Certificate in Music/Recording Industry
The Music/Recording Industry program is designed for those who want to learn more about the music business and recording industry through a structured course of study. Musicians, producers, engineers, lawyers, agents, promoters, managers and entertainment writers can all benefit from MRI courses. The program integrates technical skills in recording, business and legal aspects, along with production elements to provide foundations in the music business and the audio engineering field.
Program faculty are selected for their expertise in the technical or business aspects of the music/recording industry and for their outstanding teaching ability.
The Music/Recording Industry Certificate is designed both for the student who wants an overall basic education in the business of music/recording and for the professional who is seeking to broaden an area of expertise. Course work in the program may be applied toward the certificate or individual classes may be taken to learn or update skills. Students may choose to pursue a technical audio engineering or a business emphasis or apply the academic credit earned in this program towards a degree in related subject areas. Job categories include artist management, professional songwriter, record producer, audio engineer, music publicist, music journalist, talent producer, agent, record promotion, record distribution, studio manager, music publishing, concert production and booking, legal, and touring.
To be admitted to the certificate program, students should have completed 56 units of academic credit or have sufficient experience to demonstrate they can perform upper division work. Students who do not have 56 units may be accepted on probation and are encouraged to apply. Students may enroll in up to nine units before applying to a certificate program.
The certificate program's course content requires good writing skills. Certificate students are asked to demonstrate their writing ability soon after admission to the certificate program to satisfy the university literacy requirement. Those who do not have the necessary writing skills are referred to a course offered regularly through the continuing education program: ENG 414, Elements of Writing.
The certificate program requires completion of 24 semester units. Fifteen units must be taken from a core of courses shown below, and the remaining nine may be chosen from the following list of elective courses.
For complete course descriptions, contact the program director.
Required Courses | |
MRI 310 | Beginning Music Recording Workshop |
MRI 315 | Intermediate Music Recording Workshop |
MRI 350 | History of the Popular Music Industry |
MRI 360 | Legal Aspects of the Music/Recording Industry |
MRI 330 or | Music Business Publicity |
MRI 340 | Music Artist Management |
Elective Courses | |
MRI 330 or | Music Business Publicity |
MRI 340 | Music Artist Management |
MRI 320 | Music Mixing Workshop |
MRI 327 | Role of the Record Producer |
MRI 334 | Popular Music and the Media |
MRI 335 | Audio for Visual Media/Protools Workshop |
MRI 342 | History and Aesthetics of Popular Music Record Production |
MRI 345 | Concert Production and Booking |
MRI 346 | Record Distribution |
MRI 347 | Touring Aspects of the Music Industry |
MRI 348 | Independent Record Labels: A-Z |
MRI 352 | Artist and Repertoire in the Popular Music Industry |
MRI 354 | Record Company Operations |
MRI 355 | Music Industry Career Options |
MRI 356 | Popular Music and Cultural Exchange |
MRI 362 | Music Publishing |
MRI 370 | Seminar in the Music Recording Industry [Topics will vary and be offered on a rotating basis] |
MRI 374 | Music/Recording Industry and the Internet |
MRI 380 | Field Study in the Music Recording Industry |
MRI 430 | Advanced Audio Production I |
MRI 530 | Advanced Audio Production II |
MRI 535 | Post-production Audio Workshop |
Additional elective courses are announced to students as they are offered. |