I’ll be updating the following post with new music production schools as I learn about them.
Let’s go!
Accredited music production schools
Point Blank is an accredited music production school founded in 1994 in London by musician and producer Robert Cowan. Voted the world’s “Best Music Production School” by the readers of DJ Mag, Point Blank has schools in London, Los Angeles, China, Ibiza, and Mumbai. And, of course, they also have an online music production school!
Point Blank offers courses and programs in the following areas:
- Music Production
- Sound Engineering
- DJing
- Radio Broadcasting
- Singing and Songwriting
- Music Business
- Live Sound Engineering
Point Blank’s online music production school includes live one-to-one tutorials and weekly masterclasses. Their instructors are top music producers and industry experts, including Grammy-winning songwriters, producers, and remixers who have worked with the likes of Ferrell Williams, Amy Winehouse, and other top talents.
The school offers internationally recognized bachelor’s degrees that you can get entirely online, and they boast more live teaching hours than any other music production school. Point Blank also packs $1,250 worth of free software – including free NI Komplete and Ableton Suite – into their higher education programs.
You can view their accreditation, awards, and partners on their homepage. While you’re there, check out their “Free Stuff,” which includes online course samples, live masterclasses, and free sounds and plugins.
Point Blank Music School has one-year, two-year, and three-year bachelor, diploma, and certificate programs, including:
- Music Production Master Diploma
- BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering Degree
- DipHE Music Production & Sound Engineering
- BA (Hons) Music Industry Management Degree
- CertHE Music Production & Sound Engineering
The cost for these programs is $2,590 per term, plus a small registration fee.
You can also take their courses separately. Some of the music production courses offered by the school are:
- Music Production Diploma
- Music Industry Diploma
- Complete Electronic Music Composition
- Complete Sound Design
- DJ Skills
- Complete Mixing and Mastering
Berklee College of Music’s online school, Berklee Online, offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as undergraduate and graduate-level certificate programs and courses. They have a selection of over 150 courses in the areas of music production, film and TV music, game audio, arranging and orchestration, music business, music theory, composition, songwriting, guitar, and more. These online courses, which last 12 weeks, are authored and taught by the same accomplished instructors that teach at Berklee College of Music’s Boston campus.
At $1,497 a pop for a three-credit tuition (or $1,250 for a non-credit tuition), the courses aren’t cheap, but they’re still 65 percent more affordable than earning your music degree on the Berklee campus. Berklee Online is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, and you can transfer your credits to hundreds of other colleges and universities.
Here are a few of the online music production courses offered at Berklee Online:
- Music Production 101
- Ableton Live Techniques: Non-Linear Creative Strategies and Composition
- Sampling and Audio Production
- Sound Design for the Electronic Musician
- Advanced Audio Ear Training for Mix Engineers
I am nearly finished my master certificate in arranging and orchestration with Berklee Online (one course left to go!). One of the biggest drawbacks of the online school, in my opinion, is that you don’t get lifetime access to the course material – if I’m spending that much money on a course, it would be nice to be able to keep the lessons for future reference.
Aside from that con, I found the courses to be high quality and fun. Also, considering the online format, there was lots of opportunity to socialize with my classmates and make some lasting connections.
The Los Angeles Film School/Los Angeles Recording School
The LA Film School is a private, for-profit college offering associate and bachelor’s degrees in music production, audio production, and other areas related to the entertainment industry. They’re accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, a nationally recognized accrediting agency. (The Los Angeles Recording School, located in Hollywood, is a division of the Los Angeles Film School.)
The school has both on-campus and online programs available. Their online Music Production programs include a 38-month Bachelor of Science degree program and an 18-month Associate of Science degree program. Students of these programs will learn music composition, production, recording principles, and mixing techniques.
The LA Film School also has an online Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Business degree.
This Los Angeles-based music school has world-class programs in music production, songwriting, music business, and vocal training. They offer an 18-month interactive online music production program, where you’ll master Ableton Live while learning music production, synthesis, arrangement, and mixing and mastering.
Lessons are delivered in video format. You can work on lessons and assignments at your own pace and get online feedback from your instructors. You’ll also get weekly mentorship sessions with an industry producer to help you evaluate your music.
Icon Collective is nationally accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music.
ThinkSpace Education Film Scoring School
If you want to learn how to produce music for film, TV, and games, ThinkSpace might be the place for you. It’s the only film music school that has fully accredited master’s degrees and online courses in music theory and technology. All of the courses are accredited through the University of Chichester, a public university in West Sussex, England.
ThinkSpace offers the opportunity to study on a flexible schedule and work on real-world scoring projects. Besides the standard course text and videos, you get regular live webinar sessions with instructors. The school faculty are composers, orchestrators, and sound designers working in the industry.
In addition to its postgraduate degree courses, ThinkSpace offers a range of short and affordable courses.
Full Sail University is a private, for-profit university based in Winter Park, Florida. It offers associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees – both on campus and online – in the areas of entertainment, media, arts, and technology.
