undergradly.
Major · Visual & Performing Arts

The business side of the music industry, from contracts to tours

Music Management trains you to run the operations behind artists, labels, venues, and tours — contracts, marketing, royalties, and live event logistics. About 1,476 degrees are awarded each year across 130 colleges, with five-year median earnings of $48,218 placing graduates in the modest tier of business-adjacent majors.

Schools offering
130
Annual completions
1,476
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$48k

About this major

Music Management prepares you to run the organizations and operations that move music to audiences — labels, agencies, venues, festivals, recording studios, publishing companies, and individual artist careers. The CIP definition spans business and financial management, marketing and fundraising, personnel and labor relations, event promotion, music products merchandising, artist agency, and music law. Coursework reflects that range: a typical semester might pair a finance class with music industry contracts, a marketing seminar with a practicum at a campus venue or local label.

The major fits students who care about music but recognize that the industry employs far more managers, marketers, and operators than performers. Comfort with spreadsheets, contracts, and ambiguous deadlines matters as much as taste in artists. Programs reward students who run something tangible during college — a campus concert series, a small label, a touring band’s logistics — because the industry hires off track records as much as transcripts.

On scale, 1,476 degrees are awarded each year across 130 colleges, concentrated in Nashville (Belmont, MTSU) and Boston (Berklee), with notable presence in Los Angeles (USC) and Florida (Full Sail). Five-year median earnings sit at $48,218 — modestly above the broader arts-major average but well below business-school benchmarks. The packet lists music directors and composers at $63,670 with -0.3% projected growth, and postsecondary art, drama, and music teaching at $80,190 (master’s required), though most graduates land in label, agency, touring, or venue roles that do not map cleanly to a single BLS occupation.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary $80k +1.7% Master's degree
Music directors and composers $64k -0.3% Bachelor's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$48k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$36k

Bachelor's

$49k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you already organize things in your music life — booking shows for friends’ bands, running a campus radio program, managing a small label or playlist — and want a curriculum that systematizes that work. The major rewards students who can hold a contract and a creative conversation in the same week, who tolerate the irregular hours of live events, who want to plant themselves in Nashville or Boston where Belmont (261 grads) and Berklee (186 grads) have built dense industry pipelines, and who treat the $48,218 five-year median earnings as a starting marker rather than a ceiling.

Think twice if your real interest is making music rather than moving it — Music Performance (3,958 completions) or Music Technology (1,542) are closer fits, and a Music Management degree spent wishing you were in the studio is a costly detour. Reconsider if you cannot relocate, since the top programs and most paid work concentrate in three or four cities. The teaching path the packet lists at $80,190 requires a master’s, and the named bachelor’s-accessible occupation, music directors and composers, shows -0.3% projected growth — useful signals if you are hoping the degree alone will deliver a steady, named career on the other side.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Music Management

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Belmont University Nashville, TN 0 261 261
Berklee College of Music Boston, MA 0 186 186
Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, TN 0 136 136
Full Sail University Winter Park, FL 11 100 111
University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 0 72 72
SUNY Oneonta Oneonta, NY 0 59 59
Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 0 48 48
Columbia College Chicago Chicago, IL 0 39 39
Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 0 33 33
Austin Community College District Austin, TX 31 0 31
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Music Performance, General

3,958 completions/yr

Music Technology

1,542 completions/yr

Musical Theatre

1,121 completions/yr

Music, Other

861 completions/yr

Music Theory and Composition

847 completions/yr

Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management, General

610 completions/yr

Fine and Studio Arts Management

473 completions/yr

Voice and Opera

283 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Music Management majors actually study day-to-day?
Coursework blends business fundamentals — finance, marketing, personnel management, labor relations — with industry-specific topics like music law, royalty accounting, artist agency, event promotion, and music products merchandising. Many programs include practicums at recording studios, festivals, or campus venues, since the work is operational and contact-driven. Expect contract reading, budget spreadsheets, and live-event logistics rather than music theory or performance, though most curricula require enough musicianship to communicate credibly with artists.
Do I need a bachelor’s, or is an associate’s enough for Music Management?
The earnings split favors the bachelor’s. Associate’s completers report median five-year earnings of $35,960; bachelor’s completers report $49,073 — a gap of about $13,100. The wider issue is access: most label, agency, and major-venue roles screen for four-year credentials and internship records, both of which a bachelor’s program tends to structure into the schedule. An associate’s can route into venue operations or local promotion work, but advancement usually means finishing the four-year track later.
What kinds of jobs do Music Management graduates end up in?
The packet lists music directors and composers at $63,670 median with -0.3% projected growth, and postsecondary art, drama, and music teaching at $80,190 — though that teaching path typically requires a master’s. In practice, graduates more often start in artist management assistantships, label coordinator roles, booking and touring logistics, publishing administration, festival production, or venue operations. These titles do not always show up cleanly in BLS occupation tables, which is part of why the earnings figure sits in the high-$40Ks rather than higher.
How competitive is the job market for this major?
Selective rather than scarce. The industry has a clear pipeline — internships at labels, agencies, and management firms during school, then assistant roles after — but those pipelines concentrate in a small number of cities. Music directors and composers show -0.3% projected growth, signaling a flat market for the named occupation, while the broader industry hires steadily into operational and marketing roles that are not separately tracked. Students who relocate to Nashville, Los Angeles, or New York and run real internships during college reach the strongest starting positions.
Where are the strongest Music Management programs concentrated?
Geography tracks the industry. Belmont University in Nashville produces the largest cohort at 261 graduates a year, followed by Berklee College of Music in Boston at 186 and Middle Tennessee State at 136 — the Nashville-Boston axis dominates. Full Sail University in Florida (111) is a for-profit program worth researching carefully on cost and outcomes. USC in Los Angeles (72), SUNY Oneonta (59), Drexel (48), and Columbia College Chicago (39) round out the top tier. Proximity to a working music city often matters more than program prestige for internship access.
What if I want to work in the music industry but not on the management side?
The related-major data offers narrower routes. Music Performance, General (3,958 completions) suits students focused on playing; Music Technology (1,542) leads toward studio engineering and production; Music Theory and Composition (847) routes into writing and arranging. Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management, General (610) widens the lens beyond music to film, theatre, and media organizations. Each of these keeps you in the industry while shifting the daily work away from contracts and operations.