Please do not remove this page

“Success” and the Jazz Musician: An Examinationof Five College Music Entrepreneurship CoursesOffered to Undergraduate Jazz StudentsShapiro, Jacob Aaronhttps://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/delivery/01UOML_INST:ResearchRepository/12395728840002976?l#13395899010002976

Shapiro. (2021). “Success” and the Jazz Musician: An Examination of Five College Music EntrepreneurshipCourses Offered to Undergraduate Jazz Students [University of Miami].https://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991031654916402976/01UOML_INST:ResearchRepository

Downloaded On 2022/07/20 21:09:12 -0400Open

Please do not remove this page

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

“SUCCESS” AND THE JAZZ MUSICIAN: AN EXAMINATION OF FIVE COLLEGE MUSIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSES

OFFERED TO UNDERGRADUATE JAZZ STUDENTS

By

Jacob Aaron Shapiro

A DOCTORAL ESSAY

Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

Coral Gables, Florida

December 2021

©2021 Jacob Aaron Shapiro All Rights Reserved

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

A doctoral essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Musical Arts

“SUCCESS” AND THE JAZZ MUSICIAN: AN EXAMINATION OF FIVE COLLEGE MUSIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSES

OFFERED TO UNDERGRADUATE JAZZ STUDENTS

Jacob Aaron Shapiro

Approved: ________________ ________________ Martin Bejerano, M.M. John Daversa, D.M.A. Associate Professor Professor and Chair of Jazz Piano Performance Studio Music and Jazz ________________ ________________ Kathryn Reid, D.M.A. David Ake, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Program Director Professor and Chair of Jazz Vocal Performance Musicology ________________ ________________ Melvin Butler, Ph.D. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Associate Professor Dean of the Graduate School Musicology

SHAPIRO, JACOB AARON (D.M.A., Instrumental Performance)

(December 2021) “Success” and the Jazz Musician: An Examination of Five College Music Entrepreneurship Courses Offered to Undergraduate Jazz Students Abstract of a doctoral essay at the University of Miami. Doctoral essay supervised by Associate Professor Martin Bejerano. No. of pages in text. (191)

This essay evolved from my own experiences as a professional musician. After

leaving music school for the first time and moving to a new city, I felt lost trying to

navigate my own career. Although I thought I was a decent performer, I was lacking

important skills I needed to be a successful musician. As I experienced myself, and

witnessed colleagues experience, being a good player will only get you so far as a

musician.

In today’s music industry, musicians need to be more self-sufficient than ever.

Jazz currently accounts for roughly one percent of music consumed in the United States.

That, along with little governmental or institutional support for jazz music in this country

and an ever-rising number of artists means burgeoning jazz musicians need to be well

equipped with the tools to overcome these obstacles.

I believe there is a strong need for an examination of the current pedagogy in

order to determine how to better prepare jazz students to build and manage their careers.

This essay is an exploration of five music entrepreneurship courses offered to

undergraduate jazz students in music schools worldwide. Much of the research

incorporated throughout came from interviews with the teachers of these music

entrepreneurship courses along with undergraduate jazz students to better understand

what is currently being taught and what jazz students believe they should be learning in

these classes.

Additional interviews were held with renowned jazz artists to see how they have

managed their careers. The primary purposes of this essay are to see what’s currently

taught in these music entrepreneurship courses and to determine if the information

presented relates to a modern jazz career, ultimately to better understand the fundamental

tools needed to build a career as a jazz musician today. I hope that this project will serve

as a guide for educators as well as young musicians who are starting to think about their

career outside of music school.

iii

For Sid and Cissy, Bud and Rae.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Working on this essay these past two years was an incredible pursuit, and one I

wasn’t always sure I’d finish. This was an eye-opening, and hopefully a once-in-a-

lifetime, experience from which I’ve greatly benefited. I would be remiss if I didn’t

recognize and express my gratitude to the many people whose unwavering support got

me through this arduous process.

First and foremost, to my “Dream Team” - Kate, Melvin, John, David, and Martin

- I couldn’t have asked for better mentors. You challenged me not to take the easy way

out and develop something more substantial and worthwhile. Kate, you were always

looking out for me and offered your support whenever I needed it. Melvin, you are

unequaled. You always encouraged me to think outside the box. John, you brought the

sunshine, the rainbows, and the 847. David, there’s always next year. I relished being

your office neighbor these past few years. To all of you, I am so grateful for your

guidance through this time. Martin, there are truly no words to express how appreciative I

am to have had you as a mentor and a friend for the past decade. During this degree

specifically, I cherished the opportunity to work alongside and share a Whole Foods, I

mean, an office with you. Thank you for everything.

To all my Pool of Experts, the instructors of these music entrepreneurship

courses, the students and musicians I interviewed, the staff and administrators who

helped get me in touch with the right people, and anyone else involved in this project, this

project would not have been possible without your participation and contribution. There

v

is not a lot written on entrepreneurship for jazz musicians. This essay is a product of your

words.

I am a lifelong Frosty. Thank you to everyone in the Frost community. Thierry,

you are the heart and soul of the jazz department. Manny, aka the knower of all things, I

depended on you for virtually everything. Any time I had a question, you always had an

answer. Thank you for all your help throughout my time at Frost. Shelly, you brought me

down to Miami. You have been an incredible source of knowledge and advice and I

appreciate all the opportunities you have provided me. I am forever grateful for your

mentorship. If any MSJ students are reading this, always remember the jazz department is

your family.

Thank you to all my roommates in Miami. Thank you to all my friends who

constantly badgered me and asked, “Are you done YET?” I sincerely appreciate you all

checking in with me. To Laura, you introduced me to this world and instilled a passion in

me. To Jim, you sparked the fire. Thank you and Laurie for providing a home away from

home. To Martin E., you have been a positive and influential presence in my life the past

five years. Thank you for all your support.

Lastly, the biggest thank you to my family, both the Shapiros and the Pookies. To

Danny, Traci, Val, and Lee, I couldn’t have done this without you.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 7 3 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 22 4 NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC………………………… 27 5 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI…………………………………………………... 42 6 MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC……………………………………… 61 7 IMEP PARIS COLLEGE OF MUSIC……………………………………….. 75 8 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS……… 84 9 POOL OF EXPERTS (PART 1)……………………………………………... 100 10 POOL OF EXPERTS (PART 2)…………………………………………….... 109 11 POOL OF EXPERTS (PART 3)……………………………………………... 114 12 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………. 124 Appendix A NEC SYLLABUS……………………………………………………………. 147 B UM SYLLABUS .............................................................................................. 157 C MSM SYLLABUS ........................................................................................... 160 D IMEP SYALLABUS ........................................................................................ 163 E WAAPA SYLLABI AND STUDENT REVIEWS .......................................... 167 WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………... 186

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page Table 1 Class Info Comparison ..................................................................................... 126 2 Course Relevance to a Jazz Career (Student Perspective) ............................... 128 3 Jazz-Specific Music Entrepreneurship Course (Student Perspective) .............. 128 4 Jazz-Specific Music Entrepreneurship Course (Teacher Perspective) ............. 129 5 If Courses Include Guest Speakers and Alumni ............................................... 130 6 If Students Want to Hear from Guest Speakers and Alumni ............................ 131 7 If Teachers are Performing Musicians ............................................................. 131 8 If Students Prefer to Learn from Performing Musicians .................................. 132 9 Differences in How Jazz Musicians Make a Living Abroad ............................ 136 10 Supplementing Performing Career with Other Things ..................................... 137 11 Differences in Societal Views of Musicians Abroad ....................................... 137 12 Notion of the Starving Artist ............................................................................ 137 13 Governmental Support for the Arts in Abroad ................................................. 138 Figure 1 Comparison of POE Responses to Course Content .......................................... 141 2 Comparison of Student Responses by Schools ................................................ 143

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION How does a jazz musician get one million dollars? - They start with two million.

I’ve heard this joke many times over the years, often shared by musicians on the

bandstand. While it is funny, it highlights a common assumption of a career in jazz: it’s

difficult to make a living as a jazz musician.1 This sentiment is widely accepted amongst

musicians due to the lack of governmental support for the arts, a declining number of jazz

clubs and venues nationwide, subpar wages, and the ever-rising number of skilled jazz

musicians.2 Yet, in spite of these factors, making a living as a jazz musician is not

impossible.

A common path many young jazz musicians take is to enroll in a four-year

undergraduate college jazz program. Oftentimes, this is where these students build the

foundation of their musical community: connections that they will later use to advance

their careers as jazz musicians. However, in my experience as a graduate of a four-year

undergraduate jazz program and a two-year masters jazz program, it is my belief that jazz

students are often ill-prepared to build and traverse their careers upon graduating from

college.

Historically, core classes within many jazz departments include, but are not

limited to, improvisation, composition and arranging, jazz history, performance

1 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat: A Study of the Worklife of Jazz Musicians, Volume 1: Executive Summary, by Joan Jeffri, NEA Research Division Report #43, 2003. 2 Stuart Nicholson, Is Jazz Dead? Or Has It Moved to a New Address (New York: Routledge, 2005).

2

ensembles, and lessons with a private instructor.3 Today, music entrepreneurship courses

are becoming more commonplace within college jazz programs, some even requiring it to

graduate. I believe that jazz majors need to be better prepared to navigate their careers

upon graduation and that music entrepreneurship courses are a way to facilitate this need.

If a music entrepreneurship class is a clear way college jazz students can learn about the

business of their careers, then these courses must provide the pertinent information for a

career in jazz. Due to the rapidly changing nature of the music industry, music

entrepreneurship courses need to stay current and relevant enough to reflect the ever-

evolving landscape of a music career.

This essay primarily functions as a survey of the information currently taught in

college music entrepreneurship courses offered to undergraduate jazz students at five

institutions with renowned jazz programs, three of which are in the United States and two

are abroad. Additional purposes of this project include:

• Discovering what music entrepreneurship teachers deem important to include in their courses

• Identifying what undergraduate jazz students wish to learn from these courses

• Comparing the entrepreneurial attributes a select group of prominent jazz artists believe is needed in a modern jazz career with the information taught in the college music entrepreneurship courses examined

• Highlighting alternative models of building a career as a jazz musician

3 Jerry Coker, The Teaching of Jazz (Rottenburg N., West Germany: Advance Music, 1989), 36

3

Most of the information discussed throughout this essay is from interviews conducted

with students and teachers, as well as successful, professional jazz musicians. This will

be illustrated in greater detail in Chapter 3.

Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as the act of determining a need in a market

and satisfying that need.4, 5 However, in the context of a music career, entrepreneurship is

trickier to define. There has been much discourse between educators about what

constitutes arts entrepreneurship and how to define it.6 It seems as though any attempt at

an absolute definition of the word would be too restrictive; something would surely be

left out. In college music programs, music entrepreneurship courses may cover topics

such as music entertainment industry studies, arts administration, the general music

business, and the “career toolbox,” which includes skills like networking, fundraising,

marketing, and creating a brand.7

Jeffrey Nytch, the director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at University

of Colorado Boulder, believes that entrepreneurship is the chain that links all these facets

of a music career together. According to Nytch, “Entrepreneurial thinking and action

have an equally essential role to play in arts administration, the commercial music

4 It’s important to note that there are various subgenres of jazz that all have different markets. There are different jazz scenes within a community that all cater to different people and might require varying skill sets. 5 Gary Beckman, “Career Development for Music Students: Towards a Holistic Approach,” South Central Music Bulletin III, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 16, accessed November 21, 2019, https://www.music.org/pdf/conf/reg/sc/SCMB_III_1.pdf. 6 Ben Toscher, “Entrepreneurial Learning in Arts Entrepreneurship Education: A Conceptual Framework,” Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts 8, no. 1 (Winter 2019): 14, https://artivate.org/artivate/article/view/85/73. 7 Jeffrey Nytch, “The Many Facets of Music Entrepreneurship Education,” Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education 2, no. 1 (2020): 33, https://journalaee.org/index.php/jaee/article/view/53/37.

4

business and the single performer’s portfolio career.”8 Another perspective would be to

consider entrepreneurship more as a philosophy, or a set of principles.9

In my opinion, being entrepreneurial as a musician is the process of creating

opportunities for oneself and having the know-how to see those opportunities through.

However, it is not my goal to try and define music entrepreneurship, but rather provide

context to better understand it and the college music courses presented in this essay.

While I don’t think there is a clear distinction between music business and music

entrepreneurship courses, I think that much of what’s taught in music business classes fits

under the umbrella of music entrepreneurship, though music business classes may be a

little more concerned with the legalities of music, incorporating subjects like music

licensing and royalties, music publishing, copyright law, contracts, music distribution,

performance rights organizations, artist management, and booking agencies.10 In his

doctoral dissertation entitled, Jazz, Serious Business: The Teaching and Learning of

Entrepreneurship in College Jazz Programs and its Impact on Jazz Musicians’ Careers,

Mark Tonelli notes the material presented in some music business classes may also be

taught in music entrepreneurship courses. He writes, “While there may be some overlap,

music business may only include one piece of the overall entrepreneurship package and

may not necessarily inculcate the self-proprietor competencies needed to build a career as

an independent artist.”11

8 Nytch, 33. 9 Beckman, “Career Development,” 16. 10 Mark Louis Tonelli, “Jazz, Serious Business: The Teaching and Learning of Entrepreneurship in College Jazz Programs and its Impact on Jazz Musicians’ Careers” (Ed.D. diss., Teachers College, Columbia University, 2015), 6, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 11 Tonelli, 6.

5

The notion of success seems to be an integral part of many music

entrepreneurship courses. Much like entrepreneurship, success doesn’t have a clear

definition. However, unlike entrepreneurship, success is often thought of as unique to the

individual defining it, and one’s view of success may change and evolve over time.12 In

the United States, success is often related to the amount of money one has.13 Author Ari

Herstand explains that those outside of the music industry often attribute success to

superstardom.14 Another perspective comes from an article in the business magazine Inc.,

which states that the only way to determine success is to frame one’s definition in terms

of their happiness.15

For the purposes of this study, I have chosen to focus on these three major

parameters of success: financial or professional, musical or creative, and personal

success. Yet, it’s important to remember that there is not only one way to define success,

and it is measured in a way unique and personal to the person defining it. I am not trying

to define success, but rather determine the things that have led to the successes of the

panel of experts I interviewed, which might help lead other jazz musicians to their own

versions of success. Additionally, I was curious to see if and how success is presented

within the contexts of a music entrepreneurship course. In conducting this research, I

sought to learn how one’s definition of success might influence how they approach their

music career.

12 Angela Myles Beeching, Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 6. 13 Ibid. 14 Ari Herstand, How to Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician, 2nd ed. (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020), 13. 15 Jeff Haden, “The Only Definition of Success That Matters: To a Small-Business Owner, To an Employee, To Anyone, There is Only One Way to Determine Success,” Inc., February 6, 2020, https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-only-definition-of-success-that-matters.html.

6

I believe a primary goal of a music entrepreneurship course should be to facilitate

an easier transition from school to the so-called real world and to give the students a

better understanding of how to make a living as a working musician. To quote the poet

Shel Silverstein, “There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street

begins.”16, 17 Much like the transition from the sidewalk to the street, the transition from

school to the post-school environment can be very daunting, especially if the student feels

unprepared to walk into the busy street and begin their careers.

In my experience as a professional musician, I have found that being a successful

musician is much more than being a good player. I think undergraduate jazz students

would benefit from a more comprehensive and relatable entrepreneurship education. The

research conducted in this essay has provided a unique opportunity to learn what works

well and what may be lacking from music entrepreneurship courses in programs

throughout the world. This project also exposes some of the ways in which successful

jazz artists have advanced their careers. Ultimately, I hope this project will serve as a

useful tool for students and teachers alike in discovering the skills needed to be a working

and successful jazz musician in today’s music industry.

16 Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 64. 17 Linda Holzer, “Where the Sidewalk Ends: Helping Music Majors Connect with the Musical Community After Graduation,” American Music Teacher 52, no. 5 (April/May 2003): 26, https://www.mtna.org/downloads/Informed/AMT/AMT%20AOY/2003AOY.pdf.

7

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter primarily explores scholarship pertaining to jazz and music

entrepreneurship, the books that are often required texts for music entrepreneurship

courses, and various studies exposing some of the realities of the working lives of jazz

musicians and arts graduates. There is not a lot written about jazz entrepreneurship in

practice or in higher education. It is a relatively new subject to college jazz departments,

but more and more programs are adding music entrepreneurship courses to their

curriculums. The works to be discussed throughout this chapter will inform what has

already been written and explore what need might exist for more relevant music

entrepreneurship instruction for college jazz students. This literature review is organized

by the type of piece written: articles, dissertations, books, and studies.

Articles and Dissertations

In an article written for the popular jazz magazine DownBeat titled, “Designing

Your Career - The Missing Link in Jazz Education,” GRAMMY Award-winning

drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. discusses the lack of formal career-building education within

college jazz departments. 18 Owens recalls his time at the Juilliard School of Music,

noting that “like most conservatories, there is a very antiquated approach to the business

18 Ulysses Owens Jr., “Designing Your Career: The Missing Link in Jazz Education,” DownBeat, November 2018, 74-76, accessed November 21, 2019, http://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2018/DB1811/74-75.html.

8

of music. I was taught what to study (the history of jazz), and what to play, but I was not

taught how to take all those components and create a career.”19 He describes the

difference between making a living as a musician and designing a career. According to

Owens, making a living as a musician implies a financial emphasis on the gigs one takes,

while designing a music career involves being “strategic about the placement” of each

performance, developing relationships, and building “your mind and your talent.”20 He

found that this “antiquated approach” to jazz education is a pattern seen throughout jazz

programs all around the world.21 Having spent ten years enrolled in jazz departments

myself, I have noticed this same old-fashioned model of jazz education.

Owens suggests that another possible reason for this archaic model of a jazz

curriculum might be because professional musicians have traditionally looked down upon

institutionalized jazz programs.22 Historically, jazz was learned and passed down in real

life scenarios, not in school. Young, eager musicians sought out mentors to learn from.

However, currently, the standard path most young jazz musicians take is to study jazz in

a college program. One could argue that college jazz programs have become the new

apprenticeship model of the past, as jazz programs provide its students private lessons

with an instructor.23 Owens explains that this stigma toward institutionalized jazz

programs is “still very much prevalent within jazz education, with scores of professional

musicians feeling that if you are truly talented, school is no place for you.” He feels that

“this attitude is one of the main reasons why within jazz programs, the subject of teaching

19 Owens, 74. 20 Ibid. 21 Owens, 75. 22 Ibid. 23 Nate Chinen, “Jazz Apprentices Still Find Their Masters,” New York Times, July 20, 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/arts/music/jazz-and-its-changing-apprenticeship-systems.html.

9

business and entrepreneurship is taboo, because there is a degree of learning that is still

reserved for outside the institution.”24 While this stance on institutionalized jazz is more

common amongst older jazz musicians, I have witnessed its underlying effects still being

felt today within college jazz programs.

Owens references a New York Times titled, “The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years

Later.” The author, Daniel Wakin, notes that most musicians often forget that talent isn’t

the only thing needed to be successful. He compares going to music school with

compulsive gamblers, saying that it’s “one big bet, but the drive to study music is so

blinding, and doing anything else so inconceivable, that young players are oblivious to

the risk.”25 Owens informs that it is the responsibility of jazz educators to “give this new

generation answers, instead of just telling them how to preserve the art form of jazz.” He

asks, “How will they survive? How will they build sustainable careers? How will what

they love and study create a life for them?”26 Ultimately, Owens believes college jazz

programs need to do more to teach students how to design a career in music, not simply

making a living as a musician.

Mark Tonelli’s doctoral dissertation, Jazz, Serious Business: The Teaching and

Learning of Entrepreneurship in College Jazz Programs and its Impact on Jazz

Musicians’ Careers, explores how music entrepreneurship courses help jazz students

“translate [their] performance skills into employment.”27 Much like Owens discusses in

his article, Tonelli informs us that college jazz programs have historically focused on the

24 Owens, 75. 25 Daniel J. Wakin, “The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later,” New York Times, December 12, 2004, accessed November 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/arts/music/the-juilliard-effect-ten-years-later.html. 26 Owens, 76. 27 Tonelli, “Jazz, Serious Business,” 30.

10

teaching of playing, but not on how to use those skills to build a career outside of school.

Tonelli stresses the importance of entrepreneurship instruction within college jazz

departments, stating that music entrepreneurship courses may help “bridge [the gap]

between academia and professional practice.”28

Tonelli’s dissertation consists of a case study of three college jazz programs, each

of which require their students to take a music entrepreneurship class.29 He also surveyed

graduates of college jazz programs, both those who went through a music

entrepreneurship course and those who did not, in hopes of seeing how entrepreneurship

instruction, or the lack thereof, has impacted the careers of jazz musicians. By addressing

the material presented in music entrepreneurship courses and identifying the skills

college jazz students find important for a career in music, Tonelli hopes to inform college

jazz departments of ways to better improve these courses and make recommendations to

young jazz musicians learning how to shape and develop their careers.

According to many of the participants in Tonelli’s study, “musical proficiency

must precede entrepreneurial competency, but that entrepreneurship instruction could be

as valuable or more valuable than musical proficiency.”30 In other words, it is essential to

be a great player, but being a great player can only take a musician so far if they don’t

also possess a knowledge of musical entrepreneurial skills. Tonelli notes that music

entrepreneurship instruction can be broken down into four categories: innovation,

business skills, individual and societal impact, and interpersonal relations.31 Interestingly,

28 Tonelli, 421. 29 The three music entrepreneurship courses observed in Tonelli’s study were taught at the University of Miami, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music. 30 Tonelli, 423. 31 Tonelli, 422.

11

he found that the “instructional philosophy of entrepreneurship differed by institution,

ranging from emphasizing artistic to monetary outcomes.”32 The students involved in this

study revealed that simply having an entrepreneurship course made available to them lets

them know that they may need entrepreneurial skills in order to build a career in music.33

Tonelli’s dissertation will be further discussed in Chapter 3.

Books

In this section, I discuss six books that are relevant to my essay. These texts

examined include books that are often required readings for college music

entrepreneurship courses, a collection of works exploring the teaching methods of arts

entrepreneurship, books that I consider to be great resources for musicians, and one that

provides a social commentary on American jazz in the twenty-first century, which also

addresses some issues in jazz music globally.

A book that has been regarded as the music industry Bible is Donald Passman’s

All You Need to Know About the Music Business.34 Originally published in the early

1990s, this book has been used in music business and entrepreneurship classes around the

country. 35 Passman, a lawyer specializing in the music industry, breaks down the real-life

numbers involved with elements of a music career, like music streaming rates, royalties

and licenses, copyright laws, and the intricacies of recording and publishing contracts.

32 Ibid. 33 Tonelli, 426. 34 “The Top 40,” Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1992, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-29-ca-2462-story.html. 35 Donald S. Passman, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, 10th ed. (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2019).

12

One anecdote he includes compares musicians to brain surgeons, suggesting both can

perform their craft at a high level and make a substantial amount of money without

having any financial literacy. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, Passman

explains, “Making a living from a business you don’t understand is risky.”36 I believe this

sentiment supports the need for an examination of the music entrepreneurship courses

taught to undergraduate jazz students. It is risky having a career in any field without

having a proper knowledge of the business. This applies to jazz musicians too.

Despite being written very casually, this book covers a wide range of topics and

scenarios regarding signing contracts, recouping advances, and royalty splits.37 While

most of the information covered is relevant for jazz musicians, I felt that this book was

geared toward musicians trying to become music superstars, not the average gigging

musician or sideperson. I think this book is a great resource for students to refer back to

throughout their career and would be particularly useful when faced with situations such

as signing contracts.

Another book often used in many classrooms is Angela Myles Beeching’s Beyond

Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music.38 Beeching is considered to be a leading

expert in music and arts career development, and she was the director of the career and

entrepreneurship programs at Indiana University, the New England Conservatory of

Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. The purpose of her book is to give us the

“tools to fulfill your potential as an artist and as a person.”39 These tools include goal

36 Passman, 5. 37 Royalty Splits are the percentages in which payments for the use of a song are allocated to the various owners of the songwriting or sound recording of a song. 38 Beeching, Beyond Talent. 39 Beeching, xi.

13

setting, time-management, performance anxiety, mental health, and interpersonal skills,

like communication. While her book isn’t nearly as in depth as Passman’s book in terms

of the legal and financial aspects of a music career, Beeching discusses the steps

musicians can take to shape their careers. She suggests that while talent is a necessary

trait for musicians to possess, talent will only get you so far. According to Beeching, her

book is about “everything else beyond talent that’s needed on your journey” as a

musician.40

Beeching explains that like in life, many aspects of a music career are out of our

control: “Life is fluid, and so are [music] careers…An idea leads to a conversation, a

connection, and a project, and through the course of these projects our career path

emerges.”41 Beeching illustrates that a musician’s career path is rarely linear and a more

accurate depiction of a music career is one with unexpected twists and turns and may

constantly change and evolve.

Beeching writes that a successful music career consists of hard work and talent,

communication skills, having a “winning attitude” (more specifically having a growth

mindset instead of a fixed one), organizational and planning skills, having a support

system, having luck, time and patience, and grit (meaning passion and perseverance).42, 43

Based on Beeching’s background as a classical cellist, as well as the examples displayed

throughout her book, the tone of Beyond Talent felt like it was geared more toward

classical musicians. However, I believe most of the information presented still applies to

40 Beeching, 2. 41 Beeching, xiii. 42 Beeching, 11. 43 A fixed mindset is having the belief that one’s qualities, such as talent or intelligence, are fixed traits that cannot be developed. A growth mindset is viewing one’s qualities, such as talent or intelligence, as traits that can be further developed.

14

all musicians. I viewed Beeching’s book as more of a guide highlighting the steps

musicians can take to help advance their careers, something I think would be valuable to

undergraduate jazz students. She also offers a supplemental workbook containing

activities and prompts that correspond to the lessons presented throughout Beyond Talent.

I haven’t seen this next book used in any of the courses I’ve examined, but I

personally believe every musician should read Ari Herstand’s How to Make It in the New

Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a

Musician.44 A musician and composer himself, Herstand is best known for his popular

blog, Ari’s Take, and podcast, New Music Business, where he covers everything from

independently releasing a record to working as a freelance musician.

Herstand’s book is a good mix of the qualities seen in Passman and Beeching’s

books. How to Make It in the New Music Business dives into the practical business

elements, such as royalties and licenses but is ultimately a comprehensive guide for

musicians of all genres. In his book, Herstand includes email templates, ways to build a

fanbase, and even a detailed album-release timeline showing what to do in the weeks and

months leading up to a release. This book is filled with tips and advice on how to create

opportunities for oneself as a musician.

Early in his book, Herstand suggests that most musicians will “never be able to

just make music for a living.”45 He explains that most musicians have multiple income

streams, sometimes not related to music at all, and that even famous musicians earn

money from alternative sources. Herstand claims that “all musicians are truly

44 Herstand, How to Make It in the New Music Business. 45 Herstand, 32.

15

entrepreneurs anyway.”46 Like the other books I’ve mentioned thus far, I think this book

is applicable to all musicians, but it is geared a little bit more toward singer-songwriters,

indie-rock, and pop artists. Herstand has a companion workbook that includes exercises

to go along with the material presented in this book.

In 2019, saxophonist and educator Adam Larson released a book called Practical

Stuff for Survival: A Musician’s Guide to Freelancing.47 According to Larson, “This book

was written from years of continually shedding the ‘business of me.’”48 This book

contains practical information that applies to the real-life scenarios that young jazz

musicians will likely face in their careers. Although Practical Stuff for Survival discusses

information that could apply to a musician of any genre, to me, it feels like his book is

geared a little bit more toward jazz musicians, as Larson shares tips and advice he has

employed throughout his own career as a jazz artist.

Larson covers how to book gigs and tours, the proper etiquette as a sideperson or

band leader in different situations, and email templates for securing performances,

masterclasses, clinics, and securing endorsements. Larson discusses the legitimate costs

and finances surrounding various elements of a music career. He suggests how much to

charge for performances and lessons and explores budgeting for the recording and release

of an album, saving for retirement, how to create passive income, and even taxes and

loans for musicians. While much of the finances discussed vary depending on the

situation, this book could serve as a great resource, allowing young musicians to start

46 Herstand, 34. 47 Adam Larson, Practical Stuff for Survival: A Musician’s Guide to Freelancing, (self-pub., PDF, 2019). 48 Larson, 44.

16

thinking about the financial aspects of their careers. Larson uses his book to supplement

the music entrepreneurship class he teaches at the UMKC Conservatory.

Another book I found interesting was Gary Beckman’s Disciplining the Arts:

Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context, a collection of essays written by some of the

leading experts and educators in arts entrepreneurship.49 Disciplining the Arts discusses

the need for arts entrepreneurship instruction within college programs as well as the best

practices to teach it. Although I will not delve into this source as thoroughly as the others

mentioned, I think Beckman’s book serves as an educational tool for music

entrepreneurship instructors.

