Hi Alisdair
Thanks for posting this, it is interesting!!! What is amazing
to me is that some of the mainstream media is now picking up on
this. Comments below.
The Guardian (UK) points out the recently release Berklee's salary survey:
"the study's salary figures for musicians appear optimistic to me.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Berklee College of
Music is reliant on thousands of students enrolling in its music
programmes. The reality facing the majority of its students – and
the thousands of music students at colleges and universities across
the UK – when they graduate isn't quite as rosy. Once past the
first hurdle of actually getting a job, they may find that club
gigs often pay nothing at all. Some promoters even demand that you
pay to play.
Me thinks, the Berklee salary survey was an obvious marketing stunt
to parents and those thinking of attending Berklee to persuade them that spending $$$ on Berklee would result in a viable financially rewarding music career. I think it is totally unrealistic.
It will be interesting to see how music colleges make out in the
coming years. I suspect we will see them down-sizing their
on-site classes, putting more short-term and summer programs
in their catalog and up-sizing more and more online courses so
they pump up the students and their income.
Furthermore, according to a study recently conducted by the
UK-based Word Magazine, a majority of charting British pop and rock
artists were educated in private, tuition-based schools. The
magazine found that 60 percent hailed from schools requiring annual
tuition, academic admissions, connections, or all of the above.
Yet overall, just 10 percent of the general population enjoys such
privilege. Even crazier, just one percent of charting British
artists claimed the same pedigree in 1990.
It does not surprise me at all. Lady GaGa, also went to a private
school on Manhattan's Upper East Side before attending NYU.
"Lady Gaga's uncomfortable childhood included parents whom Vanity Fair describes as "middle class," who raised their family on Manhattan's Upper West Side—where a modest, two-bedroom apartment typically costs $1 million or more. Her parents sent Gaga and her sister to an elite private school where tuition is currently $35,000 per year."
I do think this does have a bearing on being a musician today.
Mark
