Recording Industry ranked by Hollywood Reporter

MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry is once again on an international list of acclaimed music industry schools touted by The Hollywood Reporter. The list also includes Juilliard, Berklee, the Seoul Institute for the Arts and the Conservatoire de Paris.

The department – plus its music business program – is No. 17 on the magazine’s “Top 25 Music Schools 2015,” which is online at http://ow.ly/Vh8pu and in the Dec. 2 edition of The Hollywood Reporter.

The publication’s editors, who compiled the list, focus on academia’s attempt to balance “art vs. commerce” by teaching students who want to use their creativity to make a living.

“MTSU isn’t ashamed to boast about its focus on the practical side of the music industry with its major in music business in the Department of Recording Industry,” the listing reads. With faculty members hailing from every corner of the music business, students get the opportunity to hobnob with industry professionals and gain experience in working on and around major record and performance projects happening right on their doorstep in Nashville.”

The Hollywood Reporter, which regularly ranks entertainment-industry programs at universities around the world for their educational quality and student job preparedness, lauded MTSU’s recording industry program in its “Top 25 Music Schools 2014” list this time last year.

This year’s accolade specifically mentions department chair Beverly Keel and GRAMMY-nominated songwriter Odie Blackmon, the MTSU alumnus who coordinates the department’s commercial songwriting program. It once again singles out alumni Gary Overton, former Sony Music Nashville chairman and CEO, and multi-GRAMMY-winning producer Blake Chancey.

Recording industry undergrad majors in the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU can focus on audio production, commercial songwriting or music business. A Master of Fine Arts degree in recording arts and technologies prepares MTSU graduate students for advanced work in audio production, recording and integrated electronic media.

ASCAP recently held a private showcase at its offices for Nashville music publishers, showcasing COE’s Songwriting Program. Student writers Nick Carpenter, Zach Russell, Kyle Crownover and group “Maybe April” performed. Publishing companies in attendance were Sony/ATV, Warner Chapel, BMG, Sea-Gayle Music, Creative Nation and Round Hill. Pictured are (top row) Nick Carpenter, Kyle Crownover, ASCAP VP LeAnn Phalen, Zach Russell, MTSU Songwriting Concentration Coordinator Odie Blackmon; (bottom row) Maybe April’s Alaina Stacey, Kristen Castro and Katy Bishop.