The School of Music (SoM) has been offering the Bachelor of Music in Music Business degree since 2011, aiming to provide a balanced pathway for Music Performance majors to develop their artistic skills and entrepreneurial expertise. This combination prepared students to thrive as both artists and business innovators. Recently, SoM saw an opportunity to raise the academic bar of this program and reach more students by revamping the program into the Bachelor of Arts in Music Business and Recording Arts. 

This kind of music degree offering is unique in the state of Colorado because it is an open enrollment program, meaning that no audition is required for acceptance. The former B.M. degree required an audition on a primary instrument or voice. The new program invites students with varied interests and backgrounds, making it accessible for them to study music and excel in a competitive job market when they graduate.

Not only does the updated program make a music degree more available to more students, but it also expands the curriculum by shifting the required proportions of academic music content, performance experience, business coursework and recording arts classes. The result is a well-rounded music degree that is practical and customizable for students who want to develop a diverse skillset for wherever they want to go in the music industry.

The reimagined degree allows students to specialize in music business and arts entrepreneurship, recording arts or a combination of the two disciplines. In addition to academic coursework in their discipline(s), electives, and liberal arts classes, students can participate in a variety of ensembles and receive lessons on one or more instruments. 

Students also have access to five recording studios, including the main Pro Tools HDX-based recording studio, a professional space with top-of-the-line equipment and software. Four other project studios serve as pre/post-production facilities equipped with Apple Mac Pros and other hardware as well as the latest music software, sample libraries and plug-ins. Students can even earn Pro Tools 100- and 200-level certifications. UNC is one of only five institutions in Colorado certified to teach Avid’s Pro Tools courses.

The development of the Bachelor of Arts in Music Business and Recording Arts reflects SoM’s aspiration to be a leader in music pedagogy and to shape the musical culture of the state and beyond. This redesign was a collaborative effort by Sarah Off, associate professor of Violin and Music Business and director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship; Socrates Garcia, professor of Music and director of Music Technology; and Dana Landry, professor of Music and director of Jazz Studies, that involved extensive market research and innovative course development.