The last book discussed is Stuart Nicholson’s Is Jazz Dead?: Or Has it Moved to

a New Address.50 Written in 2005, Is Jazz Dead? critiques jazz in the United States at the

turn of the twenty-first century and highlights the state of jazz globally. Nicholson argues

that major record companies in the 1980s and ‘90s, along with institutionalized jazz

education, significantly contributed to the homogenization of jazz in the United States.

More specifically, he states that the American jazz canon revolves around bebop:

The way the majors marketed jazz…reflected the way jazz itself has been marketed…many key United States artist agencies stuck largely to a post-hard bop agenda because (1) it was easier to sell, and (2) It’s promised higher returns on their overhead…Equally, there is a general perception in the market that adventurous players do not generate the same box office returns as artists in more mainstream realms, and thus do not command higher fees.51

49 Gary D. Beckman, ed., Disciplining the Arts: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Education, 2011). 50 Nicholson, Is Jazz Dead?. 51 Nicholson, 233.

17

The development of a bebop-oriented jazz pedagogical approach, alongside the rise of

“straight-ahead” focused record labels, led to the codification of jazz in this country.52

Anything outside of this jazz paradigm was considered risky to jazz gatekeepers. Even

Jazz at Lincoln Center, which arguably has the biggest platform for jazz music in

America, has adopted the mindset that “blues plus swing equals jazz,” inherently

marginalizing a lot of musicians.53 Nonetheless, Nicholson affirms that by simply

“defining jazz for the purposes of education [or otherwise], a line is metaphorically

drawn in the sand: cross this line and it ceases to be jazz.”54

Nicholson describes how the lack of government funding has made it more

difficult for jazz musicians to find work in this country, thus forcing jazz musicians to

look for opportunities abroad. He explains:

The way the “business” of jazz is structured in the United States without governmental subsidy has meant that many jazz musicians have come to rely on markets outside the borders of America for a significant portion of their income. The most important market is the subsidized jazz circuits of Europe.55

Nicholson highlights the many ways European nations have ensured the survival of jazz

in their countries through national and local subsidies. Government funding in Europe

has allowed jazz clubs and festivals to flourish, assisted in the building of jazz audiences,

sponsored musicians on tour and helped them create new projects, and even supported

music schools. All of this has allowed jazz in Europe to prioritize the art, not the money.

52 Straight-ahead jazz refers to music and improvisation reminiscent of or influenced by bebop methodology. 53 Nicholson, 65. 54 Nicholson, 104. 55 Nicholson, 236.

18

As legendary jazz promoter George Wein once said, “No Europe, no jazz,” suggesting

Europe’s importance to the survival of American jazz musicians.56

When the major record labels, schools, and one of the only institutions for jazz in

the country all preach the same thing, not to mention the lack of government support for

the arts, a lot of musicians will inevitably be overlooked, especially those outside the

“straight-ahead” idiom. How is a young college graduate supposed to embark on their

career if they don’t fit inside this small, marketable box? Countries outside of the United

States may play a big role in the lives of many American jazz musicians, whether from

touring, record sales, working with foreign labels, or even living in another country

altogether. I believe understanding the various models for jazz in the United States and

abroad will allow college jazz students to be better informed of the options available to

them.

Studies

In 2000, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) commissioned a study led by

Joan Jeffri and Columbia University’s Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC)

called Changing the Beat: A Study of the Worklife of Jazz Musicians.57 This

comprehensive study investigated the working lives of jazz musicians around the United

States by examining the music scenes in Detroit, New Orleans, New York, and San

Francisco. The NEA sought to better understand the environments for jazz in these cities

and to assess the needs of the jazz musicians themselves. The goal of this study was to

56 Ibid. 57 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat.

19

determine “how to best support the continuing growth and development of jazz and the

musicians who create it.”58 Interviews and surveys were conducted with musicians from

two groups: jazz musicians belonging to the American Federation of Musicians union and

jazz musicians found using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) where the participants

referred other jazz musicians to join the study. In my experience as a professional

musician, I haven’t met many younger musicians who are members of a musicians’

union. I don’t believe that musicians’ unions are as powerful today as they were when

this NEA study was conducted in the early 2000s, so for the purposes of this literature

review, I will focus on the results from the RDS survey.

This study looks at various demographics of jazz musicians around the country,

such as education level, employment and income, professional and future goals,

retirement plans, and health care coverage. According to the authors, roughly a third of

all jazz musicians were between the ages of 24 and 36, many of whom were recent

graduates from music programs.59 At the time this study was conducted, reissues of older

jazz recordings typically outsold CDs from newer and emerging jazz musicians,

highlighting a major obstacle for burgeoning musicians.60 Young jazz musicians are

losing potential revenue due to their lack of album sales, and consequently their music

isn’t reaching as many listeners as possible, which is essential to building a fanbase.

I found the geographical aspect of this study very interesting. New York is widely

considered to be the Mecca of jazz, hosting the best talent and the highest number of jazz

clubs in the country. I hadn’t considered how much of a role geography plays in the

58 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 1, 4. 59 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 1, 7. 60 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 1, 5.

20

livelihood of musicians. For example, jazz musicians living in New York typically earned

more money, were more often recognized nationally and internationally, and toured more

frequently when compared to the musicians from the other cities.61 The authors indicate

that despite Detroit’s long history of producing great jazz artists, it has “come to serve

more as a spawning ground for musicians who then move to more profitable locations,

like New York, rather than a place talented players can count on as a reliable economic

base.”62

The NEA study asked its respondents to determine which of the following

characteristics were needed for a career in jazz: business savvy, connections, curiosity,

energy, intelligence, luck, perception, performing ability, physical stamina, talent, and

technique.63 Talent was listed as the most important attribute needed for a jazz career.

Business savvy and performing ability were also listed as qualities jazz musicians must

have.

The authors express the need for business instruction for jazz students studying in

music schools saying, “The dearth of programs helping artists to help themselves in terms

of management skills is a problem.”64 In fact, teaching young jazz students about the

“business side of their career would help them survive tough competition.”65 Despite

being published in 2003, Changing the Beat provides valuable insights into the

professional lives of jazz musicians. While the music industry is vastly different today, I

61 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 1, 7. 62 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 1, 15. 63 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat: A Study of the Worklife of Jazz Musicians, Volume 3: Respondent-Driven Sampling, by Joan Jeffri, NEA Research Division Report #43, 2003, 43. 64 National Endowment for the Arts, Changing the Beat, Volume 3, 66. 65 Ibid.

21

think young jazz students are faced with many of the same issues as back when this study

was conducted, if not more so.

Conclusion

Through examination of the texts above, I tried to illustrate ways in which the

current model of jazz education in the United States impacts young jazz musicians. I

looked at sources that are often required readings in music entrepreneurship classes and

books which are less commonly known, all of which I believe to be valuable for college

jazz students. I discussed a study directly related to the livelihood of jazz musicians in

America. Furthermore, I illustrated that many jazz musicians may look for work abroad

due to the condition of jazz in this country, something developing musicians should be

aware of. I hope this literature review illuminates important elements pertaining to a jazz

career and music entrepreneurship courses, and which will be seen throughout this essay.

My goal is to inform jazz educators of the latest trends in music entrepreneurship

instruction and to show young jazz musicians the realities of a current career in music,

ultimately to better prepare them to create a life in music.

22

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This may be the most difficult time to be a jazz musician. Young musicians are

entering the scene competing against a concentrated pool of musicians, very little

governmental subsidies for jazz, nominal pay, and declining support from record labels.

More than ever, jazz musicians need to know how to navigate their careers. One way to

better prepare young jazz musicians for the post-school environment is to teach them the

information pertinent to a career in jazz. College music entrepreneurship courses may be

a great way to achieve that goal.

As mentioned, the primary purpose of this essay is to examine the information

taught in collegiate music entrepreneurship courses to undergraduate jazz students. I

accomplished this by surveying the music entrepreneurship courses offered within five

world-renowned jazz programs, all of which require their jazz majors to take this course

in order to satisfy their degree. Specifically, I have analyzed the courses taught at three

schools within the United States and two international programs: the University of

Miami, the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, the

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and the IMEP Paris College of Music.

I reviewed the syllabi from the music entrepreneurship courses offered at each school to

get a sense of the information being covered. In addition to the syllabus study, interviews

were conducted with each of the instructors of these classes, as well as current and former

students enrolled in the courses at the American schools.

23

One of the challenges I encountered with this project was the frequency at which

these schools updated their music entrepreneurship curricula and the turnover of the

instructors of these courses. Even since I started working on this project in 2019, a couple

of the courses examined have been rewritten, and in one case, a course doubled in length.

As will be reiterated throughout this essay, I found it beneficial to hear from both current

and former students of these music entrepreneurship classes. While the current students

provided the most accurate description of how the class is taught today, they lack the

experience of knowing whether or not the material covered in their classes is relevant to

their careers, something the former students can surely provide. The former students

primarily highlighted the information they feel is important for college jazz students to

learn in their music entrepreneurship classes. However, the perspectives of both former

and current students are needed to reliably portray the students’ thoughts and desires.

Due to the lack of availability, no students from the international programs were

interviewed. I tried to connect with students from these international schools, but

ultimately had no luck. As an alternative option, I interviewed professional musicians

from those regions who have also built careers as jazz musicians in the United States. I

hope these interviews illuminate any differences there may be in developing a career as a

jazz musician in the United States versus in another country.

I also conducted interviews with eight renowned jazz musicians, whom I dub the

Pool of Experts (POE). This group consists of Linda May Han Oh, Emmet Cohen,

Immanuel Wilkins, Miguel Zenón, Gerald Clayton, Ulysses Owens Jr., Ben Wendel, and

Marquis Hill. I chose these musicians not only because they are respected artists, but

because I consider them to be very entrepreneurial in how they have built and conducted

24

their careers. They are all between the ages of 20 and 45, having had to adjust to the

many changes in the music industry, like the rise of various social media platforms, the

transition to streaming music, and, more recently, adapting to the challenges brought on

by the coronavirus pandemic. The objective of these interviews is to emphasize how the

POE have successfully developed their careers and to compare what they believe to be

important in a jazz career with the material covered in the music entrepreneurship classes

examined in this essay.

My project is very similar to Mark Tonelli’s dissertation, which is evident based

on the information discussed in the previous chapter. I view his project as an important

resource not only for my own research, but for jazz educators. While his dissertation

discusses the impact and effectiveness of the music entrepreneurship courses studied, my

essay is centered on the material covered in these classes. Although the three music

entrepreneurship courses involved in his study overlap with mine (the University of

Miami, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music), I

included two courses from international programs in my essay.

The research compiled for this paper primarily focuses on the music

entrepreneurship courses offered to undergraduate jazz students in the United States.

However, the two international programs discussed in this project have provided insight

as to how jazz musicians make a living and develop their careers in other countries. Many

successful jazz musicians work a great deal in Europe and beyond touring and playing at

festivals.66 There are also many jazz labels based out of Europe and Asia that work with

American musicians, such as ECM, Edition Records, Criss Cross Jazz, and Venus

66 Nicholson, 75.

25

Records. Exploring these foreign music entrepreneurship courses have highlighted some

similarities and differences between making a living as a jazz musician in the United

States and in other countries. As mentioned in the Literature Review, I believe it’s

imperative for young jazz musicians to be made aware of alternative models for building

a career in jazz, and I hope surveying music entrepreneurship courses taught outside of

the United States will help illuminate these options.

As stated earlier in the chapter, music entrepreneurship courses are updated fairly

often, likely due to the fast-paced nature of the music industry. Since Tonelli’s

dissertation was published in 2015, the American schools in my paper all have new

instructors teaching their music entrepreneurship classes, with exception of the New

England Conservatory of Music. The music industry has changed significantly since

2015, which I think warrants another review of these courses. While his dissertation is a

useful resource, I strove to expand upon some of his results.

To reiterate, the purposes of this essay are to see what’s currently being taught in

music entrepreneurship courses offered within prestigious jazz programs, what

information undergraduate jazz students wish to learn about in music entrepreneurship

classes, and what the instructors feel is important to include in their courses. Additional

interviews were conducted with a group of world-renowned jazz artists to discover the

attributes needed to develop a career in jazz. This information was compared to the

material covered in the college music entrepreneurship classes. Lastly, courses taught

within international programs were assessed to highlight alternative ways of building a

jazz career than the American standard. I sought to achieve this by considering the

following research questions:

26

1. What are music entrepreneurship courses teaching undergraduate jazz students?

- Is the information covered relevant to a career in jazz?

2. Should there be a music entrepreneurship course specifically geared toward jazz students?

3. What fundamental tools or skills are needed to build a career as a working and successful jazz musician in today’s world?

This essay presented a unique opportunity to find ways in which the education

undergraduate jazz students receive can be improved, ideally better preparing them to

traverse their music careers. I hope this project will be beneficial for up-and-coming jazz

musicians and teachers alike, ultimately serving as a useful tool by exploring the skills

needed to be a working and successful jazz musician.

27

CHAPTER 4

NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC The Entrepreneurial Musician

The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) has one of the oldest college

jazz department in the country, becoming the first fully accredited jazz program at a

music conservatory in 1969.67 There are currently about 100 students studying jazz at

NEC, whose undergraduates are required to take a music entrepreneurship course in order

to satisfy their degree.68 The prestige of NEC’s jazz program can be seen by its

significance to the history of jazz education, its renowned faculty, and the success of its

graduates, which includes Fred Hersch, Luciana Souza, Regina Carter, and Dave

Douglas.69

One of the unique facets NEC has to offer is their Entrepreneurial Musicianship

(EM) office. While music schools are increasingly creating their own departments

dedicated to entrepreneurship and career advancement, entrepreneurship offices are still

relatively uncommon. NEC’s EM office provides students with opportunities to apply for

grants and internships, improve biography and resume-writing skills, and work with

advisors on developing career strategies and planning projects. Along with the music

67 “Jazz50,” New England Conservatory of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://necmusic.edu/jazz50. 68 “Student Music Guide: Where to Study Jazz 2021,” DownBeat, October 2020, 62, https://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2020/DB20_10/single_page_view/62.html. 69 “Jazz50.”

28

entrepreneurship course that will be discussed throughout this chapter, the EM office

offers courses that students can take as electives about marketing, finance for musicians,

and fundraising and grant writing.70

Syllabus

The music entrepreneurship course offered at NEC, called The Entrepreneurial

Musician, meets for fifty minutes once a week, and it’s typically taken by the jazz majors

during their junior year.71 According to the syllabus, this class prioritizes the

development of “mindsets (ways of knowing, thinking, interacting and being) that

advance your artistry, education, professional development, and personal development in

service of human needs.” The Entrepreneurial Musician uses “the pillars of

entrepreneurial thinking: vision, initiative, risk, and value” to explore the various roles of

an artist on a professional and humanistic level.

Students who take this course will be able to “define their own vision of a

multifaceted career as a 21st century artists [sic], incorporating awareness of existing and

emergent paths both within and beyond artistic practice.” The syllabus stresses the

importance of fostering interpersonal skills, explaining that students will work on

developing “effective communication tools and strategies to relate their unique skills and

values to their personal and professional goals,” as well as demonstrating an “informed

engagement in social issues through artistic and professional practice.” In this course,

70 “Entrepreneurial Musicianship,” New England Conservatory of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://necmusic.edu/em. 71 The Entrepreneurial Musician syllabus can be found in Appendix A.

29

students will also work on planning and networking skills that will aid in their

professional and personal development. In examining this syllabus, it’s clear that the goal

of this class reaches far beyond the scope of a music career by attempting to impact the

progression of the students’ personal growth.

Lectures and Assignments

As stated in the syllabus, “Lectures, readings and class discussions will provide an

overview of the principles and methodologies of entrepreneurship and humanistic

design.” Lecture align with the learning outcomes described in the syllabus, incorporating

both concrete topics, like fundraising and finances, marketing and branding strategies,

and writing biographies and resumes, as well as more abstract concepts, such as defining

success for oneself as an artist, goal setting, and self-assessment and reflection.

The syllabus lists “Guiding Questions” that correspond with each lecture, which I

surmise are meant to aid the students in critical thinking as to better understand the topics

covered. For example, in the class about networking, one such question asks, “What are

the best practices for professional communications?” Another one asks, “How might I

build and expand a network of people and organizations to support my personal and

professional development?”

The instructor includes optional activities in the syllabus that correspond with the

lectures, and which are meant to be completed outside of class. Here’s an example of an

optional activity for the lecture about pursuing professional opportunities:

30

Make a list of three gigs you’d like to be called for this year: gigs you’ve played in the past, or performance opportunities you’d like to have in the next two years. For gigs you’ve played in the past, set a quick reminder on your phone to reach out to the presenter / contractor / decision maker to be considered again. For gigs you’ve not yet played, list the decision-makers who you’ll need to connect with, and make a plan to reach out to them. Solicit your classmates for their advice, and share your advice with others. List three immediate next steps you plan to take as a result of what you’ve discovered.

In addition to complementing the course lectures, including these optional activities in

the syllabus will allow the students to return to them when it’s relevant to their careers,

especially given that this class only meets for fifty minutes each week.

Although no exams are administered in this course, students engage in weekly

assignments that may include writing or video responses, exercises, reflections, or

readings. The two core assignments for this class are the Informational Interview

assignment and the Final Project. In the Informational Interview assignment, the students

are asked to develop three new professional connections by interviewing individuals

“who have access to the kinds of experiences that are most relevant to their artistic and

professional development.” For the Final Project, students are asked to either plan a

project that they would like to carry out in the future, make or design a project that will

be completed during the semester, or write a case study about a challenge they are

interested in researching. Both of these assignments will be expanded upon in the

interview sections in this chapter.

Although no textbooks are required for this course, the instructor assigns various

readings throughout the semester. These include excerpts from books, like David Cutler’s

The Savvy Musician: Building a Career, Earning a Living, and Making a Difference,

Andrew Simonet’s Making Your Life as an Artist, or Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping

Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, as well as many articles, including

31

some written by the instructor. She provides her students with a Google Drive folder

containing the assigned readings and other resources to enhance one’s understanding of

the material. For privacy reasons, only the first week’s lecture information is included in

the appendix alongside the syllabus. The Entrepreneurial Musician syllabus referenced in

this essay is from the fall semester of 2021.

Instructor Interview

The first interview discussed is with the instructor of The Entrepreneurial

Musician, Dr. Tanya Kalmanovitch, who has a unique career as a cross-genre violist,

interdisciplinary performer, ethnomusicologist, and ethnographer.72 Her diverse

background allows for the wide range of perspectives she present to their students.

In the interview, she mentioned that even with the rise of entrepreneurship

instruction, she’s not sure if music schools are doing much of a better job preparing

students today than they did in the 1980s or ‘90s. Kalmanovitch explained that an

inherent problem with music entrepreneurship courses lies in the fact that many of them

are taught by people who aren’t currently practicing artists: “They’re taught by people

who specialized in teaching the business of music, rather than people who are actually

trying to live as musicians, and I think the bigger thing is whether or not you have the

skin in the game of actually trying to make this stuff happen.” She expressed that if the

teachers of these courses are not actively involved in the music industry, they may not be

informed of the current trends and practices in music.

72 Tanya Kalmanovitch, interview by author, Zoom, December 10, 2020.

32

Kalmanovitch feels her approach to teaching music entrepreneurship is a bit

different from the bulk of what’s being taught around the country. She believes her

diverse, interdisciplinary background allows her to have open discussions with her class

on “everything else that’s real about music that isn’t about actual practice itself, or

aesthetics, or craft; it was about everything else.”

This music entrepreneurship course is required for all undergraduate students at

NEC, not just the jazz majors. When asked how she makes her class relevant to a room

full of students with varied backgrounds and potentially different career trajectories,

Kalmanovitch acknowledged that being a cross-genre performer helps her connect her

own experiences to the material being taught, thus making the content more relatable to

the students. She suggested that the role of the teacher isn’t to “give people the answers,”

but rather to “equip people with the navigatory capacities.”

Kalmanovitch likes to present what she calls Adult Skills, which she believes is

not only important for her students to learn about but is also relevant to each student in

the class, regardless of where they are in their own careers. She explained what Adult

Skills consist of:

Things like goal setting, setting relevant specific goals that make sense to you, thinking about strategies of accountability, and to whom are you accountable, and how do you build out structures of reporting and assessing your progress? [We] talk a little bit about personal finance, about relationship building, about your values, about case making: so how do you build arguments to support the work that you want to do? How do you communicate the value of your work? How do you communicate your value as a person? And when you teach that stuff well, not when you teach it in the context of sort of neoliberalist rhetoric, but when you teach it in the context of being in service to things that really matter, like deeper, more humanistic sort of values, it’s transformative and radical. You can teach practices of self-care.

33

These Adult Skills, which involve concepts like accountability, goal setting,

communication, and building relationships, are important tools that may be transferable

to other areas of a person’s life outside of music. Kalmanovitch mentioned that the

process of addressing personal values like these can be a transformative experience for

the students. Adult Skills may not always directly relate to music; however, developing

these kinds of skills may better inform students of their needs and possibly their

strengths. In my experience as a student and a professional musician, I have found tools

like these to be truly valuable, and I think they would ultimately enhance one’s

understanding of how to approach a music career.

The first part of the semester of The Entrepreneurial Musician deals with internal

and psychological practices, such as self-assessment, reflection, and self-definition, or

understanding who you are. Kalmanovitch also incorporates psychological inventories,

like the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Survey and the Barrett Personal Values

Assessment, in her curriculum to further promote an understanding of oneself. It should

be noted that Kalmanovitch has a graduate degree in psychology, which informs some of

the subject matter in their music entrepreneurship course. She described an exercise she

sometimes gives her students to reflect upon various aspects of themselves:

[Focus on] three areas of your life: your artistic development, your professional development, which is how your music meets the world, and then the third being your personal development, but I might equally ask them to take the same thing and shoot it out over ten zones including like physical fitness, mental health, financial health, and so forth. The idea is to get them sort of conversant with their needs, taking their temperature in these different areas of their lives.

As stated in the syllabus, Kalmanovitch doesn’t work out of textbooks for her

class, but instead assigns various readings throughout the semester. She feels that meeting

once a week for fifty minutes is not enough time to adequately and comprehensively

34

study all of the material presented in the course. According to Kalmanovitch, the time

limit of the class “constrains me in terms of what I can do, so I have to get very much to

the point and say, ‘Here's the three things I need you to know.’” To overcome this

limitation, she provides handouts and materials with strategies that the students can use to

improve the tools discussed in the course: “I think the goal overall is to equip them with

skills that they can come back to later on when they become more relevant.”

Kalmanovitch mentioned two core assignments for her class, the first called the

Informational Interview assignment where the students find and interview three people of

any profession doing work that they admire. Giving her students the option to interview

people outside of music allows them to explore a wider range of topics and professional

trajectories. Kalmanovitch said, “I think repeatedly students say that that's the thing that

really made the biggest impact for them because they didn't think that they could ask

people this stuff.” The other major assignment for this class is the final project: “It's very

open ended. It can be either experiential learning, so practice-based, it can be research-

based, or it can consist of a plan, and the plan could be something like a business plan for

opening a teaching studio, or a business plan for your first year of your professional life,

or a plan for a specific product or a venture, like a recording.”

When asked whether or not she believed music students would benefit from a

music entrepreneurship class geared toward their genre, such as a jazz-specific course,

Kalmanovitch didn’t directly say if she supported or opposed this idea. However, she

described what she would like to see in a music entrepreneurship class catered for jazz

musicians:

35

If I was to curate a class like this only for jazz majors, I’d want them to hear from leading presenters, I would want them to know about the business of how national and international jazz festival networks work [and] how funding happens. They’d want to hear representatives from the Doris Duke foundation [and] Chamber Music America. I'd probably want them to hear from someone like Adam Neely, who has a really strong social media following, as much as hearing from somebody who has a more classic or puritanistic kind of approach to conventional recording and documentation. I'd want them to hear from intergenerational perspectives…And I think there's a lot of value that happens through practices of a jazz musician that is intuitively kind of entrepreneurial, like you are forced to reckon with what your role and what your strength is, and what your contribution is on an ensemble level. Everybody's going to solo, so everybody's going to have a voice and vocabulary. So, understanding…where you sit into the ecosystem [and] what it is you contribute on a really basic level…I'd want them to have some sort of critical examination of race, culture and racism, and gender.

Although it’s hypothetical, Kalmanovitch’s vision for a jazz-focused entrepreneurship

class is important because it illustrates various aspects including learning about jazz

festivals, funding and funding organizations, social media, and understanding of some of

the truisms within jazz culture she thinks are necessary for a jazz student to know about.

In answering how she defines success for herself as a musician, Kalmanovitch

explained that success means being productive in making the kind of music she wants to

make at a high level. She was also asked if there was anything she wished she learned

before leaving music school, to which Kalmanovitch responded, “Just in short that I was

already good enough...That there was a sound that only I could make, that the world

needed me to hear that sound, and that I was okay. There was nobody who was like me.

That's true for everybody.”

Student Interviews

The next two interviews conducted are with students who took the

Entrepreneurial Musician course. One interview is with James, who, at the time of

36

writing, was an undergraduate jazz drum major at NEC.73 He took this class his junior

year during the fall semester of 2020 with the same instructor interviewed earlier in the

chapter. The other student interviewed asked that his name stays anonymous and will

hereinafter be referred to as Mark.74 Mark took the Entrepreneurial Musician course in

2012 or 2013 with a different teacher than the current instructor, and he is now working

full time as a professional musician and educator. Despite Mark taking The

Entrepreneurial Musician many years before James, the course content seems to have

remained very similar.

James mentioned that taking The Entrepreneurial Musician was an eye-opening

experience for him. He recalled, “[We were] totally able to talk about these very touchy

and sensitive topics in a very appropriate and safe way. And it definitely helped me, but

I'm sure it helped everybody else in the class think about these things in a different

light.”75 Taking this class amid the coronavirus pandemic, James talked about how

Kalmanovitch was able to keep the course related to the issues musicians are currently

facing. He said that in addition to learning about grant writing, finances, and taxes, they

discussed the tools musicians need to advance their artistry during and after the

pandemic. James continued, noting that his class mentioned “not getting burnt out as a

musician and kind of separating yourself from music itself, thinking about how you are a

human first and foremost, and how music isn't everything,” which, in my experience as a

professional musician, is a battle most musicians face during their careers.76

73 James, interview by author, Zoom, January 6, 2021. 74 Mark, interview by author, Zoom, October 16, 2020. 75 James, interview. 76 Ibid.

37

Mark said the main assignments and the final project when he took the class were

the same as what’s offered today. One of his assignments was writing an elevator pitch,

which is a short description of a project or idea, theoretically taking no longer than the

duration of an elevator ride to explain.77 Both James and Mark discussed the

Informational Interview assignment, where they interviewed three musicians whose work

they admire or who served as role models for how they might want to shape their careers.

For the final project, both students were to develop a plan for the future. While Mark

remembered his assignment relating more toward creating a five-year career plan, James’

assignment seemed to be a little more open-ended. In his class, the plan could be for

anything, but the purpose was to “help you push toward your goal, whatever that may

be.”78

In answering whether or not the Entrepreneurial Musician course was relevant to

building a career as a jazz musician, Mark explained that his class wasn’t specific to any

genre of music.79 James felt the Entrepreneurial Musician course was, in fact, relevant to

a career in jazz because his instructor, being a cross-genre artist, actively performs with

jazz musicians and plays improvised music. More importantly, James believed he was

learning about meaningful pursuits like social action and life skills, such as self-reflection

saying, “I thought it was beneficial for me to learn about all of these other topics because

it’s stuff that no one really talks about in jazz school.”80

A major theme in the interview with Mark pertained to the skills that he thought

all music students should learn about in college. He said, “I do think there’s basic

77 Mark, interview. 78 James, interview. 79 Mark, interview. 80 James, interview.

38

knowledge and skills necessary for any professional musician, regardless of the

instrument they play or the genre they want to focus on. That could be taught in college,

and it’s not being taught.”81 In elaborating, he suggested that all musicians should learn

about record labels and the recording industry, how to contact record labels and music

publications, learn about promotion, about music production and home recording, how to

use digital audio workstations, how to write grants, networking, communication and other

interpersonal skills, and customer service, meaning how you present yourself and your

product to your client. Some of these attributes listed are based on his own experiences as

a professional musician post-college, and he felt he would have been more prepared for

certain situations had he learned these things while in school. Mark also mentioned that

learning a skill like public speaking would be more beneficial and widely applicable to

jazz students than working on elevator pitches, commenting on the importance of that

specific assignment.82 James also included what he felt was an essential skill for all

musicians to know: “The most fundamental thing for me is to not be so obsessed with

being a musician, you know, be a human first, and then be a musician after.”83 This

sentiment of being able to separate one’s identity from the musician was a common

thread in James’ interview, suggesting its importance in the makeup of the current

version of The Entrepreneurial Musician.

Mark expressed that having a jazz-specific entrepreneurship class could be

advantageous to undergraduate jazz students, but he found real value in having a dialogue

81 Mark, interview. 82 Mark, interview. 83 James, interview.

39

about musician-related issues and business practices with non-jazz majors.84 Similarly,

James acknowledged how fortunate he was to have a teacher who was well-versed in

many of the challenges musicians face daily but was also a cross-genre and active

performer. He said that hearing multiple perspectives on the various issues and topics

covered in the class was beneficial.85

Mark expressed that music students need to learn how to be their own businesses.

More likely than not, professional musicians in today’s music industry, especially those

just starting out, will run most aspects of their careers independently, without the help

from labels or management.86 He suggested that it would be advantageous for music

entrepreneurship courses to bring in alumni with diverse backgrounds and career paths,

with whom students can ask questions about music careers and real-life situations they

may face outside of school. Additionally, Mark explained that “[Based on] my experience

being out of college and what I’ve had to encounter so far trying to make it as a

professional musician, I feel if I would have maybe had a head start on this in college,

then it would have saved me a lot of stress and anxiety about how to do this stuff.”87

Mark believes learning about features such as writing bios and resumes and

analyzing websites doesn’t seem to be the most important information for undergraduate

jazz students. He said that it often seems as though many of these courses were written by

“people who aren't seriously two feet in the music industry writing a syllabus about what

84 Mark, interview. 85 James, interview. 86 Mark, interview. 87 Ibid.

40

they think would be important,” an idea that aligns with the views of Kalmanovich, who

believes a class of this nature should be taught by people active in the music field.88

Both students were asked to define what it means to be successful as a musician,

to which James stated that expressing his artistry and playing as much as possible were

the most important things to him.89 Being a successful musician for Mark means “to

make music that is respected around the world, or to make to make music that has some

value to people in the world...I think money is part of it, but it’s not the most important

thing...I think for me, mental health needs to be a part of the definition of success.”90

Conclusion

As the syllabus mentions, “This class is designed to cultivate young artists who

are active and engaged citizens: committed to advancing the role of the performing arts in

building a better world.” While concrete skills, like learning about grant writing and

budgeting may be included in the Entrepreneurial Musician, a large focus of this class

seems to pertain more to the Adult Skills Kalmanovitch described, including concepts

like goal setting, relationship-building, accountability, and communication, that will

translate to other areas of life outside of music. Despite only meeting once a week for the

duration of the semester, Kalmanovitch manages to overcome the time constraint by

presenting the most crucial information in her class and provides additional material for

her students to continue developing their skills outside of class.

88 Ibid. 89 James, interview. 90 Mark, interview.

41

Although James found his music entrepreneurship class to be invaluable, both

students expressed that the most relevant preparation for a career in jazz they received in

college came from their private lesson instructors. Not only was this where both students

worked on improving their playing, but also where they sought out advice on how to

approach a jazz career with a mentor and learned about the real-life situations jazz

musicians face. These private lesson instructors were examples of educators with active

performing careers, a characteristic that both the students and Kalmanovitch emphasized

as being important to consider when determining the teacher of a music entrepreneurship

course.

42

CHAPTER 5

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians

The University of Miami’s Frost School of Music is home to the next music

entrepreneurship course studied. Jazz at the University of Miami (UM) dates back to the

1950s and is one of the nation’s most historic programs.91 Legendary jazz educator Jerry

Coker was brought in to develop the jazz department in the mid-1960s, which was taken

over by his student, Whit Sidener, shortly thereafter until his departure in 2013. Despite

being known as a powerhouse for jazz in the 1960s and ‘70s, UM didn’t have a fully-

fledged and accredited jazz program until about 1978.92 According to a 1995 U.S. News

and World Report survey, UM’s jazz program was ranked number two in the nation.93

The jazz department, known as the Department of Studio Music and Jazz,

currently has about 120 students enrolled.94 UM is included in this essay because of the

reputation of its jazz program, the stature of the faculty on staff, the prominence of the

program to the history of jazz education, and the success of its graduates, including Will

Lee, Jonathan Kreisberg, Raul Midón, and Bruce Hornsby.95

91 “1960 to 1980: Twenty Years of Rapid Growth,” Frost School of Music, University of Miami, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.frost.miami.edu/about-us/history/twenty-years-of-rapid-growth/index.html. 92 Ibid. 93 Nicholas DeCarbo and Joyce Jordan, eds., “Programs in Music School Rank Among the Best,” SCORE, University of Miami, School of Music, Summer 1995, 5, https://news.miami.edu/frost/_assets/pdf/the-score/1995-score.pdf. 94 “Student Music Guide,” DownBeat, 83. 95 “Studio Music and Jazz Alumni,” Frost School of Music, Studio Music and Jazz, University of Miami, accessed March 1, 2021, https://jazz.frost.miami.edu/about/alumni/index.html.

43

Syllabus

The music entrepreneurship course at UM is called Music Business and

Entrepreneurship for Musicians.96 It should be noted that all of the music majors are in

the same class together, but the music business majors are actually enrolled in a course

called Introduction to the Music Business, though all the students are learning the same

material. While the music business majors take this class during their freshman or

sophomore year, the jazz majors typically take it during their senior year. This one-

semester class meets once a week for two hours and forty-five minutes.

According to the syllabus, which is from the fall semester of 2020, this course

will give its students an “overview of the music business and related entrepreneurial

fundamentals.” The music business topics covered include music publishing, music

licensing, music copyright, the live music industry, the record business, and arts

administration. Entrepreneurial concepts, like accounting, starting a business, and

marketing, are introduced in this course.

The current instructor uses David Baskerville’s Music Business Handbook and

Career Guide to supplement his lectures. Additional texts such as Donald Passman’s All

You Need to Know About the Music Business and David Cutler’s The Savvy Musician are

listed on the syllabus as recommended readings.

96 The Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians syllabus can be found in Appendix B.

44

Lectures and Assignments

The lectures cover a wide range of topics including music copyright and

intellectual property, music publishing, the record business, music licensing and live

performance, music venues and arts administration, music marketing and the

marketplace, music agents and management, musicians’ unions, music attorneys,

funding, accounting, starting a business, and career development. The weekly lectures

also align with readings from the David Baskerville book.

The only topic covered in more than one class is the record business, which

accounts for two of the fourteen lectures, suggesting the importance of this subject to the

teacher. In this music entrepreneurship course, there are weekly online quizzes and a final

exam, all based on the lectures and readings assigned throughout the semester.

Interview Background

When I was an undergraduate at UM, all the jazz majors were required to take a

general music business class, called Music Business Essentials, and a music

entrepreneurship course, called Entrepreneurship for Musicians, which I took during my

senior year. As highlighted in the Methodology, one of the challenges of examining

music entrepreneurship courses is the frequency at which changes are made to their

curricula. The music industry moves at an incredibly fast pace, and it is up to the schools

to keep up with the current trends. To their credit, UM has amended their music

45

entrepreneurship course many times since I took this class, although it seems that the

focus may have been more on the format of the course rather than the content.

I believe hearing the perspectives of both current and former students is beneficial

in providing a complete understanding of what is currently offered in music

entrepreneurship courses and what it takes to be a professional jazz musician today. In

this chapter, testimony from former and current students will illustrate their experiences

surrounding the Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians course at UM.

However, because these former students took this class before the current instructor

joined the faculty at UM, only the interviews with the current student and instructor will

be used as an accurate representation of what is being taught in the class today. The

interviews with the former students will predominantly showcase the elements they think

are important for undergraduate jazz students to learn about when building a career in

music. Furthermore, the interviews discussed throughout this chapter will be organized

chronologically to highlight the subtle changes in UM’s music entrepreneurship course

over the years.

Student Interview 1

The first student interviewed, Danielle, was a jazz vocal major at UM and is now

working as a professional musician and educator.97 Much like the undergraduate

curriculum during my time at UM, she was required to take a general music business

class and a separate entrepreneurship for musicians class, the latter of which she took in

97 Danielle, interview with author, Zoom, July 1, 2020.

46

2016. While Danielle noted her class met one night a week from about 6 until 9 p.m., she

suggested that this class was actually “in the way of jazz musicians’ entrepreneurship,” as

most of the jazz majors at UM regularly work in the evenings.

Overall, Danielle felt her course was outdated. A major assignment in her class

was to create an electronic press kit, also known as an EPK, using a PDF or PowerPoint

format, which she felt wasn’t relevant anymore when she took this class in 2016.98 She

also didn’t think the music entrepreneurship course was relevant to building a career as a

jazz musician, but rather it was geared more toward the contemporary music students in

her class.99 There was a lot of encouragement to make and pass out demo tapes and EPs,

which she said was irrelevant at the time for jazz musicians.

Other things Danielle wanted to learn from her class included how to register her

music and with whom, how to find album distribution, how to create a reasonable album-

release timeline, and how music licensing worked, especially when recording jazz

standards and arrangements versus original music. Because jazz musicians often play and

record music written by other people, Danielle believes learning how to obtain music

licenses and understanding the scenarios in which they’re needed is something that would

benefit all undergraduate jazz students. She also would have liked to learn how to

realistically sign with a record label today and what the roles of jazz managers and

agencies are in the current music industry.

98 An Electronic Press Kit is essentially a digital resume that provides industry professionals, such as talent buyers or the media, everything they need to know about a musician or a band, including photos, recordings, and press quotes. 99 Contemporary is an academic term often used to describe music or musicians that don’t fall under the jazz or classical genres, but rather relates more toward popular music.

47

Since graduating from UM, Danielle has independently released an album, which

she believes is necessary for jazz musicians to know how to do. She suggested that “as

jazz musicians, not a lot of us are going to be getting signed to a label to make our first

record,” and wished her class covered how to independently release music in a fashion

appropriate to the current music industry. Additionally, Danielle expressed several things

she thought would have been beneficial to know before graduating from music school:

What would have been really helpful would have been budgeting for musicians. how do you create a sustainable financial budget for yourself when your income is unreliable?…The last thing that I will say of what is something that I needed to know after I graduated with a degree in Studio Music and Jazz is how do I do my taxes as a jazz musician?…Why don't we have a two-credit one semester crash course for taxes for musicians? What’s tax deductible?…We don't know these things, and then here we are, sent off to play gigs…as we graduate college and have no idea how to do our taxes.

Danielle believed her music entrepreneurship instructor wasn’t familiar with her

experiences as a jazz musician and couldn’t differentiate the practices of a jazz musician

versus that of another genre, as he himself wasn’t an active performing musician. She

felt that he was very much out of touch with the realities of what it meant to be a

performing musician at that time. According to Danielle, learning from a music

entrepreneurship teacher who has an active performing career would serve

undergraduate jazz students best.

Danielle thinks there should be a jazz-specific entrepreneurship course offered

within college jazz programs and believes that a successful course would address how to

separate a jazz musician’s income from their artistry. In her opinion, a course like this

“needs to be a little bit more like artist development through the lens of the music

business,” which she said would be drastically different for a jazz musician than

musicians of other genres. She also suggested that jazz has a more age-diverse audience

48

than other genres of music, potentially influencing how a class should address something

like promotion or marketing for jazz musicians.

When asked what it means to be successful as a musician, Danielle said, “Being a

successful musician to me means that other people feel themselves in my music.” She

acknowledged that her own definition of success has changed over time as she has grown

and developed as a person.

Student Interview 2

The next student interviewed, Garrett, was a jazz drum major and a music

business minor, and he enrolled in the music entrepreneurship course in 2018.100

Currently, he is working as a professional musician and recording artist. Like Danielle,

Garrett recently took this class, but he graduated before the current instructor joined the

faculty in the fall of 2019, thus never taking the iteration of Music Business and

Entrepreneurship for Musicians offered today.

He mentioned his class had multiple instructors who switched off teaching in two-

week segments, usually lecturing from PowerPoint presentations. Garrett didn’t

remember having any required texts in his class, but he recalled his teachers suggesting

reading material throughout the semester. Like Danielle, Garrett felt his course was

outdated. He expressed that there was an emphasis on teaching the laws of the music

industry, but upon completing the course, he was left questioning how it related to his

career: “Here’s the laws, and here’s all this. I get that, but where did I come into play?”

100 Garrett, interview with author, Zoom, June 24, 2020.

49

He suggested that students don’t need to know all the minute details of music laws:

“Lawyers know everything about it. You don't need to know everything about it. You

need to know your steps in the process.”

A core assignment in his class was creating an EPK, as was also seen in

Danielle’s class. Garrett said his teachers frequently talked about the format of the music

business, and they often told the students that they can take additional courses if they

want to learn more about the topics covered in the class, implying that his instructors did

not elaborate on the material covered in the class.

In reflecting on his music entrepreneurship class, Garrett would have like to learn

about the practical points related to the real-life scenarios he would likely face in his

career as a jazz musician, including the steps he would need to take if he released music,

which performing rights organization he should register his music with, and how he

should go about getting his music distributed.101 Garrett wanted to learn about

networking as a jazz musician saying, “It's really hard to ask for someone to teach you

that without doing it, but it's also really hard to do it without understanding it.” He further

stated that upon leaving school, he had no idea how to market himself on social media,

present himself online, create a website, or professionally conduct business via email. He

wishes he had learned about the “post-grad first steps into the career.”

While Danielle felt her music entrepreneurship course more geared toward the

contemporary music students, Garrett didn’t think his class catered to any one genre.

However, he said his teachers occasionally singled out the different music majors within

the class when discussing certain points in attempts to make the content more relevant to

101 A Performing Rights Organization (PRO) is an organization that collects performance royalties on behalf of the songwriters and publishers they represent.

50

everyone. Overall, Garrett felt the course content was broad and the topics were typically

addressed generically, but most importantly, he believed the course was outdated.

Garrett thinks that knowing how to create one’s own opportunities, being able to

book gigs and work with venue owners and talent buyers, and the proper etiquette for

networking with other musicians are all skills jazz musicians need to be successful, which

he believes should be covered in music entrepreneurship courses offered to

undergraduate jazz students. He acknowledged that many students within jazz programs

may already be doing these things to some degree but ultimately believes that music

entrepreneurship courses should, at the very least, touch on these elements for the

students who don’t yet know.

Like Danielle, Garrett has independently released an album, which he also thinks

is important for jazz musicians to know how to do. Coincidentally, they both recorded

and released their debut albums in their first year out of school, despite not having been

taught the ways to do so in their music entrepreneurship classes. Garrett mentioned that

he wasn’t sure if the steps he took in releasing his album were the right

ones: “For my record, I had no idea. I registered all my songs on BMI, I uploaded

through DistroKid, and I was like, ‘Okay, well hopefully I get some money at some

point.’”102

Garrett believes these courses should make a point of regularly bringing in active

musicians to speak with the students about the current trends and realities of being a

musician. He said that it would be very beneficial for the students to hear from musicians

102 Broadcast Music, Inc., more commonly known as BMI, is a Performing Rights Organization in the United States. DistroKid is a digital music distribution service.

51

who look like them and are actively out on the scene making a living in music. He also

mentioned that guest speakers occasionally came to present to his class.

Garrett’s definition of success recognizes that there are many kinds of successes,

and how you measure it can be fluid:

My term for that for a long time has been making my sole income off of music; that would be financial success. Musical success, I think, shifts so much for me, where it's like, if I can complete my own album, that’s success, but then I've done it. Then it's like, well, if I can do a U.S. tour, that’s success, but then Covid comes. Well, if I can remote record all the time, that's success. So I think the bench or the marker for me always moves around.

In alignment with Danielle, Garrett thinks a jazz-specific music entrepreneurship

course would benefit all undergraduate jazz students. He feels a class that pertains more

to career building and artist development for jazz musicians, that also incorporates the

jazz faculty at UM who have active performing careers, would be extremely valuable.

Garrett said that outside of private lessons, students may not have a lot of exposure to

some of the instructors who are actively performing. He believes it would be

advantageous to hear from these instructors in this kind of setting, where they can give

students career advice and talk about some of the things that have worked for them,

similar to the perspectives of the NEC students who believed the most helpful career

advice they received in college came from their private lesson instructors.

Student Interview 3

The last student interviewed was Connor, who, at the time of writing, was a jazz

piano major at UM.103 Unlike Danielle, who was required to take both a music

103 Connor, interview with author, Zoom, June 16, 2021.

52

entrepreneurship and a music business class, the jazz majors today are only required to

take one all-encompassing music business and entrepreneurship class. He took the Music

Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians course in the spring semester of 2021 with

the current instructor, whose interview will be discussed next. Due to the coronavirus

pandemic, Connor’s class met virtually once a week.

He explained that his instructor lectured off PowerPoints for the entirety of the

class. The David Baskerville readings complemented the lectures, though his instructor

rarely referenced the text. His instructor also posted supplemental videos and readings to

Blackboard as an extra resource for the students. Connor said the homework for the class

consisted of the suggested textbook readings ahead of each lecture. He had weekly take-

home quizzes which were based on the instructor’s PowerPoint presentations as well as a

take-home final exam at the end of the semester. Unlike Garrett’s experience, no guest

speakers were brought to Connor’s class, and while Garrett’s class had multiple

instructors, Connor’s only had one.

In his class, Connor learned about music publishing, music copyright, streaming,

music production, releasing music, the market of selling music, live performing, music

agents and concert promoters, starting a business and business structures, accounting

basics, and the record business. He gained a global view of the music industry, as the

content pertained more to bigger concepts, rather than the specific details. Much like in

Garrett’s class, Connor’s instructor suggested that the students should enroll in additional

courses if they want to learn more about a topic covered, as his class was meant to

provide a basic overview of the music industry. Connor said that throughout the entire

semester, his instructor “would be talking about something and be like, ‘Well, take this

53

other class if you want to go in-depth about this because we’re not going to cover that

here, we’re just covering the bare minimum.’”

Connor thought his class was current and that his instructor did a great job of

relating whatever they discussed to how it’s being affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

He mentioned that one of the challenges with this music entrepreneurship course was for

his teacher to keep the information relevant to all the students, who again, consist of the

various music majors:

He would talk about getting a song copyrighted, or putting yourself in the shoes of a songwriter, or basically explaining specific situations that might relate to some people or might not relate to some people. But that's the problem of the class, because when he started talking about singer-songwriters who want to get a song on a record, or just simply copywriting a song, some people, they relate to it, but some people don't.

Connor didn’t think his class was very relevant to building a career as a jazz musician as

his instructor “didn’t mention us jazz musicians one single time.” However, Connor felt

that learning about the production and post-production processes of, and the costs

involved with, recording a record was the most relatable content to him as a jazz

musician, as jazz artists frequently record albums.

In reflecting on his experience in Music Business and Entrepreneurship for

Musicians, Connor wished his class went into greater detail on the material covered.

Again, although he acknowledged the difficulty of making the information applicable to

everyone, he wanted a more comprehensive instruction. He said, “It would be great if we

could go into copyright a little bit deeper. It would be great to go into music publishing a

little bit deeper instead of just going over these terms.”

Connor believes there should be a jazz-specific music entrepreneurship course

offered to undergraduate jazz students saying, “If it was dialed down to separate classes,

54

like an entrepreneurship class for jazz musicians alone, just think of the incredible detail

you could go into [in] a 15-week semester, just diving into concepts that would be

helpful, and obviously working on projects.” He expressed that what he should be

learning as a jazz musician is different from a musician of another genre: “The things we

learn should be individualized, and not everything is the same for every different type of

genre or every different type of musician. The markets are going to be different.” As

Danielle suggested, the jazz market caters to a more wide-ranging audience than other

genres. Connor said if he were to take a music entrepreneurship course made for jazz

musicians, he would want to learn more about music copyright and publishing and how

they’d relate to him in his career.

In response to whether or not he thinks there are fundamental elements all

musicians should know, Connor said the various lecture topics that were covered in his

class are good to know as musicians, regardless of genre. He elaborated: “Things like

starting a business, and different types of business structures, and obviously the bare

bones of the copyright law, these are things we should know as people associated with

music, whether it be a [performing] musician ourselves, or a writer or composer.” When

asked what tools or skills are needed to be a working and successful jazz musician, he

stressed the importance of being on time and being easy to work with. Connor defines

success for himself as a musician as having a properly registered and marketable

portfolio of original music, and he wants to perform. He added:

Getting gigs and releasing your own music; it makes it even more worthwhile when you know the process, and you know exactly what's going on in the industry and what are the logistics behind this whole process of releasing an album, scheduling a tour, or getting a gig. I think that makes it more worthwhile and something to be proud of.

55

According to Connor, the general attitude amongst the students taking this music

entrepreneurship class is to try and get it out of the way as fast as they can. He said the

class is thought of simply as a general education requirement needed to graduate, which,

in his words is, “unfortunate.” He believes the class would be more valuable if it was

more engaging. He said, “It was all lecture. I didn’t feel like it was hands on. A project

would have made it hands on.”

Instructor Interview

The last interview discussed is with the instructor of the Music Business and

Entrepreneurship for Musicians course, Guillermo Page.104 Though not a musician

himself, Page has an extensive background as an executive at both Sony Music Latin and

Universal Music Latin Entertainment, specializing in marketing. His decades long

experience at these major labels may explain why syllabus lists the record business as the

only topic in his class discussed in multiple lectures, surely providing his students ample

information and first-hand knowledge.

According to Page, one of the challenges of teaching a music entrepreneurship

course is keeping the content current. He said that it’s up to the professors of these

classes to “keep everything fresh and update it as much as possible, so when you get out

there, you’ve got the latest information; you are at the leading edge of what’s happening

out there.” His goal as the teacher is to make his class useful and relevant for everyone.

Page tries to target his questions to specific students or groups of students based on the

104 Guillermo Page, interview with author, Zoom, January 11, 2021.

56

topics being discussed as a way to keep his class engaged. He said, “When we talk about

the marketing side, I will ask the music business students [questions]. When I talked

about copyright or live performances, I will ask the performers [questions].” To Page,

teaching music entrepreneurship isn’t just about relaying the information to his students,

but rather a way to “bridge the gap and help on the practical side.”

In this interview, Page expressed that the music school intends to split up his

course into two separate courses, one for the music business majors and one for everyone

else. He said that the new version of Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians

will provide more practical information for the performance majors, discussing things

like how to create videos and set up a YouTube channel. While Page acknowledged the

need for more applicable content, he fears that splitting up this course will cause the

performance majors to miss out on important information about the music industry and

the business sides of things. I think examining the future plans of this course illuminates

what UM believes to be important and relevant; however, the focus of this essay is about

what is currently being offered.

The syllabus for Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians states that

students will learn “entrepreneurial fundamentals,” which, according to Page, include

learning about how to set up a corporation, cash basis versus accrual accounting, and

developing a business plan. In his class, Page explores principles such as understanding

music copyright law, the role of record labels, and the role of publishing companies,

which, in his words, are “basic things that everyone needs to know and understand.”

Over the course of one semester, this music entrepreneurship class covers much

ground. Page indicated that the role of his class is to provide his students with basic

57

information and that other classes within the music school will expand on a lot of the

material covered. He explained that compared to his one lecture about music publishing,

there’s a separate semester-long music publishing course offered at UM. He said that the

same is true for music licensing, marketing, and there’s even another class at UM called

Entrepreneurship for Musicians, which more thoroughly explores music

entrepreneurship.

In response to being asked whether or not there are elements that separate a jazz

career from a musician of another genre, Page said that “in terms of the knowledge, it’s

essentially the same.” He also thinks that jazz musicians would benefit from a class

geared toward their genre, but that it needs to be addressed within the individual music

school programs.

Although he doesn’t bring in guest speakers to his class, Page believes having

alumni come and speak with the students would be beneficial:

I think that it's important to bring the outsiders to connect the dots with the students, especially alumni. Alumni help a lot because they bring hands on information on what they did when they left. What happened? How do you find that that first break? How do you get that job? How do you end up in this new job that you are [at] right now? Page further explained fundamental elements all musicians should know about

when building a career in music, regardless of genre. He said, “If you’re going to be

involved in the industry, you need to understand the industry.” He continued: “You need

to understand the players, the different segments of the industry and how they

interconnect, and how the money flows from one end to another end so you know exactly

what you're talking about...If you don’t know that, you’re at the mercy of those that really

know.” He also stressed the importance of understanding the intricacies of a contract

58

before signing, as well as knowing when the term of an agreement ends. Essentially, the

more one knows about the music industry, the better prepared they’ll be.

Conclusion

When I took the music entrepreneurship class at UM in 2012, I remember feeling

that the material covered was outdated and that it generally didn’t apply much to a career

in jazz, a sentiment shared by both Danielle and Connor. In many ways, my experiences

in that class were a catalyst for this project. Like Garrett and Danielle, one of my main

takeaways from the class was the EPK project, which isn’t a part of the course offered

today.

In examining the syllabus and speaking with the instructor, it seems that the

material covered in this class may be more geared toward the music business majors

rather than the performance majors, hence further explaining why UM is splitting up this

course in the future in order to address the needs of the non-music industry majors and

minors. As Page mentioned, the entrepreneurial fundamentals discussed in this course

include concepts such as accounting, starting a business and setting up a corporation,

developing a business plan, and marketing basics.

After speaking with the students, it’s clear that they understood the importance of

learning some of the laws of the music industry, but they would have rather learned about

how these laws applied to their careers and how they fit into the equation. The students

explained that learning about concepts like networking, working with venue owners and

talent buyers, how to independently release music today and the steps it takes to do so,

59

how to book a festival performance, and the current marketing trends would have been

very helpful and worthwhile. Other tangible skills the students wanted to learn include

financial budgeting and taxes for musicians, which they believe would be beneficial for

jazz students to know before leaving music school.

While he felt the information discussed in his class may have been beneficial to

learn about, Connor’s main criticism of the class was that the material was presented very

superficially. According to Page, his class is meant to provide his students with a basic

understanding of the music business, and there are additional courses students can choose

to take if they want to expand upon some of the topics covered in his class. A potential

issue with the notion that students can take these extra classes is that not every student

will have the space in their schedules or even curriculums. In my ten-plus years of

experience as a student at UM, one thing I can say for certain is that the music students

there rarely have room in their schedules to take additional classes.

For the jazz majors at UM, this music entrepreneurship course is the only required

course they will take even remotely related to career development and advancement. This

class was designed to lay out the foundation of everything there is to know about the

music industry, but it does not lay out the specifics of a jazz career. As the instructor

noted, there’s no way a single course can address the needs of every music major. At

UM, a Bachelor of Music degree in the Studio Music and Jazz instrumental program

consists of 121 credit hours.105 Only three of those credit hours are dedicated to Music

Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians. As a product of its program, I believe that

105 “2021-2022 Academic Bulletin: B.M. in Studio Music and Jazz Instrumental,” University of Miami, accessed March 1, 2021, https://bulletin.miami.edu/undergraduate-academic-programs/music/studio-music-jazz/studio-music-jazz-instrumental-bm/#planofstudytext.

60

the jazz department at UM does a great job addressing the importance of performance

when considering a career in music. However, I think more weight needs to now be

placed on career development. As stated in the Literature Review, “musical proficiency

must precede entrepreneurial competency, but that entrepreneurship instruction could be

as valuable or more valuable than musical proficiency.”106

In speaking with the students from UM, and as is detailed throughout this essay,

there is a very clear demand for the instructors of these courses to have an active

performing career, someone with whom the students can identify with. Garrett explained,

“No one's asking people to lay out their career for them. They're asking for the concepts,

and the how, and the what.”107

106 Tonelli, 4. 107 Garrett, interview.

61

CHAPTER 6

MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC Practical Foundations: Entrepreneurial Leadership Skills

In the early 1980s, the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) became one of the first

schools to establish a jazz program in New York City, offering a master’s degree in jazz

and commercial music in 1984, followed shortly thereafter by a bachelor’s degree in

1987.108 There are currently about 110 students pursuing a jazz degree at MSM.109 The

Jazz Arts program at MSM is widely considered to be one of the premier programs in the

country, which is evident by its acclaimed faculty and prominence of its alumni,

including the likes of Ambrose Akinmusire, Linda May Han Oh, Jason Moran, Harry

Connick Jr., Miguel Zenón, and Chris Potter.110

Much like the EM office seen at NEC, MSM also offers its student the Center for

Music Entrepreneurship (CME), which, according to its website, helps its students and

alumni “develop successful, sustainable careers.”111 The CME provides a wide range of

services and opportunities including workshops, career advising consultations and

entrepreneurial coaching, various recording services, musician and teacher referral

resources for performance and teaching opportunities, a database of information about

jobs, internships, grants, and competitions, and its flagship music entrepreneurship

course, which will be examined throughout this chapter.112

108 “MSM History: Virtual Yearbooks: 1980s,” Manhattan School of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.msmnyc.edu/about/history/virtual-yearbooks-1980s. 109 “Student Music Guide,” DownBeat, 60-62. 110 Ibid. 111 “Center for Music Entrepreneurship,” Manhattan School of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/center-for-music-entrepreneurship. 112 Ibid.

62

Syllabus

While the syllabus calls MSM’s music entrepreneurship course a slightly different

name, for the purposes of this essay, the course will be referred to as Practical

Foundations: Entrepreneurial Leadership Skills, as it is listed on the CME website.113, 114

It should be noted that the CME recently underwent some major changes, affecting the

general makeup of the Practical Foundations courses offered today. In recent years, the

former head of the CME taught all the sections of this course, which are organized by

major. For example, there was a section for the jazz majors, one for the opera majors, one

for the orchestral classical majors, and the like. Today, the jazz and composition majors

are grouped together in the same section. Additionally, they have a new instructor,

specific to their section, who wrote a new curriculum for the course, which was first

taught during the spring semester of 2021 and will be illustrated throughout this chapter.

The syllabus for the jazz section of Practical Foundations describes this class as

being a “practical music rights-oriented course, centered around the power of metadata,

harnessing new technology and old industry savvy.” Some of the goals of this course are

to provide students with a comprehension of musical copyrights and licensing, music

distribution, social media, music streaming platforms, and an artist’s global rights. The

syllabus states that this course encourages its students’ participation in registering and

managing their entire music catalog so as to benefit from “all old, new and future

113 The Practical Foundations syllabus can be found in Appendix C. 114 “Center for Music Entrepreneurship (CME): Coursework,” Manhattan School of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/center-for-music-entrepreneurship/coursework.

63

technologies available to them.” The course also aims to prepare its students to become

self-published musicians in today’s music industry and stresses the development and

implementation of their career goals.

According to this syllabus, students in the class will learn to navigate the global

music industry through a focus on music rights and potential revenue streams for

musicians. Additional topics include the development of marketing plans and budgets.

While there are no required texts to supplement the lectures, the syllabus provides a

comprehensive list of online blogs, newsletters, and links to music industry professionals'

websites and social media pages. One of the blogs listed is Ari’s Take, which is written

by Ari Herstand, whose book is featured in the Literature Review of this essay. Practical

Foundations is typically taken by the undergraduate jazz majors during the second

semester of their senior year and meets once a week for two hours.

Lectures and Assignments

Despite providing great detail of the information that will be covered throughout

this course, the syllabus only outlines the first two weeks of the semester. Week one

introduces the course and invites students to assess the stage they are at in their own

careers. The second week of the semester discusses the environment of music rights. The

syllabus states: “Practical application is at the heart of this course, to supercharge and

instill great confidence in our next generation of musicians as they navigate the

complexities of building a successful career.”

64

Student Interview 1

The first interview was with Nicola, a jazz saxophone major from Italy, who took

this course during the spring semester of 2019.115 His class was primarily made up of jazz

majors, with a few classical composition majors mixed in, but according to Nicola, the

information covered was mostly “jazz-oriented.” He said they read articles in his class

pertaining to well-known jazz musicians living in New York City, one of which was

about Linda May Han Oh, who is a part of the Pool of Experts (POE) group that will be

featured later in the essay. Nicola’s class also worked on writing biographies. In doing so,

they analyzed the biographies of notable jazz musicians, including Emmet Cohen, who is

coincidentally another artist in the POE group. He said that spending time on writing

biographies seemed elementary for a college course, but being from Italy, he found it to

be very helpful:

For me, it was really great, especially because I'm from Italy. So [the] Italian business system in jazz is totally different than what’s in the U.S. So for example, we learned in that class if you have to book gigs, or you have to write a bio, all that kind of stuff, everything needs to be kind of short and be effective…while here in Italy, you go on any website of any jazz musician in Italy, the bios are like 77 pages long. They put everything, and it's really detailed, and it's kind of like, the more the best, while in the U.S., it's shorter [and] effective, and that's the goal.

The final project in Nicola’s class was to create a musical goal that was to be

accomplished within five years, analyze all of the logistics and finances involved, and

develop a plan to complete the goal. This could be anything from recording and releasing

an album to setting up a “tour with American musicians in Italy.” He said that musicians

living in New York tend to focus on the present, and this project was beneficial because it

115 Nicola, interview with author, Zoom, December 28, 2020.

65

forced him to think about his long-term goals. Nicola wished his class addressed more

practical and applicable skills he could apply to his career right away.

Nicola said that there should be a jazz-specific music entrepreneurship course

offered to undergraduate jazz students, but that it should be two-semesters long instead of

one. He believes that all musicians should be able to negotiate contracts, conduct

business over the phone and email, and build a website. In response to being asked if

there are elements that only apply to a jazz career, he said that in jazz “it’s more about

connections and talking to people. It’s more [of] a direct relationship between who gives

the gig to who wants the gig.” Lastly, Nicola defined what being successful as a musician

means to him:

First of all, being happy when I play. I just want to be happy and just channel emotions…Touring with my band, but that's again, a consequence of being really focused and happy in what we do…I think that's the major goal: being able to just do what you like, being happy at the highest level you can because that's also really important, and just tour and bring the message around the world.

Student Interview 2

The next student interviewed was Kalí, a jazz trumpet major from Cuba who was

in the same class as Nicola in 2019.116 Like Nicola, Kalí found writing biographies and

the final project to be helpful. In his class, he said they discussed and read articles about

the issues and challenges surrounding being a jazz musician in the current music industry.

However, while Kalí believed these discussions to be important, he didn’t think the class

116 Kalí, interview with author, Zoom, January 12, 2021.

66

was preparing him to overcome these challenges: “It's like being presented with an issue

and talking about the issue, but never being given the solution to the issue.”

Much like Nicola, Kalí wanted to learn more practical information and skills he

could apply to real-life situations, such as networking and “hustling,” as he put it. He

noted that music entrepreneurship courses sometimes “lack specific guidance. For

example, we were never told how to write an email to get a gig in a venue.” He also

wished his class covered how to approach jazz record labels in order to release an album

with them, something he thinks pertains to all jazz musicians.

Unlike Nicola, Kalí didn’t think a music entrepreneurship course catered

specifically to undergraduate jazz students was necessary, but rather that colleges should

offer one that’s more realistic in what it means to build a career in music today. In

discussing the fundamental tools or skills he believes are needed in a successful jazz

career, he stressed the importance of playing one’s instrument as much as possible to

avoid any limitations and always being prepared for any situation. Kalí added that being

kind, honest, and able to get along with people is vital for a career in jazz.

When asked to define what it means to be successful as a musician, Kalí said that

to him, success has “nothing to do with the music. The first thing you’ve got to be is be

successful with yourself. If you're successful with yourself, then all the other success,

whatever it is you're looking for, it will come to you.” He expressed that “it takes more

than just going to college, getting your degree, and being out there” on the scene to

succeed as a jazz musician. In his opinion, jazz programs are not doing enough to prepare

their undergraduate students for the real-life situations they will likely face in their

careers. Kalí thinks Practical Foundations wasn’t long enough and should be offered as a

67

year-long course. He believes that this is the most important class undergraduate jazz

students take at MSM and added that it should be offered earlier than their last semester

in school, thus allowing students to enhance any skills and techniques prior to graduating.

Student Interview 3

The last student interview was with Owen, a jazz bass major who completed this

course in the spring semester of 2021.117 Like Nicola and Kalí, he took this class during

the second semester of his senior year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Owen’s class

was held virtually online. His instructor, whose interview will be discussed next, lectured

off of PowerPoint presentations, often for the entirety of the two-hour class, which, in

combination with the fact that the classes were conducted virtually, led Owen to find it

difficult to engage. Despite classes being held via Zoom, Owen’s instructor occasionally

brought guests to speak with the class, including a musicians’ union lawyer, a director of

a music supervision company, and a music royalty specialist. He found it helpful to hear

from these guest speakers to get a different perspective from his instructor.

As reiterated in the syllabus, Owen said the first part of the semester was about

music rights and royalties, both nationally and internationally. He also mentioned that

concepts like building a brand and developing an online presence, as well as information

regarding digitally streaming music, were covered in his class. Owen’s instructor is a

music manager for jazz artists, and he felt it was beneficial when she shared her

experiences working with artists:

117 Owen, interview with author, Zoom, June 16, 2021.

68

That's actually something that was super useful. She works as music management, so she gave a bunch of examples of like, “Here's what I did with this guy.” And especially, she works with Marc Cary, who most of us have had as a teacher here…Probably half of us, at least, have been in a class with him, so we get to see an artist that we have a pretty intimate knowledge of, and then we get to sort of see that music business side of what he's actually doing in his career right now. So that was very insightful.

Owen found value in being able to see first-hand how his teacher, Marc, manages his

career as a performing artist.

There were no assigned or required readings for his class, but Owen noted that his

instructor provided a list of entrepreneurial resources, which he said supplemented the

lessons. He explained that while there was no regularly assigned homework, there was

one big project he worked on over the course of a few weeks during the semester called

the Fantasy Album Challenge: “We had to do a mock up for an album that we're making,

so we had to do all the paperwork and the split sheets that we would have to do for

making that album.”118 In this project, students used performing rights organization

databases to determine the composers and publishers of each song included on their mock

albums, thus informing them how to accurately distribute any royalties.

Owen mentioned that his class was jazz-specific in the sense that his teacher

works with jazz artists, and most of the students in his class were jazz majors, but not

because the content was unique to the jazz genre or how jazz musicians conduct their

careers. He explained: “It was a little bit tailored toward us, but I think any musician

who's interested in doing freelance work or stuff as a solo artist would benefit from that

[class].” Owen would have liked the Practical Foundations class to address aspects of a

music career outside of being a performing musician. As he is going into the music

118 A split sheet is a legally binding document that helps determine the percentage of composition and/or master royalties for each party involved in the writing and recording process.

69

education field, he would have liked to learn about the various options for music

educators within the contexts of a jazz career. He also wanted to learn more about how to

market himself as a composer and not just as a performer.

Owen listed the qualities he believes to be essential for all jazz musicians. In his

opinion, willingness to play various styles of music and not being too attached to one

specific career path are valuable traits for jazz musicians. Owen continued:

Being professional and courteous and being a good person to be around because in jazz in particular, it's very much who enjoys playing with you. And in both my own experience and even just talking to older people, if the people who you're playing with like being around you, they're more likely to call you for the next gig. Being professional, and showing up to the gig on time, learning the music, being a pro and a nice person to be around, I think that's as important as any specific marketing strategy.

He also believes that understanding the various financial aspects of a music career that

were covered in his class are fundamental for all musicians, regardless of genre. He

thinks it’s important for all musicians to know enough to ensure they’re receiving all the

money they’re due.

In defining what it means to be successful as a musician, Owen said, “For me,

making it is basically you get to play the music that you want to play and still have

relatively stable finances.” He continued: “[It means] being able to make a living playing

the music you want to play, rather than having to take gigs that you don't want to or doing

projects you don't want to.” Just like Kalí and Nicola, Owen feels that the Practical

Foundations class should be a year-long commitment and that it should be offered earlier

than the second semester of senior year. He explained, “A bunch of us have careers

already, so being able to develop that sophomore year or something when you’re actually

70

starting that process might be good.” Owen believes it’s vital to amend the formatting of

how and when this class is offered because, in his opinion, “This is one of the most

important classes here.”

Instructor Interview

The instructor of the jazz section of Practical Foundations is Dr. Tinku

Bhattacharyya, an artist manager specializing in music rights administration.119 She

created a new curriculum for this course, which was first taught during the spring

semester of 2021. According to Bhattacharyya, a major problem with many music

entrepreneurship courses is that “they’re more geared toward someone who wants to go

into the business side, rather than a musician who needs to understand the fundamentals

of the business.” She expressed a need for preparing students for the environment that

they’re currently in or headed towards.

Bhattacharyya uses her experiences as an artist manager to teach concepts she

believes are important for her students to know. She explained, “I feel like one of the

things I can bring to this course is some real practical examples of how this comes to

life.” Bhattacharyya explained that most of her students already have careers, and she

wants the material covered in her class to be practical enough for her students to be able

to apply to their own careers in real time: “What we're doing is really going through the

whole toolbox of the career you currently have…You're not really students; most of you

are earning money when you're at college.”

119 Tinku Bhattacharyya, interview with author, Zoom, January 21, 2021.

71

Bhattacharyya said that a part of her class is dedicated to music rights

management and administration, which she explained as everything having to do with

where one’s money is in the digital realm, including where to go to register one’s music

and how to secure music licenses for different platforms. Another part of her course

focuses on the changes in marketing strategies and reexamines what constitutes sufficient

marketing tools for musicians. She noted that jazz musicians need to know more than

how to write a bio, hire a publicist, and secure a radio placement for their music, because,

as Bhattacharyya said, “Actually, that’s what’s not working.” She continued: “What

we're going to talk about is really building a marketing toolbox, something that then

becomes scalable for different concepts and projects that people are doing, and kind of

accesses new tech to use it more effectively.”

In her class, Bhattacharyya preaches viewing social media as an asset, rather than

a tool to amass followers. She explained, “If you understand why you're using it beyond,

‘Oh, I'm just trying to be seen,’ then you can actually start coming up with scalable

strategies that work for you.” She emphasizes the importance of knowing how and when

to use social media as a tool, when to use it as an audience, and when to use it as a

licensing platform. Another aspect of this course deals with putting together action and

release plans, which Bhattacharyya believes allow musicians to work out the various

considerations at each step of whatever project they’re planning or conducting. While

there are no required texts for her class, Bhattacharyya encourages her students to follow

the list of knowledgeable experts and entrepreneurs skilled in marketing and distribution

that she includes in her syllabus.

72

Bhattacharyya feels that there are slight nuances between the various styles of

music, but ultimately, the information covered in her course applies to all musicians,

regardless of genre. While she would prefer to have all the music majors together in one

class, she understands the benefit of having the jazz and composition students together.

Throughout this interview, Bhattacharyya frequently mentioned the significance

of collecting one’s dues, which she says is important for all jazz musicians to know:

Number one, we don't leave money on the table. We learn to equip ourselves and register where we need to be. That, beyond learning how to negotiate a contract, to me, is way more important. Learn how to collect revenue at source from as many places as possible, learn as many of the nuts-and-bolts…before you're in a position where you have to make a deal.

However, she doesn’t think there are fundamental elements that exclusively apply to a

jazz musician’s career. She explained:

I just think some [aspects] are more weighted, like the fact that we have such a dependency on the live sector. I do think that's very much a jazz problem in comparison to other genres, and it's not a sustainable position in this market [or] in this climate. So that's why I think there is more of a need to get jazz artists more comfortable with the modern music environment.

She also believes that the business a jazz musician needs is the exact same for musicians

of other genres. Bhattacharyya said most musicians outside of school don’t limit

themselves to one style of music or career path, which she feels needs to be reflected in

music entrepreneurship courses. She added:

These days, it's hard to find a musician that stays in a box. A lot of the classical musicians I know are playing with Beyoncé and people like that. The jazzers are the same; most of them are on the road with big stars. Why are we not teaching people it’s okay to have a career like that? Your excellence is not diminished. It’s snobbery…We're slightly elitist about how we present stuff, and then we moan about the state of the environment. It's reductive, it's just stupid. And that’s not naturally how any of you are making music. Our business courses need to align more with where the creativity is going.

73

In her class, Bhattacharyya aims to combat the perpetuated notions that jazz

doesn’t sell, which she thinks is detrimental to jazz students. She said, “I just think we've

had this tendency to teach jazz musicians business like the way we teach them about the

potential of the business like, ‘Oh, you only get so far as a jazz musician, and only so

many people listen to jazz music,’ and that, number one, is a very American headset.”

She continued:

If you go and look at what's happening in the U.K. right now, and the connections between grassroots organizations, like Tomorrow's Warriors, and then the education sector and the commercial sector…those artists are blowing up now and signing major deals because they don't fundamentally believe that jazz doesn't sell. We are entrenched in that idea that the jazz market is diminishing, so we have to sort of change that perspective from the jump, I think, to make students even want to understand any of the royalty stuff.

Ultimately, Bhattacharyya wants to inform young jazz artists about the proper

information they need to overcome these perceptions.

As it was previously stated, Bhattacharyya often came back to the importance of

registering one’s music and knowing where to collect one’s dues. In addition, she also

believes it’s vital for jazz musicians to register their setlists with a PRO whenever they

are performing live. She said because jazz musicians regularly play so many covers when

they perform, registering their setlists would allow the composers to receive

compensation. Bhattacharyya expressed:

If our genre is about lineage and connecting the dots generationally, then we are not paying the people that we say we love, the composers that we uphold, if we don't know that we need to be a member of a PRO to register our setlist so those musicians see their performance income from them...In other genres you don't have such a predisposition for playing covers. A lot of other genres come up with original music. So, who are you screwing? You’re screwing yourself if you're not collecting, but jazz is built upon homage. The whole way we teach it is the lineages, the compositions.

74

Conclusion

While the students interviewed didn’t agree as to whether or not schools should

offer a jazz-tailored music entrepreneurship class, each one of them expressed a desire for

a class spanning two semesters. Kalí and Owen said Practical Foundations was the most

important class offered at MSM, and they both expressed that it should be offered earlier

than their last semester in school. Nicola and Kalí both wished they had learned more

applicable skills in their class that they could have applied to their careers in real time,

something the current instructor, Bhattacharyya, advocates for. Additionally, Owen

would have liked to learn about other career options for jazz musicians outside of

performance.

As stressed in the syllabus, Practical Foundations is centered around music rights.

Bhattacharyya, actively working as an artist manager, believes it’s crucial that her

students are learning practical information. She expressed that she wants to “instill that

sort of superpower in the musicians…A lot of this isn't rocket science, it’s just taking a

little time to consider.”120

120 Bhattacharyya, interview.

75

CHAPTER 7

IMEP Paris College of Music Music Business

In addition to exploring music entrepreneurship courses offered to undergraduate

jazz students at American schools, two courses offered at music schools outside of the

United States will be highlighted. As mentioned in the Introduction, there is a lot of

benefit in reviewing music entrepreneurship courses taught at programs abroad. Many

American jazz musicians heavily rely on foreign markets for album sales and touring

opportunities.121 Ultimately, the international programs discussed in this essay present

insights into alternative models in which jazz musicians can build a career and make a

living.

The first international school examined is the International Music Educators of

Paris, Paris College of Music (IMEP). Founded in 2011 as a part of the American School

of Modern Music, IMEP prides itself on its global faculty whose members are

international recording and touring artists hailing from France, Switzerland, Canada,

Spain, and the United States.122, 123 In 2016, the entire faculty, staff, and administration at

the American School of Modern Music in Paris left to continue developing IMEP as an

121 Nicholson, 236. 122 “IMEP Paris College of Music – France,” Berklee, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.berklee.edu/global-partners/imep-paris-college-music-france. 123 “The Professional Program: Faculty,” IMEP Paris College of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.imep.pro/en/introduction-imep-professional-program/team-of-professors-pro-program.

76

independent institution.124 In 2017, IMEP partnered with the Berklee School of Music,

joining its vast network of international music programs.125

IMEP offers a five-year and a three-year diploma in Jazz and Contemporary

Music Studies and currently has about 250 students enrolled.126 IMEP considers itself “no

longer just a place of knowledge…[but] a place of life, exchange and shared practice of

the music.”127

Syllabus

Typically taken during the fifth year of the diploma, the music entrepreneurship

course offered at IMEP is called Music Business.128 Described as being “everything you

always wanted to know about music business (without ever daring to ask),” this class

meets for two hours, six times throughout the school year.129

According to the syllabus, which is from the 2019-2020 school year, the Music

Business course is broken down into three sections. The first part of this class, translated

as “The Professional Environment of Music,” pertains to the various roles a musician

may assume and the different music professionals one will likely face in their careers, as

124 “Collaboration Ends Between IMEP and American School of Modern Music,” IMEP Paris College of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.imep.pro/en/end-of-the-collaboration-between-imep-and-american-school-of-modern-music. 125 “IMEP Paris College of Music Joins the Berklee Global Partners Network,” IMEP Paris College of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.imep.pro/en/imep-paris-college-of-music-joins-the-berklee-international-network. 126 “Student Music Guide,” DownBeat, 120. 127 “About: IMEP Paris College of Music: School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Paris,” IMEP Paris College of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.imep.pro/en/about. 128 The Music Business syllabus can be found in Appendix D. 129 “The Professional Program: Course Schedule,” IMEP Paris College of Music, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.imep.pro/en/introduction-imep-professional-program/pro-program-course-schedule.

77

well as discussing music rights and the music rights collection and distribution

organizations. The second part, translated as “The Artist Musician: A Single-Person

Company,” covers what one can expect in a music career, music finances, and taxes for

musicians. The last section, translated as “Creation and Development Strategies Musical

Business,” examines larger concepts, such as networking, branding, and creating an

online presence. There are no required texts, exams, homework assignments, or projects

given in the IMEP Music Business course.

Instructor Interview

As mentioned in the Methodology, no students from any of the international

schools were interviewed. This chapter will highlight interviews with the instructor of

IMEP’s Music Business course, as well as a professional jazz musician living in France.

The instructor of this course is Bruno Pimienta, a drummer with twenty years of

experience as a professional musician in Paris.130 Pimienta doesn’t use any textbooks to

supplement his lectures, which are solely based on his own experiences as a Parisian

musician. He elaborated: “I’ve learned all the tricks for a professional musician in Paris.

So, I give all my experiences to the students. When you get out of the school, here’s how

it works.” He said that the information presented in his class is through the lens of his

own career. Though he has only taught this class for two years, he said it is very well-

received by his students, as compared to the previous iteration of the course,

130 Bruno Pimienta, interview with author, Zoom, January 21, 2021.

78

which students felt lacked relevant content. Pimienta explained that his students enjoy his

course because the information is “very concrete; it’s not only theoretical, it’s very

practical.”

Expanding upon the core information seen in the syllabus, this course is primarily

split into three sections. The first section, called “The Professional Environment of

Music,” covers the roles musicians may have in their careers, such as being a performer,

a sideman, a composer, an arranger, and so forth. In his interview, Pimienta discussed the

value of being able to wear many hats as a musician: “For me, it’s very important

strategically to diversify; [there’s] not only one way to make money.” He also explores

the different music industry professionals a musician will likely interact with and the

various employers a musician may have in their careers, including managers and agents,

publishers, music distributors, and publicists. The first section of this course also talks

about musicians’ rights and the music rights collection and distribution agencies in

France. Pimienta details where money is distributed in different scenarios and how

musicians get paid. One example he gives to his class is how bars that play music in

France are taxed to finance the various music rights collections agencies.

The second part of IMEP’s Music Business Training course is called “The Artist

Musician: A Single-Person Company.” Pimienta provides insight into what musicians

need to do in order to handle all aspects of their careers. Specifically, tools like creating

and managing a schedule are emphasized. He explained this part of his class is about

what musicians can expect in their careers in their daily routines and some of the

challenge they may likely face. Pimienta also teaches his students about the financial

aspects of a career in music, including how to manage a bank account, different revenue

79

structures for musicians, taxes and reporting one’s income, and the various laws in place

to benefit French artists. An important point mentioned in this section is the Intermittence

du Spectacle, which is a unique unemployment statute for artists and France. The

Intermittence du Spectacle will be discussed in greater detail later in this chapter.

The last part of Pimienta’s course is called “Creation and Development Strategies

Musical Business,” which examines essential tools, tips, and methods for acquiring work

as a musician. Skills like networking, building an online presence, and branding are

explored in this section, as are some more general musician-related advice, such as the

importance of attending concerts and jam sessions and being willing to learn new skills

and information that may enhance one’s development as a musician.

Pimienta explained that the information covered in his class isn’t specific to jazz

musicians, but rather it applies to musicians of any genre. He said that it’s “complicated

to live only by jazz music in France. And for me, I don't think in the jazz way exclusively

because it's complicated. And the more business in music in France, it's with a singer, or

world music, jazz, and so on.” As a result, Pimienta offers his students a broader view of

the music industry within Paris and France because he thinks each city has its own

specific environment unique to that music scene.

Pimienta was reluctant to answer some of my questions in terms of a jazz career.

For example, he didn’t specifically say whether or not he thinks colleges should offer

music entrepreneurship courses tailor-made for jazz students. However, because the

information covered in his class is geared toward all musicians, and that he believes it’s

too “complicated” to focus exclusively on building a career as a jazz musician in France,

I inferred that Pimienta doesn’t think a jazz-focused music entrepreneurship class is

80

necessary. For similar reasons, I also surmise that he doesn’t believe there are tools

needed to build a successful career specific to jazz musicians, but rather ones for

musicians of all genres. As he mentioned, his goal in teaching Music Business is to

provide his students with the practical information that he has applied to his own career

as a professional musician.

As previously stated, Pimienta discusses a French unemployment statute called

the Intermittence du Spectacle (IDS) in his class. First introduced in 1936, the IDS was

created to aid film industry workers who were often hired for short-term contracts, thus

supplementing their income during periods of unemployment.131 Today, this statute has

expanded its coverage to include all entertainment workers and technicians, as well as

performing artists, such as musicians, actors, and dancers.132 Much like the film industry

workers during the initial implementation of the IDS, musicians today benefit from this

statute in times of little to no work caused by the precarious nature of the freelance

industry. Pimienta explained:

It's a unique statute in the world. I think Belgium also has a statute like this. It's not the same, but philosophically it’s the same. We protect musicians for activities like this: you have a lot [of work], and sometimes there is no [work]…The philosophy is to linearize money every month just to make sure you have enough money to pay [for] your apartment or all your charges.

In his class, Pimienta provides his students with the tricks to qualify for the IDS

as fast as possible, because, as he said, the statute is “gold for musicians.” In order to

qualify for the IDS, musicians must declare 507 hours of work, or 43 stamps, over a one-

year period with Pôle Emploi, a French governmental unemployment agency that

131 Amelia Parenteau, “Intermittence Du Spectacle,” The Theatre Times, November 3, 2014, https://thetheatretimes.com/intermittence-du-spectacle. 132 “The Statue of Intermittence Du Spectacle,” accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.mescachets.com/intermittent-spectacle/statut-intermittent-du-spectacle.

81

subsidizes the intermittent workers.133 Each stamp is equivalent to twelve hours of work

and a minimum fee of 160 euros. If a musician is contracted for less than the twelve-hour

period but still earns 160 euros, they may declare a stamp.134 In addition to compensating

the musicians, employers who hire intermittent musicians for live performances are

required to pay another fee to a French organization called the Guichet Unique du

Spectacle Occasionnel (Guso), which is translated as the “one-stop-shop for the

occasional show.”135 This allows the government to subsidize the intermittent workers’

stipends, rather than paying for the sum.

Pimienta explained that while musicians are typically respected in France,

musicians are often perceived to be successful only if they appear on television.

However, due to the utilization of the IDS, Pimienta said there isn’t the same notion of

the “starving artist” musician in France as there is in the United States. He added that

because the IDS provides musicians with some financial security, “the motivation of

musicians is [to] create.” Pimienta also mentioned that France has a universal healthcare

system, to which he said, “It’s France, you know? [We have] big taxes in France, big

taxes, but [we have] security.” He defines success for himself as a musician as making a

living solely playing music. He continued:

I love music, it’s my passion. I love music in my heart, and the goal for me it’s: I don't have another job [other] than [being] a musician. It's my only goal, and I'm happy because I worked [for] 15 years only with music. And it's cool, I'm happy of that. So, for me, my success is only that.

133 Astrid, “How to Become Intermittent du Spectacle?,” KissKissBankBank (blog), KissKissBankBank, June 10, 2021, https://blog.kisskissbankbank.com/actualites/devenir-intermittent-spectacle. 134 Ibid. 135 “GUSO: Le guichet unique du spectacle occasionnel,” Guso (French Governmental Website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.guso.fr/information/accueil.

82

Additional Interview

The last interview discussed in this chapter is with Rick Margitza, an American

saxophonist who briefly studied at UM.136 His first three albums were recorded for Blue

Note Records, he has played with jazz legends, such as Maria Schneider, Tony Williams,

Chick Corea, and McCoy Tyner, and he was the last tenor saxophonist in Miles Davis’

band.137 Margitza has lived in France since 2003 and is currently teaching at IMEP. It

was important to include Margitza in my essay because of the unique perspective he

provides, having built a jazz career in both the United States and in France.

When asked if there are noticeable differences between the lifestyles and career

paths of jazz musicians in France versus in the United States, Margitza said, “Yes. In

France, and Europe in general, artists are respected.” He also explained that it’s not

common to join musicians’ unions in France, but that there are organizations and

agencies that handle some of the administrative details regarding a musician’s career.

According to Margitza, France has “higher taxes, but more benefits, including health

insurance…[it’s] definitely worth the trade-off.”

In defining what it means to be successful as a musician, he stated, “I've been in

France for 17 years and haven't had to put on a tuxedo and play a wedding in order to pay

the bills. To me, that's success.” He believes that humility and discipline are fundamental

skills needed in order to be a working and successful jazz musician. Margitza thinks that

undergraduate music students would benefit from a music entrepreneurship class geared

136 Rick Margitza, interview with author, email message to author, December 17, 2020. 137 George Cole, “Miles’s Musician Profiles: Rick Margitza,” The Last Miles, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.thelastmiles.com/profiles_rick-margitza.

83

toward their genre if the teacher was actively working in that specific music community.

