Music Degrees Are Basically USELESS

Music degrees... worth it or a waste of time? In this video, I'm talking about the pros and cons of getting a music degree and my own experience with getting a degree in music composition

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[Uninspirational]

No college degree will teach you how to get a job, start a business or survive regardless of the type of degree earned. It's not just music degrees. I blame society for pushing too many people to go to college.

[lawinter]

This is truth! I'm almost 31 and married and don't have a degree. I would not have the production, songwriting and singing skills I have now if I had stayed in college.

[lacrisis]

I'm about to graduate with a music production degree and I feel the same. There are simply no "music producer" jobs that you can just apply to like a traditional job. Instead, you have to etch out your own career by creating multiple income streams.

[odumabekah]

Gotta say - for my first degree at MTA, I agree with most of what you’re saying. But my second degree at Humber College, they really pushed trying to make us viable in a contemporary world and I’ll always be thankful for that. I’m a music director and producer now, and make a fair amount of my living with it!

[elizabethleibel]

Heya. I went to Conservatory for Vocal performance. I ended up switching into Computer Science because I saw that half of my colleagues (Who were brilliant musicians!) ended up at Starbucks. Most people who ended up staying in music ended up going music education, where they ended up teaching in public schools. That's great if you didn't want to perform, but that pretty much relegates you to not performing for the rest of your life. I was also a Cello minor (And was a pretty accomplished cellist getting first chair in one of Chicago's Youth Orchestras). Unfortunately, orchestra seats in top orchestras only open up every few decades, and everyone is *so* good that it is unlikely you will get a spot even if you are absolutely incredible.

I have gotten more out of pursuing music with my Computer Science degree (and using programming to fund my music) than what I would've achieved with a music degree.

[basscase]

Fascinating video. I did attend a massive historic university and got a master's degree in jazz performance. There are many things you said that I agree with, but I would challenge you on 3 points. #1. Because of your degree you know a ton about music, theory, performance, and arrangement. This gives you an edge in understanding how to produce quality music. #2 Because you know so much about music, you can help produce for clients who don't know as much and struggle with their limitations. You can bring out the best in their songs because of your education. #3 I would bet some of your College friends have helped you network to get you into the music production field and point you in the right direction. Without those college friends, do you think you still would have ended up where you are today?

I do agree degrees are dinosaurs, but I believe that is something that faculty and departments will get in touch with and hopefully evolve before they go extinct. I do appreciate your boldness in bringing this up. Universities need to have courses on music business and personal accounting, along with courses in basic recording and music production. Focusing on chorales and shenkarian analysis won't help pay the bills. You are also right that the amount of college debt incurred is outrageous for people that are entering a profession with a notoriously bad reputation for not paying well.

[Matty-Ice]

I already have a music degree and this man is speaking facts. I had a total of 2 classes that I found useful for real world music business in my last 3 semesters. I've just started a company for myself and I'll be producing shows, as well as building custom speakers but NONE of what I've decided to do for myself was learned in school. Nonetheless, let it be known that a degree in anything is useful for a lot more than you might realize. Your resume with a degree isn't immediately thrown out. Need a job to secure you while you build ideas for your own business? Amazon would hire you as processing mgmt with a degree vs line worker, it pays more. Want to join military? You'll join as an officer. Stuff like that is all.

[Grassyfieldsflowers]

This is seriously true. I did a music degree with the intention of becoming a secondary music teacher or general primary teacher afterwards. I also fell for the myth that says if you don't want to teach the subject you studied, then it would be easier to get an interesting and fulfilling job just because I simply have a degree in SOMETHING. Please don't fall for this as it's just not true. I tried a good number of months music teacher training and then decided it wasn't for me. It is now extremely hard to find anything else that is a fulfilling job without having to retrain...and now past the age of 25 retraining is just not an option without throwing all your money away! Just make sure you know it's basically teacher, or pro musician that music degreea make....there really isn't anything else you can do!

[andyzzz]

Thank you for this. You don't know how much I needed to hear this. 28 year old recently became disabled due to chronic autoimmune condition. I graduated college with a bachelor's degree in psychology and have always regretted it because I wanted to study music but my family told me I would starve as a musician. Now that I'm getting a bit better with my health I have been starting to produce, improvise and sing and learn different instruments apart from 15 years piano experience I have. And I thought maybe I should go back to school for music just because I'm self taught in everything music and sometimes I feel like I don't know exactly what I want to or need to learn next. I feel like I need a structure. Even though I'm constantly learning new theory and practicing more and more songs. Started out in classical music now I'm branching out into Jazz and I love both but I used to think jazz was just random notes played crazy all the time lol. It wasn't until I studied the music theory behind it and I learned Jazz can be very complex and heavy on the theory. Now I'm just kind of floating by learning different things constantly and slowly improving. Just wish I had some kind of structured lessons to reach a more and advanced level than what I am now. I feel like I've learned so much techniques and theory that I am already a professional but just when I think I've learned all I can I find more information out there on the internet. I could literally spend hours reading about concepts of music theory and never get bored

[anthonydowning]

I agree with this 99% lol. I have a music degree but the qualification was always a byproduct. I did it for the networking aspect which fortunately lead to an incredible opportunity as a result. But for someone who is a budding entrepreneur most degrees are a waste of time and money imo. You just need an internet connection and you’re good to go 😂

[stiggystigmarnason]

Totally agree here in the uk. I used to be a commercial production engineer and did a few pieces of music for tv and radio ads. My degree was a waste of time, it didn't help me get the job. At uni I had pro tools at home but they were still teaching us in an analogue studio (this was 20 years ago) so yes they are often out of touch. It rings true now more than ever, you could learn as much with youtube and save a lot of money.

[AaliyahJay]

You may not be bitter but I most definitely am. I graduated in 2019 in the UK and 3 years years later still unable to find a decent job in the field, starting my online music school was my only option but I'm struggling with clients who are reluctant to do online classes because of the bad experience most had with other establishments during the pandemic, also the minute money gets tight, music classes are the first to get cancelled. Like yourself I am married and now have a family of my own so having to take meaningless, unfulfilling jobs to keep afloat. The UK Music scene is also almost non existent making it extremely competitive and difficult to break into and make a living from. I never thought I would say this but I wish I listened to family members that had told me to pursue IT or some other field.

[Mikejkcjla]

I am writing from Belgium. In my little country, the college fees are around 400 to 800€ per year (less then $1, 000).
You are totally right when you say that this kind of tuition isn’t appropriate to make a living in the music business. It is mainly focused to produce classical musicians for classical orchestras. In the end, you have tons of skilled musicians who never join a professional orchestra because there are few ones and the level is terribly high.
Here, they all end as music teachers, as I did myself before becoming the principal of the school where I started to work. Almost all music schools are public ones and the education is for free. So, many kids can learn music (or other arts), even poor ones. They can even rent an instrument at school and buy it several years later.
You are not totally right when you say that teachers don’t perform. They do. And those who aren’t teachers rarely perform more than the others. The reason is that the musical market here is rather small.
So, at the end, teaching music makes you stay closer to music than plumbing. Most of us prefer teaching.
But you are totally right when you say that most of what you learn in college (we say conservatoire) is useless. Certainly not to become a skilled instrumentalist, even if most of them can only play what they have learnt, and are rather bad in all styles except classical one.
In another hand, having be educated in theory and musical history is useful. But college teachers give to these topics too much importance. None of mine ones have ever showed me a composition of them which would be good enough to be played. But they were extremely severe about what we were composing.
In another hand, the good questions are: where to go to learn what is needed to become a professional musician? How to know what will be useful and what is a waste of time?
You can only know it when you’re in the business and see what is useful, and what isn’t for you.
And it can change during your career. One day, you have the opportunity to write for an orchestra and then, you should know enough about harmony and orchestration.
I think that self education may be discouraging (you are alone without any help, no counsel, no encouragement) and a waste of time as big as ending in an inappropriate music college.
What you, Americans should think of, is that around the world, there are other ways to get a good education then paying around $100, 000 and have a life time debt, like you do. I know what I am saying. My daughter made a degree in the New York Film Academy. She has got a good education for $31, 000 per year, but like all the other students, after that, she has found zero contact or opportunities to find a job. They were 200 the first year, and she ended in a 6 student class. But the money of all of them went to the school pocket.
in fact, even the teachers were dying to play and found it difficult to do so, so the students, you can imagine.
Second, like in Belgium (or France), it’s time for schools to revisit their program and make it useful for the business.
We have only one school here that the director thinks that way and make his school changing. There, they have computer classes, film music classes, pop singing classes and the teachers work in the music business.
I don’t know if these students will be better prepared to enter in the professional world, but in any way, it couldn’t be worse than what It was in my time.