Full Sail is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). At the time of this writing, music production degrees and certificates offered by Full Sail University online include:
- Audio Arts Undergraduate Certificate (7 months)
- Audio Production Bachelor’s Degree (29 months)
- Music Production Bachelor’s Degree (29 months)
- Recording Arts Bachelor’s Degree (20 months)
Coursera is an online education platform that provides free online courses, called MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), from top schools, universities, and companies. Among the 200+ institutions that collaborate with Coursera are Stanford, Yale, and IBM.
In addition to the self-paced course material, Coursera courses include regular online lectures and forums where you can interact with your professors, classmates, and the student support team.
Coursera also offers online bachelor’s and master’s degrees and certificates from leading schools at very affordable pricing. Degree programs you take through one of Coursera’s university partners are accredited by that university itself. The content is created and taught by the same faculty that teaches on campus.
While Coursera doesn’t currently offer any music production degrees, they have 412 free music courses available at the time of this writing, such as “The Technology of Music Production.”
Additionally, they offer a number of paid music Specializations (i.e., certificate programs) through Berklee College of Music. These include:
- Music Production
- Electronic Music Production
- The Business of Music Production
- Music Business
- How to Play Guitar
These certificate programs offer students a way to obtain a certificate from a top institution like Berklee at a far lower tuition than most music production schools.
If you’re an avid learner, you may want to consider signing up for a Coursera Plus subscription, which gives you unlimited access to 3,000+ courses, Guided Projects, Specializations, and Professional Certificates for just $399 per year. There’s a 14-day refund policy.
edX is another MOOC platform that’s similar to Coursera. They partner with institutions like Harvard University, MIT, and Stanford.
Like Coursera, you can take courses for free and obtain a certificate for a fee.
There is currently a smaller selection of music courses on edX compared to Coursera. Some courses in the catalog are:
- Introduction to Music Theory – Berklee College of Music
- Music Technology Foundations – The University of Adelaide
- Vocal Recording Technology – Berklee College of Music
Non-accredited music production schools
Noiselab is one of the best sources of online Ableton tutorials taught by industry pros. All of their instructors are Ableton Certified Trainers or accomplished producers with industry credentials. New video courses are added monthly. You can also purchase sample packs and sounds on their site.
Some of their Ableton and music production courses include:
- Ableton Live Hacks for Creating
- DJing with Ableton Live
- Performing with Ableton Live
- Making a House Track: Start to Finish
- Live Looping
- Vocal Sample Pitch and Harmony Techniques
You can buy courses individually or subscribe to the site for just $19 per month, which gives you unlimited access to over 300 lessons, all project templates, and their producer community. You can also purchase an annual membership at $120 a year, saving yourself nine dollars per month. They have a 30-day refund policy.
In addition to their course offerings, Noiselab has an 18-week online music production school called Music Production Bootcamp, which is taught live by an Ableton-certified instructor. It consists of three courses: Composition and Beat-Making; Synthesis and Sound Design; and Arranging, Mixing, and Mastering. Each course costs $800. Students of Music Production Bootcamp get up to $419 in savings on required software, as well as a free membership to Noiselab’s other courses.
Although beginners are welcome, students will be challenged to learn advanced production techniques and become proficient in Ableton Live while creating song arrangements and original compositions.
If you want to give Noiselab a try, check out their course library and enroll in one of their free courses, such as Electronic Music Production Level I.
Pyramind is an Avid- and Ableton-certified educator providing education in music production, songwriting, sound design, and mixing and mastering. Their tagline is “America’s premier music production school.” They have a campus in San Francisco, as well as an online version of their music production school.
They currently have two online music production programs:
- Pyramind Music Producer Program (finished EP upon completion guaranteed) – $3,495
- Essential Producer Program – $1,995
Pyramind’s programs include group listening sessions and private one-on-ones for your final project review. You’ll finish your tracks with the help of chart-topping producers.
They also have a small catalog of self-directed online classes, including a DJ/Performance class.
Their website states, “Pyramind has made a conscious choice not to become an accredited institution because it allows us to keep our tuition costs down and keep our curriculum current and relevant. Furthermore, this is not an industry that places value on degree programs.”
Schools that didn’t make the shortlist
You may have noticed that I didn’t include the following two resources in my list of top-recommended music production schools:
- Dubspot
- Academy of Art University (San Francisco, California)
When I did some digging on these schools, I found some bad press on Reddit and other sites. However, I don’t know whether these complaints were fair or not. So if you’ve been a student of either of these schools, feel free to leave a comment sharing your positive or negative experience.
Your turn: What are the best music production schools online?
If you have an experience, good or bad, with any of the schools above, leave a comment! And if you have a recommendation for the best music production school, online or on campus, don’t hesitate to share your excellent tip.
P.S. Want to brush up on your keyboarding skills in quarantine? Check out my recent post about virtual piano lessons.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog – I hope you leave this page feeling inspired to make music!