Music Production Technology

THE CASE

GCCC began, for the fall semester of 2008, an exciting new program to prepare students for a career in music. While our college offers, as do most institutions of higher learning, a degree program for musicians who have been "grown" through traditional local training in music within the public school curriculum, and while traditional school music programs have done a good job in identifying, stimulating and training young students for careers in music, we may make a couple of observations about this time-honored system:

School music programs deal only with "traditional" music in vocal and instrumental genres and focus upon, to a very great extent, the ensemble experience through choral and instrumental groups. This sidesteps the increasing numbers of young people who are exploring their musical interests by playing instruments like electric guitar, synthesizer, drums or other "commercial" instruments; or those who are using the increasingly advanced and accessible potential of the computer to experiment with free form musical expression.
The music business itself has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. While a vast range of business and creative forces have combined to change the intrinsic nature of the music companies, as well as the behavior of music "consumers" (what used to be known as audiences); the net result has been the evolution of a business model tied to diverse media conglomerates, short-term profits, "commoditization" of artists, global market pressures, copyright issues, technological advance and greater access by both musicians and consumers.

Accordingly, we believe our program serves a new student model. The following examples show how our program creates opportunities for students to succeed in music:

Students whose passion for music does not translate into technical skill as a performer.
Students with entrepreneurial spirits who need direction both in technical skills and business concerns to explore options in areas such as studio management, producing, artist management and other fields which they will invent for themselves.
Students who have no hope of "breaking in" to an increasingly monolithic traditional recording industry driven by diverse multifaceted corporate entities; but will, instead, find access to audiences through entrepreneurial use of technology and the internet.
Students who, after a substantial effort at building a career in music in "traditional" means (playing in clubs, writing songs for others, recording their friends with basic equipment, etc.), find that the road to success is somewhat torturous and long, not the least of all, because of issues relating to performance contracts, copyright, etc.

Our new program provides training and hands-on experience in such technical areas as acoustics, sound recording, digital editing, post-production and mastering, CD manufacturing and marketing, and sound reinforcement. In addition, students get a solid grounding in the essential (and volatile) legal areas of copyright, contracting, publishing, and basic management. Through a remarkably broad curriculum encompassing only 64 hours for an AS degree, students learn to evaluate music for its aesthetic value, record it using the latest industry-standard equipment, and produce a finished mix and master for CD publication.

Furthermore, they learn the legal issues surrounding the production, publication, marketing and distribution of musical material both in recorded and printed forms. They examine the many forms of legal contracting in today's music business including artists' contracts, recording and performance contracts, publishing and merchandising contracts and agreements, broadcast rights, royalties and the protection of intellectual property in an online world.

Students in the music production technology program learn outside the classroom as well as inside. An Advisory Board consisting of music professionals, educators and business owner/operators provide insight and guidance not only to the program, but also mentor and assist students through on-site visits to their businesses and by "shadowing" arrangements.

But the most stimulating and practical aspect of the program is the new student-run recording label, Boundless Sounds. Students, with guidance from faculty and Advisory Board members, operate a recording company and select, record, produce, market and distribute projects accepted by the student board of directors.

We believe this new program to be, in recent memory, one of the most dynamic (and publicly visible) opportunities to extend the value of GCCC to our community. -Rusty Garner

THE OPPORTUNITY

Music Production Technology students have a unique opportunity to gain something far beyond lesson plans, exams, lectures, and a collegiate experience. They are also the "owners" and managers of a new recording label.

Boundless Sounds is a fully-functioning recording label that has been established for students in the program. They run the "company" (with guidance from the faculty and advisory board) as a producing record label dedicated to the highest standards of artistic quality and recording excellence. Through participation in the label operations, they get an opportunity to perform virtually every function in today's recording industry. From A&R (artists and repertory), to studio operations, post-production, album design, publicity, marketing, distribution, and rights management, students perform all the essential steps in the journey from artistic conception to market. The label has a student board that sets policy and assigns responsibilities.

