Music/Recording Industry

College of Extended Learning
Dean: Gail Whitaker

Music/Recording Industry Program (MRI)

835 Market Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-817-4237
Fax: 415-817-4299
Program Director: Greg Gaston

Program Coordinator—Joy Thompson joyla@sfsu.edu

Program

Certificate in Music/Recording Industry

Program Scope

The Music/Recording Industry program is designed for those who want to learn more about the music business and recording industry through a structured program 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.

Faculty

Program faculty are selected for their expertise in the technical or business aspects of the music/recording industry and for their outstanding teaching ability.

Career Outlook

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.

CERTIFICATE IN MUSIC/RECORDING INDUSTRY (MRI)

Admission to Program

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.

Writing Skills

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. Nine units must be taken from a core of courses shown below, then twelve units chosen from your chosen emphasis (Audio Engineering or Music Business) and the remaining three may be chosen from the following list of elective courses.

For complete course descriptions, contact the program director.