Well, I'm already pretty much decided anyways so you probably won't change my mind but I wanted to get your opinions about my choice.

I'm looking for a career in the music industry (despite many warnings to stay out ) most likely as a producer/writer/performer. During initial research on where to go after highschool, it seemed the Berklee College of music was exactly what I was looking for. It's the only college that offered a songwriting degree. The problem is that I am Canadian and Berklee is in Boston, which is only 8-9 hours away from where I am but much too expensive. As I am an international student, I think it would have cost somewhere around 47,000$ a year for 4 years and on top of that I can't get a job while I'm over there cause I'm an international student. So, I opted for their online courses.

A masters ranges from 8,000$ to 11,000$ online, still alot but it seems worth it to me. The proffessors seem to have equivalent credentials online too, some of them having worked with huge companies and legendary artists to prove it. The learning experience incorporates discussion boards for members of the class to talk + the proffessor often posts in it, weekly assignements, reading assignements in textbooks and lots of interactive media to teach you the concepts. The best part is that acording to some people, you can hold down a 9-5 and take courses at the same time, and start paying back immediatly.

My objectives after graduating are either getting a high job at Sony or Universal or EMI or even starting my own indie record label. (I'm in a band, I'm starting to produce hip hop beats and my friend and I rap.)

Wise decision? I have till next year to make up my mind.
Sean

PS if anyone has had experience with Berklee Music Online please tell!

This post has been edited by PSTUBb: May 24 2007, 05:51 PM

I don't remember what college it was, but an old music teacher of mine had a son go to an New England college to study music, where they are a bit more rigorous in their application acceptions. I think that if you should go anywhere, you should go there to get a degree in composing music. It might be wise to not use an online course because it simply isn't the same as being in a classroom and doing the work hands on there.

Personally, I don't think you're going to get far in the entertainment industry - the failure rate is quite high and it takes a very creative mind(or a very clever one) to stay afloat and not get washed away via the lack of public appeal. If you really want to be in the industry, try composing for movies or video games rather than record labels since it's going to give you a much more secure financial future(if you pull if off right, you'll get a good rep in the minds of the developers and producers, and you can remain a popular choice in their minds, which will be much easier since games and movies will have scores tailored to time periods rather than the current trends).

Thanks! That's an excellent tip!

Yeah, one of the other things about Berklee in Boston is that it's hard to get into, they hold auditions and expect you to know quite a bit of theory aswell as some relative pitch training and sight reading etc.

Thanks for the tip on going into movies and video games. That's an awesome idea, I'm gonna look into how to get a foot into the industry. I agree that the failure rate is rather high in the music industry, so perhaps I can work out how I would go from movies and games to record labels or perhaps take a step up as I slowly gain a reputation for my music.

About the online experience though: It's true that you miss out on alot of stuff like classroom interaction and hands on messing around with gear, all the facilities and stuff, but I think that an online options suits me very well cause I usually spend 3-4 hours a day on the computer anyways, often more, and I've become adept to collecting and learning information online. Sometimes I'll spend an entire night just reading up on a topic and learning tons of new stuff.

Hmm.. well, we'll see I guess
A mistake isn't a failure if you learned from it imo.

I recommend you follow your dream but no as your main career. I highly recommend that you keep on producing music but on your own for now, there are plenty of forums where you can learn on how to get started with producing. I myself am doing this, My main objective right now is to keep on saving money to buy protools which is the industry standard and apparently the main tool used in Berklee.

I also had the same Idea like you about taking online courses, and I still have my mind set to it. Though I realized that it wouldnt make much sense to take the online course if I dont even have Protools to practice. My conclusion is to get protools and some good monitors, which I will have by the end/middle of June. Then I will compose and practice and until I feel ready I will take the online course, that way I will be able to take as much advantage of the course as I can.

I really do feel like I have the creativity and even If I dont ever make a job out of it I know I will have a really good time because music production is my hobby and just like you I have a Rock band, I am starting out a hip hop band and producing a couple of friends and I am also making electronic music as a dj (I guess my band does not fullfill me... Lol).

Currently I have an IT job, which is my main carreer and it also helps me buy all the expensive equiment and savings for the Berklee course. I recommend you do something similar because it will be very expensive and hard at the beginning and just like Tetraca said, the failure rate in this industry is really high.

Let me know if you need any advice on music production, I am not a pro yet, but I have plenty of experience. Maybe we might end up being online class mates in the Berklee online courses.

That would be pretty cool if we ended up in the same class! Well I've still got a year of high school to go so I will be starting most likely in September 08. I also have tons of experience, you can check out some of my tracks here at http://soundclick.com/SeanBlakeProductions however my latest beats are not uploaded yet. Perhaps we can trade advice or something. PM me your msn address if you have one
Sean

I've got a degree in music and I'll tell you, you'd better have something else to fall back on or you'll likely regret it. Making it big time in the music industry is not unlike making it big time in pro sports or acting. There's always going to be many many people vying for the same job but it'll be the one who knows someone who'll get the job. Talent, while a good thing, won't alone make you get that lucky break, it's who you know. If you have a solid EE Engineering degree too, or maybe another science degree that you can work in parallel with the music gig, that'd be ideal. That way, while you're some kind of starving musician, you can still afford to put a roof over your head, food in your mouth, and buy new toys for your real passion: music. Also, I hope you don't think music theory is going to be a walk in the park. It's anything but...

Well, I'll always have webdesign to fall back on since my partner and I have already made a few $ via some contracts at the university of Ottawa, so we've already got a sort of reputation building and I often spend several hours a day reading web design articles or just design articles in general, worse comes to worse I'll take a proper college degree in Web Media or something of the sort. As far as knowing people, I do have connections however it's more of a "friend of a friend of mine" type thing.

As far as the music theory goes, I do already have lots of theory from guitar lessons that I've applied to producing and to keyboard. Scales, Keys, Chord Building, Key Changing in a song, Rythm, Arpeggios, structure, aswell as a little bit of drums I picked up from the web like rolls and fills and basic patterns, flow w/e lol I don't know the proper names for it, most of what I know about drum patterns comes from experimenting and holding tempo comes from playing guitar/keys with metronome. So basically I know quite a bit and I'm contantly learning already so when I hit Berklee it hopefully won't be that steep of a hill to climb.

I've always loved art in most forms, with the music, the webdesign (large part of which is art), street art/graffiti, acting/drama, it's always been part of my life so if I can turn it into a living then that's what I'll do. My purpous is to be heard.

Sean

PS Metronomes are awesome if you have one, use it, if you don't, buy one.

Why don't you try to go to some college in Europa?It's much cheaper...In wiena for example...