Music is the way of expressing one’s emotions and feelings and good music touches the hearts of people in many ways. Apart from being a soul-soothing gesture, it also offers tremendous career and job opportunities for singers and musicians. There is tremendous scope for budding music talents in the entertainment industry and with real talent, sincerity, and proper education, anybody can flourish in the music industry. The aspirants have to keep in mind that music is still not a mainstream job option in India and thus they have to stay motivated and confident in their skill to endure the struggle and grab their place in the music industry.

Courses offered in Music:

There are music courses available in India at the UG, PG, and also diploma levels. Though there are no special qualifications required to exhibit one’s talent in music, people wish to get trained in a proper course and gain a certificate to help them better with their job prospects. The different courses that are available in India for musicians and singers are as follows,

a. Three years courses:

• B. Arts in Music
• B. Arts in visual art, music, dance, and drama
• B. Arts Music
• B. Fine arts in sitar
• B. Fine arts in Table

b. One-year courses:

• Certificate course in music
• Certificate course in music and dance
• M.Phil in Music

c. Diploma courses – 3 months to 3 years

• Diploma in music
• Diploma in sitar
• Diploma in table

d. M.A music – 2 years’ course

e. Ph.D. In music – 3-5 years.

Eligibility criteria for these courses:

The music courses in India are offered at the UG, PG, and diploma levels. The eligibility criteria to join these music courses are as follows.

• The aspirant should have completed 10+2 examinations with a minimum of 50% aggregate marks
• Those who have appeared for the board examination are also eligible to join the UG courses, but should submit their final mark sheet to the university at the time of admission.
• For admission in the post-graduate courses, the aspirant is required to complete the corresponding UG course, in either vocal or instrumental.

Admission process:

Many colleges and universities in India offer different courses in music for aspirants. The average fees of these courses in the different institutes vary between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 2,00,000. These universities offer courses in music from a diploma to a Ph.D. level and the admission for the undergraduate music courses is performed based on the entrance test scores. The applicants have to appear for the common entrance test and those who qualify for these examinations will be called to appear for the general interview and counseling session. They may have to submit all the required documents to the varsity at the time of the counseling. Final admission is offered based on the merit scores of the candidates. The short-listed candidates have to pay the fees and retain the acknowledgment with them until the course starts. The Common entrance tests that are conducted for admission in the UG and the PG music courses are, BHU UET (Banaras Hindu University), BHUU PET, DUET (Delhi University entrance test), etc. These entrance tests are for specific universities and some universities can admit students based on their higher secondary marks and their performance in the counseling session. Some of the best universities in India to fuel the musicians' career options are,

• Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
• Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
• Banasthali University, Jaipur
• Bangalore University, Bangalore
• Queen Mary’s College, Chennai
• Rabindra Bharati University, Allahabad
• Calicut University, Calicut.

Career and Job opportunities

To pursue a course in music in India, the aspirants should develop basic knowledge and understanding of music and be creative, innovative, and hard-working. A degree in music brings about tremendous job opportunities for the aspirants, and apart from becoming singers and instrumentalist, they have great scope to become,

• Music composers
• Songwriters
• Music sequencers
• Transcribers
• Audio technician
• Radio jockey
• Choir directors
• Music journalist
• Music therapist
• Instrumentalist
• Music teachers and trainers etc.

The salary structure for these musicians’ career options could vary between Rs. 8 to Rs. 10 LPA and though it stays low at the initial years of their career, they will be able to grab attractive salaries as they grow in their career.

Scope for musicians in 2021:

After completing the course in music, the aspirants can easily find themselves a job in the film industry, music industry, TV channels, music sabhas and orchestra, independent music album production houses, and even as trainers in colleges and institutions. They can also open their music teaching centers or their showroom that sells musical instruments. Several shows are being organized on television to fuel up the budding music talents. There is tremendous scope for real talents in the music industry and the aspirants can easily find the best jobs with high-paying salaries in the music industry with dedication and their hard work.