Additionally, he expressed that jazz-specific music entrepreneurship courses should be

offered to undergraduate jazz students out of necessity to keep up with the changing

landscape of the music industry.

Conclusion

After examining the syllabus and speaking with Pimienta, it is apparent how

much he aims to provide his students with the most practical and applicable information.

His lessons are based on his own personal experiences as a professional musician in

France. Pimienta teaches concrete points, like the various types of musical rights and the

rights organizations, but it seems as though he discusses the practicality of how these

musical rights and rights organizations apply to his students’ careers. Moreover, Pimienta

places a considerable emphasis on how to qualify for the IDS as quickly as possible.

While he didn’t specifically answer it one way or another, based on our interview, I

deduced that he does not believe there should be a music entrepreneurship course

specifically tailored to undergraduate jazz students. He said that the information covered

in his class is applicable to everyone, regardless of the style of music they play.

84

CHAPTER 8

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Jazz Professional Management Skills

The last international school discussed in this essay is Edith Cowan University’s

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), located in Perth, Australia.

Dating back to around 1987, the WAAPA jazz program currently has 110 students

enrolled.138 Regarded as “one of the strongest jazz degrees in the southern hemisphere,”

the jazz program at WAAPA has yielded internationally renowned alumni including

saxophonist Troy Roberts and bassist Linda May Han Oh, who will be heard from in the

next chapter.139

Much like IMEP, WAAPA is included in this project not only to highlight the

music entrepreneurship course offered to their jazz students, but to also show how jazz

musicians can develop their careers and support themselves in another country.

Syllabus

Unlike all the other music entrepreneurship courses discussed thus far, WAAPA

was the only school examined in this essay to offer a two-semester course. However,

since initially researching this course, WAAPA has made changes to its music

entrepreneurship class. At the time of writing, these lecture-based classes, aptly called

138 WAAPA administrative staff member, email message to author, October 21, 2021. 139 “Jazz Performance Major,” Edith Cowan University, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.ecu.edu.au/degrees/courses/overview/unitset?id=MAAAKM.

85

Jazz Professional Management Skills 1 and 2, met once a week for two hours.140 The

first-semester course was required for all the music majors, while the second-semester

course was taken by only the jazz and contemporary students.

WAAPA recently updated the structure of this course, now consolidating both

semesters into a one-semester course, available to all the music majors. As of December

2020, this course was offered to the classical majors during their second year, the

contemporary students during their third year, and to the jazz majors during the last year

of their degree program. The new iteration of this course is now taken by all students

during the second semester of their second year.141 Although the new version of this

course is only offered for one semester instead of two, WAAPA has increased the value

of the class from five credit points to fifteen, boosting the magnitude of the class.142

However, for the purposes of this essay, I am focusing on the two-semester course

offered during the 2020 school year.

According to the syllabus, the first semester of Jazz Professional Management

Skills pertains to the “business skills required by musicians to manage a career as a

musical performer.” These skills include professional etiquette, relationship building,

communication, budgeting and accounting, promotion, marketing, and branding. In the

second semester of this course, students learn the “advanced business skills they will

need to possess to succeed in the music industry.” The learning outcomes for the first

semester of this unit involve developing a “basic network” of musical contacts, setting

“basic goals” for one’s business advancement, presenting a “basic business proposal,”

140 The Jazz Professional Management Skills 1 and 2 syllabi can be found in Appendix E. 141 “Bachelor of Music – Course Structure W76,” WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, May 2021, https://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/930050/Music-W76-Course-Structure.pdf. 142 Genevieve Wilkins, email message to author, October 13, 2021.

86

and learning proper recording studio etiquette. Although they are not explicitly listed in

the second-semester syllabus, the university handbook lists creating an “extended

network” of musical contacts, setting “advanced goals” for one’s business advancement,

presenting a “multi-facetted business proposal,” and learning how to successfully

“promote a performance.”143 It can be assumed that while the first semester of this course

concentrates on the basic skills needed to build a career in music, as stated by the

syllabus, the second semester cumulatively expands upon the information covered in the

first.

The literature included in the first-semester syllabus consists of David Cutler’s

The Savvy Musician: Building a Career, Earning a Living, and Making a Difference,

Paul Allen’s Artist Management for the Music Business, and Angela Myles Beeching’s

Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music. The instructor of this course also

lists additional readings and materials on Blackboard for her students to use as a resource.

No required texts were listed in the second-semester syllabus. It should be noted that both

syllabi were from the 2020 school year and may have been slightly updated since the

time of writing.

Lectures and Assignments

The Jazz Professional Management Skills 1 lessons parallel the “basic skills”

listed in the syllabus, incorporating topics such as branding, how to garner media

143 “Handbook: Unit information: Jazz Professional Management Skills 2 [MUS3320],” WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.ecu.edu.au/handbook/unit?id=MUS3320&year=2021.

87

recognition, networking strategies, performance and presenting skills (touring, booking

concerts, and approaching venues), performing skills and life balance (communication,

performance anxiety, time management, and peak performance), connecting with

audiences (outreach, assessing one’s audience, and other skills transferable to areas

outside of music), funding, and “Freelancing Life Admin!” (negotiating fees, contracts,

and taxes for musicians in Australia). In Jazz Professional Management Skills 2, the

lectures cover marketing techniques and designing promotional material, online

marketing outlets, grant writing, career planning and SMART goals, public relations and

media outlets, budgeting, music copyright, and music licensing.

There are a couple of smaller homework assignments listed in the first-semester

syllabus, including creating an elevator speech and readings out of Angela Myles

Beeching’s book. The primary project seen in the first semester is called the Portfolio

Assignment. In their portfolios, students must include a biography, a curriculum vitae, a

short, medium, and long-term goal description, an invoice template, and a marketing plan

with a list of networks and outlets they plan on contacting. Students must also create a

template of a letter to an employer, one for an audition application, one to a venue, and

one to a promoter.

In the second semester of the course, there are two core projects: the Grant

Writing Assignment and the Publicity Portfolio. For the Grant Writing Assignment,

students must write a mock grant application for the Western Australian Department of

Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC). The students follow the real

guidelines listed for the DLGSC Under 15k Contemporary Music Grant, something they

may likely apply for outside of school. For the Publicity Portfolio assignment, students

88

are asked to market their final recitals. The objectives of this assignment include

designing a flyer for their upcoming recital, as well as creating a media or press plan for

their upcoming recital, which includes the development of a contact list for media and

press outlets, venues, and various music industry organizations in Australia and abroad.

While it doesn’t seem like there are any exams given in Jazz Professional

Management Skills 2, there is a written comprehensive final exam at the end of the first-

semester course.

Instructor Interview

WAAPA’s Jazz Professional Management Skills 1 and 2 classes are taught by

Genevieve Wilkins, a cross-genre percussionist with a background in communication and

community outreach.144 As mentioned above, WAAPA is in the process of rewriting this

course to meet the necessity of the times, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wilkins explained, “While I was teaching the unit this year, I was like, ‘Damn, it is

changing so fast.’ We're rewriting our course now, and…we're giving them all way more

home recording: Pro Tools, Ableton, lots of live and home digital recording skills, and

getting it up onto platforms.” She continued:

And marketing and how to properly target; I get marketing people in to talk about properly targeting Facebook ads and that sort of stuff…And they'll do outreach and communicate, like they'll actually have to lead workshops in the community…So they learn those terrifying, different skills of having to communicate with people.

144 Genevieve Wilkins, interview with author, Zoom, December 21, 2020.

89

She advocated for community outreach, describing it as “amazing” and “vital.” Wilkins

said that outreach allows musicians to connect with people through music and reach new

demographics. “Music is a communication thing, so get it out there,” she expressed.

Examining how WAAPA is amending its Jazz Professional Management Skills

course illuminates what they believe is important in a music career. Nonetheless, this

essay is principally concerned with what is currently being offered. The first-semester

course is a combined class with all the music students together. During the first semester,

Wilkins’ students conduct mock recitals where they practice skills that are applicable to

other areas of life. She stated:

I do visualization techniques with them, and beating performance anxiety, where they have to visualize walking on [stage], what the room looks like, where people will be sitting, and then we run different scenarios of it going well, of it not going well, how prepared we feel, how the performance starts before you walk in, how important it is to run that over…I think students, the chance of people staying in one career; they might blend it with other things. If you don't give them transferable skills, you're doing them a massive disservice.

A first-semester assignment is to make an inventory of the talent buyers at various venues

in Perth, nationally, and internationally. Wilkins said that her students “have to make me

lists so that when they're actually out in [the] industry next year, and they go, ‘Oh, great.

I'd love to do a gig at the Ellington,’ and they're like, ‘Great, where’s my list? Who's on

that? Is it up to date?’ So, they sort of start their own diary of contacts.”145 Other tasks

and exercises include creating an elevator pitch, making an invoice, and applying for a

tax file number and an Australian business number for tax purposes.

At the time of writing, this version of the Jazz Professional Management Skills

second-semester course was only taken by jazz and contemporary majors. Wilkins

145 The Ellington refers to a jazz club in Perth, Australia.

90

described her second-semester class as pertaining to writing grants, developing media

plans, and making flyers for upcoming recitals. She noted that a lot of her students are

preparing for their final recitals, especially her jazz students, who, at the time of writing,

typically took her course during their last year in school. Wilkins explained, “A lot of

them are doing their final recital, so they have to market their own recital, they have to do

a media plan of who they're going to contact, [and] put it out there so they can try and get

the recital reviewed.” As Wilkins’ students are creating promotional plans, they are aided

by the use of their contact lists created during the first-semester course.

Dr. Jamie Oehlers is the associate dean of the music school at WAAPA and a jazz

saxophonist. According to Wilkins, Oehlers asked that she make her course applicable for

her students. She said, “He was like, ‘Just make it relevant. Make it a grant writing app,

like a real grant they have to write. Make a flyer for a recital.’ The first semester, they

have to do a headshot, a bio, [and] a marketing strategy…That's actually stuff they're

gonna have to have,” highlighting the practicality of her course. During the second

semester of this class, Wilkins discusses the various grants and fellowships her students

can apply for. She said that 10 out of her 55 students received some sort of fellowship

scholarship money during the 2020 school year. While these grants awarded to her

students weren’t specifically written in her class, she explained that part of her grant

writing assignment is to compile a list of the grants and scholarships that are available to

her students and determine when these grants would be most applicable to their careers.

Other exercises she gives her students involve writing a five-year plan and creating

SMART goals.146 She expressed that many of her jazz students appreciated this

146 SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely, is a goal setting and planning device.

91

assignment as they were interested in applying for grants to help fund a tour or an album,

and these exercises helped them plan accordingly.

As can be seen by the syllabus, Wilkins stresses the importance of bringing in

guest speakers to her class, allowing her students to hear from industry professionals and

alumni. When her students work on their grant applications, Wilkins brings in someone

from the DLGSC in Western Australia to speak to her class and provide input on their

grant applications. Wilkins reflected:

He's really good at giving them advice of: “Actually, I think you need to set yourself up and pay for your own tour before you apply,” or, “You look like you'd be ready to do this because you've got this but add this funding. Add this bit in,” or, “You're not quite ready for this.”…He’s been really helpful in helping them with that. So, it's real industry and stages of when [it] is appropriate to go for what.

Other guest speakers include the artistic director of the Perth International Arts Festival,

the head music reviewer from the biggest newspaper in Western Australia, the head of

marketing at WAAPA, an acting coach, and a music lawyer who discusses details about

music copyright and what constitutes a binding contract.

When asked how she approaches teaching a class full of students with varying

interests and career paths, Wilkins explained that she pulls from her own experiences as a

multi-genre artist, similar to the instructor at NEC. She encourages her students to ask her

how the course material relates to them. In her opinion, her students can learn a lot from

each other because “it’s all music.” In order to keep her class relevant for her students,

she includes examples from each type of industry career and style of music.

While she believes having a music entrepreneurship class geared towards one’s

genre could be beneficial, Wilkins prefers having all the musicians together in the same

class. She feels that having a combined class with all of the various music majors is

92

“really great because when I do breakout groups…they’re constantly faced with people

they don't really know, rather than going over to someone else from the jazz course, and

they're like, ‘Hey, let's pretend not to know each other.’” She continued:

They literally have to mix with people they don't know who don't necessarily know much about their stream of music either. And that's the other cool thing: when I do breakout groups, when we're talking about posters or grant applications, they write a real-life grant application, and…they get other people from different streams of music within the course to have to read over theirs and give them ideas, and they always come up with different inputs depending on what stream they're in, so I really like that; we’re quite adamant.

As per Wilkins’ student surveys, WAPPA students expressed that they liked being in a

mixed classroom, as they desired more opportunities to interact with students from

different areas of music. Ultimately, she believes that her students can learn a lot from

each other, and thus advocates for a combined class with all the music majors.

When asked if there are fundamental tools or skills all musicians should learn

about, Wilkins enthusiastically responded, “Oh, definitely! For me, it’s communication,

verbal and nonverbal.” She elaborated:

Communication through body language, and connection; that's the one thing COVID’s reminded me [of]. Skype, and Zoom, and all this stuff is really great, but for me, it's human connection…It doesn't matter what genre. For me, it's all about human connection. I think all musicians need to have a sense of professionalism, to remember it's all about connecting with people on a professional level, about respecting people that you connect with, and that you meet, and you interact with.

Other skills she feels are necessary for a music career include knowing how to network

and learning proper rehearsal and recording studio etiquette.

In defining what success as a musician means to her, she explained, “It's a

multipronged answer to be able to pick and choose and do gigs that satisfy me creatively

93

and play with people I respect and inspire me. The better the people that you play with,

the higher your own game lifts. So, to me, that's very successful.” Wilkins added:

But then again, I am living in Australia. I own a house…I love traveling. I love good food. I love champagne. I love going to the theater. I love going to see dance shows. I like having a little bit of disposable income. So, I guess there's a financial thing in it for me. It's not what drives me, but to me, I couldn't survive without that either.

She said she didn’t learn any of the information covered in her class while she was in

music school. Wilkins noted, “I'm so passionate about it. I really think that's the one thing

I didn't get at uni[versity] actually, the professional stuff. And for me, also that's why I

put lots of the communication stuff into it, and lots of performance anxiety, and wellness,

and resilience. I do mindfulness with the students because my career has chopped and

changed.”

Having spent 14 years as a professional musician in London, Wilkins offers a

unique perspective as to how musicians build and maintain careers both in Australia and

in England. In terms of the societal perspective of music as a profession, she doesn’t

think that musicians are more respected in London versus Australia. Wilkins expressed

that musicians still “get that whole, ‘Didn’t you ever think of becoming a lawyer?’”

question in both places. However, she believes that musicians in Australia received more

governmental financial support throughout the coronavirus pandemic than they did in

England.

When asked if she noticed any differences in how musicians approach making a

living and shaping their careers in Australia versus England, Wilkins replied, “Yes and

no. In some ways, no, it's still the same thing. You got to learn your craft. You gotta get

out there, and you've got to learn your craft, and you've got to do it well. It's the same

94

thing that there's eyes and ears everywhere…I think that's the same the world over.” She

mentioned that musicians in Perth, being a much smaller city than London, tend to be “a

little bit more jack of all trades over here…I think perhaps we're a little bit more

multiskilled over here because we have to be.” Wilkins clarified: “In England, people

used to comment to me, ‘We're not used to seeing someone do a little bit of this, and a

little bit of that.’ It’s like, you're an orchestral player, or you're a pop player, or you work

in music theatre, or you do jazz…We kind of cross over a bit more here.” She explained

that in London, it’s easier to specialize in one area of music because there’s enough work

to do so, and with Europe close by, it’s easier to tour. However, she indicated that jazz

musicians in London tend to cross over into other styles of music, such as pop and music

theater, as compared to musicians of other genres.

Additional Interviews

Additional interviews were conducted with two WAAPA alumni who both have

built jazz careers in Australia and the United States. As was seen in the previous chapter,

the purpose of these interviews is to illuminate any differences and similarities in how

jazz musicians build careers in these countries. Saxophonist Troy Roberts has toured and

recorded with jazz greats, such as Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joey DeFrancesco, and Van

Morrison, and has released 13 albums as a band leader.147 Tim Jago, a jazz guitarist, has

performed and recorded alongside jazz luminaries Terence Blanchard, Dave Douglas, and

James Morrison.148

147 “About,” Troy Roberts (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://troyroberts.com/about-2. 148 “Bio,” Tim Jago (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.timjagomusic.com/about.html.

95

According to Jago, jazz musicians in Australia approach making a living in the

United States and Australia.149 He explained, “The people that I interact with in the same

realm from here [in the U.S.] and in Australia, [there are] a lot of similarities in terms of

supplementing your income with teaching, either that or in a different area of music,”

such as recording or producing. One difference Jago notes lies in governmental support

for the arts:

In Australia there's more opportunities of government funding. However, I'm not very well-versed to those opportunities here [in the U.S.] because I don't think they apply it to me not being a citizen. And a lot of the funding comes from private sources I feel like here in the States, as opposed to directly from the government, whereas there is a sector designated in the Australian government for the arts. [The] Department of Cultural Arts, the DCA’S somewhere where you can go to look for funding for a project.150

This funding from the DLGSC allowed Jago to tour across Australia with a big band.

Both Jago and Troy Roberts expressed that the notion of the “starving artist” is seen in

Australia, just as it is in the U.S.151 When asked if he noticed any differences in the

societal views of music as a profession between both countries, Roberts expressed that

musicians are more respected in the United States. He also mentioned that Australia has a

musicians’ union, but he has never been involved with them.

Roberts and Jago discussed the fundamental tools and skills jazz students should

learn to be successful in the current music industry. Jago offered an adage which he lives

by: “If you take care of the music, the music will take care of you,” meaning he

prioritized the music over all else. Other attributes Jago mentioned include being a good

149 Tim Jago, interview with author, Zoom, December 28, 2020. 150 Officially called Culture and the Arts, a division of Western Australia’s Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC). 151 Troy Roberts, interview with author, Zoom, December 21, 2020.

96

person, being empathetic, and having basic people skills.152 Roberts considers that skills

like playing one’s instrument in tune and with good time and having a large repertoire all

make musicians more employable. He added:

All those individuality things are things that are different from person to person. You have the rest of your life to develop it, but those things that get you started in the first place, I think they're really important just to be able to be someone who's able to be called. [If] you don't have those things together, it closes a million doors that you're not going to get called for because you can't play in tune, or you don't play in time, or you don't know enough tunes.153

Additionally, Jago would have liked to learn more about home recording and setting up a

home studio, as well as receiving a step-by-step process for releasing an album before

leaving music school.

In defining what success as a musician means for him, Roberts said, “I think

every time I play a gig, and I'm happy with my playing and the way the band played,

that’s success for me, whether there’s 500 or two people in the house. Yeah, the music's

all I’ve really cared about my whole life, and miraculously, somehow, it's always worked

out.”154 Jago also shared his definition:

Well, I can tell you what it isn't for me, and it's not fame and riches. I had to come to terms with that pretty early on, I think, being a jazz musician because I enjoy the journey. [It] sounds cheesy, but that's kind of what keeps me going…You have to make a living, right? We got to pay the bills. So, success is making a living from doing this, and I think I'm doing that.155

Jago thinks music students would benefit from a music entrepreneurship class

targeted to their genre. Specifically, he believes a goal-oriented class that presents

practical information, such as having to create a website or marketing one’s product to

152 Jago, interview. 153 Roberts, interview. 154 Ibid. 155 Jago, interview.

97

someone in order to book a gig, would be advantageous for undergraduate jazz

students.156 Roberts indicated that due to the rapidly changing nature of the music

industry, he’s unsure how valuable music entrepreneurship courses really are. However,

he said a jazz-specific music entrepreneurship class could be beneficial, stating that

musicians of other genres, such as classical musicians, conduct business differently than

jazz musicians. Roberts explained that despite these differences, “There's a lot of

common ground, like knowing how to apply for grants, how to approach funding bodies,

[and] how to approach donors. Those things apply to all, but I think there are specific jazz

things.”157 Although he didn’t specifically say how jazz differs from other genres,

Roberts believes a jazz-tailored music entrepreneurship course would be more useful for

college jazz students than an all-inclusive course.

Conclusion

During my interview with the instructor, Genevieve Wilkins, it was clear from the

outset how passionate she was about teaching her course. One of the first things she

asked was, “I'm really curious to know, are we behind the rest of the world in what we’re

presenting? Are we on track?…Could we do more?”158 She genuinely wanted to know

how she could improve her course in order to give her students the best possible

experience. Wilkins calls her teaching approach “jukebox learning,” as she surveys her

156 Jago, interview. 157 Roberts, interview. 158 Genevieve Wilkins, interview.

98

students throughout each semester and asks them what they want to learn about. She then

arranges the guest speakers for her class based on what her students say they’re interested

in.

Although no current WAAPA students were interviewed to discuss their thoughts

on the Jazz Professional Management Skills courses, Wilkins shared student testimony

from their end-of-semester surveys. One jazz student said, “The content was relevant and

a great unit to have in the final year of study at WAAPA. The assessments were

engaging, and I enjoyed working on material relevant to myself as an artist which could

actually be used out in a real-world setting.”159 Another wrote, “The application to real

world situations were the best aspect of this unit.”160 When asked what changes they

would suggest for the unit, one student desired more opportunities to interact with

students from different areas of music, which they acknowledged was difficult due to the

class being held virtually that semester. Wilkins noted that although her students

expressed they found the course content “really easy, and approachable, and encouraged

us to think about what we want earlier on,” they voiced that they wanted the course to

include more information on planning for the future.161

WAAPA’s two-semester Jazz Professional Management Skills course, taught by a

multi-genre musician with an active performing career, seeks to provide its students with

practical and applicable information. The instructor, Genevieve Wilkins, prefers to keep

her class combined with all the various music majors because she believes her students

can “learn a lot from each other.”162 Students compile exhaustive contact lists of venues

159 Genevieve Wilkins, interview. 160 Ibid. 161 Ibid. 162 Ibid.

99

and media outlets both nationally and internationally, write grant applications, create

marketing plans for upcoming performances, craft elevator pitches, make invoices, and

attain necessary tax and business numbers. Abstract topics discussed and developed in

this course include goal setting and planning, communication, performance and mental

health, and networking. Other concrete information incorporated in this course involves

music copyright and licensing, budgeting and funding, professional etiquette, and

booking performances.

100

CHAPTER 9

Pool of Experts (Part 1) The Fundamental Tools Needed for a Jazz Career

In this portion of the essay, interviews with eight renowned jazz musicians will be

discussed. The purpose of these interviews is twofold: to highlight the ways in which

these artists have successfully built their careers and to ultimately compare what they

consider to be important in a modern jazz career with the information schools today are

teaching in their music entrepreneurship classes. These musicians, whom I call the Pool

of Experts (POE), were included in this essay not only because of their reputation as

world-class jazz musicians, but because I believe them to all be entrepreneurial in how

they have built and managed their careers. The POE was selected to represent a group of

musicians diverse in the instruments they play, their ethnicities, their genders, the music

scenes of which they are a part, and, most important, their perspectives on how to build a

career in music. Additionally, these musicians, who are between the ages of 20 and 45

years old, came up roughly during the same generation, all having to adapt to the rise of

various social media platforms and the transition to the streaming era of music.

The Artists

The POE is composed of Marquis Hill, Ben Wendel, Linda May Han Oh, Emmet

Cohen, Immanuel Wilkins, Ulysses Owens Jr., Gerald Clayton, and Miguel Zenón.

Trumpeter Marquis Hill has won numerous international trumpet competitions, including

101

the 2014 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition, which is

considered to be one of the most prestigious competitions in jazz. He has toured and

recorded with jazz luminaries including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joe Lovano, and Kurt

Elling, as well as with his own group, the Blacktet. Hill has independently released ten

albums under his label Black Unlimited Music Group.163

Ben Wendel is a GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist, bassoonist, and composer.

He is a founding member and a 20-year veteran of the group Kneebody. Wendel has

performed and recorded with iconic artists, like Tigran Hamasyan, Moonchild, Linda

May Han Oh, Gerald Clayton, Snoop Dogg, and Prince.164

Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh was the recipient of an honorable mention

at the 2009 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Bass Competition. She has

toured and recorded with jazz legends, such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Vijay Iyer,

Dave Douglas, and Geri Allen. Oh is also an alumna of WAAPA and MSM.165

Pianist Emmet Cohen was the winner of the 2019 American Pianists Awards and

was also a finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano

Competition. Cohen has recorded and toured with jazz giants including Christian

McBride, Ron Carter, and Jimmy Cobb. He is a graduate of the jazz programs at UM and

MSM.166

Immanuel Wilkins is a saxophonist whose quartet is widely regarded to be at the

forefront of the burgeoning generation of jazz musicians. His debut album, Omega, was

163 Marquis Hill (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.marquishill.com/bio-1. 164 “Ben’s Biography,” Ben Wendel (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.benwendel.com/biography. 165 Linda May Han Oh (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://lindamayhanoh.com/biography. 166 Emmet Cohen (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://emmetcohen.com/bio.

102

released on Blue Note Records, one of jazz music’s most celebrated and historic record

labels. Wilkins has also toured with jazz greats Jason Moran, Aaron Parks, and Joel

Ross.167

Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. is known for his work touring and recording with

prominent jazz artists, like Wynton Marsalis, Mulgrew Miller, Dianne Schurr, and Joey

Alexander. Owens played on GRAMMY award-winning and nominated albums with

artists, such as Christian McBride and Kurt Elling. Recently, he released a book called

The Musician’s Career Guide: Turning Your Talent into Sustained Success.168

Gerald Clayton is a six-time GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer. He was

a finalist in the 2006 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition

and has performed and recorded with Charles Lloyd, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, and the

Clayton Brothers Quintet, with his uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and his father, bassist

John Clayton. Like Wilkins, Clayton is a Blue Note recording artist.169

Saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón has amassed eight GRAMMY

nominations and was a recipient of the 2008 MacArthur Fellowship and the 2008

Guggenheim Fellowship. Zenón was a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective, and

in his 15-year tenure, he helped establish the SFJAZZ Center, one of the premier jazz

institutions in the nation. He has released 12 albums under his own name, his last six

independently released through his label, Miel Music. Zenón received his master’s degree

from MSM.170

167 “About,” Immanuel Wilkins (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, http://www.immanuelwilkins.com/about. 168 “Ulysses Owens Jr.,” Ulysses Owens Jr. (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.usojazzy.com/about. 169 “Biography,” Gerald Clayton (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, http://geraldclayton.com/about. 170 “Bio and Discography,” Miguel Zenón (artist website), accessed March 1, 2021, https://miguelzenon.com/bio-discography.

103

POE Interview Questions

Each of the POE artists were asked the same five central questions:

1. What fundamental tools or skills are needed to build a career as a working, successful jazz musician in today’s world?

2. What do you wish you had learned about the business side of being a musician before leaving music school?

3. In what ways have you built and retained your fanbase?

4. Considering the following parameters of success: Financial/Professional, Musical/Creative, and Personal, how would you define success for yourself as a musician?

5. What non-musical factors have contributed to your success as a musician?

As mentioned above, the findings gathered from these interviews will be compared with

the information currently taught in the music entrepreneurship courses examined

throughout this essay. My hope is that the POE interviews will provide insight as to how

these artists have successfully built their careers as jazz musicians.

Interviews

This chapter will discuss the POE responses to two of the five core questions, the

first being: What fundamental tools or skills are needed to build a career as a working,

successful jazz musician in today’s world? According to Marquis Hill, being genuine,

104

kind, sociable, easy to get along with, communicative, and speaking articulately are all

necessary traits for artists to possess, especially when regularly collaborating with

different people.171 He added:

Also being self-driven, being self-motivated, organizational skills, time skills, being able to block off your time. I think of being a musician, a jazz musician or artist, especially on the independent level, you're pretty much your own brand, you're your own boss. You're in charge of taking care of scheduling, sending out emails. You have to be organized and kind of time oriented when it comes to those types of things.

Gerald Clayton and Emmet Cohen discussed the importance of community and working

with others. Clayton said:

One thing that seems to be a fundamental tool for anything you pursue in life is the recognition that part of what you're doing is going to be interacting with other humans. Regardless of what scene you're in, you're going to be part of a scene, you’re going to be part of a community. Recognizing that part of your journey is going to include other people means that it behooves you to consider how you interact with other people.172

Cohen noted that surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals and building a

community is essential for jazz musicians:

The thing is to tap inside yourself and say, “Who is it that I want to be? Who am I,” and then try to really put people around you that you're able to see yourself in who will hold you accountable…for what you’re playing, or what you’re saying on the mic, or what kind of gigs you’re getting.173

While Cohen and Clayton stress the significance of fostering a musical

community, they both feel that musicians should prioritize the music above everything

else. Cohen explained other fundamental tools he thinks are needed to build a career as a

working and successful jazz musician in today’s music industry include: “Proficiency on

an instrument, having a good sound on your instrument. The music takes precedence over

171 Marquis Hill, interview with author, Zoom, January 25, 2021. 172 Gerald Clayton, interview with author, Zoom, January 27, 2021. 173 Emmet Cohen, interview with author, Zoom, January 26, 2021.

