Summit 2016
April 1-2, Washington DC

Session 12: Saturday 3:15
Moderator: Bruce Ronkin

Robert Garfrerick
Professor and Eminent Scholar in Entertainment Industry
University of North Alabama

Does a MEIEA Core Curriculum Exist? A Survey of Practice

Programs and curricula in music business and entertainment industry exist in music departments, communication departments, colleges of business, and some other arrangements such as stand-alone departments and colleges. Because of this diversity, there may be the anecdotal perception that a core curriculum is hard to identify. This brief study will attempt to identify a core curriculum by what MEIEA member institutions do in actual practice. The database of Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) schools’ websites will be used to determine if a common core is implicated. Course titles as well as topic analysis will be considered. The limitations of the study will be to the music and entertainment business programs. No detailed analysis of audio or technology programs will be included, unless the program is broad enough to include both areas.


Doug Bielmeier
Assistant Professor, Music and Arts Production, Purdue School of Engineering
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Is a Degree in Audio Recording and Production a 360 Deal?

Both Recording Engineers and Artists have very specialized skills and talents that takes many years to develop. Even when comparing an aspiring engineer entering an Audio Recording and Production (ARP) program with an Artist signing a 360 deal with a major record label, there are similarities. An artist entering a 360 Deal will commonly give labels percentages of sales of recorded music, live performances, and even publishing; revenue streams that in traditional deals are only collected by the artist. In turn, the label agrees to provide a significant amount of financial support to develop the artist into a profitable product. Similarly, aspiring engineers invest a large amount of money to matriculate at formal ARP programs to gain the technical and musical training they will need in the recording industry. Both the artists and the aspiring engineers make these large investments to contend in the competitive industry landscape. However, only a handful of successful artists and engineers can earn enough money to make a return on their investment and maintain this high level of return throughout their careers.

Therefore, this presentation focuses on the return on investment (ROI) for aspiring engineers contemplating matriculation at a formal ARP program. Formulas will determine accrued debit, ROI after matriculation, career earning potential, regional cost-of-living factors, and skill improvement as a result of matriculation. Presented are three potential scenarios: two students matriculated at different formal ARP programs who accumulate disparate levels of debit and work in different regions as audio engineering technicians. The third aspiring engineer will not attend any formal ARP training. The presentation summarizes and compares the three aspiring engineers’ experiences; how their choice in ARP programs, or not, and their region of employment affected their ability to be successful in the industry.