Navigating the Music Business wraps up first session with Texas State

The Navigating the Music Business program will wrap up their six-week long program next Wednesday. The program was founded by Ogden Payne, who also teaches some of the weekly sessions.

Born and raised in Austin, Payne started off as an artist himself. Payne experienced the struggles of understanding the entrepreneurial side of the music industry firsthand. This led him in starting programs that shed some light on how to make music a business.

“I struggled with a lot of those things, especially coming out of high school,” Payne said. “That was 15 years ago and I see that things have not really changed.”

The lack of college programs honing in on the music business has been a key factor in Payne’s desire to start these programs. Payne said when graduating the only programs that existed were either NYU or UCLA.

“All of these programs I, first of all, couldn’t afford to go to and I didn’t want to move to those places,” Payne said. “I wanted to figure out ‘how do I do what I want to do from where I am without having to go into debt for it?’ That was really the big reason.

“That was 15 years ago and there are still students struggling today with that same issue. I wanted to create something that allowed students who want to learn about the industry to be able to do it affordably and quickly.”

Payne is the founder of FTS, For the Students, which helps students and aspiring industry professionals gain an understanding towards the business side of the music industry.

FTS has different certificate programs to work with both adults and students on understanding different careers and business operations within the music industry.

Payne is the founder and a class facilitator for the Navigating the Music Business. The six-week long program has once a week meetings as well as an online portal with prerecorded content for the students.

Students gather with either Payne himself or a guest lecturer every Wednesday to bring their questions and thoughts.

Each week throughout the program covers a different topic. Ranging from the roles surrounding an artist to legal contracts, students learn a vast variety of music business-centric operations. Students put everything they have learned over the six-week program together to submit to Payne as the final project.

This session capped out at 15 participants with many more having filled out the application. Among these students there has been high engagement, with all 15 students being present at every weekly meeting. Payne said at a networking event held in Austin last week, approximately eight of the Texas State students made the trip from San Marcos to Austin.

“It’s just so incredible to see because you start to see these students in the beginning where they’re like, ‘I don’t know maybe’ and then towards the end they are just lighting up,” Payne said. “They’re holding conversations. They’re meeting with each other. It is just the coolest thing to see.”

This summer program marks the first session of the Navigating the Music Business program with Texas State University. Originally, the program started a few years ago at another university, but Payne has since brought the program to his alma mater, Texas State University.

As the program continues to evolve, Payne has a goal of helping the students find job opportunities as well as provide coaching.

“What we’re going to double down on is making sure that every single student either gets their job opportunity or jobs sent to them or there is some sort of way that we can help them along their musical pathway,” Payne said. “So every single one of these students is going to get coaching from us as well.”

The program is designed for students enrolled in any major who seek to learn about the music industry. With hosting music, communication, business, and computer science majors the program is open to anyone.

“This is a very easy quiet way for students to be able to try something new without having to derail their whole career path,” Payne said. “It’s really for those students who are thinking about the industry, they’re interested in it, they want to learn a little bit more, and they just want to see if this is something that I could actually make a living in.”

For Payne the most rewarding moment throughout his career has been watching students achieve their dreams. Payne designed the program to build a community where ‘no dream is too far-fetched.”

“You just see them blossom and come out of their shell,” Payne said. “I can’t explain what that feeling is like but that is what I love the most. What’s super rewarding is when these students either land jobs or their metrics for releasing a song are met. Just watching them report back to us and the smiles on their faces. That is the best gift in the world.”

In the fall, Payne will host more Navigating the Music Business programs with Texas State and hopes to continue providing more for the spring semester.