It would be easier to tell you what Dave Kusek hasn't done in the music business than trying to list his accomplishments. Here, the co-developer of MIDI and Berkleemusic VP kindly answers my litany of broad questions and offers valuable information about music industry education and what musicians and the industry need to be doing to find success in this rapidly changing music environment.
Question: Can you tell us a little bit about Berklee online, the program and your role there?
Answer: My role is I am the vice president of Berklee Media, which is the department of the college that runs Berkleemusic.com, which is the online school. We developed the school about 10 years ago, we started working on it - we have been up and running about 8 years. I run the team in charge of developing the online school: working with the faculty to develop the classes, working with the admissions team to enroll the students. We have a technical team, marketing team, operations team - it is a vertically integrated department of Berklee focusing on online education, distance education, primarily for an adult audience rather than a typical college age audience. Most of our students are adults working in the music industry or a little bit later in life have the resources to maybe have a home studio, or have some time to be active in a band, have some time to take some online course, have the money to take some online courses or are interested in pursuing a career in music.
Would you say the students tend to be more musicians or be more skewed towards people working on the industry side of things?
It is all of the above and more. The curriculum we have - we have a lot of music production courses and programs, so that is really all about creating music, recording it, mixing it, editing it, mastering it, using the software and tech that has been created to help produce and distribute music, so that is a lot of our market - people actively creating music. We also have music business courses, so people actively pursuing, say, they want to be manager or attorney or run some sort of a music business, market their bands, run a label, run a publishing company - there's a lot of people like that.
We also teach guitar, keyboard, bass, percussion, vocals, so we have a lot of performers studying online, improving their skills, learning different instruments, learning both beginning level and advances instrument techniques, skills and chords and different styles of music and how to perform.
We also have songwriting courses, so people involved in writing for themselves or composing for film or television or composing for video games. We also have a lot of what I call core music courses - so music theory, harmony, ear training, site reading - basic core music courses for people who want to know the theory. Again, both beginning and advanced subjects there - how to write music, how to harmonize, and the theory behind music. We have courses in critical listening, so how to understand how music is put together, and when you're listening to music, what you're listening to - to both help people appreciate music more and to be better at creating it.
So you know, it's not one type of student at all. People in all aspects of the music industry are studying online, and those are people who are working in the industry full time or part time or music is a very serious hobby for them, so they may have a job, like a doctor or lawyer, and music is their passion on the nights and weekends.
In terms of a student evaluating whether to attend Berklee on campus or online, do you think the online classes - with it being a lot of people already working in the industry - do you think it is an appropriate environment for a complete beginner, or would they be better served attending on campus? For a complete novice, young person wanting to learn - is online learning a good way for them to experience what Berklee has to offer, or would those students be netter off exploring campus opportunities?
Absolutely the online platform is appropriate for that kind of person - someone who wants to learn about the music business. We have a lot of people like that in the online school. It is really an issue of, if you are interested in a four year bachelor's degree in music, and you are willing and able to come to Boston as an undergrad and you can be accepted into the college, then Berklee College itself can be the right place for you.
But many people just are not able to move to Boston or might not be able to get into the college, because there is an audition and interview process to get into the college. They might not be an 18 to 24 year old kind of just out of high school and looking to go to college student. The quality of the courses online are equivalent to what is taught on campus. We have some courses online that are not taught on campus that we have developed for our online audience, but by and large the programs are very, very similar. It just depends what you're looking for and where you are in your life.
A question my readers email a lot to me - and they ask about Berklee - is: is a four year degree necessary, or could an online class give them the background they need to be competitive in the music industry?
I don't think a single online course is going to make somebody competitive in the industry. We do offer certificate programs online. The certificate programs are designed for people to get a very well rounded education in certain areas - could be production, business, songwriting, guitar. If you were to take a certificate program, you are going to be better qualified for whatever career path you have identified. The difference is that the campus program is really a liberal arts college program. You're getting a well rounded college degree, where online you can create and choose programs that are shorter and more specific to a certain area, but you are not going to get the same experience as you would get going to college for four years.
It is hard to answer that question without knowing the specifics of an individual and what they are trying to pursue. If you don't have a college degree, I think a college degree is very important for your life. Many of the online students already have a degree from one place or another - they are just trying to sharpen their skills. It is hard to answer that question across the board for everyone.
Are there any new online classes that you are particularly excited about?
It is not necessarily about the new stuff. There are a lot of very compelling online courses available. Some are new and some of have been around for awhile. What I have found, and what we have worked on at Berklee Music, is that we have had the ability to recreate a lot of the curriculum as we have developed the online courses. In many cases, the courses delivered online are very, very fresh. The music business curriculum, we rewrote that to be very forward facing in terms of what is happening in the music industry today - how to create your own record company, publishing company, market yourself directly to fans, how to use new web based technologies - Twitter, Facebook, Nimbit, Topspin - to go direct to fans. A lot of that stuff is very, very fresh and oriented to where the industry is headed rather than the old models of labels and huge tours. Rather than the way the record industry was, it is about the way the record industry is.
