Level 6
All Master of Arts in Music Business students complete a culminating experience or thesis project. This experience is meant to be exactly as named: the culmination of your work in the program, the experience through which you synthesize all you have learned. The culminating experience helps to shape your next steps in the profession and in your career. In short, the culminating experience provides an opportunity for you to complete unique and original professional work. Through the culminating experience, you make a creative contribution to and/or define and solve a problem that exists in the profession. This contribution may take the form of a research project, a creative project, a practical project, and/or another project of your devising. Regardless of the form that the project takes—whether creative, research-focused, or practical in nature—the culminating experience represents the highest expression of your learning at the graduate level.
This course, a continuation of OMBUS-693: Culminating Experience in Music Business 1, supports the completion of the culminating experience. You will work in consultation with your culminating experience advisor to develop your unique project, and to take you from first draft to finished form. In addition, you’ll prepare for your final presentation and ultimately present your work to your advisor and to the online graduate community. As part of your coursework, you’ll reflect on your project as well as on the knowledge and skills you have attained in the program. You will apply the individual experience, intelligence, organization, creativity, and synthesis of acquired knowledge necessary to complete your unique project. You’ll analyze the ways in which your culminating experience enriches the discipline of study or the profession, and the ways in which you have changed by completing the experience. Likewise, you will determine next steps, if appropriate, to develop the project further. You will also master written and oral communication skills as you present your project to your advisor and to your classmates, and as you prepare your project for submission to the course and to the Berklee archives.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Complete your culminating experience project
- Produce a professional piece of work
- Prepare for project next steps
- Synthesize knowledge gained to develop an original contribution
- Assess your contribution to the profession
- Analyze your own artistic, professional, and personal growth, as a result of having completed the graduate program
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Beginning the Final Ascent
- Charting the Course
- Maintaining Energy
- Assignment 1: Create Your Work Plan
Lesson 2: Managing Your Career
- The Berklee Career Manager [in collaboration with Berklee Career Center]
- Assignment 2: None Required / Optional: Partial Submission of Culminating Experience
Lesson 3: Presentation Skills
- A Fate Worse Than Death [in collaboration with Berklee Career Center]
- Presentation Materials
- Assignment 3: Peer Review
Lesson 4: Writing Style, Revisited
- Always in Style
- Assignment 4: Culminating Experience Style Revision
Lesson 5: Interviews and Presentations
- Interviewing [in collaboration with Berklee Career Center]
- Presentation Schedule
- Assignment 5: None Required, Continue Working on Culminating Experience
Lesson 6: The Final Submission
- Getting It Together
- Assignment 6: Final Culminating Experience Project
Lesson 7: Final Presentations
- Presentations
- Assignment 7: Student Presentations
Lesson 8: Final Presentations
- Presentations
- Assignment 8: Student Presentations
Lesson 9: Final Presentations
- Presentations
- Assignment 9: Student Presentations
Lesson 10: Looking in the Mirror
- Reflecting on What’s Been Accomplished
- Assignment 10: Final Reflective Essay
Lesson 11: What's Next?
- That Feeling of Finishing
- Options for Next Steps: Applying to Conferences
- Options for Next Steps: Publishing Your Findings
- Commencement
- Assignment 11: Final Program Reflection
Lesson 12: Into the Archives
- What’s an Archive?
- Kinds of Archives
- The Origins of Archives
- Why Archive?
- Archival Concerns
- Requirements for Archiving
- Assignment 12: Archiving Your Culminating Experience (Optional)
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
This course does not have any prerequisites.
Required Textbook(s)
- None: Readings will be provided.
Software Requirements
- Students intending to do statistical analysis for quantitative projects will need a statistics package of their own choosing, such as R (recommended, free), SPSS, or Stata.
After enrolling, please check the Getting Started section of your course for potential deals on required materials. Our Student Deals page also features several discounts you can take advantage of as a current student. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu for any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Chats. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author & Instructor
Robert Lagueux is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Graduate Studies, and founding Dean for Faculty Development at Berklee College of Music. He oversees Berklee's graduate-level degree programs as well as the creation of learning and development opportunities for faculty at all of Berklee's campuses, as well as for instructors at Berklee’s international partner schools. He has worked with faculty to enhance teaching and learning at the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and Northeastern University. As a Fulbright Scholar at City University of Hong Kong, he spent a year developing programs to support general education and leading teaching workshops throughout Southeast Asia.
Instructor
Instructor
Becky Prior is the associate director of institutional research in Berklee's office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Her areas of specialty include survey research and data analysis, with a particular interest in diversity and inclusion. Most recently, she co-authored the BerkleeICE report on women in the music industry. She holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from University of Colorado Boulder, and a B.A. in English from University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
