There is always a debate on whether
or not people should go to college and get a degree in any field related to
music or the music industry. While people are very opinionated, there is no
definite answer that someone can be given. In the case of an audio engineer, no
degree is needed to get a job. In the present day, home studios are becoming
more and more common, allowing people to become their own sound technician and
record and produce their own music. The availability for a sound engineer can
be very high while many of them did not study audio production in school, and
some did not even go to college. This leaves us with the question of whether or
not a degree is needed at all.
People are
able to enter this field without a degree because it is more focused on
experience as well as connections that people have. The so called “old
fashioned” way of doing things would be to bed and plead with an audio engineer
or producer until they provided you with an unpaid internship that could be
completely unrelated to anything involving music. The purpose of this was to
form relationships with people of higher positions, you would be able to learn
from watching, but also as time goes on you would be allowed to help and take
part in the production. This would lead to you getting a full time job as an
audio engineer even though it took long hours of grueling work. There are times
when this truly pays off, but also can leave people poor and without a job
because they are just getting by while trying to find a job.
In the
situation of someone with a degree, going to college provides a student with
all of the experience and connections needed and desired in the music industry.
This education can benefit an audio engineer because they are put in real life,
professional situations and are allowed to learn how to work. Students are
given resources and technology needed in order to learn how to use them for
once they leave college and enter into working as a full time sound engineer.
The downfall is that even with a degree, people have to many times start at the
bottom. There are still unpaid internships, but the experience and connections
made during time at a university can be vital in helping a career to be secured
after time spent working one’s way up. Many people suggest that if you do not
have money to spend on college and will come out with debt, take the route of
going straight into the work force and working your way up. I personally prefer
the route of going to a college to study because I see the benefits of having a
college that will provide its students with sufficient, up to date education
that is hard to learn on your own. Also, if someone comes to the point and is
not able to get a job, they are at least educated and can still get a different
job thanks to the basic education provided by the college that people without
this education wouldn’t have.
No matter
which path someone takes, a person is not guaranteed a job as a full time,
professional audio technician working in a studio making money. While this may
be the dream and people may work hard, sometimes they are just not able to. A
career is more than a degree and more than taking the steps that are considered
to be correct. These people have to be creative, love music, and be determined.
The industry needs people that will work and that will always be learning and
be engaged with the work before them. There is a love for music and a love to
interact with people that are necessary that cannot be taught or experienced
over time.
So much
plays into whether or not someone will be successful. Success in this career
might be considered whether you are making $50,000 and up a year, working with
famous bands at the time, or even just being able to produce music that a
person believes in. With music there are no boundaries and no rules that have
to be followed. This creates an unsteady job market for people allowing some to
become rich and have a set career and forcing some to be poor and move on from
this dream in order to just make money to survive.
