Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is introducing the Bachelor of Arts in Music Industry (BAMI) degree in the fall of 2026, becoming the first Ohio public university to offer a bachelor’s degree focused on the music industry.
The degree is offered through the College of Musical Arts, building on the existing music industry minor currently at BGSU, and is designed to offer students a combination of arts and music classes, along with business classes such as marketing and management.
“The actual degree itself is designed for those who want to go into the music industry field, but it’s really much more than that,” said William Mathis, dean of the College of Musical Arts. “If you look at the curriculum, there are, of course, the music industry-specific courses, but then a whole core of courses that are offered out of the College of Business. So, those skills can be transferred to all different kinds of things.”
BAMI is being offered through a partnership between the College of Musical Arts and the College of Business. The major also includes an internship and a capstone requirement for graduation.
“We probably wouldn’t have been able to launch this by ourselves,” said Mathis. “Since we had the minor that we were pretty much doing by ourselves, joining up and collaborating with the College of Business has made this possible.”
Mathis also credited Justin Johnston, who will serve as the director of BAMI, for designing the program and helping push it through the approval process.
“We’re really excited about this. We hope it will attract a body of music students who are in our university that we haven’t had before,” he said. “So, it’s a way for us to grow our programs.”
Since offering music industry as a minor, Mathis believes there have been anywhere from 25 to 40 students enrolled at any time.
Now, as an actual degree program gets ready to launch, he hopes to attract a small number of students for the 2026-27 academic year, and to double that number for the second year of the program.
“I’m going to guess that there will be five to 10 students who might choose that option now that we have the major,” said Mathis. “Our hope is, in the first year and into the second year, to attract 10 majors a year, and then to build upon that as it grows.”
Another key difference between the BAMI and every other music degree at BGSU that could attract a higher enrollment is that students don’t have to take an audition on a musical instrument to be accepted into the College of Musical Arts.
“The biggest difference between this degree and the music degrees that we already have is that a student in this degree would not have to take an audition on an instrument to get into the College of Musical Arts,” Mathis said. “That’s not required. However, we know that many of the students who will come into this degree, because they’re interested in it, will also have that musical background, and they will participate.”
On top of the curriculum, one of the main overall goals of the new program is to have a collaborative experience for the students. Something Mathis said will come from students receiving networking opportunities from people inside and outside of BGSU.
“That models one of the other things I think is most important about this degree and the way the courses are set up is that it’s built to bring in industry leaders,” he said. “That will then, of course, teach the students, but that creates a networking opportunity for them. Something that’s really important and is embedded in the program.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source bgfalconmedia.com ’
