These music colleges in California give you the opportunity to learn music production in the best place in America. If you want to be part of the highly-demanding music industry, then these universities will allow you to further your beliefs and improve yourself. Each of these establishments has a different way to help enhance your abilities and they all have great teachers who have been involved in the music life, so they can inspire you to do better.

Welcome to this guide about Best Colleges for Music Production. You can’t do it all alone, that’s why there are colleges out there that strive to give you the skills you need, right? Music schools can be big, small and everywhere in between. There’s plenty of options for picking the right one to suit your needs.

Finding the right information about best csu schools for music production can be confusing for people who have limited experience, or have never studied the subject at hand. 

Learn about best school for music production schools in texas, music production schools in florida, music production schools nyc, and music production schools online. You’ll also discover more research on college learners related to georgia state university music production.

Best CSU Schools For Music Production

We have created a 2021 ranking of the best colleges in California that offer Music Production degrees to help you find a school that fits your needs. Each school’s ranking is based on the compilation of our data from reliable government sources, student surveys, college graduate interviews, and editorial review. In addition, you can view our entire list of all 166 Music Production schools located within California. We also provide reviews, facts, and questions and answers for schools on our site and offer you access to get valuable information from colleges and universities today.

Best Music Production Colleges in California for 2021

1	Stanford University	Stanford, CA		tanford University offers 5 Music Production Degree programs. It’s a large private university in a large suburb. In 2015, 35 students graduated in the study area of Music Production with students earning 16 Bachelor’s degrees, 13 Master’s degrees, and 6 Doctoral degrees.	Based on 64 Reviews
2	University of Southern California	Los Angeles, CA		University of Southern California offers 32 Music Production Degree programs. It’s a large private university in a large city. In 2015, 259 students graduated in the study area of Music Production with students earning 142 Bachelor’s degrees, 47 Certificates degrees, 43 Master’s degrees, and 27 Doctoral degrees.	Based on 52 Reviews
3	University of California-Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA		University of California-Los Angeles offers 9 Music Production Degree programs. It’s a large public university in a large city. In 2015, 104 students graduated in the study area of Music Production with students earning 62 Bachelor’s degrees, 22 Doctoral degrees, 20 Master’s degrees.	Based on 88 Reviews
4	University of California-Berkeley	Berkeley, CA		University of California-Berkeley offers 4 Music Production Degree programs. It’s a large public university in a mid sized city. In 2015, 52 students graduated in the study area of Music Production with students earning 38 Bachelor’s degrees, 10 Doctoral degrees, and 4 Master’s degrees.

best colleges for music production

Berklee College of Music

• Location: Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, and Valencia, Spain
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: Degree $73,471, Diploma $67,331

Berklee has one of the largest and most reputable programs in Music Production and Engineering. They also offer majors and minors in Sound Design, Film Scoring, Electronic Production, and Video Game Music. A four-year program leads to a Bachelor of Music in the Music Production and Engineering (MP&E) major. A strong background in math and physics is required for admission to the major.

Berklee has a Master of Music in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation at their campuses in New York City and in Valencia, Spain. Berklee owns the legendary Power Station Studios in New York City where many famous albums and songs were recorded, and students run the studios there. Berklee also has online courses, certificates, and degrees in music production and audio engineering.

NYU Steinhardt

• Location: New York City
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $78,243

Programs in Music Technology at NYU/Steinhardt lead to the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Ph.D. in Music Technology. They also have a Tonmeister advanced certificate for graduate students. The facilities comprise thirteen studios, including the 7,500-square-foot James L. Dolan Music Recording Studio. NYU also has the Clive Davis Institute at Tisch, which is more focused on the business side of the music industry and production and offers many innovative courses for Producers and budding Music Executives.

NYU/Steinhardt is recognized as an industry leader in technology, teaching and research, and their programs are highly selective and competitive. The school offers more than forty courses in music technology and production, including audio engineering, multimedia production, and software development for sound engineering. Music students also study marketing and music business. Located in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, students benefit from proximity to top recording studios, music publishing houses, symphonies, jazz clubs, and Broadway theaters.

USC Thornton School of Music

• Location: Los Angeles, California
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $79,063

Housed at the University of Southern California (USC), Thornton is a conservatory-style music school offering a Bachelor of Music in Music Production. Their Music Technology programs are designed for musicians who want to integrate digital music production with other industry disciplines such as composition, performing, arranging, and live recording of acoustic instruments.

Thornton has an innovative approach to blending music technology with cross-disciplinary art forms such as visual media and art. Their students benefit from stellar faculty who also work in the industry, proximity to film studios, and access to industry players.

