Audio Engineering Degrees

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.