Dr. Doug Tejada is introducing a new Music Business minor in the fall of 2018. The program got approved as a minor last October, but will not be available until next semester. Tejada said that several students who are not music majors want the minor because they want to work in the music industry in careers other than performance, such as a producer, artist manager, publicist, distributor, audio engineer, and several other possibilities.

“There are a lot of different kinds of careers in the industry,” Tejada said. “As an example, a girl wanted to be a manager of a band. Does she need to read music? She’s not a musician, she just wanted to work in the music industry. And that’s what the minor is for; people that want to work in the industry but don’t want to be musicians.”

Tejada said that the premiere ensemble that the program uses to teach students how to manage a band is the Latin Band.

“It’s very organic, student led,” Tejada explained. “I really don’t want to do that much. When you’re out there this is your product that you’re presenting to the community.”

In preparation for the minor becoming available in the fall, there are three new classes Tejada introduced: music publishing, digital music and beat creation, and artist management. There are seven students who have verbally confirmed they want to add the minor, and all of them are preparing for it by taking one of these classes.

“They don’t want to take theory,” Tejada said. “They don’t know enough about classical music or music notation. It’s a 16 billion dollar a year industry, and the fact that you can’t read music doesn’t stop people from making a living out of it.”

Tejada has been in the music business for 30 years and he’s hoping to pass on some of the knowledge that he’s gained by introducing these new classes and the new minor.

“What I know best is how to perform and how to make a living connection with audiences,” Tejada explained. “That’s what I bring to the table.”