Music Industry Studies (MUSX)

The Music Industry Studies program at Diablo Valley College is the #1 Career Education destination for Music Industry Studies in the Bay Area and Top 10 Music Industry school in California. Our program prepares students for a variety of careers in music production, audiovisual technlogy, music compositon, game audio, artist management, audio engineering, and much more. For more info, please contact Dr. Nick Vasallo, Director of Music Industry Studies and Commercial Music, at nvasallo@dvc.edu with any questions you might have.

The Music Industry Studies program at Diablo Valley College is a leader among the California community colleges. DVC was one of the first community colleges to offer electronic music, and houses the state-of-the-art Music Technology Center (MTC). The MTC is a successful, fully networked lab equipped with iMac workstations. We are an AVID and AVIXA Learning Partner with several certified instructors, ensuring that students will be receiving instructional consistency and up-to-date education. The MTC clearly demonstrates a commitment to quality and innovation in teaching and learning experiences. Students gain hands-on learning experiences using software applications that have been developed under true cross-platform equivalency standards.

Many of the faculty in the Music Industry Studies program are also award-winning musicians who have received recognition for electronic music, composition, teaching, and performance. The DVC program is highly regarded throughout the community with students recognized in statewide competitions.

Degrees and Certificates

We have a huge selection of courses and offer a wide variety of degrees and certificates in Music Industry Studies, Commercial Music, and Audio Visual Technology:

What is the Music Industry Studies program?Students working at stations.

The Diablo Valley College music industry studies program prepares students for a variety of careers in music production, audio engineering, and the business of music. As a music industry studies student, you will gain an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the music production process including recording, marketing, and distribution. This same skill-set will also prepare you for a career in specialized areas of the music industry such as recording engineer, producer, composer, arranger, songwriter, sound designer, artist manager, and marketing representative. The music industry studies program has several unique features:

  • It has a distinctive entrepreneurial focus emphasizing an industry trend toward DIY (Do It Yourself) music production, marketing and distribution via newly emerging Internet based markets.
  • It has a unique program of study that embraces the enormous and continuing changes in music marketing and distribution by allowing students to incubate business concepts with a variety of student-run music businesses.
  • It has a one-of-a-kind music production facility, the Music Technology Center, with 26 Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) as well as a professional multi-track recording studio.
  • It has a music industry partnership with Avid allowing us to provide a range of Pro Tools certification classes.

Why Music Industry Studies?

Those who work in the music industry enjoy an exciting and dynamic career combining a passion for music, artistry, and business know-how. The music industry studies program prepares students for one of the many careers in the music industry including:Mix board

  • Careers in music production and engineering: record and mix engineer, mastering engineer, producer, sound design
  • Careers in contemporary music writing and production: composer, arranger, jingle writer, producer/songwriter, lyricist
  • Careers in music business: music publisher, artist manager, public relations, marketing representative, music supervisor and licensing, music marketing
  • Careers in sound for picture: ADR, Foley, production sound mixer, sound designer, film composer, music editor
  • Careers in game audio: game music note tracker and transcriptionist, game music composing and scoring, sound designer, production coordinator
  • Careers in sound reinforcement: front of house engineer, concert sound, monitor mixer