Cross cultural education and cross-cultural learning are two mutually integrated and relatively independent logical systems. There are differences in purpose, motivation, path and result, and they are contradictory to each other at some times. The differences between music education and music learning in the system structure begin with motivation, and appropriateness is an important principle to effectively reconcile educational motivation and learning motivation. In the international cooperation projects among music colleges and universities in the 21st century, the appropriateness of cross-cultural education motivation is usually measured by the identity of teaching objects, the value standard of teaching content and the practical significance of teaching purpose. Based on the perspective of cross-cultural music learning, this paper examines the appropriateness of educational motivation in international cooperation projects of music colleges and universities.