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You've spent hours on your song and you're feeling great. Then...you plateau. You're out of ideas. You have no more tricks up your sleeve.
You then hit save and store your project in a folder hoping that you'll find a way to finish it in a few weeks time.
Sound familiar? It happens to the best of us!
When this happens, one of the best ways to get inspired and motivated to get back to your project is to learn something new. Not only will this give you new ideas, but it will help improve your skills too!
Here are some of our favorite online resources to learn music production and more.
Through partnering with leading universities, Coursera offers online courses, certificates and degrees in a variety of professional fields. Its music programs cover topics like music production, music theory, instruments, songwriting, and much more. Their partners in bringing you music education include the Berklee College of Music, California Institute of the Arts, and Yale University, among others.
What we like about them:
There are a few killer things about Coursera’s music production class. First, it's offered through Berklee, and that’s a big deal — they’re one of the most esteemed music programs in the world. If you’re wanting that extra spark on your resume, look no further. Beyond that, they do an excellent job breaking down exactly what you’ll be learning, and the duration of the class. They even let you take single classes within the full 5 month course typically offered.
Best for:
This course is perfect for both those without any background, and those who’ve been around the block a few times. Again, with Berklee backing this, you can’t really go wrong.
Cost:
This is an interesting one! The full course isn’t free, but financial aid is available. The really, really cool part about Coursera is that they offer “If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.” Monthly subscriptions can range from $40-$80 per month.
IO Music Academy is a one-stop shop for learning music production for all skill levels and budgets. In addition to their in-person school in Los Angeles, they offer live-streamed or recorded online courses, course bundles, and a few free courses.
The best part about IO Music Academy? It’s a community of musicians sharing their best tips, developing their skills, and empowering each other.
What we like about them:
Who doesn’t have that favorite song, or favorite part of a song, that you’ve spent hours searching Reddit about? IO Music Academy gives us the opportunity to learn how your favorite artist made it first-hand.
Best for:
Learning those inside, secret tips and tricks that other successful musicians and producers use on their tracks! If you already have a basic knowledge of navigating a DAW, this could be a really cool way to pick up good habits quickly!
Cost:
IO Music Academy offers one-off and live-streamed classes. Livestream courses will run you $59 (this is where you can ask questions live) while recordings of the livestreams (of which there are over 70) are only $39. The bundle options are more expensive, from $1,400 up to $2,500, but they last 3 to 6 months.
You probably know LinkedIn as a networking platform for professionals, but did you know that they also offer online courses? And yes, there’s tons of great content there for musicians, too! Hundreds of courses and thousands of standalone videos will teach you skills like audio engineering, editing, mixing, mastering, recording, and much more.
What we like about them:
Courses are composed of videos covering very specific topics, and you can search and filter by both courses or individual videos. You can also filter by your experience level, time to complete, or the DAW you’re looking to learn about.
Best for:
Anyone getting started with music production or looking to learn a specific technique. You can watch an entire course, follow a specially curated learning path, or just jump in for a few minutes to watch a quick video.
Cost:
LinkedIn Learning comes as part of LinkedIn Premium and costs $29.99/month for the most basic version. With this subscription you also have access to many other benefits and LinkedIn insights, so it’s great for people who plan on using LinkedIn for its networking capabilities, as well. It’s also worth noting that many schools, employers, and even public libraries offer free access to LinkedIn Learning, so be sure to check if you have something like that available to you.
Did you ever think you could learn music production directly from Timbaland or deadmau5? Or learn songwriting from Alicia Keys? Well with Masterclass, you can do just that. It’s a learning platform with video lessons taught by professionals we all know and admire.
What we like about them:
You can learn from your favorite musicians like Usher, Christina Aguilera, St. Vincent, and Danny Elfman. Need we say more?
Best for:
Musicians who already know the basics of their craft, but are looking to get tips, secrets, and inspiration from some of the world’s best. If you want to take a peek at how your idols do what they do and follow along with their creative process, these classes are for you.
Cost:
You can get access to all courses with an annual subscription fee of $180, which comes out to just $15/month. If you’re unsure, you can try it out and get your money back within the first 30 days.
Monthly is pioneering a new way to learn online. With a focus on creativity, they provide structured 30-day experiences that encourage learners to commit to and finish their creative projects. When you learn with Monthly, you’ll walk away from each class with an actual song you can be proud of!
What we like about them:
Monthly classes are not designed for you to just sit and passively watch videos. Instead, they get you doing and producing right alongside your instructors. Oh and speaking of instructors, they just happen to be musicians like Charlie Puth, Kygo, Ryan Tedder, and Andrew Huang!