[timroot]

This is completely true. I have a doctorate in music and a BA in music education. I have been able to make a living in music, but mostly not with the skills I learned in school. If you don't have other skill sets beside your music degree, you simply will not make it.

[sebastianvallejoperez]

I agree with most of what you said, but I think there is another huge reason to go to college. Studying different types of composition and really complicated music theory can open your mind to new ways of creating music. If you want to learn music business study music business. If you want to sound like every other current comercial genre of music learn from youtubers. If you don't want to spend that much money study outside the US (yes "americans", there are other countries). If you want to know everything there is to know about your instrument or composition, if you are passionate about the extremes of what music can be, of how to create actually different types of expressing yourself, and if you are open to new experiences, study in a place where that kind of curriculum is available. I get that money drives the world, and that you need more than just creativity, technique and originality to "succeed", but there are people who just want to learn because of a thirst for knowledge. Btw, I study Electroacustic composition, a 6 year exhausting degree, but I love it.

[rik-keymusic]

And the funny thing is that if you want to get into a music school you already need to be a pro in order to gat pass the tests… unfortunately some schools only allow the very very excellent people. It’s so discouraging for some people! I also believe that schools often creat a lot of frustration among students. Do they even teach psychology on such schools ? 😅

[kandr]

IMO....I guess it depends. I got my degree in Audio Production, and prior to me getting that degree, I knew absolutely ZERO....ZERO....about DAW's, music, music theory, and any, and everything about what's going on in the music/audio industry. If it wasn't for the school, I STILL wouldn't know jack sh*t about any of this stuff. My degree, and school affiliation landed me a job in a major studio. How??? the owner, and lead engineer were Alumni from my school. I can honestly say that my time, effort, and investment, to get my degree,  have paid off for me. Everybody doesn't have the same story. Some people feel they wasted their time, some people have way better success stories than me. Like I is just MY opinion, and it's based off of MY experience. I honestly don't believe I'd be where I'm at without the school I graduated from, and my degree.

[lattetown]

This is an honest critique of formal collegiate music programs. The best classes I ever took that were practical because they were taught by music professionals working on television shows in LA. You put your finger on it when you said it all boils down to your skill...can you hit a deadline? Can you meet the brief? Can you plan for the unexpected? Can you emotionally distance yourself from the work and how music makes you feel?

As you said, some education does come in handy because it gives you extra skills to tap into. I still think I've gotten more opportunities professionally because I graduated from college—I've been able to work successfully during the 2008 and COVID economic downturns...but then again, I don't have a music degree. ;)

[LogansLessons]

I got a full sail ad right before this 😂😂😂

[AudioHaze]

Nathan! Super interesting video. As somebody whose attended music school (and had an overly positive experience), I’ve had an extremely different experience than you. My first instinct was to make a reaction video to this, but I don’t think that’s something I’m super into. BUT, if you ever want to have a discussion about it I would love to :)