If you pursue a bachelor's degree in music, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #34 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 10 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Music Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 587 bachelor's degrees in music during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Choosing a Great Music School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The music bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on music students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of music students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt music students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized music related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for music students working on their bachelor's degree.
The music school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Music Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "visual-and-performing-arts//music"
Earn the music business degree that fits into the business world – and partners Southern New Hampshire University with world-renowned Berklee College of Music.
Vanderbilt University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in music. Located in the large city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in music from Vanderbilt University
Belmont University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in music. Located in the large city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the music program earn about $24,016 for their early career.
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in music. UT Knoxville is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville.
Music bachelor's degree recipients from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville receive an earnings boost of around $2,524 over the average income of music majors.
Middle Tennessee State University is a good decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in music. Located in the city of Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee State University is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the music program earn about $27,586 in their early career salary.
Tennessee Tech University is a fairly large public university located in the remote town of Cookeville.
Bachelor's recipients from the music major at Tennessee Technological University make $15,271 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.