Each year, beginning in February, the label accepts proposals from artists of any genre for original recording projects that meet certain criteria:

All artists that will be involved in the project must be named in the project proposal. Changes of personnel in later stages of accepted projects must be approved by the label board. All artists must declare that they are not bound by other contractual agreements for recording or performance during the time of the projects execution.
All project proposals must result in at least 30 minutes of original musical material.
All project proposals must be accompanied by a written statement of the artistic vision of the artist or artists for the eventual project.
All project proposals must be accompanied by a demonstration recording of the artist or artists' work in digital form (CD).
The project proposals must be received no later than 5:00 PM CST on March 20, 2009.
A label screening panel will review the proposals and select 4 to 8 of the most promising projects to participate in a single public performance during April or May.
A single project from this performance will be selected no later than May 29 for production during the 2009-2010 academic year for release in April or May of 2010.
An alternate project will be selected in the event that the winning project cannot be completed for any reason.
Boundless Sounds will record and produce the project and will produce sufficient copies for marketing and distribution according to the label's business model and will provide the artist no more than 500 copies for their own use.
Boundless Sounds will retain rights of production and sales of the total project for 5 years from the date of release and will indefinitely retain the right to use selections of the project for future promotion of the label.

THE PEOPLE

Rosemarie O'Bourke (Division Chair, GCCC Visual and Performing Arts) teaches in both the Music and Theatre programs. She has Master's Degrees in both Music and Theatre from the University of Florida and St. Louis University, and did post-graduate work in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Theatre at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. She has performed and directed professionally in theatres in the North and Southeast U.S. and has been at GCCC for over 20 years.

Rusty Garner (Assistant Professor of Music and founder of the new Music Production Technology program at GCCC) has been at Gulf Coast since 1991, and has taught a wide variety of courses. He is a graduate of the University of North Texas (BM cum laude, in Orchestral Performance) and New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (MM in Music Literature). Rusty has conducted and performed in dozens of symphony orchestras, ballet and opera orchestras, as well as musical theatre orchestras in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas and Florida. Rusty is a composer with several complete theatre scores published and has recorded two albums of original Native American flute music. His first NA album, Mesa, spent over 6 months in the top 10 of the Native American music charts when it was released worldwide in 1997. Some of Rusty's music from that album was used in the award-winning documentary film, Chosen, by Iranian-Finnish film-maker Alexis Kouros. Rusty has extensive training and experience in the theatre as an actor, director and designer and is also a published writer and poet, and has worked professionally as a graphic artist.

Scott Kirkman (Adjunct Instructor) is originally from Illinois, where he earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Business from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. He attended Florida Atlantic University and completed his Master of Arts, with the emphasis being in conducting. Scott has taught music to elementary through high school students. While at Florida Atlantic University, he conducted the University Women's Ensemble as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. At GCCC, Scott teaches in the new Music Technology program, teaches private voice, and is the conductor of the GCCC Chamber Chorale and the Jazz Ensemble.

ADVISORY BOARD

Tim Dykes (music business consultant, musician)
Jason Fraioli (computer technician, musician)
David Goldflies (entrepreneur, musician, formerly with the Allman Brothers Band)
Tom Hoots (entrepreneur, Studio 812 owner, engineer, musician)
Billy Rader (Panama City Commissioner, businessman, musician)
Richard Musgrave (businessman, musician)

THE PROGRAM

The Associate of Science Degree program (MPT-AS) consists of a broad range of courses which include 18 hours of General Education courses, similar to an Associate of Arts program. In addition, students must complete 39 hours of core courses in their field. These include courses in Acoustics, Music Technology, Recording, Post-Production, Business of Music, Music Theory, Music Literature, Piano, Applied Individual Performance, and Ensemble Performance. The degree also allows for several hours of electives which may include course work in the Technology Division's Digital Media program.

The Professional Certificate program (AT-CCC) is a 15-hour course designed for the established musician who wants to gain further technical skills in music production.

THE FUTURE

Future plans for the program may include a songwriting track, a management track, and a ProTools certification program.

THE FACILITIES

The recording and lab facilities for the program are equipped with a wide variety of professional equipment, offering the students experience with state-of-the-art recording processes and industry-standard software and hardware. The recording studio is a 1500 square-foot tracking room and control booth with a professional vocal/isolation booth.

GCCC is building an Advanced Technology Building which will house another state of the art recording studio facility. Completion is expected in 2012.