The digital revolution has had a major effect on the way we listen to music and interact with our
favorite musicians. And the pandemic, well it stopped touring in its tracks. So what does it
all mean for those looking to pursue a career in the music industry? There's a new music program at
Georgia Southern University. And one professor key to the program is Dr. Steven Primatic.
He teaches percussion theory, jazz and music technology, and he's also the author of two books.
Dr. Primatic, thank you so much for taking some time for NewsPoint360 today.
My pleasure to be here. Thank you.
The music industry has experienced fundamental change, and it continues to evolve, that's for
sure. What skill sets will be critical to the next generation of music professionals?
I think overall it’s versatility. Playing an instrument is still an incredibly important
part of being a musician in any field related to music, understanding the inherent challenges of
being a musician is also important. Technology is huge. There’s no way to get away from technology,
it's going to be a part of music from here on out and understanding how it works with
music is very important. Communication skills are very important. Being able to,
whether you're an engineer in a recording studio, talking to the musicians that are performing,
or the opposite, the musicians talking to the engineer, you have to speak common musical
language so you can get your points across and be able to get to the finished product much
more quickly. Being able to navigate the modern music industry workplace is also important,
understanding how contracts work, how to market your product.
And definitely capitalizing on social media, knowing how that works, is so very important.
So as you say, a very varied skill set. Well, the way we consume music has also
changed in this age of instant access. Many artists release music via streaming
and emerging artists can basically become an overnight sensation on social media.
But it doesn't mean that everything's changed. What are some aspects of that industry that
continue to endure in terms of recording sound and audio engineering and releasing music?
Sure, there will always be a need for performers, that's never going to go away. People have to be
able to play the music. The engineers are going to be much different than they were 20 years ago,
the technology has changed, but they're still they're still doing the same job.
And marketers and managers, they've gone from being big companies to much more individualized,
I think that's still going to be important. And as I said before, navigating the social media
landscape and maximizing exposure is very important. Large studios are still a thing,
but the ubiquity of online interaction levels the playing field somewhat.
There's a discrepancy in reach and advertising funds between a big company and individual,
but the potential for wide exposure is there for those who know how to navigate this technology.
Well, according to many industry experts, augmented reality, virtual reality,
artificial intelligence technologies, they're all going to have a dramatic impact on the way
artists reach and interact with audiences. What are you seeing on the music horizon?
Well, as we've seen, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that musicians need to be highly
resourceful. A collaborative work over the internet has grown quite a bit, particularly
over the past year, with entire albums being assembled from individual performers that
could be spread around the globe, you could have somebody in New York City recording a
piano part and somebody in Tokyo doing a drum part and they can all be combined into
a cohesive album. It's very difficult to predict the long-term future. You think flying cars,
and where are they? We thought we were going to have them for 50 years now.
Or the fact that people couldn't predict cell phones 30 years ago, the ubiquity of smartphones.
So it's hard to say what will happen 20 years from now. But in the short term, the implementation
of emerging technologies will undoubtedly find their way into the arts, they already have, and
they will continue to do so. And I can't see how musicians will use these, but I know they will.
Well, there's a lot of excitement around these new technologies. But is there also some trepidation?
I mean, is there a potential that some of these new music technologies could make
musicians, make bands, make recording studios obsolete?
It's an old argument. And you can think back to when music was first in the early part of
the 20th century, when recording became a thing. People were convinced that live performances were
a thing of the past. Why would you go to a concert now when you can just hear a perfect performance
of it on recording? Well, that obviously hasn't happened and you think about when people sing,
think of lip synching, somebody’s lip synching, that's never viewed as positive. They'd rather
see somebody performing live. Each performance is unique, to have people there to interact with
the audience and the audience to interact with them will always be something that's important,
and music will evolve, change is inevitable and it must be embraced and some things will fade. Silent
movies used to employ musicians to perform a soundtrack live while the movie was being played,
that no longer exists. But that doesn't mean music has disappeared, it never will. Just think
about how much people miss attending live events right now. There will always be a need for that.
Well, Georgia Southern has been accredited to launch a new and innovative music degree that
takes a really multifaceted approach to the industry. And as you've been saying, these are
skill sets that are going to be required. How does this degree differ from the traditional?
Well, we're looking to address the desires for students to make a music career for the 21st
century, you think about traditional classical music training, you have a couple standard routes,
you’re either going to be an educator, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it,
I’m one. But teaching in a public school, whether you're going to be a band director, or a choir
director, an orchestra director, a general music teacher, but not everybody wants to do that. If
you want to be a performer, traditionally you're learning to be a classical performer. All of my
degrees were in professional performance, which was a classical oriented degree.
But it doesn't have to be limited to that. And we are looking for people that basically are
self-starters in music, that maybe want to do something different. They make music in their
bedrooms, and they're not sure how to turn that into a career.
So we're trying to get them trained to be available or are just capable of doing almost
anything, whether it's in the industry, with technology, or performing or even composition.
So there's going to be a big focus on technology, but also on entrepreneurship. So what do you see
is the jobs that are going to be most in demand for those music careers of the 21st century?
I think most of these are going to involve technology in a large area,
that's definitely going to be part of just about any career path. Again, as I said before,
there'll always be a need for performance, but they need to be well versed in a variety of areas,
whether you want to be a studio musician or a pit musician in theater, a recording studio,
freelance, a cruise ship performer, or if you want to understand the industry
and how it works. If you want to be a manager, a concert promoter,
running an arts organization, starting your own business, being a sound engineer, whether you're
running live sound for a venue or working in a studio as an engineer or developing apps.
If you want to be a songwriter, maybe you also want to write for film, or be a video
music composer or even for commercials. So there's countless jobs that are out there. We
want students to understand that this degree was created to help support those potential careers.
And the beat goes on. Dr. Primatic,
thank you so much for giving us a look at where the industry is headed, and for
a preview of the new music program at Georgia Southern University. We really appreciate it.
Absolutely. My pleasure, Sharon.