On this page, you can find the Culminating Experience (CE) Projects for all graduate students from the Berklee College of Music master’s program Global Entertainment and Music Business (GEMB) from 2015 – present. Click on any title for more information and access to the full paper and other deliverables (if available).
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Where functional music finds its home: a literature review
Abigail Robinson
2019The 21st century has seen the proliferation of music as a utilitarian tool that can alter, regulate, and observe mood. Functional music takes on many definitions—from musique d’ameublement, Muzak, film scores, to MTV and brand sponsored media. Today, functional music (a mood stabilizer) is the biggest economic driver for user choice. “When presented with a large array of affordable or free options, consumers can be mentally paralyzed by the worry that they aren’t making the most efficacious and fulfilling choice,” (Schwartz, 2005). Spotify and other DSPs help alleviate the strain of choice by providing preset and often branded playlists fit for any mood or occasion. At the same time, smart speakers are a fast-growing piece of the music listening market. According to Music Ally, smart speaker sales grew 169% in 2018 with over 80 million units sold. The global market is expected to reach 200 million by 2019. Smart speakers are inherently functional given their hands-off approach. They provide an intimate space for an often-dissociated listener. “Ethnomusicologists have told us, the functions of music can be described in almost exclusively social terms,” (Frith, 2012). There are still unknown implications of how smart speakers will integrate with functional music—especially as it pertains to places of work and social gatherings.
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An Extensive Exploration into the Sedative Effect
Kyrie Rolle
2019The purpose of this study was to examine and measure the subliminal influence of a particular compositional device on music listeners with the intent of learning whether or not the device elicits any sort of emotional response, and if so, possibly uncover ways in which this device can be implemented as a tool throughout the music industry’s many facets.
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Creating the World's First Record Label for Robots
Alejandro Sabillon
2019This project aimed to create the world's first record label for robots using artificial intelligence to create synthetic artists and music. The outcome paper takes the form of a business plan outlining the process of creating this new company.
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Tools for Navigating Public Relations in a "Cancel Culture" Climate/Grown, Gifted, & Black Consulting/Michael Jackson’s 40th Anniversary of “Off the Wall”: A Tribute Performance
Zoe Schneider
2019I completed the planning and execution of a tribute performance, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson's solo album, Off the Wall. In executing a musical performance of scale at a respectable public venue, I’ve displayed testament to my abilities to organize and manage a project. It was a platform with which to showcase my musicianship, and my pursuit of excellence in mastering a new musical craft. I’ve proved that I'm an accomplished singer, and also a bassist, drummer, and pianist. Furthermore, I was able to develop an ideal growth strategy for my consulting firm, Grown, Gifted, and Black, feeding my desire to serve and give back to young artists of color. Finally, I’ve expanded upon my research into how we can encourage and support public figures to be socially conscious artists, and fully embrace their duty to be a well-informed global citizen. This is research intended to propel me into my doctoral thesis ethnomusicology application on my completion of this program.
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Fusion at Disrupcion Records
Rea Shena
2019The Sync Department at Disrupcion Records was created as a platform to facilitate artists and composers with Sync possibilities and work for hire/ bespoke music.
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The Copyright Environment of the Modern Streaming Industry with Financial Analysis
Randle Thompson
2019The birth of streaming has not only changed the way the recording industry is paid for their works but has also allowed new forms of piracy to persist. The music industry claims that large UGC sites such as YouTube are exploiting a value gap created by safe harbor provisions created before music streaming became the primary source of music consumption. This value gap seems more apparent with music being the most consumed form of content on their platform. While the music industry is attempting to extract more revenue from digital sound recordings through EU Directive on Copyright they have also lobbied to increase the statutory mechanical rates paid on the publishing side to publishers, songwriters and performing rights organizations through a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board and modified the rate setting formula among other things outlined after a multi-year fight culminating in the passage of the Music Modernization Act. These legal battles have far reaching effects and I will attempt to shed light on their industry impact as well as calculate the potential financial impact of the CRBs rate increase on Spotify’s financial statements and the piracy effects on a large UK indie label, Beggars Group. This analysis will serve to further determine the need for this legislation.