The same is true in the production curriculum. We've had a chance to partner with many different companies in the industry and quite often you will take a course and get the software for free or at a reduced price, and not only do you get to learn how to do it but also the science behind it.
You talked about the classes being updated to reflect the future of music, and I know you wrote about a book the future of music (2005's The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution), - can you talk a little bit about what you see happening now and some of the changes you've seen happening? What changes do you see that you think people are not aware of or aren't embracing that you need to get on board with? For instance, let's talk in terms of traditional record labels - are there things you think labels could be embracing more that they are shying away from now?
I think one of the fundamental changes and challenges facing labels now is the idea of being able to sell recorded music in significant volumes. That business is clearly under a lot of pressure. CD sales are at half of what they were at their peak and they continue to fall. Digital sales are interesting but they are not replacing CD sales. And digital sales online are certainly starting to level off after the growth of the last few years. So I think the idea that you can record music and distribute it and make money is not necessarily going to hold true forever. That is a huge challenge to any business that defines himself as a record label.
Quite possibly there won't be any recording revenues available 10 years from now, or if they are available, they will be available in a totally different way. People will be purchasing music as part of a subscription service or a utility like your cable television or satellite radio, so that is a fundamental change in the music industry that you have to cope with. And you have to figure out a strategy for how are you going to make money in music if recorded music as an engine for you is no longer available.
If you look back in time, what we call the music industry is only about 70 or 80 years old, and it was largely driven by the radio, then vinyl recordings and cassettes and CDs. But 70 years ago, there wasn't really a music industry based around recordings. Instead, it was based around live events and concerts and parties and that's where you made money if you made money at all in music. I think in some respects we are going back to a model where recordings are not the primary source of revenue, and it is going to be more of the interaction with the audience and the experience that you create that fans can enjoy and you as a musician, you are more of an entertainer than you are of a, you know, go into a room and record some music and the record label sends you big checks - I think those days are over.
So, musicians - what do you think they should be focusing on? An up and coming musician trying to figure out which direction to go - what do you think they should be doing and what online tools should they be using?
First and foremost, you have to practice. You have to be great. You have to write incredible songs. You have to be a ridiculous performer. Your music has to be wonderful, and that is the first thing you have to focus on. If you don't have that, your chances of success are extremely low. If you do have that, your chances of success get a little bit better. But you know, if you're not great, you're probably not going to have a career as a musician.
The second thing is to have a business partner. It could be somebody in the band, but more likely than not it is a manager or a business partner you work with who helps you manage your business, helps you figure out how you're going to make money, helps get you in front of audiences and helps you promote yourself, so that if you're going to try and distribute music digitally or tour or create videos and promote all of that, you have a partner to help you so you can focus on being a great artist and a great songwriter.
If you do those two things well, you increase you chances of success significantly. Your business partner then needs to embrace the web and communication technologies we have and figure out what is the strategy that you're going to use as an artist. You know, are you a performer, primarily, or a songwriter primarily or a producer - what is your thing?
Once you establish what you are all about and what you represent and what your music is all about, then you can create goals that drive your business strategy. What does success look like for you? Where are you going to be happy? Are you going to be happy playing locally and having several thousand people aware of you and following and doing it that way, or is success to you a million dollars and touring the world and flying around in a jet and having all these fans adore you. You have to set your sites - and set them realistically - and have a business partner so you can focus on your art. If you have that, you know, you can probably have a good life and enjoy music as a job, music as a vocation, but you have to be realistic about what you're trying to do.
Assuming someone decides they are a musician or an entertainer - should they be trying to sell music at all? Should they be making it freely available as a promotional tool to promote themselves as a performer?
I don't think those are mutually exclusive choices. I think you can do both. You could use recorded music as a promotional tool. You can trade tracks for email addresses and cell phone numbers and relationships you build with your audience, but at the same time, you can also distribute music digitally using tools available from Nimbit or Topspin or ReverbNation. You don't have to be iTunes, although a lot of people want to be on iTunes or Amazon or Rhapsody or some of the more high profile services in parts of the world.
So, I don't think it is one or the other, but I think if you are willing to give some music away in order to build an audience or fan base, I think that is great, and it is almost expected these days. It doesn't mean you won't be able to sell any music, but if you can sell it digitally direct or you can sell recorded music at shows on CD or some other media, and you can keep most of that money yourself rather than giving it to Apple or giving it a label, that can be one of your sources of income. And then if you can write songs and get some publishing income coming in and you can tour and get some performing income coming in, you can build a nice musical life for yourself.
A lot of people do other things as well. You play on other people's recordings, or you tour with different folks so you expand your audience, you create videos, you create music for videos, you create music for television, you create music all the cable programs and interactive games and online media. You can teach music, you can get involved in other art forms. A lot of people are trying to combine digital art and music and dance and music.
It is back to what I said before. What are you all about? What is your art about? What are you trying to say? Who are you trying to reach? How are you going to do that? How will you be unique? How are you going to compete against everyone else and their brother who wants to get that brass ring and be a rock star or a rapper or whatever? How are you going to be different and why are people going to even care about you? If you figure that stuff out, you have a bigger shot of pulling it off and being successful