Frost School of Music

• Location: Miami, Florida
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $73,712

Housed at the University of Miami, Frost offers a four-year Bachelor of Music or Bachelor of Science, plus a Master of Science. Students in the undergraduate programs pursue traditional music studies in performance, history, and theory, while learning the art and science of recording, mixing, and signal processing.

In addition, students gain technical skills in areas such as electrical engineering and computer science. The Master of Science audio program only accepts students who have already completed an undergraduate degree in computer science or electrical engineering.

Middle Tennessee State University

• Location: Murfreesboro Tennessee (near Nashville)
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $43,936 (out-of-state), $24,250 (in-state)

MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry benefits from proximity to the recorded music industry and state-of-the-art facilities in Nashville, known as “Music City.” The program is frequently cited by Billboard Magazine as a top 10 U.S. school for audio engineering and music business.

One of the largest audio engineering programs in the country, they offer a Bachelor of Science in Audio Production and a Master of Fine Arts in Recording Arts and Technology. Undergraduates majoring in audio production also pursue a technical or industry minor, such as computer science, entrepreneurship, or video and film production.

Drexel University

• Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $70,457

Situated in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel offers a Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies. Students can choose to focus on music technology and production within the recording arts and music production concentrate. With tracks for musicians and non-musicians, playing an instrument is not always a requirement.

Students get real-life experience working at Drexel’s independent record label, Mad Dragon Records. Drexel works very hard to place every graduate in a job or internship immediately after graduation.

UMass Lowell

• Location: Lowell, Massachusetts
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $49,054 (out-of-state), $31,128 (in-state), $42,668 (regional New England)

Twenty miles north of Boston, UMass Lowell’s highly-rated Sound Recording Technology program is housed in the Music Department and offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Students must perform and audition on a musical instrument or voice. Students can earn a combined Bachelors and Master’s degree in five years. (Note: UMass has temporarily suspended admissions to the master’s degree while they revise the curriculum and program.)

Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C)

• Location: Cleveland, Ohio
• Estimated annual tuition, fees: Varies according to family income, credits taken, and whether in-state or out-of-state. Tuition and fees only between $4,000-8,000 annually for in-state and $8,000-17,000 for out-of-state.

Tri-C’s Recording Arts and Technology program occupies the Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts. This superb 75,000 square-foot facility is a jointly managed with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and houses modern recording studios, a concert hall, and the archives of the Rock Hall. The Center also accommodates the media and recording arts programs, an animation laboratory, keyboard classrooms, dance and theater studios, plus multiple music technology and editing suites.

Tri-C’s programs lead to a Certificate or an Associate’s Degree of Applied Science in Recording Arts and Technology. Tri-C is one of the largest and best-rated community colleges in the country, and has an articulation agreement (2 + 2) with Berklee College of Music in Boston where students can complete their Bachelors at Berklee in just two years after transferring from Tri-C with their Associate’s.

Belmont University

• Location: Nashville, Tennessee
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $51,670

Placed very close to the music industry in Nashville, Belmont University’s Entertainment and Music Business Department offers Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Audio Engineering Technology with an optional music production emphasis. Students take courses in audio engineering, physics, electronic circuitry, and other science-oriented subjects, and are also required to complete a minor in an industry-related discipline. Belmont University claims it is a “Christian Community” for learning and service.

American University

• Location: Washington, D.C.
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $67,694

Located in the nation’s capital, AU offers undergraduate programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts in Audio Production and the Bachelor of Science in Audio Technology, plus a Master of Arts in Audio Technology. Programs concentrate on sound synthesis and studio management, and students specialize in music, communication, computer science, or physics.

The Audio Technology Program blends the art and the science of audio with music technology. Core courses are in sound synthesis, audio production, electronics, physics, and using digital audio workstations. They have state-of-the-art recording studios, live performance spaces that can be used for recording, and even a synthesizer collection.

Full Sail University

• Location: Winter Park, Florida (near Orlando)
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $40,363

Full Sail started out in 1979 as a recording school offering courses in Audio Engineering. Their curriculum has expanded to include programs in many other technical and creative disciplines. Bachelor of Science degrees are available in Recording Arts, Audio Production, and Show Production. They also offer a Certificate in Audio Production which can be completed in as little as five months.

Some of their programs are online or campus only, while others are blended with both online and on-campus courses required. Their campus has numerous modern recording environments ranging from full recording studios to live venues.

Musicians Institute

• Location: Hollywood, California
• Estimated annual tuition, fees, & living costs: $47,088

Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music (known as M.I.) has an Audio Engineering program offering a Certificate in Production. They also offer Associate’s, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Science, Arts, and Music. Students can focus on music business or songwriting along with sound engineering and music production.

