Yourself Apart
Music therapists, managers, A&R reps, entertainment attorneys, film composers, jazz performers…
I can tell you that over 97% of these people have degrees in music or a related field.
One of these jobs, music therapy, has very important requirements to obtain licensure, including getting a degree in music from an AMTA (American Music Therapy Association) approved school.
Bottom Line
I subscribe to the belief that if you really want something badly enough, you can find the wherewithal to go and get it regardless of your background.
Whether or not you have a college degree should not stop you from pursuing what you want to pursue in your life.
THAT SAID, having a music degree makes everything a whole lot easier.
If you want to establish specific contacts, connections, etc. in the music industry…
Or get an employed position in music…
Having a music degree gives you the foundations for a future doing the one thing you love beyond measure.
