With fast changes in our consumer society along with amazing technological advancements, the music recording business can now be characterized as a mega-media, multifaceted, almost-everything-but a record business. Changing media formats and new business models along with transforming societal attitudes and methods of consumption are the key elements in this rapidly changing media sphere. The course focuses on how the industry and our society have evolved and will continue to evolve into a remarkable and unpredictable future. In this course emphasis is placed on understanding and developing new business paradigms and how they create new societal norms and modeling. Areas of study will include music production, music supervision, copyright infringement, digital distribution, the new A&R, gaming, music publishing, DIY, music journalism, PR, and publicity, and of course, the role of social media in this new digital music media space. Students will follow, analyze, and critique current developments through a variety of non-traditional readings, films, videos, recordings, podcasts, etc.