105

all else. The old saying is, ‘Take care of the music and the music will take care of

you’…For me, it's always just been about the music first.” Clayton expressed that while

he doesn’t recommend it, if musicians play well enough, they may sometimes get away

with irresponsible behavior, such as not learning the music or arriving late to gigs. He

illustrated:

I know so many cats who manage to still be like, “I'm gonna be late. I am going to do all sorts of things that people are going to be shocked at.” And yet, because they play so, so good, and because they serve the music so, so well, they still get called. The success is still there. So, the top rule, again, goes back to: take care of the music. If you take care of the music, the music will take care of you…He who slayeth need not follow any rule. If you are undeniably killing, you will work.174

Miguel Zenón’s outlook centers around being adaptable, musically and otherwise,

preaching that musicians should be prepared for any situation.175 He said, “One thing that

I can think about from a musician's perspective is, basically, be able to do a lot of things,

be able to navigate a lot of different waters.” Zenón elaborated:

I feel the more flexible and the more malleable you can be, stylistically even, that's going to work to your advantage, that's for sure. When I see someone who can only deal with one specific kind of bag, even if they do that really well and they might be successful at that, I kind of see that as something that's going to eventually hurt them because an opportunity might come up, and that's not what they do. So, I feel like the more you can do, the better these days. Be curious. Educate yourself…I feel like a lot of people who are successful at this are people who are always looking to be a step ahead.

Both Linda May Han Oh and Ben Wendel believe being hard working is a

necessary trait for jazz musicians to possess. Wendel explained, “In order for me to

produce work and to function, I need to be very organized, and I need to have a work

ethic.”176 He added, “In my experience, I think, generally, the people that I speak to, that

174 Clayton, interview. 175 Miguel Zenón, interview with author, Zoom, February 9, 2021. 176 Ben Wendel, interview with author, Zoom, February 24, 2021.

106

are generational colleagues, I do see a very strong work ethic and drive.” Similarly, Oh

expressed that it’s essential for jazz musicians to have a strong work ethic: “I would say

all of my peers, all the people that I connect with, they all work their asses off. I can't

really think of any musician that's close to me that doesn't.”177 She also listed nonmusical

foundational elements such as “being resourceful and having an attitude that's more like

problem solving; there's a curiosity to your mentality that enables problem solving in a

way that you're thinking a bit outside the box…having a mentality that's kind of like a

can-do mentality.”

The next question explored in this chapter is: What do you wish you had learned

about the business side of being a musician before leaving music school? In response,

Emmet Cohen said, “There's not really one thing I wish I had learned. You learn by

experiencing,” a sentiment shared by Linda May Han Oh, Gerald Clayton, and Immanuel

Wilkins.178 As Oh mentioned, “A lot of the learning is out there on the bandstand.”179

Wilkins suggested that it’s hard to learn about the music business in a classroom without

experiencing it firsthand. He added, “You’ve got to find a way to get introduced to the

business of jazz music where you like it,” and expressed that he learned the most by

watching the way his peers conducted their careers.180

Clayton suggested, “There's something about this music that feels like it's a pool,

and the only way to learn how to swim is to just throw somebody in the deep end. You

177 Linda May Han Oh, interview with author, Zoom, February 21, 2021. 178 Cohen, interview. 179 Oh, interview. 180 Immanuel Wilkins, interview with author, Zoom, February 8, 2021.

107

can’t really prepare for some of the things that you experience in a life in music outside

of school.”181 He continued:

That said, I think that education, in general, is always worth amending, and education methodology is worth observing and amending as necessary…Why are we not taught how to pay taxes? Why are we not taught how to balance a [checkbook]? The only homework you have as an adult outside of school, you don't get taught that…Those things I think are actually tangible things you can give somebody to prepare them for the real world…The rest of it is like, just get out there, jump in the deep end, and try to float.

While Clayton believes that jazz students should spend most of their time in school

focusing on developing a “deeper understanding of their personal connection to the

music,” he thinks skills like balancing a checkbook and learning how to pay taxes would

be advantageous for undergraduate jazz students to learn before graduating.

Marquis Hill listed the tangible elements he wishes he had learned in school:

“Taxes, publishing, licensing. I didn't learn any of those things. Website design…film

scoring…starting an LLC; all these types of things that I think all artists and all musicians

should know about…Those things that I've discussed, they should definitely be taught on

a higher level.”182 Ben Wendel also indicated that he would have liked to learn the “nuts-

and-bolts stuff” including “how to read a typical performance or record contract, how to

do your taxes as a self-employed musician, how publishing works, what it means to work

with a manager, a booking agency, what it means to have a publishing administrator, just

real pragmatic stuff that you can actually anticipate.”183 Wendel expressed that learning

about less tangible skills, such as networking, would have been helpful upon leaving

181 Clayton, interview. 182 Hill, interview. 183 Wendel, interview.

108

music school. Other points mentioned during the POE interviews included creating a

rider, learning about collecting music royalties, and basic instruction on finances for

musicians.

Conclusion

Interestingly, there was not much overlap in the POE responses to the questions

above. There were a few shared opinions about the fundamental tools needed to build a

career as a jazz musician including having a strong work ethic, having an understanding

that jazz is a social music involving the interaction with others, and the importance of

building a community around oneself. Additionally, some of the artists believe that if you

take care of the music, the music will take care of you, thus prioritizing music above all

else regarding their careers.

When asked what they wished they had learned about the business side of being a

musician before graduating from music school, half of the POE artists expressed that

musicians learn through experience, which I believe fundamentally challenges the

premise of music entrepreneurship courses. Other music business facets discussed during

these interviews include learning about taxes, music publishing, and how to read and

write performance and record contracts.

109

CHAPTER 10

Pool of Experts (Part 2) Building a Following

This chapter addresses the Pool of Experts (POE) responses to the question: In

what ways have you built and retained your fanbase? Immanuel Wilkins, Ben Wendel,

Emmet Cohen, and Marquis Hill all found consistency in releasing content to be an

important factor in cultivating a following. Wendel said, “The main thing….is, as best as

I can, just to keep producing work that I’m proud of and keep sharing my process through

social media platforms.”184 Wendel often considers what his fans would enjoy when he

releases content. In determining what to include in a recently released masterclass series,

he asked himself, “Where do I sit within this world? Who's my tribe? What would they

want?” Similarly, Wilkins discussed the importance of consciously acknowledging his

fans when producing content.185 He believes that an artist’s supporters respond to the

merit of one’s work, as well as the volume and frequency in which one produces work.

He said, “I think that you do it by quantity and quality, but if we're talking about building

your fanbase it's mostly about quantity. You have to be in the room.” Wilkins continued:

I think that the way I've been able to build and maintain is usually through putting out work as it comes, and always continuously making. I'm always making, I’m always creating, I'm always thinking about more things that I think would be cool for people to want. If you have quality and the quantity, you break the bank, you win.

For Emmet Cohen, “It comes down to consistency. It's like going to the gym, you

don't do one seven-hour day, you do every day for 20 minutes or three times a week for

184 Ben Wendel, interview with author, Zoom, February 24, 2021. 185 Immanuel Wilkins, interview with author, Zoom, February 8, 2021.

110

an hour. Consistency is what works in our human world.”186 Cohen’s commitment to

regularly releasing content led to an increase in his social media followers and supporters.

Like Cohen, Marquis Hill believes in consistently creating and putting out work. He built

and retained his fanbase through “content, definitely.” He explained: “There was a

moment in my career where I challenged myself. I said I was going to put out a project

every year, and, low key, it’s been that since I challenged myself…So constant, fresh,

honest content…social media presence…and just trying to keep my visibility online as

high as possible.”187

On par with his thoughts in the previous chapter, Gerald Clayton emphatically

suggested that in order to accumulate followers, musicians need to prioritize the music,

first and foremost. He stated, “Serve the music…I think if you take care of the music, the

rest takes care of itself.” Clayton added:

You can't have it where you're not taking care of the music and building your fanbase. You have to take care of the music, and then the people will be like, “Man, that was cool. I want to come back for more.” The only kind of insurance you can have in the music is your commitment to really thoroughly taking care of business, on a musical tip.188

While he expressed an appreciation for the various strategies used to promote concerts

and one’s social media presence, he stressed, “I respect that type of thinking, I respect

that line of work…It's just so low on the priorities list. First thing’s first, you better be

undeniably killing.”

Marquis Hill considers honesty to be a significant factor in how he relates to his

fans, both musically and personally. He explained, “On a deeper level, I think the

186 Emmet Cohen, interview with author, Zoom, January 26, 2021. 187 Marquis Hill, interview with author, Zoom, January 25, 2021. 188 Gerald Clayton, interview with author, Zoom, January 27, 2021.

111

honesty that I put into my music, and the shaping and molding of my band, and just my

sound, I think my fans, my true fans, they are attracted to that type of honesty and that

type of sound, so, you know, they're connected to that.”189

Ulysses Owens Jr. mentioned that although he has amassed a large following on

Instagram, gaining followers isn’t his primary goal. However, he explained that his

social media following grew over time due to his engagement and interaction with his

fans and supporters.190 Similarly, Ben Wendel and Emmet Cohen attribute much of their

following to the interaction with their fans, both online and in person at their shows.

Specifically, Cohen credits his mailing list for the high viewership of his weekly live-

streamed concerts during the coronavirus pandemic. He said, “For me, it all comes down

to a mailing list…You have to realize who your audience is becoming.” He explained

that his audience may not always be on social media, but they check their emails.191

In recounting a performance where he had poor attendance, Cohen shared why he

believes connecting with his audiences is so important: “We’re playing music that's

engaging, people are going to want to hear this shit again. So many boxes checked off,

and one that didn't was people coming to the gigs. I was like, ‘If I can just collect email

addresses, then I can let everyone know when I'm back in town.’” Cohen continued:

That became my thing for years. All the other musicians would finish the gig, and they’d be on to their weed, and their wine, their drinks, and their whatever. I’d be thanking every single person and trying to develop that personal connection, which has been the secret to my thing. It was just one person at a time. Why put all the time and energy to set up these tours, spend all the time on the booking, and the flights, and hiring the musicians, and the accounting, and all the other stuff if I can't go and retain these people? None of the other stuff made sense to me unless I did that part as well.

189 Hill, interview. 190 Ulysses Owens Jr., interview with author, Zoom, January 29, 2021. 191 Cohen, interview.

112

Cohen believes that taking the time to speak to one’s patrons and audiences is mutually

beneficial. He explained, “People want to support the person more than they want to

support the music.” He added:

I realized if you look someone in the eye for three minutes, and you thank them, and tell them it meant a lot to you that they listened to your music, and they sat here at the set, and that you’re grateful for that, and you hope they come back. People are looking for things to enrich their lives, and that's something that enriches people's lives, for sure.

Ben Wendel stresses the importance of meeting and talking with the people who

show up to his performances and send him messages online. He advised, “Acknowledge

every person that makes an effort to tell you that they like what you're doing, and it has

this weird reverberant effect, and I have found that to be true. You serve the music, the

music serves you, but also you serve the fans, and the fans serve you.”192

Conclusion

While there wasn’t too much overlap between the POE artists in terms of how

they have built and retained their fanbases, the central points I gathered from these

interviews were the following: the consistent production and release of material, the

value of email lists in today’s age, the importance of developing a personal connection

with one’s audience by acknowledging and interacting with them online and in person,

and the belief that “honest” content resonates deeply with one’s fans.

Although not all of the POE artists prioritized fan retention strategies when

approaching their careers, they all acknowledge its importance to some extent. Seeing

192 Wendel, interview.

113

some of the ways in which these artists have cultivated a following illuminates the things

that work well in today’s music industry and provides useful feedback for college music

entrepreneurship courses. As Emmet Cohen remarked, “Not everyone's a self-promotion

machine, but you've got to do a little bit or else all the other shit you're doing is moot.”193

193 Cohen, interview.

114

CHAPTER 11

Pool of Experts (Part 3) Success

This chapter explores the Pool of Experts (POE) artists’ definitions of success, as

well as the various components that may have led to or influenced their successes as

musicians. As stated in the Introduction, I think having a successful music career requires

more than simply being a great musician. I believe that defining success for oneself helps

determine the values that are important to them, which may, in turn, affect how a

musician approaches their career.

In this chapter, the first POE interviews discussed are in response to the question:

Considering the following parameters of success: Financial/Professional,

Musical/Creative, and Personal, how would you define success for yourself as a

musician? For Marquis Hill, success is about the growth that he observes personally and

musically. He said, “It's layered, it's levels. But for me, I define success as my growth,

the growth that I see throughout my career, and the growth that I see musically, and I

hear musically, and the growth that I'm aware of, in terms of my concept from one

project to the next.” He elaborated:

At this point, I've put out maybe nine or ten projects, and I go back and listen to the first one, to the most recent one, and I hear the growth. I listen to each one. That's how I measure success. The other things you mentioned, they're important as well. We want to be able to make money, we want to be able to sustain ourselves, we want to live a comfortable life, so you know, that's a part of it, but to me, that's success kind of in this 3D realm. But on a bigger level, on a spiritual level, for me, it's about the expansion and just the growth. I feel myself getting better as a musician, I'm on stage each night and I'm growing, and I'm playing next to musicians who are pushing me, and that's how I measure my personal success, to be honest. And my ability to think of something, think of a project

115

concept and actually put my energy into creating it, writing the music, bringing this thought into a real, living, existing thing. To me, there’s nothing more beautiful than that. That's really how I measure my own kind of personal success. It's about the music and the growth.194

Comparable to Hill, Miguel Zenón views success in terms of his development and growth

as a musician. He said, “One part is me being able to see progress, being able to look at

myself three months ago or a year ago and see, ‘Okay, so this thing that I used to struggle

with is not a problem anymore, now there's this other problem.’” He continued:

I have a second part to that…which is success in terms of how music relates to being a job. That's, of course, financial, and recognition, and a lot of stuff, and that could go many different ways. I think with this kind of music, which is not popular music, there's a very defined niche for it, both in terms of public, but also in terms of how it fits within the music world. And I think if a musician is able to balance things out between performance, and composition, and teaching, and all those different things, and is able to get to a point where that can be your job, and you don't have to worry about, “Okay, I need to figure something else out,” I truly define that as success.195

Zenón’s perspective on making a living from music parallels a part of Ben

Wendel’s definition of success. Wendel depicted his success in terms of Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs:

[For] my personal pyramid, at the bottom is, “Can I make a living at music?” I have made a living at music for over 20 years now, and at the beginning the income sources came from a lot of places that were…not necessarily inspiring…But everything I did was music. I didn't have a regular day job from the moment I graduated until now. That’s my initial baseline for success…I made a living at music.196

Another determinant of success for Wendel as a musician comes from examining how he

can satisfy himself artistically. He explained, “For me, now the next level of success was:

‘How much of what I earn can be things that actually I would just choose to do, and are

194 Marquis Hill, interview with author, Zoom, January 25, 2021. 195 Miguel Zenón, interview with author, Zoom, February 9, 2021. 196 Ben Wendel, interview with author, Zoom, February 24, 2021.

116

artistically rewarding, and really feed my soul, and are why I do this?’…Those are my

two levels of success.” To reiterate, Wendel views success as being able to make a living

solely through music and work he finds fulfilling.

Like Wendel, fulfillment is a component of Linda May Han Oh and Emmet

Cohen’s definitions of success. They also both consider balance to be an important factor

in how they view success, a sentiment shared by Miguel Zenón. Oh mentioned, “I think

success overall means being happy, being content. However all the facets of my life work

and intertwine together to make a happy, balanced, fulfilling life, in my mind that’s

success.” She added:

In terms of musical success, then there's the aspect of like, “Okay, how much do I enjoy what I'm doing? How much do I feel that I'm actually contributing and putting good energy out in the world, meaning, how much am I inspiring people whether or not to listen to music, to play music, to enrich their lives in a different way, and enrich their lives with the culture that is music?”…If I'm able to do those things and keep it in balance with the rest of my life, with the loved ones around me, keep grounded mentally and physically with all of those things in my life, then that's me being successful. Obviously, with that balance comes some sort of financial stability. I love my husband, and I love my child, but in order for my child to survive and thrive, there's got to be some sort of financial element to that. So it's that balance between doing what I want to do and what I need to do…It's kind of the whole big umbrella to me, and it's how everything intersects and intertwines.197

According to Cohen, “For me, my personal thoughts, I think that success has to

do with finding one’s personal balance. That means having enough money to live, having

the things you want, comfortability, and maybe a family.” He further detailed:

Professional [success] is to have opportunities that fulfill you, to be working with people who you love to work with and who it's fulfilling to work with. Personal success, I think it changes. My personal goals when I was 20 was to just get a gig with some jazz musicians, and see the world, and be on the road, and have enough

197 Linda May Han Oh, interview with author, Zoom, February 21, 2021.

117

money to pay my own rent, and do what I want to do…and now I'm on the other side of all those kinds of goals that I had ten years ago.198

Cohen acknowledged that his goals from when he was 20 have changed, as has his

personal definition of success. It appears his views of success are synonymous with

achieving the goals he sets. He explained that success to him is now more about the

community he surrounds himself with. Moreover, Cohen said, “It's about what I can offer

into the world to enrich other people's lives. That's how I've measured a lot of the

meaning of my music: how can I uplift people with this music, and my projects, and what

I'm doing? How can I create a platform to help other musicians who need the help?”

Similarly, Zenón described working with others as being a crucial element in

determining success for himself. He expressed:

The other thing is being able to connect with peers. I think that's crucial, especially for this music, because it's really not something that you could do by yourself…This music is really meant to be played with other people. If you're connecting with peers, if you're getting to collaborate with other folks, that feels to me like success because what I'm doing is transcending my own definition of what it means to get to a certain point musically.199

Much like Cohen, Ulysses Owens Jr. also believes that one’s definition of success

changes over time, indicating that success is “an ever-evolving idea.” To Owens,

“Success is the ability to take a seed of an idea, form it into a plan, and see that plan come

to fruition.”200

Immanuel Wilkins finds his version of success through the output of his work: “I

think it's less financial for me. It’s almost not financial at all. I think my emphasis has

198 Emmet Cohen, interview with author, Zoom, January 26, 2021. 199 Zenón, interview. 200 Ulysses Owens Jr., interview with author, Zoom, January 29, 2021.

118

always been on the work and just creating good things…Success: it means doing

whatever I want. I want to be free…I want autonomy over my work. That’s being

successful to me.”201

In Gerald Clayton’s opinion, “The concept of networking, of entrepreneurship,

those do fit the language of the values of success being more financial than they do

artistic. I have found, and I tell people all the time, that music is its own reward…and that

doesn't translate to accolades, that doesn't translate to degrees, that doesn't translate to

money always. It's just for you; it's a personal accomplishment.” He continued:

I think for those who are looking to be musicians and actually be in service of the music for the rest of their life, that has to be their North Star…That old saying of: “Take care of the music, and it will take care of you,” is really the guiding credo. It's not about you, and making money, and getting accolades, and getting awards, it's about serving the music as best you can and the journey of getting these little rewards along the way…That should be the calling; that should be what gets you out of bed to try to play every day in my opinion. I think that's a more soulful value, it's a more real barometer of success to me.202

The last interview question discussed in this chapter is: What non-musical factors

have contributed to your success as a musician? Ulysses Owens Jr. quoted the famous

jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, which he expressed as being the story of his life:

[Have] you ever heard the adage that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make the horse drink? Ellis says, “You can actually lead a horse to water, and you can actually make the horse drink, because you can pull a horse, and, whether you hit it a little bit, you can make it drink.” But he said, “You can't make it thirsty.” That is what I think is the biggest thing that is different between me and a lot of people: I'm thirsty as hell, I'm parched. And there's a lot of things that I want out of life, and I'm not going to stop till I get it…I think those are the three things for me: being thirsty, being very driven, and just figuring out a way to power through things.203

201 Immanuel Wilkins, interview with author, Zoom, February 8, 2021. 202 Gerald Clayton, interview with author, Zoom, January 27, 2021. 203 Owens, interview.

119

While Owens listed internal qualities he possesses that have allowed him to succeed in

music, Miguel Zenón attributes much of his success to external factors. Zenón explained

much of his success was due to “a lot of luck,” which he said was unavoidable. He

continued: “A lot of luck, a lot of people going out of their way to help me out.”

As mentioned, Zenón views his success as a musician partly based on how he

balances the many aspects of his career. When asked how he manages everything he

needs to, he admitted,

It's hard…As you get older, you have more responsibility, there’s more stuff to do, so it's hard, especially once you undertake this thing where like, “Now I’m gonna run my thing, I have my label.”…You can control everything, but it's a lot of work. Independence has its ups and downs because it's a lot of work. But I have to say, even balancing out music making, practicing, and composition, all the stuff that goes into it, I feel that first of all, it’s worth it.204

Zenón also stressed the importance of having a team of people to work with who help run

one’s music career:

I think the other thing that's really important is putting together a little team. You say, “Okay, so this is what I want to do, this is a person who can help me out, this is a graphic designer who can help me out who I like [and] who I will have a personal relationship with, this is a publicist who I like, this is an engineer who I like,” and then you build a little team of folks. That's your company in a way. That makes it easier because…it’s a person that you decided to have there, and if that relationship is good, you can keep that relationship going. That's been my case, and I've been working with the same people forever.

Though not every musician will be able to hire a full team of professionals, Zenón

suggested that jazz musicians work with a publicist at the very least. He added, “If I had

to recommend one thing, one person you hire is a good publicist because, especially in

the music world, as small as this world is, the jazz world, for example…[it’s] hands down

[the] best investment.”

204 Zenón, interview.

120

For Marquis Hill, the people he surrounded himself with from a young age made

the biggest impact on his career:

I would say just being surrounded by self-driven people. I was fortunate enough to be around the Chicago scene and just watch people who got it done themselves, watch people who sat down at the piano, created their own music, put their own projects together, and just made it happen…I was surrounded with people who were go-getters, and that rubbed off on me.205

He elaborated: “Definitely, my household, upbringing, watching my mom, she's a very

hard worker, watching how dedicated she was to making sure that things were taken care

of in the household. That rubbed off on me, and I kind of transmuted that to my career.

I'm a hard worker when it comes to getting things done.” Hill’s upbringing and the

relationships he formed allowed him to learn from the people around him.

Ben Wendel, Immanuel Wilkins, and Emmet Cohen also discussed their

relationships as being non-musical factors that have influenced their successes. Wilkins

described internal elements that have aided him throughout his career, including his

personal values and humanity, and external attributes, such as visual art and other

artforms.206 As evidenced by his responses throughout the past few chapters, Cohen

prioritizes the relationships he has formed in his career. He expressed:

To develop those relationships, that's the most important thing…Relationships with a mentor, that's one of the most important things in the entire world…And then there's relationships with the people at your age and your generation that are probably the most important part of creating anything bigger than yourself. I would have never been able to create any of this stuff without the people that I’m around.207

Cohen also discussed how practicing yoga has contributed to his success:

205 Hill, interview. 206 Immanuel Wilkins, interview. 207 Cohen, interview.

121

One of the main things that we say in yoga is, “Do this for yourself and for something more than just yourself.” And that's the personal flair on it, whatever that means for you, whatever more than yourself is, whatever can connect you to something larger in the world. That will enrich you and in turn give you success.

Additionally, Cohen mentioned the importance of being confident, setting realistic

expectations to avoid being let down, and knowing one’s worth.

Linda May Han Oh believes that all musicians benefit from non-musical factors

because “not everyone was born in a complete level playing field.”208 She said, “I've

worked really hard to be where I am, and a lot of people have as well, but you just can't

deny that there are certain things that may have contributed to that, like whether or not

you were born in a family that was able to pay for music lessons.” Similar to Oh, Gerald

Clayton feels that “so much of life is just the cards you were even dealt from the get-go.”

He discussed his upbringing in a musical family and acknowledged the role that has

played in his career. He noted that because his father supported a family as a working

musician, he never doubted that he could have a career in music himself.209

He explained, “So, that contributed to my success. Just being able to see the life

behind the music, to meet the actual musicians that I’ve been listening to and looked up

to for years, that was all thanks to being born the son of John Clayton…I'm always trying

to humble myself and say, ‘Wow, I'm so lucky.’” However, while Clayton expressed the

benefit of his upbringing, he said that he still needed to be a great musician too:

Along with that, music works in a way where you can't just have that…The proof is in the pudding. You can't not know how to even play a scale and just have a whole bunch of good hookups…It doesn't work that way. [You’ve] still got to take care of the music, and everybody has that same reality to face. Your relationship with the music, your connection to the music, is personal; everyone's is. I've definitely manifested that partially through my own will and also partially

208 Oh, interview. 209 Clayton, interview.

122

taking advantage of those things that are outside of myself that I'm lucky to have.

As seen throughout his responses in the past few chapters, Clayton echoed his central

point: “If you take care of the music, the music will take care of you,” suggesting that he

prioritizes the music over all else regarding his career.

Conclusion

In looking at how these artists define success for themselves as musicians, three

of the eight artists included growth or progress in their definitions. Three of the artists

mentioned success in terms of balance, two artists discussed fulfillment, two talked about

the relationships and the people around them, and two POE artists acknowledged that

their definition of success has changed over time.

Two artists viewed their successes from a music-first perspective, stating that if

you take care of the music, the music will take care of you. This phrase was repeated

throughout the POE interview chapters. Although I didn’t get a clear answer as to what

this means, it may have a different meaning for each POE artist, much like defining

success. One possible interpretation of this phrase may be that if one approaches their

career with a music-first mindset, meaning making music for the pure enjoyment of

making music and practicing so there aren’t any holes in one’s playing, then the career

opportunities will follow. However, there are many musicians who have taken care of the

music, but the music has not taken care of them back. While prioritizing the music is

great advice for any musician, regardless of where they are in their career, it’s easy to

determine the ways in which one achieved success in hindsight.

123

When asked if there were any non-musical elements that played a role in their

successes as musicians, there were far fewer overlapping points between the artists than

seen in the first question. While Immanuel Wilkins, Emmet Cohen, Ben Wendel, and

Marquis Hill stressed the importance of developing relationships, both Gerald Clayton

and Linda May Han Oh accepted that much of success is determined by the cards one

was dealt.

In discussing these cards, it’s important to acknowledge the many factors that

promote or hinder one’s success, ultimately affecting the outcome. Oh recognized that

external factors play a large role in contributing to one’s music career, like “whether or

not you were born in a family that was able to pay for music lessons.”210 These cards

could be in terms of one’s race, gender, socioeconomic background, or even nationality.

Are you a White jazz musician or a Black jazz musician? Are you a Black American or

Black French jazz musician? Any time education is discussed, and then one’s subsequent

success or lack thereof in any given profession, there are cards that factor in. How these

cards factor into a jazz career different for each individual, but at the very least, it’s

necessary to be aware of the various cards at play.

I believe that defining success for oneself can help identify the values one deems

important, which may provide some guidance when approaching a career in music. These

artists provided a unique look into the factors that may have contributed to their

successes, separate from the music itself, and which could be valuable to undergraduate

jazz students.

210 Oh, interview.

124

CHAPTER 12

CONCLUSION

It is my belief that jazz students are often unprepared to navigate their careers

upon graduating from college. That was certainly the case for me, and I have found this

to be true for many of my colleagues. This was further evidenced by the interviews with

the students and even some Pool of Experts (POE) artists seen throughout this essay. As

mentioned in the Introduction, I believe music entrepreneurship courses may aid in

preparing college jazz students for life after school. It is imperative that undergraduate

jazz students are taught the necessary information pertinent to a career in jazz, as music

entrepreneurship courses may be the only formal instruction relating to career

advancement that they receive.

This project is an exploration of five collegiate music entrepreneurship courses

offered to undergraduate jazz students. I wanted to see if and how the information

presented in these courses related to a jazz career in the current climate of the music

industry. This was not the first paper examining a college music entrepreneurship

course’s relevance to a jazz career, and it likely won’t be the last, but my belief aligns

with what Gerald Clayton said in his interview: “Education, in general, is always worth

amending.”211

The objectives of this essay were fivefold: to examine the information currently

taught in music entrepreneurship courses, to determine what undergraduate jazz students

want to learn in these classes, to see what the instructors deem important enough to

211 Gerald Clayton, interview with author, Zoom, January 27, 2021.

125

include in their curricula, to discover the elements that a group of renowned jazz

musicians believe to be important in a modern jazz career and to feature some ways in

which they have built their careers, and to highlight alternative models for building a jazz

career by looking at the environments for jazz musicians in areas outside of the United

States.

Through examining the syllabi for each of the five courses discussed, and through

conducting interviews with the instructors who teach these courses, the current and

former students who took the classes, as well as with a diverse pool of world-class jazz

musicians, I believe I have successfully addressed my project research questions:

1. What are music entrepreneurship courses teaching undergraduate jazz students?

- Is the information covered relevant to a career in jazz?

