One of the world’s premier music publications, Billboard magazine, recently recognized Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business as one of the “2020 Top Music Business Schools” in the country.
The publication’s annual review of the top music and entertainment business schools highlighted 28 institutions around the country that can help students earn a dream career in the music business. The authors particularly noted how the recent COVID-19 health crisis has demonstrated the advantages a liberal arts education, like what Belmont provides, can aid aspiring music business leaders in their long-term goals. “While online, skills-focused music education programs have proliferated during the pandemic, for this report Billboard chose programs that are primarily campus-based, offering a broader, deeper education and bestowing a bachelor’s or associate’s degree. It’s worth noting that among the highest-achieving young executives in the music business, as profiled in Billboard’s 2019 ‘40 Under 40’ feature, nearly 40% said they were graduates of a liberal arts program.”
Doug Howard, dean of the Curb College, said “We celebrate being selected by Billboard to be included in their truly elite list of music business and entertainment programs. We are extremely proud of Belmont’s Curb College graduates who have become successful recording artists in numerous genres, but it is also important to recognize the many graduates who are award-winning producers, engineers, songwriters, label heads, publishing executives, talent agents, managers and entertainment attorneys. Curb College is the place to come experience industry-professional faculty in the classroom, world-class studios and technology and incredible internship opportunities, all on the path to a student’s dream career.”
The Billboard profile focused on Belmont’s new course in live-venue management and how it reflects the industry’s shift in recent years to the touring sector as a primary revenue generator. “Likewise,” authors Thom Duffy and Danica Caniel note, “a class titled Inside a Booking Agency brings in Creative Artists Agency Nashville agents with different specialties to work with students each week.” Other points of note were a new partnership struck between Belmont’s highly successful songwriting program and Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville as well as alumna Trisha Yearwood’s return to her alma mater last fall to host the 10th annual “CMA Country Christmas” show, which was filmed on campus.
About the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business
In 1971, Belmont first established a music business program designed to prepare students for operational, administrative, creative and technical careers in the music industry. The program grew in both size and reputation, leading to the advent of the full Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business in 2003. Currently home to more than 2,500 undergraduates with majors in music business, audio engineering technology, entertainment industry studies, songwriting, media studies and motion pictures, Curb College boasts an impressive faculty of academic scholars and authors, entrepreneurs, songwriters, producers, journalists, filmmakers and sound and recording engineers. The college serves as a world leader in music business and entertainment industry education and is the only freestanding college of its kind.
