<p>One distinction in the whole commercial music program phenom that I always wonder about is the curriculum – eg actually working on the musicianship vs. Taking courses about working in the industry. I can’t tell on that list whether those programs are designed for performers and train same, or whether they’re designed for non-musicians who want to work in the industry as promoters, etc.
When my son was looking, one of the key determinations he made was that he wanted to continue studying music, and found that programs called “commercial” often weren’t designed for that so much as geared to a business-marketing style set of courses specific to music. I think that’s why he gravitated toward programs at schools with known schools of music.</p>
<p>So I think that’s one consideration for folks involved in this confusing category – does said kid want and need to be developing their personal musicianship, and do both, or are they simply looking to study the business and marketing (or even engineering) aspects to apply to other musicians. That was a question we asked our son, and in his case it was a mix of own musical quest but also a desire to produce/engineer others. That answer helped us figure out which schools to be looking at.</p>
<p>The other phenom in commercial music that always occurs to me is the volume of talented contemporary/alternative artists with academic backgrounds such as english, liberal arts, etc. Like film, it could be said the best education for an artist might be a liberal arts education wherein one develops their “voice” as an artist. With film school, there is always the camp that says first you have to have something to say, so do filmmaking as a grad degree, not undergrad ;)</p>
<p>In terms of a plan b for kids interested in performing commercial music, that might make sense.</p>