2. Should there be a music entrepreneurship course specifically geared toward jazz students?

3. What fundamental tools or skills are needed to build a career as a working and successful jazz musician in today’s world?

Findings

In this section, tables and diagrams help present the results of my research and

illustrate the information seen throughout the essay. This first table compares the material

taught in the five music entrepreneurship classes, which relates to my first research

question: What are music entrepreneurship courses teaching undergraduate jazz students?

126

Table 1.

When I started working on this project, I anticipated that all of the music

entrepreneurship courses would be fairly similar to each other. As seen in Table 1, there

is some overlap of the topics taught in these classes. Both IMEP and WAAPA discuss

taxes, WAAPA and NEC talk about communication, relationship building, and goal

setting, and UM, WAAPA, and MSM all cover music marketing in their class. However,

each one of these courses proved to be unique as they all stressed different areas of a

music career they believed to be important. For example, while NEC’s The

Entrepreneurial Musician mostly focuses on what the instructor calls Adult Skills, which

includes skills transferable to other aspects of life outside of music, such as mental health

practices, interpersonal skills, and setting goals for the future. At IMEP, the Music

Business class is centered around the practical information students need to know and

that the teacher has employed throughout his own career. This includes the various music

127

industry figures musicians will likely interact with, networking skills, information about

taxes, and how to qualify for a French unemployment statute that benefits musicians

during times when gigs are scarce.

The Manhattan School of Music Practical Foundation course covers abstract

themes, like communication skills, but primarily addresses music rights management and

administration, emphasizing the importance of knowing where to collect one’s dues.

Additionally, MSM’s music entrepreneurship course details how to create action and

release plans, marketing strategies, and the new technology that may support a musician's

career. The Jazz Professional Management Skills course at WAAPA touches many areas

of a music career, providing concrete knowledge, like taxes for musicians, grant writing,

and media and marketing plans, as well as more abstract concepts, like goal setting,

interpersonal skills, community outreach, performance anxiety and presentation skills,

and etiquette in professional settings. This course is taught through a lens of applicability

to one’s music career. UM’s Music Business and Entrepreneurship for Musicians

explores many concepts, like starting a business, accounting, marketing, and music

copyright, providing a basic overview of the music industry.

Table 2 pertains to the secondary purpose of my first research question: Is the

information covered relevant to a career in jazz? Most of the students interviewed who

answered this question said their music entrepreneurship course did not relate to a jazz

career. Conversely, two definitively believed that their class was applicable to them as

jazz musicians. One student, however, claimed his class was

128

both relevant, because his teacher worked in the jazz industry and it was primarily made

up of jazz students, and not relevant, as the information covered wasn’t exclusive to a

jazz career.

Table 2.

Table 3. Answered from the perspective of the students

129

Table 4. Answered from the perspective of the instructors

Tables 3 and 4 address my second research question: Should there be a music

entrepreneurship course specifically geared toward jazz students? As seen in Table 3,

71% of the students who answered the question believe colleges should offer a music

entrepreneurship tailored to jazz musicians, while roughly 29% did not. One reason a

student opposed a jazz-specific class was that he found it valuable to hear the

perspectives of musicians of other genres outside of jazz. Dissimilar to the students, most

of the instructors who answered this question do not think there should be a jazz-specific

music entrepreneurship class. For example, the instructor at WAAPA found that the

students in her class of mixed genres and majors learn a lot from each other.

While these next few figures weren’t directly related to the core research

questions for my project, I thought it was interesting further comparing the student and

teacher perspectives. Table 5 addresses whether or not the instructors brought in guest

130

speakers or alumni to come and talk with the students, while Table 6 shows if the

students believe speakers and alumni should be brought into their classes.

Although the instructor at NEC didn’t specify whether or not she brought guest

speakers or alumni into her class, James, who took The Entrepreneurial Musician with

Kalmanovitch, confirmed his class had guest speakers. As seen in Table 5, and

established in Chapter 8, WAAPA’s Jazz Professional Management Skills instructor

makes a point to regularly bring in alumni and other speakers into her class to work with

her students. Oftentimes, she arranges her guest speakers based on what her students are

interested in learning that semester. Half of the students interviewed for this project

expressed a desire to hear from students or alumni to get an alternate perspective from

their teachers, to learn firsthand about varying things relating to a music career, and to

see how former students are conducting their careers.

Table 5.

131

Table 6.

Table 7.

Table 7 illustrates whether or not the instructors of these music entrepreneurship

courses are actively performing musicians. Three of the five classes involved in my essay

are taught by musicians with active performing careers. The instructor at MSM is not a

musician, but she is currently an artist manager for jazz musicians. Also, the teacher at

UM is not a musician, but he has an extensive background as a record label executive. As

seen in Table 8, half of the students interviewed expressed that they want to learn from

132

someone with an active performing career. Although I didn’t specifically ask them this

question, four of the students felt it was important enough to mention. Additionally, most

of the students would prefer to have a jazz musician instructing these classes, as they

want their teacher to relate to their experiences as musicians.

Table 8.

I don’t believe having a musician with an active performing career teaching these

classes necessarily makes a huge impact on the outcomes of these courses. The instructor

at MSM isn’t a musician. However, her background as an artist manager, specifically one

that’s familiar with the jazz world, is particularly beneficial for the contexts of her class

and the material she covers. Yet, there is a clear demand for the instructors of music

entrepreneurship courses to be practicing artists. Even the instructor of The

Entrepreneurial Musician at NEC expressed that these classes are generally “taught by

people who specialized in teaching the business of music, rather than people who are

actually trying to live as musicians.”

In my interview with Miguel Zenón, he advocated for the need of having a music

entrepreneurship teacher who is actively practicing what they teach:

133

One thing that makes a difference, especially with this type of class, with any kind of class you take at a music school, but with something like this, you want to feel that the person who's teaching the class, they're actually out there doing this. Like, you’re talking to an executive, you're talking to a producer, you're talking to someone who's actually out there, really saying, “This is the way it works. This is what I do when I'm not at school,” and I feel that makes a difference, especially to the students…it’s like, “Okay, I can relate.”212

Next, I will talk about some of the results from my interviews with the POE

artists. Although these interviews were discussed in great detail in the last three chapters,

I will reiterate some points I think are important. In determining the non-musical factors

that may have contributed to their successes as musicians, 37.5% of the artists listed the

relationships in their lives as being crucial, and 25% said the circumstances people are

born into greatly influences their successes. Other non-musical factors the POE artists

described include luck, putting a team of people around you, such as a publicist, being

inspired by other artforms, knowing your self-worth, and being able to set realistic

expectations.

In discussing how they have built and retained their fanbases, 62.5% of the POE

artists expressed that consistency in releasing content on social media and otherwise

played a key role. 37.5% said developing a personal connection and engaging with their

fans, 37.5% listed the importance of considering what their fans would like when

creating content, and 25% explained that having a mailing list was a vital factor in

developing their fanbase. Additional elements the POE artists identified are playing live

as much as possible, creating music with honesty and vulnerability, and prioritizing the

music over all else.

212 Miguel Zenón, interview with author, Zoom, February 9, 2021.

134

When asked what they wish they had learned about the business side of being a

musician before leaving music school, 37.5% of the POE group expressed they would

have liked to learn about taxes, 25% listed learning about music publishing, and 25%

expressed that learning how to read and write music contracts would have been

beneficial. Other topics mentioned included budgeting and finances for musicians,

learning about collecting royalties, and networking skills.

50% of the artists suggested that much of their learning is acquired through

experience, regardless of one’s education. I found this point particularly interesting. As

was mentioned at the end of Chapter 9, I believe the concept of learning by experiencing

challenges the notion of being able to teach music entrepreneurship in a classroom

setting.

In the Introduction, I quoted the Shel Silverstein poem “Where the Sidewalk

Ends” to represent the typical jazz student’s transition from music school to their post-

school career. While this analogy whimsically depicts the progression in many young

musicians’ lives, it’s important to recognize that a lot can, and likely will, be learned in

the “place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins.”213

It’s not a realistic expectation that one class, no matter how informative it is, can

fully prepare someone for all the intricacies and the trials and tribulations of a music

career. As Gerald Clayton said in his interview, “There's something about this music that

feels like it's a pool, and the only way to learn how to swim is to just throw somebody in

the deep end. You can’t really prepare for some of the things that you experience in a life

in music outside of school.”214 However, I wholeheartedly believe it’s intrinsically

213 Silverstein, 64. 214 Clayton, interview.

135

important to prepare young jazz students as best we can, which, again, is the primary

reason why I wanted to write this essay.

The POE artists were also asked to identify what fundamental tools or skills, if

any, are needed to build a career as a working and successful jazz musician in today’s

music industry. 37.5% said it’s essential to be driven and have a strong work ethic, 25%

listed having organizational skills as being key, and 25% expressed the importance of

being curious. 25% identified being sociable and considering how you act with other

people as being fundamental, and 25% recognized the importance of having a

community. 25% said it’s important to have proficiency on an instrument, and 25%

stressed prioritizing the music over all else is paramount. Other attributes listed by the

artists included being responsible, having confidence, being malleable, having a

problem-solving attitude, and being a kind and sincere person.

As mentioned above, and throughout the paper, a secondary purpose of my

project was to highlight ways in which jazz musicians can build a career outside of the

United States. I sought to accomplish this by examining music entrepreneurship courses

in renowned jazz programs in France and Australia, interviewing the instructors of those

courses who are both professional musicians, and by interviewing professional jazz

musicians who have built careers in the United States and in the countries listed. In

further discussing what it may look like to build a jazz career in areas outside of the

United States, I have included some tables that compare responses from the professionals

I interviewed.

Table 9 explains some differences in how musicians approach making a living in

the U.S. versus abroad. One individual who has experience as a professional musician in

136

both the U.S. and Australia found a lot of similarities in how musicians approach

building their careers. Due to a lack of responses to this question, I included the

perspective from the WAAPA music entrepreneurship instructor, who built a career in

both Australia and England. She noted that contrary to musicians in Australia, musicians

in London tend to focus on one area of music, with exception only to jazz musicians,

who tend to crossover to other styles of music more often.

In Table 10, a couple of the Australian musicians discuss whether or not

musicians tend to supplement a music career with other avenues of music outside of

performance. They both expressed it is common for musicians to supplement their

performing careers with other streams of income, however, one of the artists explained

that it’s possible to make a living only by performing, as performances in Australia pay

well.

Table 9.

137

Table 10.

Table 11.

Table 12.

138

According to the results seen in Table 11, musicians are more respected in France

than in the United States. Conversely, one of the musicians from Australia believes that

musicians are more respected in the U.S. Both the instructor from IMEP and the one

from WAAPA detailed that musicians are commonly asked if they have another job or

why they became a musician instead of a more stable profession, which they believe to

be the same world over. While the struggling artist, also known as the starving artist, is

commonly seen in Australia, it is not as prevalent in France (see Table 12). One possible

reason for the nonexistence of the starting artist in France is due to the IDS and their

government support for the arts, as mentioned in Table 13.

Table 13.

139

Although France has higher taxes than the United States, it is thought of as being

worthwhile due to the benefits French citizens receive, including universal healthcare.

Although it wasn’t specifically mentioned in my interviews with the Australian

musicians, I should note that Australian citizens are also eligible for universal

healthcare.215 Australia also has government departments, like the DLGSC discussed in

Chapter 8, that allows musicians to apply for grants, scholarships, and other funding

sources.

As discussed in the Literature Review, the lack of government funding in the

United States has pressured jazz musicians to look for work abroad. Like Stuart

Nicholson stated in his book Is Jazz Dead?, “The way the ‘business’ of jazz is structured

in the United States without governmental subsidy has meant that many jazz musicians

have come to rely on markets outside the borders of America for a significant portion of

their income.”216

In a personal email with Linda May Han Oh, she wrote, “When I was in

undergrad, everyone wanted to move to NYC. Now I meet a lot of younger Australian

musicians wanting to move to Europe, as they think the economic challenges in the U.S.

are too difficult.”217 Given the current state of jazz in the United States, it’s likely that

American jazz musicians may depend upon foreign markets throughout their careers.

Although my evaluation of what it means to build a jazz career in countries outside of

the U.S. is broad, I strongly believe that college jazz students need to be better informed

of the options available to them, as there is more than one model for a career in jazz.

215 “The Australian health system,” Australian Government Department of Health, last updated August 7, 2019, https://www.health.gov.au/about-us/the-australian-health-system. 216 Nicholson, 236. 217 Linda May Han Oh, email message to author, February 24, 2021.

140

Reflection

This project proved more difficult than I originally anticipated, largely because

there seems to be no right or wrong answer for most of the issues discussed. So much of

this is subjective. What worked for one POE artist may not work for someone else.

Furthermore, it’s important to recognize that the strategies the POE artists have employed

in their careers may have not been as effective twenty years ago and may not be as

effective twenty years from now. I tried to highlight the current practices used by relevant

musicians today. As illustrated throughout the essay, the music industry evolves at a

considerable pace. Today’s trends for marketing strategies, social media practices, and

many of the laws surrounding music licenses, publishing, and copyrights will inevitably

change. However, I believe there are fundamental qualities discussed by the POE artists

that will be important to possess regardless of the era. These include communication

skills, organizational skills, considering how musical and professional decisions impact

one’s audience, considering how one engages and interacts with their audience,

networking skills, the importance of building relationships and a community, being self-

driven and self-motivated, having balance in one’s life, being able to problem-solve,

being genuine as a person and as a musician, and being kind and sociable.

I have compared some of these important attributes, among other topics that the

POE believe are necessary when building a career in jazz with the material covered in the

music entrepreneurship courses examined in this essay (see Figure 1). The topics taught

in the music entrepreneurship courses include the legalities of music copyright, licensing,

and publishing, more concrete skills like writing resumes and biographies, budgeting, and

141

finances for musicians, and more interpersonal skills like goal setting, mental health

practices, and strategies to combat performance anxiety.

As mentioned, the POE artists discussed things like time management and

organizational skills, having a balanced life, a strong work ethic, networking etiquette,

cultivating relationships and being sociable, the interaction with one’s fans, developing

an email list, and the consistency in releasing content as being essential for a career in

jazz in today’s fast-paced music industry.

Some overlapping points between the artists’ responses and the subjects covered

in the music entrepreneurship classes include learning about taxes and finances for

musicians, working with managers and agents, music rights management and

administration, creating a business entity, learning about interpersonal skills such as

communication and relationship building, music publishing, and the current social media

practices.

Figure 1. Comparison of what the POE artists deem to be important in a jazz career with the information taught in the music entrepreneurship courses examined.

142

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the responses of what the students from the

American schools believe to be important to know when building a jazz career. As seen

in Figure 2, the overlapping points between the students at all three schools include

learning networking skills and how to realistically approach and release albums with

record labels.

I was surprised to see that there is a desire to learn how to work with record

labels. In my experiences as a jazz musician, only a handful of young artists are signed

to labels, especially when they’re first starting out. Most of my peers have independently

produced and released their own albums. However, something that seems to be

becoming the norm is approaching labels with finished products. Yet, even in that

scenario, an artist needs to know how to independently produce a record before a label

gets involved. While I don’t know how realistic it is for an artist to be signed to or have

an album released with a jazz label in today’s music industry, all artists, especially those

first starting their careers, should know how to independently release an album.

It’s important to note that what’s taught in these five music entrepreneurship

courses doesn’t reflect all music entrepreneurship courses. The same goes with the POE

artists and the students believe to be important in a jazz career. Anything that doesn’t

overlap on these Venn diagrams does not mean it isn’t worth learning about, but I think

it’s interesting to see where the priorities lie on the educators’ side, and what the demand

is from the students and the artists.

143

Figure 2. Comparing the student responses to what they believe to be fundamental in a jazz career and the things they wish they learned in music school.

Recommendations

The objective of this essay is not to definitively show what entrepreneurial

strategies and approaches are and are not effective in a jazz career or what should and

should not be taught in a music entrepreneurship course. I wanted to highlight what is

currently being offered to jazz students and show that it is important for music

entrepreneurship courses to develop and grow alongside the music industry. After

examining music entrepreneurship courses and speaking with students and renowned jazz

144

artists, this essay has presented me with an opportunity to make suggestions on how to

improve what’s taught to undergraduate jazz students.

For the most part, my research shows that jazz students want to be taught by

someone who resembles them. It would be advantageous for undergraduate jazz students

to be taught by someone with a jazz career themselves, or at the very least, someone who

is well-versed in the realities of a jazz career. However, a potential problem lies in the

fact that many successful jazz artists may not teach until later in their careers, which begs

the question of whether their experiences in building their careers will still be relevant

when they decide to teach. I believe that is why there is a clear demand for music

entrepreneurship courses to be taught by someone with an active performing career, who

can teach what they are currently employing. These courses should also make a point of

bringing in guest speakers and alumni to work with the students

The content taught in these courses should have more practical and real-life

application that the jazz students can implement in their own careers. Ultimately, students

want to know how the information taught applies to them, as many have careers while

they’re in school.

Jazz musicians often desire to learn from someone who relates to the experiences

they’ve had or want to have. In the jazz tradition, young musicians historically sought out

mentors, with whom they’d not only learn about musical information, but also ways to

develop and advance their careers.218 In Chapter 4, both students interviewed mentioned

that the most relevant career-related instruction they received came from their private

lesson instructors, musicians they learned from in a one-on-one environment. The

218 Chinen, “Jazz Apprentices.”

145

relationships jazz musicians have with their mentors is invaluable. Having instructors,

alumni, and guest speakers whose experiences resemble that of the jazz students in a

music entrepreneurship class may enhance the learning experience.

I believe having a music entrepreneurship course specifically tailored to jazz

musicians would be beneficial, and I encourage all jazz departments to explore this

possibility. Additionally, I think jazz students should have a course on taxes and finances

for musicians and another about marketing strategies. I also think having a course

dedicated to the Adult Skills referenced in NEC’s The Entrepreneurial Musician would

be advantageous, discussing things like interpersonal skills and mental health practices.

It can be a very arduous process to add a course to a curriculum, and one that may

semesters or even school years to achieve. Oftentimes, adding a course to a curriculum

requires removing a different course. Schools need to find an instructor to teach this

class, sometimes requiring the addition of a new faculty member, which means finding

the budget in the payroll. Schools must also determine a time that will work for the

students and the instructors and locate an available space in which to teach the class.

While it’s not realistic to add multiple courses to a jazz curriculum, I think at the very

least, a music entrepreneurship class needs to be required for a minimum of two

semesters, allowing for a more comprehensive education.

These courses have real value. If music schools are requiring its students to take a

music entrepreneurship class, which costs time and money, then the courses need to

provide the most useful information. Determining this “most useful information” is up to

debate. It may be virtually impossible to create a course that completely satisfies the

146

needs and desires of every student, but it is crucial to examine what undergraduate jazz

students are learning in their music entrepreneurship classes.

There is an absolute truth in the necessity of serving the music first, as Gerald

Clayton stressed throughout his interview, and no one will ever be completely prepared

for the challenges of a music career and that life presents.219 However, that doesn’t mean

students can’t be better prepared. I believe that the career development information

detailed throughout this essay are needed to supplement a music career, assuming the

musician is a talented player already. There are no definites in a music career, and every

musician will have a different experience. Music entrepreneurship courses may be the

only formalized instruction relating to career development jazz students receive in

college. I hope this essay leads to more consideration regarding the information taught to

undergraduate jazz students and acts as a step toward progressing music entrepreneurship

courses. My goal is to better prepare jazz students to face their careers and build a life in

music.

219 Clayton, interview.

147

APPENDIX A

New England Conservatory ENTP 351: The Entrepreneurial Musician

Tuesdays from 12 - 12:50 PM, Room 316 St. Botolph Building Fall 2021

Instructor: Dr. Tanya Kalmanovitch Email: tanya.kalmanovitch@necmusic.edu Office hours: I hold virtual office hours at various times throughout the week. Click here to schedule an

appointment for a virtual office hour visit.

Shared Google Drive folder for readings: Click here.

NB: Class will be held remotely (on Zoom) on Sep 21, Sep 28, Nov 23, and Dec 7. Zoom Meeting: Click here. Meeting ID: 958 8513 2583; Passcode: 688759. SYLLABUS OVERVIEW

Course Summary and Context Artists and entrepreneurs alike are motivated by a vision of the world as it could be. This class is designed to cultivate young artists who are active and engaged citizens: committed to advancing the role of the performing arts in building a better world. At its core, this class is about cultivating mindsets (ways of knowing, thinking, interacting and being) that advance your artistry, education, professional development, and personal development in service of human needs. This class is designed to improve students’ understanding of entrepreneurship as it relates to the performing arts by engaging in experimentation and experiential learning. Lectures, readings and class discussions will provide an overview of the principles and methodologies of entrepreneurship and humanistic design. We’ll use these to explore existing and emergent models for artists’ professional roles, incorporating the pillars of entrepreneurial thinking: vision, initiative, risk, and value. Class assignments will guide you in experimentation and risk-taking, articulating your personal and professional goals, stimulating creativity and critical thinking in new media, and expanding your sense of possibility for what an artist can be and do in today’s world.

Learning Outcomes By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explore and define their own vision of a multifaceted career as a 21st century artists, incorporating awareness of multiple existing and emergent paths both within and beyond artistic practice;

2. Design a comprehensive plan to realize a specific creative project as well as the next steps of their personal and professional development;

3. Develop effective communication tools and strategies to relate their unique skills and values to their personal and professional goals;

4. Actively construct an extended network of individuals and organizations, and enlist their partnership in reaching goals;

5. Demonstrate an informed engagement in social issues through artistic and professional practice.

Structure ● The class meets on Wednesdays from 12 - 12:50 PM. ● Most class meetings will be in person. On Sep 21, Sep 28, Oct 12, Nov 9, Nov 23, and Dec 7 we

will meet on Zoom.

148

2

● There will be two optional Tuesday night “Lab Sessions” — open workshops where we can apply specific course topics to the context of our lives. These will run from 7 - 9 PM on Oct 5 and Nov 16.

● I am available for virtual office hours at various times during the week. Click here to schedule an appointment for a virtual office hour visit.

● Assignments will always be due by the date and time posted in NEO. ● If there is feedback due on an assignment of yours, I will always send feedback in a timely

manner. If you have questions about my feedback, I am happy to discuss further though an appointment during my office hours.

Assessable Assignments Questionnaire Due Week 2 Midterm Reflection Due Week 8 Final Project - Informal Proposal Due Week 8 Informational Interviews Due Week 9 Learning Portfolio and Declaration of Intent Due Week 13 Final Project - Symposium Presentation Due Week 13 or 14 Final Project - Portfolio Submission Due Week 14 End-of-Semester Reflection Due Week 14

Final Grade Calculation Attendance, Active Engagement 15% Questionnaire, Midterm and End-of-Semester Reflection 15% Learning Portfolio and Declaration of Intent 25% Informational Interviews 20% Final Project & Presentation 25%

Grading Standards

Our class is made up of people from different backgrounds, different disciplines, at different stages of their musical and professional lives. My expectations for attendance, punctuality in completing assignments, time spent on exercises, class engagement, and contributions to your notebook and the class discussion board are the same for all students.

A 95-100% Work of exceptional quality, which often goes beyond the stated goals of

the course. A- 90-94% Work of very high quality B+ 85-89% Work of high quality that indicates higher than average performance. B 80-84% Very good work that satisfies the goals of the course B- 75-79% Good work. C+ 70-74% Above-average work. C 65-69% Average work that indicates an understanding of the course material;

passable. Satisfactory completion of a course is considered to be a grade of C or higher. Graduate classes cannot award a grade lower than C.

F < 65% Failure, no credit.

149

3

Course Design and Expectations

Class Meetings This class will include both required class meetings, and activities to be completed between classes. A weekly 110-minute class meeting will include lectures as well as a range of activities: discussions around course topics, breakout sessions for small group discussions, and prompts for individual writing and reflection.

Between class-activities are ones that participants complete on their own time (e.g. completing assigned readings, watching a video, participating in a discussion forum, listening to a podcast, actively building your social network.) Resources and instructions for between-class activities are available on NEO.

Meaningful Participation

As a class, we will engage in a collaborative process to agree on the terms of meaningful participation and engagement. The following are examples of meaningful participation:

● Regular and prompt attendance at weekly class sessions, and scheduled small group activities; ● Thoughtful contributions, verbal or performative, to in-person and online class discussions; ● Regularly participation in class discussions on NEO, posting and commenting using video, audio

and text features; ● Completing between-class activities and coming to class prepared to engage in informed

discussion; ● Participation in group work; ● Submission of completed assignments demonstrative of learning outcomes; ● Engaged peer review feedback, as well as responses to faculty and peer feedback; ● Completion of quizzes, readings, discussions or other activities on NEO; ● Regular engagement with your instructor; communicating needs for extensions, alternative

means of access, different ways of participating meaningfully, etc.

Attendance

Each week, we’ll be trying something new as a group. Each class builds on the next, and relates directly to the between-class assignments and larger assignments for the class. Falling behind can be detrimental to your grade, but also to the learning of other students in the class. Think of it like playing in a band: if you don’t show up, we can’t play without you. And when you show up with full engagement and effort, everyone plays better. In practical terms, each class counts for 1 point toward your attendance (15% of your final grade). Showing up to the class meeting is not sufficient for attendance credit: you will be expected to engage meaningfully in class activities and discussions. All that being said, I understand that you will sometimes have to miss a class for all kinds of reasons. I allow up to 3 absences without penalty to your grade, provided you do the following:

● Notify the instructor of your absence by email; ● Write an additional post to that week’s discussion board commensurate with the engagement or

activities expected in class (e.g. if you were tasked with presenting a 2-minute review of your work, you should post a 2-minute video presentation along with your comments.)

Please note: The Health and Counseling Center will not provide excuse notes for routine illnesses or injuries that may lead to missed classes, rehearsals, or performances.

150

4

Please also refer to NEC’s full attendance policy in the Academic Catalog (pages 15-18).

Weekly Structure Each week you will be asked to complete readings and post to a weekly discussion board. Some weeks you will also be asked to provide feedback on classmates’ work. Please complete each week’s work by midnight on Sunday. I will provide you with my feedback by the end of the day each Tuesday.

Responsibility Students are responsible for completing all assignments on time, even those assigned during student absences. Late papers, failure to complete the readings assigned for class discussion, and lack of preparedness for in-class discussions and presentations will jeopardize your successful completion of this course.

Late Assignments All assignments must be submitted online before midnight on the due date. Late assignments will not be accepted, but extensions will be granted. Extensions must be requested by email and approved no later than 24 hours before the assignment’s due date.

COVID-19 Contingencies

Advance Planning

In the first weeks of class, please allow extra time for building access. Plan to arrive at the building at least 15 minutes early, or even earlier if that’s possible. Stay up-to-date with testing requirements. Please also consider taking the stairs If you are able, so that those who cannot will have access to elevators.

Communication Plan

Because of the challenges of testing, vaccinations and building access in the early weeks of the semester, it’s important that we have a clear communication plan. If you’re in our physical classroom, and if I haven’t arrived by 10 minutes after the start time, check your email. If I’m unable to get into the building, I’ll post an announcement with information about our back-up plan. If you are unable to get into our classroom, please send me an email message notifying me of your situation. Students who miss class because of building access will not be penalized, but you will be expected to make up missed work.

Masking Policy All faculty, students and staff are expected to abide by NEC’s policy requiring the wearing of masks in all public spaces, including our classroom. Mask wearing protects others, not just the wearer. NEC community members who observe others not abiding by these expectations may gently remind them to respect our community health. If faculty and students need to remove their mask briefly to take a drink, they may do so, but eating must be confined to designated areas outside the classroom. If you need to eat for health reasons, please reach out to me so that appropriate arrangements with can be made.

Illness Please stay home if you feel unwell. Proof of illness is not required. Send me an email notifying me that you are going to be absent due to illness. If you miss class due to illness, you will not be penalized, but you are expected to make up for missed work.

151

5

Flexibility

During the time of COVID-19, students and faculty are experiencing real challenges. As a class community, we will discuss our individual and collective needs during this time of intense transition. Together, we’ll determine the appropriate kinds of flexibility that will be necessary in evaluating participation, attendance, and assignment deadlines. It’s important that each of us remembers our own needs, to practice self-care, and to extend a generosity of spirit, flexibility, and understanding to everyone in our community.

Assignments and Criteria for Grading The final decision on course grades rests with me, the instructor. Assignments receiving low grades may be rewritten with my consent: please don’t hesitate to ask for an opportunity to re-do an assignment. In general, I grade on effort, punctuality, formatting, the effort you’ve put into the assignment, and the progress you show in applying the assignment to your creative, personal, and professional development.

Questionnaire In the first week of the semester, I’ll ask you to complete a questionnaire that asks you to reflect on the goals, values and challenges that you associate with your development as artists; to identify, define and express your personal, artistic, and professional goals; and to identify questions you hope this class will answer. Criteria for grading: graded on a pass/fail basis.

