Launching Your Music Career (Coursera)

Launching Your Music Career (Coursera)

After you've acquired the various tools and strategies to build your music career, it's time to put those skills to work! In this course, you will acquire the skills to manage a variety of professional endeavors including self-management, freelance performing, and launching a private lesson studio. Perfect for the young professional or a seasoned pro looking to diversify their portfolio career.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

What You Will Learn

  • Articulate your Unique Selling Proposition.
  • Use the Business Model Canvas to determine the core functions required to effectively manage your portfolio career.
  • Complete a comprehensive growth and recruitment plan for your teaching studio and identify the competitive landscape.
  • Seek out and book performance opportunities in a variety of settings.

Course 4 of 4 in the Musician’s Professional Toolbox: Your Portfolio Career Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Be Your Own Manager
In this module, you will learn the essential elements in a typical portfolio career, helpful mindsets for self-management, and how to manage the various components of the business that is You.

WEEK 2
Freelance Performance
In this module, you will learn how to land gigs, work with booking agents and venues, and create a steady and stable income stream from freelance performance.

WEEK 3
Setting Up Your Teaching Studio
In this module, you will learn key questions you should answer before launching a teaching studio, including identifying your target market, understanding the competitive climate, and determining your “Unique Selling Proposition.”

WEEK 4
Growing Your Teaching Studio
In this module, you will learn how to expand your studio and create community among your cohort of students.

WEEK 5
Honors Lessons: Launch a Website; Open a Studio (optional)
In this module you will complete this specialization by either publishing a professional-grade website or completing a comprehensive growth and recruitment plan for your teaching studio.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Land Your Next Role (Coursera) Coursera
Aptly

Land Your Next Role (Coursera)

Land Your Next Role will help job seekers find, prepare for, and land that next job. With practical guidance on how to showcase your skills, how to write a resume and cover letter, how to find job listings, how to decipher job descriptions, how to network, how to prepare for an interview, what to expect in an offer letter, and more, Land Your Next Role will be a valuable tools for those asking, “What’s next?”

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Guitar for Beginners (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music

Guitar for Beginners (Coursera)

Grasp the essentials needed to begin playing acoustic or electric guitar. You'll learn an easy approach to get you playing quickly, through a combination of exploring the instrument, performance technique, and basic music theory. For students who have long thought about picking up the acoustic or electric guitar, this course will provide an easy-access foundation that will get you playing.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics (Coursera)

In this course students learn the basic concepts of acoustics and electronics and how they can applied to understand musical sound and make music with electronic instruments. Topics include: sound waves, musical sound, basic electronics, and applications of these basic principles in amplifiers and speaker design.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
History of Rock, Part Two (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

History of Rock, Part Two (Coursera)

This course, part 2 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. This course covers the music of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Carole King, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Metallica, Run-DMC, and Nirvana, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera) Coursera
The Museum of Modern Art

In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera)

Want to know how some of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists made abstract paintings? This course offers an in-depth, hands-on look at the materials, techniques, and thinking of seven New York School artists, including Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. Through studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs, you’ll form a deeper understanding of what a studio practice means and how ideas develop from close looking, and you’ll gain a sensitivity to the physical qualities of paint.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Richard Schechner's Introduction to Performance Studies (Coursera) Coursera
New York University

Richard Schechner's Introduction to Performance Studies (Coursera)

Performance Studies: An Introduction explores the wide world of performance--from theatre, dance, and music to ritual, play, political campaigns, social media, and the performances of everyday life. Performance studies also ranges across cultures--Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas. And it spans historical periods from the art of the paleolithic caves to YouTube and the avantgarde. This course is devised by Richard Schechner, one of the pioneers of performance studies, in dialogue with more than a dozen expert scholars and artists.

Nov 23rd 2026
13-24 Weeks
Introducción a la guitarra (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music

Introducción a la guitarra (Coursera)

Aprende los elementos esenciales necesarios para empezar a tocar la guitarra acústica o eléctrica. Aprenderás un enfoque fácil que te hará tocar rápidamente a través de una combinación de la exploración del instrumento, la técnica de ejecución y la teoría básica de la música.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Desarrollando tu musicalidad (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music,Inter-American Development Bank - IDB

Desarrollando tu musicalidad (Coursera)

Aprende los conceptos básicos y enfoques necesarios para entender, crear e interpretar música contemporánea. Esta obra fue financiada con una donación del Banco Inter-Americano de Desarrollo con recursos del Fondo Coreano para la Reducción de la Pobreza. Las opiniones expresadas en esta obra son exclusivamente de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan el punto de vista del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, de su Directorio Ejecutivo ni de los países que representa.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Fundamentals of Music Theory (Coursera) Coursera
University of Edinburgh

Fundamentals of Music Theory (Coursera)

This course will introduce students to the theory of music, providing them with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. It will cover material such as pitEli Appleby-Donaldches and scales, intervals, clefs, rhythm, form, meter, phrases and cadences, and basic harmony.

Nov 23rd 2026
5-12 Weeks