Marketing Singers & Musicians

I received a letter from Kristen with some great questions about universities and marketing with singers. Thought you might like to read her questions and my responses.

KRISTEN: I am curious though – why do you think universities cannot give singers “the latest marketing trends, or the marketing mindset”? 

The university sets up programs for specific reasons and the vocal program is no different. Vocal programs are there first to help singers learn theory, improve their techniques, find their faux, gain performance experience and learn the art of singing. The teachers in American universities have gained a well-deserved worldwide reputation for their skills in their teaching pedagogy. They are very exacting and demanding and produce wonderful singers.

But asking a voice teacher to help a vocal student learn to market would be like an advertising professor trying to teach a student to sing. It isn't their thing.

KRISTEN: It seems that students are shelling out thousands of dollars to receive an education to help them have a career, and marketing (as you say here) is a large part of that. Shouldn’t it be the duty of higher education to give students the tools they need to market their trade? 

YES, universities ought to provide vocal students a pathway to income. Their students are shelling out huge sums and they are too often like the atheist in the funeral parlor, all dressed up with no place to go. Because this is the arts and humanities, they can get away with this. People make up all kinds of excuses and call it philosophical differences. In other words they become quite snobbish when discussing this subject and they shouldn't be. The university and the vocal program have a fiduciary responsibility to provide a practical marketing education to their artistic students.

To be quite harsh, it borders on fraud what they're doing; to have a student leave the university with $100k in student loans with no real knowledge of how to use their voice to pay it off. Imagine the success of an accounting program that didn’t provide a practical way for their graduates to get jobs. Imagine if 10,000 graduated each year and there were less than 1,500 job available. How long with those departments last?

A number of universities have had me come and provide a half day or full day lecture on the subject and that helps. There are plenty more resources like me that they should employ, but the real answer is to provide classes similar to what little Snow College of Ephriam, Utah is doing in cooperation with Julliard of NYC. Here is an excerpt from their catalogue:

Welcome to the Horne School of Music at Snow College...This new degree is unique in the State of Utah because of its emphasis on music industry and entrepreneurship..

They teach their students how to make money with their music and make no apologies for doing it. It is a reasoned and artistic approach to providing a student with what is essential.

KRISTEN:  Furthermore, many university and conservatory teachers had lucrative performance careers themselves, so wouldn’t they know and be able to convey how the achieved that? Perhaps times have changed and the business portion of the field is different. At the very least, however, the educational system can change the idea that making money from singing is somehow “crass” by not avoiding the subject.

Most of the vocal professors I’ve met are not only personable and professional in their approaches and want the best for their students, but, they have some excellent practical knowledge to share because, as you’ve said, they’ve been out there earning money with their voice. Many still have singing jobs. I see the problem they face thusly:

1.   Their time is limited. Their first task is to teach voice and that consumes them. They can pass on some marketing along the way, but voice must come first.

2.   Teaching marketing is a skill. It requires its own lesson plan to convey the skills. Tips aren’t enough. Students need a business plan and the ability to execute it.

3.   Many of the professors were able to go the route of getting stage jobs during or soon after school and have been working in theater or opera companies ever since. Those business skills need to be passed on but they may not empathize with the student who needs to find many singing jobs before they get their break. Getting those jobs requires more marketing skills than the professor may have experienced.

Classical Singer has been doing a good job trying to “Mind the Gap” between university training and a solid, long term stage career. More of that is needed. The universities need to step forward and cooperate with the marketing departments of their schools to create a special class similar the ones Snow College created with Julliard.

Students are the clients and should demand their university provide such an education.

Thank you again for your questions. I always prefer to write a blog in response to questions.