The evolving landscape of the music industry, driven by technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, and global connectivity, has necessitated a reevaluation of the skill sets imparted to music graduates by conservatories. This study explores the question of how conservatories can better prepare their graduates to meet the demands of today's music industry. To address this question, the research delves into the changing paradigms within the music business, emphasizing the increasing significance of entrepreneurial and digital competencies, as well as an understanding of diverse music genres and cultures.

This inquiry employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with music industry professionals, educators, and alumni, along with quantitative surveys among current music students. It seeks to identify the core competencies and skill sets considered most relevant by industry insiders. Additionally, the study examines the curricular offerings, teaching methodologies, and extracurricular opportunities within conservatories to understand how these institutions can best align their programs with the contemporary needs of the music profession.

The findings of this research emphasize the importance of a balanced education that includes traditional music theory, performance, and history, alongside practical skills such as music production, marketing, copyright law, and digital distribution. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and cultural diversity awareness among music graduates. The research underscores the need for partnerships between conservatories and the music industry to create internship and mentorship programs, thereby providing students with real-world exposure and networking opportunities.

This study contributes to the ongoing dialogue surrounding the evolution of music education and the adaptation of conservatories to meet the dynamic demands of the music industry. It offers insights and recommendations to conservatory administrators, educators, and policymakers to ensure that music graduates are not only equipped to thrive as performers but also as versatile, informed, and entrepreneurial professionals who can navigate and contribute to the contemporary music industry effectively.

Often young creative graduates exhibit great uncertainties in terms of the economic aspects of their careers and a lack of market-focused, business-related skills was also deemed an important barrier to career development. This has led to many arts graduates accepting low-income careers as an inevitable consequence of working in the creative industries. This study follows the 2021 Helpmann Academy Creative Innovator Program closely which selected 11 South Australian emerging creatives from the fields of music, fashion, animation and game design, film, and design to help them to realize their business ideas through various 6-month tailored career interventions including workshops, masterclasses, mentoring, networking, and seed funding. This paper reviews the intensive program and undertakes a qualitative study based on group discussions and one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 11 participants. Using Tomlinson (2017)’s graduate capital model, we find that the Creative Innovator program provides a catalyst for the participating creative graduates to kickstart their new venture creation. The program created a range of graduate capitals in dimensions of human, financial, social, cultural, identity and psychological (Tomlinson 2017). We make a novel theoretical contribution through applying the lens of the graduate capitals (Tomlinson 2017; Tomlinson & Jackson, 2021) which has not been discussed in the studies of the arts and creative industries.