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This story came to mind as I began building my new Music Business Management master course. Experience is something that makes these courses and their sections significant. Music business management is something that is challenging to teach solely based on theory – you need to have experience in it. One could say that experience is often the reason people participate in these courses. I’ve been lecturing on the subject professionally for over 20 years. It’s interesting that with each course, there are changes. And this time is no different.

However, this experience is more formal experience – how you build lectures and make them functional wholes. Naturally, it evolves the more you do it. If I compare my own first lectures in the early 2000s to where we are now, there’s a tremendous difference.

For me, writing books is a tool for development. I often feel the need to take breaks from lecturing and structure new material into an updated or entirely new book. Just like with lectures, I also evolve in this task. Over the years, my books and lectures have started to support each other more and more. Some things are easier to present in a book, while others are more easily understood in lectures.

However, all of the above is formal experience – how you package your lectures or books. The other side of experience is practical experience – where all the knowledge comes from. Although I do extensive research work weekly and participate in almost all forums from which that information can be drawn, nothing beats practice.

I’ve been a manager for over 30 years. For almost the same amount of time, I’ve been providing legal services in the field of copyrights and contracts. Turku Law School is a fantastic place, especially in the 90s when the level of education flourished there. It’s in these transactions that experience is brewed, and that experience will be strongly present in the upcoming Music Business Management Master Course. I feel like naming the course Modern Music Business Management Experience.

That extensive practice and wide range of activities bring along a broad network, for which I am especially grateful. I am fortunate in the sense that I am able to bring in top names in the industry, emerging stars of the future, and other relevant practitioners as guests. At this point as well, the more we collaborate, the better lectures we produce. In return, I also visit their sessions.

As we can see, implementing music business management education requires various kinds of know-how – experience in course construction, shaping course content, handling guests, practical experience, and in this situation – also writing a book. It’s not often realized that despite all this workload, one can infer the experience in just a few seconds. That experience comes through in everything, behind the scenes, in the background of sentences, and in how you utilize all these resources.

The wonderful confidence when you reach that level where you can switch sets on the fly and still maintain consistency. It’s something I strive for every day.

Stay tuned to this site; I’ll announce when the next course opens up.