The Finances of A Music Engineer

Introduction

In the first unit of my Economics class, we've been studying utility and value. To close off this unit, our final project was to look into the future mathematically and find the true cost and opportunity cost between four college education options - a 4 year college, a community college, splitting the two, or not going to college at all. I learned a lot of new concepts during this unit, specifically on comparing and analyzing data. At first, learning this was very difficult but I was able to comprehend and achieve it.

My Career Choice

I am interested in Music Engineering as my career choice. Music Engineers have many options to choose from when it comes down to what they want to do with their music; they can be the creators of great movie soundtracks, become professional music producers in the industry and even make soundtracks for television shows and commercial jingles. Music Engineers have the option to expand their work and be able to travel frequently while interacting with other great musicians and people who are interested in paying them to make music for them. This will be great for me because I want to travel and see the world, and also learn more about other cultures music. Music is something I’m really interested in and enjoy, so based on the work I think I'd really enjoy this career. Music Engineering careers require a degree in Audio Engineering. To get higher paying positions and jobs, I will have to make a name for myself and apply myself 110% at every opportunity and chance I get. When applying for a music engineering job, applicants must have portfolios filled with their ideas and proof that you have worked with music before. It's useful to have internships during college, which great Audio Engineering majors offer.

Utility Graph

This graph breaks down how I value the combinations of money I have in 5 years vs 45 years. The highest line represents the ideal situation, and the lowest would be the least preferable. Basically, it's showing that I'd like to have $2,000 in my savings after 5 years just as much as I'd like having $20,000 in my savings in 45 years.

Supply and Demand

This graph shows how much companies would be willing to pay me per year after 5 years of working vs 45 years. The graphs are similar in shape because the demand of the career and industry doesn't fluctuate majorly. (Salary by Thousands)

Tuition Cost

For this assignment, I analyzed the opportunity costs between four options - going to a 4 year college,  and not going to college at all. I chose to use my first choice for a 4 year college, Columbia College (Chicago). It's seems reasonable for me to be able to go to Columbia and be apart of the Music world after 4 years.

Salary

I figured out my yearly salary as a Music Engineer from options of education which is; No College, 4 Year University, and Community College to determine how much I'd make total over the course of 45 years. I researched the income of Music Engineers then factored in the rate of inflation and estimated the base salaries. I also found the raise rates throughout my life to accurately see the outcome. The range of salary for a Music Engineer with a degree in the career is between $50,000 and $150,000. At a 4-year college where I could get the experience it's plausible that, with the rate of inflation, I would start off making around $50,000 and in 40 years make around $146,490 - which is also how I chose the raise rate. The minimum qualifications you can have that will get you hired as a music engineer is a degree in audio engineering. It also helps to have past experience with music and work with other people. It would be very hard for anyone to get a job as a music engineer without having a degree, because the salary would be lower.

Cost of Living

In order to figure out the cost benefit of each of these options, I had to estimate my cost of living during college and afterwards over the 45 year period.

Perception of Blacks in the Media

Many blacks seem to live up to these stereotypes of being the ones who are expected to play basketball, rap about non-sense, and gang bang they even take pride in these stereotypes. That is where the problem lies, and this isa case study analyzing why this is happening. For the first Unit in the Equality class we read a book called Race Matters by Cornell West. The book talked about how races are portrayed in the media and what goes on behind closed doors of peoples mindset in their race. We applied certain therioes of citizenships to Cornel West's thoughts and opinions about race. We took our knowledge of citizenship and Cornell West's theories and we created our own Declaration of Rights in response to the racial inequalities/issues that are happening today.

Preamble
This Declaration is necessary because this is something that nobody should not be doing to a race. The inequity that I have observed is How blacks are portrayed in the media. Blacks are believed to be less experienced in the media world, because of what is done on their part. We as citizens, must look deeper into this topic and understand that blacks today are not getting the same amount of respect like everybody else in the media.





Article 1
All human beings are born and created equal and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood


Article 2
Everyone  has the right to believe in what they’re taught to believe in


Article 3
All citizens shall participate in the economy whether it’s a small occupation (small pay) or a large occupation (large pay)


Article 4
Every citizen has the right to pursue their lifelong dreams and aspirations


Appendix:

Article 1:
The media sets the tone for the morals, values, and images of black culture and other minority cultures. Many people in this country, believe that the degrading stereotypes of blacks are based on reality.Such as the sterotype of a young black teen gang banging. Some people's action speak loud but they should never speak loud enough for everyone to suffer the consequences of the awkward looks and the opportunity loss in society to grow as a person. Everything they believe about blacks is determined by what they see on television. After over a century of movie making, these stereotypes continue to plague black people today, and until negative images of blacks are extinguished from the media, blacks will be regarded as second-class citizens.

Article 2:
Many black rappers glamorize the world of ghetto living, living only for material possessions, and bragging about being from the violent streets. Younger blacks latch onto this 'cool' image just like many other young teens latch onto the rebellion of punk rock or the drug induced blur of techno music.

Article 3:
Decades after the Civil Rights Movement, Black workers earn significantly worse than White workers. The gap is either 40% or 25% depending on whether the average or median census data is used, but the fact remains that there is a large gap.

Article 4:
Mintel conducted a survey to understand how blacks feel towards how the media portrays blacks. 80% of the people of color who responded said that they are simply proud of their race, while on the other hand, 82% stated that it was important to them for blacks to be portrayed positively. It is clear to us that black men are always shown on TV as to be part of gangs and smoking weed. This is a huge generalization of black males today. As much as people see black males on the streets doing “wrong”, they are mostly being judged for being of a lower class. There are many black males who go to school and have a career, but they are never portrayed in the media in that positive way.

Article 5:
Representation of blacks in the media can also be related to ownership. “Free Press” made a report called "Off The Dial” and said that of all commercial broadcasts and radio stations, African Americans only take 3.4% of it. Since African Americans don’t really own a lot broadcasts and stations, the owners can have a certain opinion on them and portray them as they like. It is still unjust, that African Americans have to listen to the negative things said about them. A big majority of Black americans are of a lower class and these negative advertisements does not make them look any better, in terms of wanting to get a job.

Citations:
Yurii Horton. Poverty & Prejudice; Media and Race. June 1, 1999  
Payne, Maxwell. How Does the Media Portray Black America. April 7, 2007
Nielsen, Robert. Why Are Black People Paid Less Than White People. April 21, 2012

http://reachingblackconsumers.com/2011/09/portrayal-of-blacks-in-the-media/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_African_Americans_in_media