Midterm Reflection Students will evaluate their initial responses to the questionnaire, and reframe and recommit to existing and emerging goals for the semester. Criteria for grading: graded on a pass/fail basis.

End-of-Semester Reflection In the last week of the semester, students will revisit their answers from the questionnaire and midterm reflections, and write a reflection paper evaluating their experiences in the class this semester. Criteria for grading: graded on a pass/fail basis.

Informational Interviews Students will generate three new professional connections through the process of informational interviewing. Students will research and identify people who have access to the kinds of experiences that are most relevant to their artistic and professional development. For each, the student will prepare a well-crafted email requesting a conversation; prepare a discussion guide; conduct an interview, and relate the knowledge gained in a three minute video and a brief presentation to your classmates. Criteria for grading: completion of assignment.

Learning Portfolio and Declaration of Intent Weekly practice-based assignments (e.g. writing prompts, mapping exercises) offer students an opportunity to engage personally with topics from lectures and readings. Students will begin their assignments in class, and complete them between class meetings. Toward the end of the semester, students will choose selections from these assignments to produce a personal learning portfolio: a PDF document that illustrates their process of meaning-making: asking questions, articulating their values, and declaring their intent as artists, citizens, and human beings. Criteria for grading: completion of assignment; demonstrated depth of personal engagement and application of course topics to artistic and professional self-identification.

152

6

Final Project Working alone or in small groups, students define a final project that is connected to their personal, professional or artistic goals. There are three options for the final project: planning something, doing something, or researching and writing a case study.

● Plan something. Design a plan for a project, a business idea, or to move you further along a particular path. Think of this plan as a map. It will show where you’ve come from, where you stand now, where you’d like to go, and what steps you’ll take next to get the

● Make or do something. Design a project that you’ll carry out during the course of the semester. This could include designing something, undertaking a course of activity or applied research, making media, prototyping a new product, launching a new venture —there are few limits.

● Case Study. Define a challenge that you’re interested in exploring, and research how a single individual or organization (or a group of different individuals and organizations) have responded to this challenge

Students will be guided through meetings with the instructor and meetings with professionals active in their areas of interest. In the final weeks of class, students present their work in a class symposium. Criteria for grading: An informal proposal that outlines the approach students wish to take to the final project; submission of final project documentation, and an in-class presentation.

Materials and Expenses

Textbooks There are no required textbooks for this class. As much as possible, I will provide links to readings that are available for free, or through the university’s digital library. I will also host digital copies of our readings in this shared Google Drive folder.

Supplies On the first day of class you will need a dedicated notebook that you use for our class—not for any other classes. This should be at least 9.5’ by 7.5”, at least 100 pages. You can choose the paper style: ruled, grid, dots, or blank; composition or sketchbook; etc. The important thing is to find paper that is smooth and will hold a link of ink without feathering or bleeding through. You’ll also need pens to write and sketch with—black or blue pens. Optional: colored pencils or markers that won’t bleed through the page. Bring your notebook and pens to every class.

Minimum Technology Requirements In addition to other materials, this course will require:

● computer with current operating system ● Internet access sufficient for instructional tools like NEO and Zoom (minimal internet access

speeds of 800kbps upload and 1.0Mbps download are required). Department of Entrepreneurial Musicianship NEC’s Department of Entrepreneurial Musicianship offers a wide variety of resources to help all NEC students and alumni develop successful careers. Individual advising sessions can cover a wide variety of topics for both personal and professional activities. The EM Department’s services include:

● One-on-one advising sessions ● Field and internship experiences ● Assistance in applying for off-campus jobs ● Entrepreneurial grants

153

7

● Workshops, panels and special events ● Online and print resources ● Resume, curriculum vitae and cover letter reviews ● Practice/mock interviews

You can book appointments automatically using the feature on the EM department’s website: http://necmusic.edu/em. Contact information for each of the EM staff members is also included below.

Annie Phillips Associate Dean, Entrepreneurial Musicianship annie.phillips@necmusic.edu 617-585-1117

Andrew Worden Assistant Dean, Entrepreneurial Musicianship andrew.worden@necmusic.edu 617-585-1112

External Resources Commitment to Cultural Equity and Belonging NEC Library NEC Resource Center The Writing Center @ NEC

NEC Policies

Academic Integrity Academic dishonesty is claiming the work of others as your own. Examples include copying from another student, using facts, ideas, words or phrases from an un-cited source, or relying on hidden notes during an examination. Please note that while at times it may be acceptable to re-use your own work from a prior course to build upon your research, you may only do so with permission of the instructor. A confirmed case of plagiarism may lead to both academic and disciplinary consequences. The professor will decide the academic consequence: the Conservatory recommends a failing grade on the paper and in the class. Every suspected case of plagiarism is reported to the Dean or Senior Associate Dean of Students. The Dean or Senior Associate Dean will make a decision about disciplinary consequences. In addition, the Dean or Senior Associate Dean may choose to convene a meeting of the Student Disciplinary Committee to review the evidence and determine appropriate consequences, ranging from exoneration to expulsion. For the full policy please see the Student Handbook or visit http://necmusic.edu/college-student-policies/academic-integrity.

Disability Support Services New England Conservatory is committed to providing all students equal access to its programs and activities. Students with documented disabilities of any kind should register with the Disability Support Services (DSS) office located in the Office of Student Services (SB 224) to learn about accommodations. DSS will work with faculty to design individualized accommodation plans for students who have provided documentation from licensed medical professionals. To set up an appointment with DSS, please email DSS@necmusic.edu.

Title IX / Sexual Harassment As a faculty member, I am classified as a Responsible Employee by NEC. That means that if you disclose specific information about sexual misconduct that occurred to you or anyone else connected to the NEC community, I will need to report it to NEC’s Title IX Coordinator. I wanted you to be aware of my role and obligation in this matter.

154

8

If you have any questions, please contact me or refer to NEC’s Title IX Sexual Misconduct policy at https://necmusic.edu/title-ix.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (commonly referred to as the “Buckley Amendment” or “FERPA”) is designed to protect the confidentiality of the records that educational institutions maintain on their students and to give students access to their records to assure the accuracy of their contents. FERPA affords you certain rights with respect to your education records. Information on FERPA and your rights as a student are available on NEC’s website at the following link: http://necmusic.edu/ferpa.

Class Recordings and Use – On-Campus Courses

Some or all of the class sessions may be recorded by the instructor (or a designated teaching assistant) for use by enrolled students, including those who may be absent. The recording technology in NEC classrooms is directed toward the front of the classroom/podium. Students who enter the front-of-classroom/podium area would be visible on the recording. Students in the classroom seating area will not appear on the recording although their voices may be captured in the audio recording.

Any such recordings may be made available to students in the class at the instructor’s discretion. Students are expected to follow appropriate Conservatory policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Students may not reproduce, copy, share with others or upload the recorded class to other online environments.

No recording by other means is permitted.

Class Recordings and Use – Online Courses

For course meetings that are conducted online (e.g., via Zoom), as the host, the instructor (or designated teaching assistant) may record some or all of the class sessions for use by enrolled students, including those who are unable to attend live. The recording feature for others will be disabled so that no one else will be able to record the session through Zoom. No recording by other means is permitted. Recording by students of any chat exchanges during the class is also prohibited.

Any recordings will be available to students registered for this class as they are intended to supplement the classroom experience. Students are expected to follow appropriate Conservatory policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Students may not reproduce, copy, share with others or upload the recorded class to other online environments. If the instructor or a New England Conservatory office plans any other uses for the recordings, beyond this class, students identifiable in the recordings will be notified to request consent prior to such use.

Permission by Participation – Online Courses By participating in the class you are granting your permission for the class recording. If you do not wish to give permission for any recording of your participation, inform the instructor before or at the beginning of the class and the recording feature can be turned off when you are speaking.

● Camera/Profile Image: Students who participate with their camera engaged or utilize a profile image are consenting to have their video or image recorded. If you are unwilling to consent to have your profile or video image recorded, be sure to keep your camera off and do not use a profile image. Students who wish to keep their camera off during class must notify the instructor in advance of the class.

155

9

● Voice: Likewise, students who un-mute during class and participate orally are consenting to have their voices recorded. If you are not willing to consent to have your voice recorded during class, you will need to keep your mute button activated and communicate exclusively using the "chat" feature, which allows students to type questions and comments live.

NEC Mission & Core Values Mission Statement: New England Conservatory educates and trains musicians of all ages from around the world, drawing on the talent and deep reservoir of experience of our distinguished faculty. We are dedicated to inculcating the highest standards of excellence and nurturing individual artistic sensibility and creative growth. Understanding that music is one of the transcendent expressions of human civilization, NEC aspires to ensure it a central place in contemporary society. NEC’s Mission & Core Values are published on NEC’s website at the following link: http://necmusic.edu/mission-statement

156

10

Weekly Lectures and Between-Class Activities

This is a detailed description of the weekly course content and activities. Throughout the semester I’ll be adding more links and resources, so that I can better respond to the emerging and expressed needs of our class. Wherever possible, I will link to required readings directly in the syllabus—either to resources available online, or hosted in a shared folder on Google Drive. Please use NEO to stay up-to-date on deadlines.

Week 1: Welcome to “The Entrepreneurial Musician” [IN PERSON] September 14, 2021 Assignment: Questionnaire

Guiding Questions:

1. What is my responsibility as a student in this class? What does it mean to “claim” my education?

2. How do I define success as an artist?

3. What questions should we be asking? Should we be asking bigger questions?

Required Readings: 1. Eliot Cole, “Questions I Ask Myself”, New Music Box, 18 October 2017. Available online.

2. Adrienne Rich, “Claiming an Education”, in On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966–

1978, W. W. Norton and Company (1979). Available in shared folder.

References and Resources: 1. [Stats on the gig economy] Ahu Yildirmaz, Mita Goldar, and Sara Klein, “Illuminating the Shadow

Workforce: Insights into the Gig Economy for the Enterprise,” ADP Research Institute, 1 February

2020. Available in shared folder.

2. [Why handwriting makes you learn better and faster.] Wiley, Robert W., and Brenda Rapp. “The

Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning.” Psychological Science, vol. 32, no. 7,

July 2021, pp. 1086–1103. Available in shared folder.

3. [Covid-19 Impacts on the Arts] Americans for the Arts, “Covid-19’s Impact on the Arts: Research

& Tracking Update, 18 May 2020.” Available online.

In-Class Activity: Claiming an Education

Adrienne Rich writes about an "ethical and intellectual contract" that exists between teacher and student.

Thinking about the context of your studies at the CoPA, develop a list of three further elements of such a

contract. What should students agree to do? What should teachers agree to do? What is the larger,

ethical goal of these agreements? What promises will you make to yourself about claiming your education

this semester? Optional Between-class Reflection

Choosing ONE of the following questions to discuss. Support your introduction with 10-12 minutes of

writing.

1. Adrienne Rich writes about an "ethical and intellectual contract" that exists between teacher and

student. Thinking about the context of your studies at the CoPA, develop a list of three further

elements of such a contract. What should students agree to do? What should teachers agree to

do? What is the larger, ethical goal of these agreements?

2. Of all the questions Elliot Cole asks himself, which ones resonate most strongly with you, and

why? Following Cole's model, develop a list of three questions you ask yourself, and explain them

to your readers.

157

APPENDIX B

158

159

160

APPENDIX C

Jake Shapiro <jakeshapirojazz@gmail.com>

Practical Foundations Syllabus 1 message

Owen Storey <orstorey@gmail.com> Sun, May 16, 2021 at 12:21 PMTo: JakeShapiroJazz@gmail.com

DEPARTMENT/DIVISION NAME: CME Department

Course Title: PRACTICAL FOUNDATIONSFOR MUSIC

Course Code Number and Section: ME 1500

Semester and Year: Spring 2021

Credit Hours:

Meeting Times: Ex: M 10-11am, T/Th 10-11am

Location: Zoom

Instructor Contact Information:

Instructor Name and Title: Dr. Tinku Bhattacharyya

Office Location:

Phone: 646-578-5770 (cell)

MSM Email: tbhattacharyya@msmnyc.edu

Office Hours:

Course Description:

This is an applied business in global entertainment and music for musicians. It's a practical music rights-oriented course,centered around the power of metadata, harnessing new technology and old industry savvy. Our access to internationalmarkets has never been greater, and musicians must be able to harness the power of the global marketplace to buildsustainable careers and thrive as successful businesses. In this course, you will learn to navigate a fast-paced andcompelling but fragmented global industry, through a rights-oriented approach, deepening your understanding of all yourpotential revenues streams. You will learn how to harness the power of metadata through new technology and oldindustry savvy. We will deep dive into the marketing considerations of a successful music career, and the new technologyand techniques applied to develop scalable and executable marketing plans and budgets that don’t live and die on yourhard drive. Finally, this course will help you understand your business development, and cover the considerations ofbuilding your team, or going it alone. Practical application is at the heart of this course, to supercharge and instill greatconfidence in our next generation of musicians as they navigate the complexities of building a successful career

Required Texts:

I will supply reading material week to week and provide an archive of useful books and texts

Recommended Texts:

Any reading for the class that is recommended but not on the “Required Texts” list.

Other Materials/Supplies:

I recommend following these blogs, newsletters and industry professionals

Cherie Hu, Water and Music https://mailchi.mp/9ab07d2b7dc4/waterandmusic (Links to an external site.)

Amber Horsburgh, Deep Cuts https://us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f0541c84182af8be2e2a9a627&id=6b07de7ce8 (Links to an external site.)

161

Free training videos https://school.deepcuts.co/5-keys-to-win-release-day (Links to an external site.)

Ari Herstand, Aris Take https://aristake.com (Links to an external site.)

Dae Bogan https://daeboganmusic.com (Links to an external site.)

Soundcharts Mechanics Series https://soundcharts.com/blog/category/mechanics (Links to an external site.)

Symphonic Distribution blog https://blog.symphonicdistribution.com/music_business/music-biz-101/ (Links to an externalsite.)

Mark Mulligan Music Industry blog https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com (Links to an external site.)

Chris Castle https://musictechpolicy.com (Links to an external site.) and https://musictech.solutions (Links to an externalsite.)

ASCAP Daily Brief (Links to an external site.) (Dean Kay) https://www.ascap.com/playback/2017/09/daily-brief/dailybrief-09-15?utm_source=ASCAP&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ascap-daily-brief&utm_content=ascap-daily-brief (Linksto an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)BillboardBiz - http://www.billboard.com/biz (Links to an external site.)

BMI The Weekly- https://www.bmi.com/special/weekly https://www.bmi.com/special/weekly (Links to an external site.)

(Christopher Robley | (Links to an external site.)@chrisrobley (Links to an external site.)) CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog-http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/

Paul Resnikoff Digital Music News (Links to an external site.) https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/ Bruce Houghton Hypebot (Links to an external site.) http://hypebot.com/ Bob Leftsetz | (Links to an external site.)@leftsetz (Links to an external site.) Leftsetz Letter http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ Library of Congress Blog http://blogs.loc.gov/ (Links to an external site.) MediaNet Blog http://www.mndigital.com/blog/ (Links to an external site.) Darren Hemmings | (Links to an external site.)@mr_trick (Links to an external site.) Motive Unknownhttps://motiveunknown.com/daily-digest-music-industry-newsletter/ Wesley A’Harrah | (Links to an external site.)@adreadpirate (Links to an external site.) & Anthony Churchman Music Allyhttp://musically.com/ Music Business Worldwide (Links to an external site.) Bruce Houghton Music Think Tank (Links to an external site.) http://www.musicthinktank.com/ Bas Grasmayer | (Links to an external site.)@basgras (Links to an external site.) Music x Tech x Futurehttps://www.getrevue.co/profile/basgras SXSW Daily Chord https://www.sxsw.com/daily-chord/ (Links to an external site.) David Lowery The Trichordist (Links to an external site.) https://thetrichordist.com/ (Links to an external site.)

Course Objectives:

● To provide a meaningful and empowering understanding of how an artist can tackle the global rights and distributionplatforms, harnessing the power of new tech and the understanding of musical copyrights.

● To encourage an artist’s entire participation in the registration and management of their catalog, so they can benefitacross all old, new and future technologies available to them -To encourage a deeper understanding of the self-publishedcommunity and their relationship to the global music industry.

● To encourage participation and representation and better relationships between artists and PROs

● To prepare the self published musician for 2021 and The MLC

● To foster a deeper understanding of music streaming and social media platforms, to encourage more effective use ofthese tools.

● To encourage more participation in industry issues, whilst busting myths about streaming and other media.

● To bust some of the current myths on the music industry

● Familiarity with and development of promotional materials and marketing strategies.

● Greater understanding of the arts economy, financial issues, and opportunities for Your future.

162

● Feedback and practice to improve your presentation and communication skills.

● Structured focus on your career goals and how to implement them.

● Understanding the business considerations in the live sector

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:.

Navigate the music marketplace with knowledgeRegister and aggregate metadataCreate release plans and budgetsFeel more confident about new techNavigate social media effectively

Course Requirements & Assessments:

Example:

1-2 assignments per week1 quiz per weekClass Participation/Effort1 semester project

Grading Criteria:

How you will weigh the assignments and class participation towards a grade. Ex: Attendance and Participation 30%,Assignments 40%, Completion of term project 30%.

Course Outline/Schedule

Week 1: An introduction to the course which will set priorities and goals for the coming semester, and a deep dive intowhere your career is right now. This will be foundational in setting goals for the remainder of the course

Week 2 : Music rights landscape

The instructor reserves the right to make reasonable changes to the syllabus.

163

APPENDIX D

MUSIC BUSINESS IMEP 2019-2020

GENERAL PLAN

0 - INTRODUCTION

- Presentation of the course and its objectives

1 - THE PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF MUSIC

A/ The different facets of the artist musician

o The performer o The composer o The author o The singer-songwriter o The arranger o The artistic director o The producer o The music teacher

B/ The different types of actors / employers

o The musicians themselves. o The managers / programmers of live broadcast venues o The tourers o The tour manager o The artistic agent / manager o The press officer o The publishers o The record company / label o The digital music distributors

164

o The agencies events o Individuals

C / Rights collection and distribution companies

a - The different types of rights

o Copyrights o Neighboring Rights

b -collection and distribution societies:

o SACEM for copyright o SPEDIDAM for the rights of secondary performers o ADAMI for the rights of main performers o The SCCP o The SCPF

c - The distribution of the different types of rights

o Distribution rights o Private copying rights

2 - THE ARTIST MUSICIAN: A SINGLE-PERSON COMPANY

A / musician interprets the art to heart

o Work his instrument o Addressing directories o Make musical performances o Manage a schedule o Manage the interaction with partners

B / The various statutes and regimes musician

o Employee status o Intermittence du Spectacle o status of auto-entrepreneur o status creator o Professor Status

165

C /revenue structures

o revenues for musical performances o revenues of intermittency o revenues performances leave o revenues teaching o Income from copyright / performers o Income from performance profits for the musician producer

D / Administrative management

o Creation of a social contact sheet o Creation of an instrument technical sheet o Creation of an Excel table summarizing the activity o Management of administrative documents (papers / pdf) o The monthly declaration to Pôle emploi o The request for payment of show holidays o The declaration of deposits o Principle of real costs for musicians o Maintain bank accounts o Occupational medicine

3 - CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES MUSICAL BUSINESS

A / The network

o The music school, the first network o The jam sessions o Social networks o One job always pays off another o Attend concerts o Meet professionals o Openness to other environments

B / Strategies to launch your activity

o Create your image

166

o Create your online presence o How to become intermittent o Diversify these areas of activity o Create security savings and working capital

C / The knowledge economy as a vector of growth.

o Basic principles o Information as a source of development o Increase your areas of expertise o AFDAS training courses o Anticipate changes in trends o Know how to stay on the move

167

APPENDIX E

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

WORKS CITED “1960 to 1980: Twenty Years of Rapid Growth.” Frost School of Music, University of Miami. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.frost.miami.edu/about-us/history/twenty-years-of-rapid-growth/index.html. “2021-2022 Academic Bulletin: B.M. in Studio Music and Jazz Instrumental.” University of Miami. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://bulletin.miami.edu/undergraduate-academic-programs/music/studio-music-jazz/studio-music-jazz-instrumental-bm/#planofstudytext. “About: IMEP Paris College of Music: School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Paris.” IMEP Paris College of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.imep.pro/en/about. “About.” Immanuel Wilkins (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. http://www.immanuelwilkins.com/about. “About.” Troy Roberts (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://troyroberts.com/about-2. Astrid. “How to Become Intermittent du Spectacle?.” KissKissBankBank (blog). KissKissBankBank, June 10, 2021, https://blog.kisskissbankbank.com/actualites/devenir-intermittent-spectacle. “Bachelor of Music -- Course Structure W76.” WAAPA, Edith Cowan University. May 2021. https://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/930050/Music-W76-Course-Structure.pdf. Beckman, Gary. “Career Development for Music Students: Towards a Holistic Approach.” South Central Music Bulletin III, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 13-18. Accessed November 21, 2019. https://www.music.org/pdf/conf/reg/sc/SCMB_III_1.pdf. Beckman, Gary D. ed. Disciplining the Arts: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Education, 2011. Beeching, Angela Myles. Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. “Ben’s Biography.” Ben Wendel (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.benwendel.com/biography. Bhattacharyya, Tinku. Interview with author. Zoom, January 21, 2021. “Bio.” Tim Jago (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.timjagomusic.com/about.html.

187

“Bio and Discography.” Miguel Zenón (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://miguelzenon.com/bio-discography. “Biography.” Gerald Clayton (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. http://geraldclayton.com/about. “Center for Music Entrepreneurship.” Manhattan School of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/center-for-music-entrepreneurship. “Center for Music Entrepreneurship (CME): Coursework.” Manhattan School of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/center-for-music-entrepreneurship/coursework. Chinen, Nate. “Jazz Apprentices Still Find Their Masters.” New York Times, July 20, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/arts/music/jazz-and-its-changing-apprenticeship-systems.html. Clayton, Gerald. Interview with author. Zoom. January 27, 2021. Cohen, Emmet. Interview with author. Zoom. January 26, 2021. Coker, Jerry. The Teaching of Jazz. Rottenburg N., West Germany: Advance Music, 1989. Cole, George. “Miles’s Musician Profiles: Rick Margitza.” The Last Miles. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.thelastmiles.com/profiles_rick-margitza. “Collaboration Ends Between IMEP and American School of Modern Music.” IMEP Paris College of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.imep.pro/en/end-of-the-collaboration-between-imep-and-american-school-of-modern-music. Connor. Interview with author. Zoom, June 16, 2021. Danielle. Interview with author. Zoom, July 1, 2020. DeCarbo, Nicholas, and Joyce Jordan, eds. “Programs in Music School Rank Among the Best.” SCORE, University of Miami, School of Music. Summer 1995. https://news.miami.edu/frost/_assets/pdf/the-score/1995-score.pdf. Emmet Cohen (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://emmetcohen.com/bio. “Entrepreneurial Musicianship.” New England Conservatory of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://necmusic.edu/em. Garrett. Interview with author. Zoom, June 24, 2020.

188

“GUSO: Le guichet unique du spectacle occasionnel.” Guso (French Governmental Website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.guso.fr/information/accueil. Haden, Jeff. “The Only Definition of Success That Matters: To a Small-Business Owner, To an Employee, To Anyone, There is Only One Way to Determine Success.” Inc., February 6, 2020. https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-only-definition-of-success-that-matters.html. “Handbook: Unit information: Jazz Professional Management Skills 2 [MUS3320].” WAAPA, Edith Cowan University. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.ecu.edu.au/handbook/unit?id=MUS3320&year=2021. Herstand, Ari. How to Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician. 2nd ed. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020. Hill, Marquis. Interview with author. Zoom. January 25, 2021. Holzer, Linda. “Where the Sidewalk Ends: Helping Music Majors Connect with the Musical Community After Graduation.” American Music Teacher 52, no. 5 (April/May 2003): 26–29. https://www.mtna.org/downloads/Informed/AMT/AMT%20AOY/2003AOY.pdf. “IMEP Paris College of Music -- France.” Berklee. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.berklee.edu/global-partners/imep-paris-college-music-france. “IMEP Paris College of Music Joins the Berklee Global Partners Network.” IMEP Paris College of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.imep.pro/en/imep-paris-college-of-music-joins-the-berklee-international-network. Jago, Tim. Interview with author, Zoom, December 28, 2020. James. Interview by author. Zoom, January 6, 2021. “Jazz Performance Major.” Edith Cowan University. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.ecu.edu.au/degrees/courses/overview/unitset?id=MAAAKM. “Jazz50.” New England Conservatory of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://necmusic.edu/jazz50. Kalí. Interview with author. Zoom, January 12, 2021. Kalmanovitch, Tanya. Interview by author. Zoom, December 10, 2020. Larson, Adam. Practical Stuff for Survival: A Musician’s Guide to Freelancing. Self-Published. PDF. 2019.

189

Linda May Han Oh (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://lindamayhanoh.com/biography. Margitza, Rick. Interview with author. Email message to author. December 17, 2020. Marquis Hill (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.marquishill.com/bio-1. “MSM History: Virtual Yearbooks: 1980s.” Manhattan School of Music. https://www.msmnyc.edu/about/history/virtual-yearbooks-1980s. National Endowment for the Arts. Changing the Beat: A Study of the Worklife of Jazz Musicians, Volume 1: Executive Summary, by Joan Jeffri. NEA Research Division Report #43, 2003. National Endowment for the Arts. Changing the Beat: A Study of the Worklife of Jazz Musicians, Volume 3: Respondent-Driven Sampling, by Joan Jeffri. NEA Research Division Report #43, 2003. Nicholson, Stuart. Is Jazz Dead? Or Has It Moved to a New Address. New York: Routledge, 2005. Nicola. Interview with author. Zoom, December 28, 2020. Nytch, Jeffrey. “The Many Facets of Music Entrepreneurship Education”. Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education 2, no. 1 (2020): 32-41. https://journalaee.org/index.php/jaee/article/view/53/37. Oh, Linda May Han. Email message to author. February 24, 2021. Oh, Linda May Han. Interview with author. Zoom. February 21, 2021. Owen. Interview with author. Zoom, June 16, 2021. Owens, Ulysses, Jr. “Designing Your Career: The Missing Link in Jazz Education.” DownBeat, November 2018. Accessed November 21, 2019. http://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2018/DB1811/74-75.html. Owens, Ulysses, Jr. Interview with author. Zoom. January 29, 2021. Page, Guillermo. Interview with author. Zoom, January 11, 2021. Parenteau, Amelia. “Intermittence Du Spectacle.” The Theatre Times, November 3, 2014. https://thetheatretimes.com/intermittence-du-spectacle.

190

Passman, Donald S. All You Need to Know About the Music Business. 10th ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2019. Pimienta, Bruno. Interview with author. Zoom, January 21, 2021. Roberts, Troy. Interview with author. Zoom. December 21, 2020. Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. Mark. Interview by author. Zoom, October 16, 2020. “Student Music Guide: Where to Study Jazz 2021.” DownBeat, October 2020. https://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2020/DB20_10/single_page_view/62.html. “Studio Music and Jazz Alumni.” Frost School of Music, Studio Music and Jazz, University of Miami. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://jazz.frost.miami.edu/about/alumni/index.html. “The Australian health system.” Australian Government Department of Health. Last updated August 7, 2019. https://www.health.gov.au/about-us/the-australian-health-system. “The Professional Program: Course Schedule.” IMEP Paris College of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.imep.pro/en/introduction-imep-professional-program/pro-program-course-schedule. “The Professional Program: Faculty.” IMEP Paris College of Music. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.imep.pro/en/introduction-imep-professional-program/team-of-professors-pro-program. “The Statue of Intermittence du Spectacle.” Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.mescachets.com/intermittent-spectacle/statut-intermittent-du-spectacle. “The Top 40.” Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1992. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-29-ca-2462-story.html. Tonelli, Mark Louis. “Jazz, Serious Business: The Teaching and Learning of Entrepreneurship in College Jazz Programs and its Impact on Jazz Musicians’ Careers.” Ed.D. diss., Teachers College, Columbia University, 2015. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. Toscher, Ben. “Entrepreneurial Learning in Arts Entrepreneurship Education: A Conceptual Framework.” Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts 8, no. 1 (Winter 2019): 3-22. https://artivate.org/artivate/article/view/85/73.

191

“Ulysses Owens Jr.” Ulysses Owens Jr. (artist website). Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.usojazzy.com/about. WAAPA administrative staff member. Email message to author. October 21, 2021. Wakin, Daniel J. “The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later.” New York Times, December 12, 2004. Accessed November 21, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/arts/music/the-juilliard-effect-ten-years-later.html. Wendel, Ben. Interview with author. Zoom. February 24, 2021. Wilkins, Genevieve. Email message to author. October 13, 2021. Wilkins, Genevieve. Interview with author. Zoom. December 21, 2020. Wilkins, Immanuel. Interview with author. Zoom. February 8, 2021. Zenón, Miguel. Interview with author. Zoom. February 9, 2021.