Best for:
Creative people who have trouble finishing projects. Sound like you? Yes… us too. With Monthly, you’ll be accountable to a class of about 20 other students, check in with them every day, share your progress and get feedback. You’re pretty much guaranteed to come away with a finished song by the end of the month!
Cost:
You pay for each class you want to take and get lifetime access to course material after the 30 days are over. Prices range between $180 and $400, with most classes priced at $250-$280.
Point Blank Music School is a global network of music institutions, with schools located in five countries and a comprehensive online program. Industry professionals offer courses in music production, sound engineering, DJing, navigating the music business, and much more. Their online program allows you to participate in group masterclasses, as well as get one-on-one instruction with industry experts.
What we like:
They offer a huge selection of classes, and can really set you up for a solid foundation of both music production, theory, and all things music! They also have an awesome collection of high quality free resources.
Best for:
Building that foundation of knowledge and craft! It’s an awesome resource for DJs, as well as singers and songwriters. They stray away from single classes, and focus more on longer, semester based courses.
Cost:
Depends on what you want! They do offer full, semester long programs, which carry a heavier price compared to single classes or monthly subscriptions, for obvious reasons. The lower cost will run around $8,000 for the full year.
Skillshare is an online platform for learning creative skills. There are over a thousand classes on music production, as well as thousands more covering music theory, instruments, songwriting and other music related topics.
Classes range from a few minutes to a few hours in length and are broken down into manageable sections that you can come back to at any point. When you take a Skillshare class, you can also participate in discussions with fellow learners, share your progress and get valuable feedback on your projects.
What we like about them:
All you need is a free account to get cracking with Skillshare! Beyond music production, this site offers you instruction on pretty much anything in life (we’ve used it religiously when converting an old van!) Music-wise, you can expand your knowledge well beyond production, as well. At its core, Skillshare is about people helping people, and we’re all about that!
Best for:
One-off learning and digging into more specific aspects of music or production. If you’re looking for a quick tutorial on detailed mixing, or VST tips, Skillshare can definitely help you out.
Cost:
It can all be free! You do have the option to sign up for a paid premium account and subscriptions are very reasonably priced at $19/month or $99/year.
Soundfly is a subscription-based learning platform made just for musicians! They offer courses in music production, songwriting, playing instruments, creativity, and navigating the music business. In addition to taking courses, you can sign up to work one-on-one with an expert mentor and get instruction and guidance tailored just for you.
What we like about them:
Instructors include professionals in the music business, producers, songwriters, and artists (like Grammy Award winning Kimbra!) The courses are designed to be completed at your own pace, with lots of opportunities to pause and try out what you’re learning. When you join the Soundfly community, you also get access to an exclusive Slack group where you can network with other learners and support each other.
Best for:
Musicians at any level of skill and experience, looking to learn something new from fellow producers, writers, and artists. Many courses are designed to be taken over a few days or weeks, so it’s great for people who like to learn on their own schedule.
Cost:
For a learning platform designed specifically for musicians, Soundfly is extremely affordable. They have lots of free courses, and you can get access to all premium courses for just $19/month when billed annually (or $39/month billed monthly). Subscribers also get a discounted price on working one-on-one with a mentor — 4 weeks for $375 or 6 weeks for $487.
Splice is known as the go-to place for royalty free samples, but luckily for us, they’ve also recently launched a learning library called Skills. Instructors include seasoned producers, audio engineers, artists, and even professors from the Berklee College of Music. Now you can download samples and learn how to use them all in one place!
What we like about them: New tutorials are added every week, covering all skill levels and all of the popular DAWs. Each tutorial comes with downloadable project files so you can pause the lesson and immediately try out what you’re learning in your own DAW.
Best for:
Musicians of all levels interested in music production and audio engineering.
Cost:
Skills comes as part of the Creator plan with Splice, which costs $19.99 per month. The good news is, you also get plugins, presets, and 200 monthly Sounds credits. Now that’s a deal!
Udemy is another online learning platform with thousands of courses on everything from creative hobbies to professional skills. Their music courses will teach you everything you want to know about music production, instruments, vocal techniques, music theory, and much more. Udemy offers free and paid courses, and they’re all taught by experts and industry professionals.
What we like about them:
They have a wide range of single classes available, all at reasonable prices. We like checking out the Most Popular or Trending classes to see what other peeps are learning.
Best for:
The more classic, formal ed type of learner, as most classes are assignment based, and have the option to submit work to the instructor for feedback on improvement. And we all know how hard it is to get authentic and direct feedback about your work!
Cost:
Your only option here are single classes, which cost around $50 to $80, but they also have frequent promotions and even some free classes.
Which one of these awesome resources will you be trying? Do you know of any other ones that we haven’t mentioned? Let us know in the comments and happy learning!
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