A 12-month career launch program for jazz and classical graduates. The curriculum your conservatory never taught.
Music school did its job. You can play. You have technique, repertoire, theory, history. You graduated with a degree that took years and cost real money.
But on the morning after your last recital, nobody told you how to get a gig, build an audience, charge your worth, navigate industry relationships, or make your career financially sustainable.
That gap is not an accident. It is a structural hole in music education that has always existed. Most graduates figure it out the hard way, alone, over years of trial and error.
An active 12-week curriculum followed by 9 months of supported independence. Community, accountability, and real industry access.
Weekly group sessions covering the full curriculum. Two one-on-one sessions with Nick. Guest speakers from inside the industry. Accountability pods with fellow cohort members.
Quarterly group check-ins. Persistent community access. An opportunity board and resource library that stays active long after the program ends. Alumni network for life.
Who are you as an artist? Who is your audience? How do you talk about your work in a way that actually lands? Building the foundation everything else rests on.
Press, social media, online presence, and getting in front of the right people. How to build an audience that follows your career for decades.
Gigs, teaching, licensing, recordings, educational products, and institutional work. Understanding all the income streams available to you and how to pursue them.
Finance, taxes, scheduling, and the infrastructure of a long career. How to build something that survives the first year and grows through the next ten.
Every session is led by someone who does this work at the highest level. Not theory. Not retrospective. Current, working expertise you can put to use immediately.
You are looking for a passive experience. This program requires presence, honesty, and effort. The cohort size is intentionally small because accountability is built in. Everyone is expected to show up and do the work.
Nick Finzer is a working jazz trombonist, bandleader, label founder, professor, and author who has spent the last decade building every part of a professional music career from scratch and teaching others to do the same.
Named a Rising Star Trombonist in the DownBeat Critics Poll and Grammy nominated with Anat Cohen's Tentet, Nick has performed at Carnegie Hall, Dizzy's Club, Sydney Opera House, Birdland, and the Blue Note, led eight critically acclaimed albums, and topped the JazzWeek Charts. He studied at Eastman and Juilliard, where he was mentored by trombone legend Steve Turre.
As the inaugural Professor of Jazz Trombone at the University of North Texas and a former visiting professor at Florida State University, Hunter College, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, Nick has spent years watching talented graduates run directly into the gap The Count Off is built to close.
As founder of Outside In Music, he works daily alongside the publicists, agents, and festival programmers who teach in this program. They are colleagues. That access flows directly to you.
Space is intentionally limited. Waitlist members get first access to applications and early bird pricing.
No spam. No pressure. First access when applications open.