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

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop (Coursera) Coursera
California Institute of the Arts

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop (Coursera)

Why just write poems when you can write better ones? This course is built on the notion that the most exciting writing begins after the first draft. It is specifically for folks who believe that writing poems just to express oneself is like using the Internet just for email. After all, poetry can change the way you and your readers think of the world and its inhabitants; it can break new ground for language; turn a blank sheet of paper into a teeming concert of voices and music.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music

Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics (Coursera)

There’s a songwriter lurking somewhere inside you, peeking around corners, wondering if it’s safe to come out. Now it is. This course is an invitation to let your inner songwriter step into the sunlight. All it takes is a simple “yes” and you’ll be climbing that windy hill, marveling at the view. If you haven’t written any or many songs, this course will show you an efficient, effective process for tailoring songs to express your ideas and emotions. If you have, you’ll look at your process differently, taking control of aspects of the process you may have not noticed.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Career Options: Exploring a New Career (Coursera) Coursera
University System of Georgia

Career Options: Exploring a New Career (Coursera)

This course is for you if you are interested in researching a new career and acquiring the skills necessary to succeed in it. You will be asked to reflect on your experiences and critically evaluate what you currently know, what you need to acquire, and how to go about getting it. You will then identify groups and individuals that can serve and support you in exploring a new career. During this course, you will identify the elements of a well-structured career plan and evaluate career options by individual fit to determine how to effectively engage your network in your career journey.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Part 2 (Coursera) Coursera
Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Part 2 (Coursera)

Welcome to Part 2 of Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas! I'm delighted to launch another set of new lectures of this course as Part 2. As before, this class is meant for people of all levels of experience with Beethoven's music (including no experience at all!). Remember that you are able to watch the lectures as many times as you like, at whatever pace is comfortable for you.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Today’s Music Industry (Coursera) Coursera
West Virginia University

Today’s Music Industry (Coursera)

This course provides an engaging and methodical insight into the past and present cultural and commercial music industry developments, directions, and trends. It will equip the students with the knowledge and skills necessary to appreciate, understand and more productively participate in today’s music industry field.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Arranging for Songwriters (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music

Arranging for Songwriters (Coursera)

You've created a song. You wrote the lyrics, decided on the melody, and maybe even recorded a simple demo. Now what? If you have a basic knowledge of how to use a digital audio workstation (DAW) and are passionate about being a songwriter, this course will help you take your song from a simple recording on your phone to a fully arranged song ready for the recording studio.

Oct 5th 2026
4 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.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas (Coursera) Coursera
Curtis Institute of Music

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas (Coursera)

Our relationship to Beethoven is a deep and paradoxical one. For many musicians, he represents a kind of holy grail: His music has an intensity, rigor, and profundity which keep us in its thrall, and it is perhaps unequalled in the interpretive, technical, and even spiritual challenges it poses to performers. At the same time, Beethoven’s music is casually familiar to millions of people who do not attend concerts or consider themselves musically inclined. Two hundred years after his death, he is everywhere in the culture, yet still represents its summit. This course takes an inside-out look at the 32 piano sonatas from the point of view of a performer.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks