Making The Most Of Your MBA (Music Business Adventure)

The purpose of a traditional MBA is to develop the skills required for careers in business and management. An MBA (or a Master of Business Administration) provides a graduate education in accounting, finance, marketing, and management.

So does working in the music industry.

This is great news considering that only 1% of those attempting to make a living in the creative music industry will achieve that goal. Those striving to work in the business realms of the industry fare slightly better at 4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics who fail miserably at identifying who the music industry is comprised of.

If your music related dreams don't come true, both solace and redemption can be found in the wide array of valuable skills that one inevitably becomes equipped with after a concerted, but failed attempt at "breaking into the music business". 

The same can be said of those who become disenchanted with "the business" and voluntarily leave it. The end result is the same: you will possess greater interpersonal skills, understanding of product development, branding, demographics/psychographics, accounting, personal branding, entrepreneurship, social media, and superior networking and marketing skills than someone in possession of a traditional MBA. You will have shrewd knowledge obtained through your own MBA (music business adventure).

Unlike most MBA programs, you don't have to apply for this one. Your dedication and investment in your craft, and sacrifices made over the years are the only prerequisites. You will be endowed with what you should wear as a badge of honor for undertaking, enduring, and circumventing your music business adventure - an MBA that is both born and attained through genuine passion.

Once you analyze and document all of the skills you've acquired in pursuit of your musical goals, and use the very creativity that fueled such pursuits to self-market yourself and promote your value, you will be able to do just about anything you want to do professionally.

My MBA is the greatest educational undertaking of my life, and has yielded innumerable and unforeseen dividends in my every business endeavor. Yours can too when you apply or redeploy the skills obtained from it.

Below, renowned entertainment attorney, Heather Nelson, speaks on making the most of your MBA.