Music Business Foundations (Coursera)

Music Business Foundations (Coursera)

This course has been developed to provide students with the latest instruction on the best way for creators, consumers, and facilitators to navigate the resurgence of one of the world’s most exciting industries: the music business. Three things are clear about today’s music industry: The consumption of music is expanding at the greatest rate in history and from the most portals ever imagined, the cost of producing music is decreasing, and the number of artists creating and seeking to expose their work and develop careers through the Internet has increased dramatically.

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

Whether you’re a music creator, consumer, or facilitator of this process, you’ll want to understand the history, underpinnings, and basics of the music business.
Course author John Kellogg - administrator, educator, entertainment lawyer, performer, and radio and television personality - offers students the opportunity to learn the fundamental principles of the developing new music business, for now and into the future.
What you'll learn:

  • The basic history of the music industry and today's business trends
  • How recording agreements are formulated
  • The basics of copyright law as it pertains to the music business
  • The role of agents, managers, attorneys, and specific business entities

Completing this course will count towards your learning in any of the following programs:

What You Will Learn

  • Analyze recording contract provisions
  • Assess the various rights that make up the copyright bundle of rights
  • Discuss the roles of the personal manager, business manager, road manager, agents, road crew, and attorneys
  • Examine the importance of having written agreements that outline the duties and obligations of various parties

Syllabus

WEEK 1
The Music Industry
This week, you'll learn about the history of the music industry, dating back to 1900. You'll also learn about recent technological advances have changed the music industry.

WEEK 2
Recording Agreements
This week, you'll learn the ins and outs of recording agreements and why they are important. You'll learn what royalties and advances are and how they are calculated. You'll also learn about 360 degree or "all-in" deals.

WEEK 3
Copyright Basics
This week will focus on copyright law. You'll learn about the history of copyright. You'll learn about the various types of rights and when copyright infringement occurs. You'll also learn how to register your creative works with the United States Copyright Office.

WEEK 4
Managers, Agents, and Attorneys
This week outlines the various roles in the Music Business Team - Managers, Agents, and Attorneys. You'll also learn how to negotiate a contract for each of these roles.

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

Related Courses

Introduction to Italian Opera (Coursera) Coursera
Dartmouth College

Introduction to Italian Opera (Coursera)

This course gives us an introduction to Italian Opera right from its very beginning in Florence, Italy. You will understand how Mozart’s opera is the midpoint of opera. It explores how music tells the audience about the characters' thoughts through musical gestures. It also sheds light on the importance of close listening to understand opera thoroughly.

Sep 28th 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
Electronic Music Performance Techniques (Coursera) Coursera
Berklee College of Music

Electronic Music Performance Techniques (Coursera)

From the Moog analog synthesizers in the 1960s to the contemporary usage of computers, performance controllers, and mobile devices, Electronic Digital Instruments (EDIs) have long been capable of offering artists a new range of musical expression. In this one-of-a-kind course, you'll learn the essential skills you need to perform on an EDI.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks
Copyright for Educators & Librarians (Coursera) Coursera
Duke University,Emory University,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Copyright for Educators & Librarians (Coursera)

Fear and uncertainty about copyright law often plagues educators and sometimes prevents creative teaching. This course is a professional development opportunity designed to provide a basic introduction to US copyright law and to empower teachers and librarians at all grade levels. Course participants will discover that the law is designed to help educators and librarians.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
History of Rock, Part One (Coursera) Coursera
University of Rochester

History of Rock, Part One (Coursera)

This course, part 1 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the days before rock (pre-1955) to the end of the 1960s. This course covers the music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, 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.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 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.

Sep 21st 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.

Sep 28th 2026
13-24 Weeks
Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why (Coursera) Coursera
Duke University

Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why (Coursera)

The course will explore the tone combinations that humans consider consonant or dissonant, the scales we use, and the emotions music elicits, all of which provide a rich set of data for exploring music and auditory aesthetics in a biological framework. Analyses of speech and musical databases are consistent with the idea that the chromatic scale (the set of tones used by humans to create music), consonance and dissonance, worldwide preferences for a few dozen scales from the billions that are possible, and the emotions elicited by music in different cultures all stem from the relative similarity of musical tonalities and the characteristics of voiced (tonal) speech.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Intimacy of Creativity: Entering the Minds of Composers (Coursera) Coursera
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - HKUST

Intimacy of Creativity: Entering the Minds of Composers (Coursera)

Bright Sheng guides us through three works — by Brahms, Beethoven, and Sheng — for an intimate look inside the composer's mind. This course strives to give students a new appreciation of music, based on an understanding of the craft behind each work. This class is perfect for those wanting to gain a unique perspective on the creative process of music composition, while challenging traditional notions of how composers approach formal structure, melody, and harmony.

Sep 21st 2026
3 Weeks
20世纪西方音乐 Western Music in the 20th Century (Coursera) Coursera
Peking University

20世纪西方音乐 Western Music in the 20th Century (Coursera)

课程所涉不仅涵盖古典音乐如新古典主义、表现主义、民族主义等流派,也对爵士乐、摇滚乐与流行音乐在20世纪的风格情状投以深切关注;在将包括中国音乐在内的世界各国民族民间音乐纳入20世纪大背景予以研究探索之同时,关于大型综合艺术品例如歌剧、音乐剧、电影音乐的考察与分析,也设为专题,绝无偏废。

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks