Graduate programs in music management prepare students to manage artists, studios, venues and other music businesses, agencies and organizations. The spectrum of knowledge taught in a master's program in management includes promotion, marketing, merchandising, recording technology and financial planning and oversight. Some management programs also include training in other forms of media, such as television, video and print media.
A master's degree in sound recording allows students to study the advanced and most current sound recording practices and technologies. A focused graduate program in sound recording provides the opportunity for students to elevate their ability to hear and analyze tonality and to transfer it effectively into electronic and digital formats. Students will often also get the chance to take music classes, to delve into experimental technologies and sound mixing, to study the theories of sound and music, and to get hand-on experience by interning in actual recording studios.
To become a music lawyer, look for university law departments that offer degrees in entertainment or media law. Music lawyers can advise and represent performers as well as music businesses. A major part of studying entertainment law is learning intellectual property laws. Music lawyers often assist in business negotiations, distribution agreements and synchronization rights. Graduates can go on to work for firms, represent artists and composers, or can be in-house attorneys working for recording studios, PR firms and talent agencies.
For those interested in an academic and scholarly approach to music, a musicology program teaches students to study the history of music, various ethnic and cultural origins of music, the philosophy of music and even the science of music and its effects on the mind and body. A musicologist might be compared to an anthropologist, seeking to uncover the nature, history and psychology of a particular realm or genre of music so that it can be applied to larger issues of humanity. Musicology majors can go on to teach and conduct research at a university, work as a consultant or historian in a museum or cultural center, conduct grant funded research and to write books as well as articles or critical reviews for music publications.