MI has some online programs as well, such as the Artist Producer Entrepreneur, Electronic Music Production, and Studio Recording courses of study. Musicians Institute has many alumni working in the music industry worldwide.

music colleges in california

California State University-Northridge (Los Angeles, CA)

CSU-Northridge has a surprisingly large influence in the world of music.

For one, a great deal of music educators throughout the state of California received their training at CSU Northridge. That means, by association, tens of thousands of musicians were taught in high school by someone who is an alum of this school.

Outside of education, CSU-Northridge is one of the undergraduate programs in the country with a focus on two popular areas of contemporary music study – film scoring as well as music industry. 

And, they have quite an accomplished student body of jazz musicians. 

The faculty in jazz here is just outstanding – players like jazz legends John Pisano, Wayne Bergeron (also teaches at the next school in this list), and Luis Conte, percussionist who has performed with Eric Clapton, Madonna, and James Taylor.

Los Angeles College of Music (Los Angeles, CA)

LACM? 

It’s a mini-Berklee. 

Like Berklee, its focus is on contemporary popular music – that includes music production, performance, songwriting, jazz, the whole nine yards.

Also like Berklee, it is an urban campus.

Unlike Berklee, LACM is young and small – just 200 or so students comprise this unique school.

LACM is also, perhaps controversially, a for-profit music school. Although this is not normally associated as a positive, in this instance it is okay because the quality of the school is very high.

In particular, some of the faculty here are big names not only in Los Angeles, but throughout the entire country. People like jazz trumpeter Wayne Bergeron, previously a member of Maynard Ferguson’s 80s band, and Tim Landers, bassist for several notable acts including Al Di Meola and Gil Evans.

This is also one of the few schools in the US where you can major in guitar or electric bass performance. 

Azusa Pacific University School of Music (Azusa, CA)

Years ago, I ranked Azusa Pacific as one of the nation’s top hidden gem music schools. 

I standby this assertion today – Azusa Pacific is a fine school of music based outside of Los Angeles.

One unique program Azusa Pacific offers that few other music schools do is a major in Music and Worship. Although not required for a job in a Church, this degree would give students an advantage when searching for a job in a religious institution.

Other interesting offerings at Azusa Pacific include a Commercial Music major. This program prepares students well for the traditional music industry. The school’s alumni are working in both the secular and Christian sectors of music business.

Finally, APU is among the growing list of schools with an Entrepreneurship program specifically for music. Available at the Master’s degree level, this program is designed to help music students start and grow careers in music business or management.

University of Redlands School of Music (Long Beach, CA)

The University of Redlands counts itself among other fine Southern California music programs, including Chapman, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine’s music program, LACM, CSU-Northridge, and more.

The University of Redlands does maintain a strong relationship with a regional orchestra appropriately known as the Redlands Symphony Orchestra. Students at University of Redlands have found themselves performing in this group as substitutes or even sectional players. Additionally, a number of faculty members perform regularly in this group.

Music Education is one of the most popular majors at this school, which is actually the trend throughout most music departments and programs in the country. Although students are awarded licensure in California upon graduation, reciprocity agreements ensure students can teach in a public, k-12 setting in any state.

Double-degree programs are also common here in music and an outside field, making this a strong choice for a student interested in both music and academics.

Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music (Orange, CA)

Chapman is a music school on the rise, and will likely be a top-25 music school nationwide, if it isn’t already, within the next decade.

Perhaps its best known program is in voice. Although primarily a classical voice school, upperclassmen can take classes in jazz voice as well, giving students a solid foundation in the two most significant and difficult genres of music. 

Another well-known program is in Piano Performance. Grace Fong, one of the younger professors at the school, has won some of the world’s most prestigious competitions, including Leeds in 2006 and the Bosendorfer International Competition in 2007.

Chapman as a whole is probably most well-known for its film school, the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Although not a music program, the presence of this institution does foster a unique collaboration between students in music and students in film.

University of California Los Angeles Herb Alpert School of Music (Los Angeles, CA)

Historically, UCLA has not normally been considered in the same company as some other tier-1 university music schools like Michigan, USC, and Northwestern. 

However, this sentiment seems to be changing; with an increasing roster of world-renowned faculty, a new undergraduate jazz program known as “Global Jazz Studies,” and perhaps the most diverse musicology & ethnomusicology program in the country, UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music has a lot of good going for it.

What I like about UCLA, for some students, is its connection to a major university. Having spoken with over 2,000 parents of music students, I can confidently say that over 80% of them desire a school with both music and academics, and their children most of the time want to be in a major city.

UCLA is an especially good deal for in-state students, as the tuition is dramatically lower than comparably excellent music programs.