Do I need a degree for a studio job?

[Kal]

Do I need audio school to get a job in a studio? Which school would be most impressive to a studio owner?

[TheDude]

Do I need audio school to get a job in a studio? Which school would be most impressive to a studio owner?

I have never known any recording studio owner to care about a particular education. They usually focus the applicant's personality and on the skills the person has, and their ability to LEARN…. without too much concern of where they got them.

Schools can provide a lot of information about technical things, but coming up through internships can give a better background in professionalism and customer service. I guess it depends on what the studio needs. But I can not ever really imagine any regular music studio turning away an extremely well qualified candidate because they did not have a particular degree.

[Peter Montessi]

Hi Kal,

No, you do not NEED a degree but it won't hurt either.

I think most Studio owners would like to see experience with other studios. It is a catch 22 I understand that.

But you have to look over all the avenues that are open to you.
The cost of schooling v getting an internship at a working studio. What you would be getting by doing an intern is REAL World experiences and schools just don't supply all that.
Economics plays a major part of learning as well and this is something that the Recording schools do not supply.

So you have to look at all the Pros and Cons and what works best for you.

Best of luck to you,
Peter

[Seeker of Song]

Since I have a personal home recording studio I cannot speak with any expertise as an employer or employee of a studio . But FWIW I have attended a certified Pro Tools course and I feel that it definitely fast tracked my knowledge and ability in at least the software aspect of recording. I have no doubt that it cut somewhere between 3 to 5 years off the learning curve, as opposed to trying to learn on my own. And if one is going to spend money to acquire an education with an end goal of becoming employable in the recording industry I would guess that at the very least, knowledge of Pro Tools as a starting point would be an asset. So if I were going to go to a full blown audio school, I would want to make sure that they taught Pro Tools as part of the curriculum. IMO.

[darrin_h2000]

I have attended classes at a local college and learned less about recording than I had in a few days time as an intern...you just learn more about the fire when you are thrown into it, than when you read about it in a book.

[Daedalus77]

I think the question might be considered from a different angle: Can you afford to go to a recording school?

By this, I don't simply mean to suggest the financial implications.

Ask yourself the following:

Will the industry provide you sufficient job opportunities and job security upon your graduation that you can pay back your student loans?

Will a recording school education provide you all of the skills required in a rapidly-changing (some would argue self-destructing) industry?

Will your skills be valued by a range of potential (and ever-decreasing number of) employers—in traditional engineering contexts, post-production opportunities, the broadcast arena (also shrinking), video-game sound, and so forth?

Will you possess additional skills (in electrical engineering, music performance and theory, arranging) following your degree, as these "ancillary" skills are at least as valuable for a career in contemporary production as more commonly sought (if "traditional" skills such as running a console, knowing how to record and mix, and knowing how to operate several DAWs competently?

What, exactly, do you hope to do with your "degree"? Are you flexible enough to envision yourself in any number of less-than-glamorous audio positions, or are you wedded to the notion that you will record bands for a living?

I'm not trying to be cynical or pessimistic, but as a someone who makes his living as both an educator and as an audio professional, I am continually distressed by the fraud committed by a number of recording schools on young music industry hopefuls.

From my perspective, the realities to consider are as follows:

• The music industry, if we can still consider it as a monolithic entity and not an increasingly-fragmented assortment of professions, is in flux—to put it as benignly as possible.

• In this environment, there are arguably fewer and fewer "professional" positions available in music production every day. The reasons behind this shift are myriad and obvious and have to do with the internet, MySpace, the rise of "home" and "project" studios over the past 15 years, the ubiquity of relatively inexpensive DAW set-ups, the pervasive notion that anyone with a PT rig in his bedroom can make a platinum-selling recording, the destabilization of the traditional "major" labels, the lack of money to nurture new artists within the industry, the fact that there's a much smaller pool of money to be made in the industry than in previous eras, and so on. And on.

• Most recording schools are for-profit "institutions" who turn out far more candidates every year than the industry, in its current state, can sustain.

• Most recording schools will provide you a limited skill set that prepares you to do a limited range of tasks and will provide you little in the way of a broader "education" of the sort that a more traditional university or liberal-arts degree would provide.

• Most interns at the few remaining "major" facilities pay for the opportunity to work at these studios. That, in fact, is how many of these studios stay in the black when sessions wane.

• Most audio professionals don't value the "degrees" offered by recording schools (some even regard such qualifications as detrimental) and instead expect candidates to proceed through their own training programs, regardless of prior experience or education.

My advice: If you want to "work" in this industry, you should have another "career" to support you, allow you to learn independently, stay out of recording-school debt, buy gear, make contacts, and see what kind of foothold you can muster.

My advice is that you go to a traditional college or university and get the broad education (not merely inculcation of "skills") that happens in such an environment. Major in music and electrical engineering. Or music and economics. That will put you in good stead for both the aesthetic and technical aspects of the production industry and give you a sizable leg-up on your peers who can claim only that they know how to mic a drum set and have memorized all of the ProTools key commands.

I realize the route I outline is expensive (though arguably not much more so than one of the big "recording schools"), but it offers knowledge and career flexibility far surpassing what you'd get at one of those places. It will also give you the real qualities audio professionals consider in candidates beyond discrete skills: Critical thinking skills, affability, interest in life and the world beyond the small circle of audio geekdom, interpersonal and leadership skills, and so forth.

Sorry for the lengthy diatribe. But I really hate it when Full Sail dupes yet another adolescent into plopping down tens of thousands of dollars to entertain the fantasy that he or she is going to be the next Michael Brauer, Chris Lord-Alge (or Ronan Chris Murphy) by dint of some certificate.

Best of luck to all.

[schemaman]

While it would be great to get immersed in a full-time music environment from the beginning that pays enough to live on (and some people can do that) I think for a lot of people, getting a traditional college degree while staying close to music and/or music tech is a reasonable way to go. I say this for all the reasons Daedalus77 cited, especially that the industry seems increasingly fragmented with less "professional" gigs out there. It seems one way to make it going forward is to create/get into communities that evolve many small to mid-sized revenue streams over looking for the monolithic gig that can pay for everything. So, doing the standard college thing can help you get a job that pays for your music habit while exposing you to new ideas/communities in the educational setting - formal classroom as well as the fun stuff that happens off campus. The communities also get exposed to you, which can matter later. Plus, you never know who you might meet once you get a day job. I work for a big company and wound up playing a few gigs and recording a CD with a guy I met when I changed divisions. I could never have predicted that would happen, but it worked well.

Here is another example of unexpected ways to monetize the brand that is you: http://mikeking.berkleemusicblogs.co...using-twitter/. Who could have predicted that? There is no telling how many ways you can make money as your community (whatever it happens to be) grows.

Anyhow, given all the advances in technology and the increased access to distribution channels, I'd suggest you consider the regular college route but also look for ways to sharpen your skills and meet people in small regular doses, such as seminars, clinics, etc.. The Home Recording Boot Camp is a great example of what I mean. It's concentrated so you can sharpen your skills in an immediately useful way, get exposed to new topics, meet people and become part of a great little community at a reasonable price and without making a huge life commitment.

I know there is no single approach that is guaranteed to work for everybody, but I hope this helps give you some food for thought.

[theunkown]

its all about who you know, but you should consider the fact that most major studios are closing down due to the rise of home studios. The big studios used to hire entry level positions such as what they call "Runners" but they just use interns and most of them dont get hired on.