Mike Curb School of Music Business,
Belmont University

At a Glance
Name: Mike Curb School of Music Business, Belmont University Contact: University Admissions Office Major Courses of Study: Music Business, Music Production Degree Offered: B.B.A. Accreditation: Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International Main Technology Platforms: Neve, Sony, Mackie, Otari, Pro Tools, RADAR, all digital analog tape formats, Nuendo, AKG-sponsored premium microphone cabinet Tuition: $6,520 per semester Financial Assistance: All Federal assistance, plus scholarship programs.

When Belmont University commenced its Music Business program in 1973, the school was already one of the country’s leading business and liberal arts institutions. The mainstreaming of the music industry with contemporary business and culture taking place at that time, combined with Belmont’s location at one end of Nashville’s famed Music Row, made the new program a perfect match at the perfect time. Over the ensuing three decades, Belmont’s Music Business program has expanded and evolved with the industry, as well as contributed a long list of eminent graduates who have gone on to make their own marks on the music industry.

Belmont’s Music Business curriculum comprises both business and production tracks. Structured as a four-year B.B.A. degree, both tracks are comprehensive; business courses cover areas including administration, law, copyrights, contracts and management; production courses include audio engineering, studio production, studio maintenance engineering, sound reinforcement, recording techniques and post-production techniques. Students also take general business and liberal arts courses, as well, resulting in, as the coordinator of Recording Studio Curriculum Dr. Wesley Bulla says, a graduate ready to tackle the entertainment industry’s multifaceted world.

“Belmont’s program has always emphasized a very practical, hands-on approach to teaching these courses,” he says. “But we’ve also always made sure the process of education has a firm connection to the real world. We are squarely in the center of one of the world’s leading entertainment centers, and students benefit from that every day, in the form of seminars and guest lectures given by industry leaders in business and record production. We also have tremendous access to ongoing internship programs that cover literally every aspect of the industry.”

In 1999, the School of Music Business opened what they call “Belmont West,” a satellite facility in Burbank, Calif., the heart of Southern California’s film and video post-production, broadcasting and music industries. Each year, about 30 Music Business and Production students in their senior year spend one semester attending classes and working in the bustling milieu of this entertainment Mecca, with classes taught both by Belmont faculty and by area experts.

Back in Nashville, Belmont has two main control rooms, fitted with a classic Sony 3056 console and a 5.1 surround-capable Otari Elite. Each has its own recording spaces, and each is tied into a central machine room. The studios utilize designer Russ Berger’s unique signature wall of glass between the studio and its control rooms, which promotes easy communication among musicians, recording engineers and students. In addition, the school owns renowned producer Jimmy Bowen’s personal microphone collection and offers two Pro Tools post-production and editing suites, as well as numerous classrooms and labs.

Belmont has moved forward on many fronts in recent years. Its Mike Curb School of Music Business was funded by a multimillion-dollar donation from one of the record industry’s most successful figures; in October 2001, Belmont acquired Ocean Way Nashville Studios, with three Neve rooms, an impeccable microphone collection and a rare collection of outboard gear; and most recently, Belmont is in the process of renovating the classic RCA Studio B, a former museum and site of many timeless recordings by artists such as Elvis Presley and Chet Atkins, into a working studio lab that will allow students access to the record-making process of years gone by.

“Belmont has a lot to offer,” says Bulla. “But one of the things we pride ourselves most on is that our graduates also learn to give back.”