# Masters in Music Production



## ZoltKo (Sep 15, 2022)

Hi!

I would like to get a masters in music production, I have two questions, maybe you can help me, thank you!

Has the ONLINE Berklee masters in music production a good reputation?

Do you know of other ONLINE masters in music production with a good reputation?

Thank you very much for your help!

ZoltKo


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## Bisty (Sep 18, 2022)

ZoltKo said:


> Hi!
> 
> I would like to get a masters in music production, I have two questions, maybe you can help me, thank you!
> 
> ...


Don't know about the Berklee program specifically, but getting a master's in music production won't guarantee you a job afterward. Just something to consider.


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## jblongz (Sep 19, 2022)

Most successful music producers don’t even have a college degree. If you want to be a music teacher, perhaps the Berklee Would work. If you want to be a music producer, spend that money on incorporation and equipment. Then create a ton of quality music.


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## proggermusic (Sep 19, 2022)

Good responses. I would strongly recommend against pursuing a master's degree in music production if it's going to incur any kind of debt whatsoever. That debt will probably be more of a burden than the degree will be a benefit. 

If I were OP, I'd seriously think about what I really want to pursue as a career in music: performer? Composer? Arranger? Songwriter? Recording/mixing/live sound engineer? And then potentially enroll in a program that will help with one of those pathways. 

I teach for a very cool community college music production program which is affordable while retaining a shockingly high level of quality (Austin Community College absolutely rules). I teach piano and composition/arranging, and most of my students are on track to becoming live sound engineers since there's plenty of demand for that job in Austin. While learning the fundamentals of audio engineering with the AE profs, and fundamentals of music itself with profs like me, they develop solid skills as studio producers, as well, and by the time they finish the program they already have a portfolio of work to use on the job hunt. 

I would recommend something like a community college audio engineering track over Berklee online any day. The Berklee community can be great for building a network that can serve your career, for sure... but only, I would wager, if you're there in person. In this business, your proven skills and your community of real human beings who trust you will matter infinitely more than any degree, unless you're specifically pursuing academia.


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## ZoltKo (Sep 19, 2022)

proggermusic said:


> Good responses. I would strongly recommend against pursuing a master's degree in music production if it's going to incur any kind of debt whatsoever. That debt will probably be more of a burden than the degree will be a benefit.
> 
> If I were OP, I'd seriously think about what I really want to pursue as a career in music: performer? Composer? Arranger? Songwriter? Recording/mixing/live sound engineer? And then potentially enroll in a program that will help with one of those pathways.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your advice, how would you define a good portfolio? I have been trying to find a job as an intern in music production or film scoring but I have failed so far...


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## jblongz (Sep 19, 2022)

ZoltKo said:


> Thank you for your advice, how would you define a good portfolio? I have been trying to find a job as an intern in music production or film scoring but I have failed so far...


There are soooo many producers and composers these days that you will have to take an internship doing something complete different in the same industry. 

I started out as a studio tech, doing brutally repetitive installations and troubleshooting. I’m now reminded of Hans Zimmer’s humbling master class where he describes his internship as taking out the trash and making coffee for a while before being accidentally noticed.

Unless you have a personal connection, your work has to stand out beyond the growing competition, and you have to be in the right place at the right time to skip the afformentioned steps right into a “composer internship”. People tent to put auxiliary family first these days for such positions.

In reality, you may have to get a regular job and compose passionately on your free time until your work is worth marketing. You can do it, but the journey almost always very testing to say the least. Persevere.


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## proggermusic (Sep 19, 2022)

Yes indeed, @jblongz  speaks the truth!

I would consider a good portfolio to be at least an album's worth of finished tracks of your own creation along with a resume of any other professional credits you might have. I know, it sounds like a Catch-22: how are you supposed to get professional credits if you need to already have professional credits in order to get them?!? And therein lies one of the biggest challenges of breaking into any creative field. Hence the need to get in from as many different angles as possible: intern, janitor, friends, friends of friends, as a session musician, as an IT guy, whatever. In the meantime, writing and completing as many full, well-done pieces of music as possible on your own will be valuable.

Don't get me wrong, a school music program can definitely help with laying the foundation of a professional network, particularly one of the large and/or well-regarded programs. (In the United States, that might be the likes of the University of Miami, University of Indiana, Berklee, New York University, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, or my alma mater, the University of North Texas, among others.) But the reason those professional networks work is because of actual in-person face time with talented professors and peers. I highly doubt an online program will be able to replicate that.


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## José Herring (Sep 19, 2022)

If I had to do my music education all over again, I would major in music production because that's basically all I've done after graduating. 
But, there's nothing in music production that you can't do yourself. The only reason to go to school for it is to have access to musicians, recording facilities ect... but you could just create all that for yourself if you wanted to invest in your own studio rather than pay for tuition. At the end of the day, nobody looks at what music school you went to.


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## KEM (Sep 19, 2022)

José Herring said:


> If I had to do my music education all over again, I would major in music production because that's basically all I've done after graduating.
> But, there's nothing in music production that you can't do yourself. The only reason to go to school for it is to have access to musicians, recording facilities ect... but you could just create all that for yourself if you wanted to invest in your own studio rather than pay for tuition. At the end of the day, nobody looks at what music school you went to.



Ludwig said the only reason he went to USC was to meet filmmakers at the school, the education didn’t even mean much to him. Hans has famously said he’d been kicked out of many schools and obviously never ended up graduating from one. I often beat myself up for not going to school like a “real composer” but so far nobody has ever said my music sucks because I didn’t get a degree in music, so I’d say it doesn’t matter at all, and in fact is just a huge waste of money if you live in the US


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## ZoltKo (Sep 20, 2022)

Thank you to All for your feedback, it has been very useful!


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## doramiller (Oct 18, 2022)

I would personally attend such degree program offline. Online it is quite difficult to perceive all the information correctly.


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