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Sofar Sounds Valencia
Saria Tourbah
2019My culminating experience is about the organization and implementation of Sofar Sounds Valencia. Sofar Sounds is a community based in over 300 cities around the world. Over the past few years, it has existed in Valencia but hasn't been quite consistent. My mission was to rebuild the brand here and put on a number of shows throughout the year rather than just a limited number. We were a team of seven individuals from all over the world and we took the opportunity to learn from each other’s skills as well as build a family together. My culminating experience has proven to be a success and I will continue to work on this project for the next year as I will remain in Valencia for the Global Entertainment and Music Business fellowship program. I will increase the number of shows we put on per month and continue to create such a memorable experience for our audience.
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2018 DIY Musician Conference: Creative Marketing & Production Guide
Kimberly Albritton
2018This guide is purposed as an informative & suggestive resource for future DIY the next team find this handbook useful and supportive in their efforts to plan and my in-depth evaluation of what I believe contributed to the success of the first ever Conferences, if they are to be held annually in Europe. In this reference, I will relay European DIY Musician Conference, as well as what could be improved to ensure that the next conference is more successful than its predecessor. It is my goal that execute another conference.
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Strategic Marketing and Branding
Justin Angel Rivera
2018My main intentions regarding my culminating experience were to bridge the gap between the artistic mind and the development of an authentic brand. Artistic identity can be hard for artists, and many lack the resources or knowledge to grow in the music industry. My idea was to design and execute an operational project in a creative practical way using DIY tactics. My work was focused on two different artists, Gracie Hays and Sergio Martinez.
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Mexico Tour: An Artist Development Project
Laura Beatriz Vidal-Batiz
2018As our CE project myself together with Paula Alexandra Vicaria, will create a business plan for the urban music group 'Barrio Lírico'. Particularly, focusing on the region of Mexico. The business plan will integrate: a detailed band presentation, a booking strategy and a marketing and promotion campaign. Part of this booking strategy will contain a specific organized mock tour, which will be of great use for the band directly. This CE will take us through the process of understanding the live industry in Mexico. Giving us the chance to learn about the process of when it comes to booking and tour manager tasks, among other operations in the live industry. At the same time, our work will have a direct impact on the bands' live progression and growth, supporting them with a detailed analysis of their market of interest. Professionally, we will be able to progress and further grow by acquiring the necessary skills to deliver this business plan.
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Recent Evolution in the Brazilian Recorded Music: An Analysis of Radio and Streaming Market Shares
Rodolfo Bianchi Guimarães
2018After two years of dull results, the Brazilian recorded music market grew 17,9% in 2017, becoming the 9th largest market in the world and driving the growth of Latin America. Streaming has grown by 64%, more than compensating for the sharp decrease in physical sales and downloads. By reviewing industry-specific reports and by collecting and analyzing radio airplays and streaming data, this paper investigates how the market shares have been evolving in the past two years. Local repertoire is persistently important both for major and independent labels, representing approximately 60% of the music consumed via radio and streaming services. Majors have been striving to maintain their positions, facing strong local players and emerging genres. The overall market growth represents a business opportunity for all parties, while the strengthening of digital distribution makes the marketplace a more even ground. In this context, independent labels and self-released artists can find their way to the customers, while majors need to remain attentive to local trends.
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The Berklee Sessions: COPE Radio Valencia
Melissa Caton
2018Cadena COPE is one of the largest national radio stations in Spain. This operational project focuses on six, monthly organized sessions for the radio featuring Berklee student musicians and Berklee faculty/fellow/staff guest speakers. I wanted to organise an opportunity to showcase the cultural and musical diversity of the Berklee Valencia campus, while at the same time creating an invaluable experience for the emerging artists who are currently attending various degree programs. Each student performer commented that they believed the COPE collaboration was an invaluable initiative. Pre-show and post-show social media numbers were collected from each artist to observe if any noticeable difference could be determined in connected to the sessions. However, I was able to determine that the true value of this collaborative initiative was on a more personal level. For Berklee, organic promotional content, COPE unique engaging programming, and for the students, an industry relevant resume building.
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WUND MUZIK ARTIST RESIDENCY – Empowering the Artists of the Future
Jeheremy Characo
2018The main purpose of this business plan is to decide which will be the best way to open a music artist residency taking into account all the factors that present a challenge for most start-ups in today’s socio-economical arena. These will be achieved by using Butler’s business plan format as a guide.
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International Tour Planning for Independent Artists from Taiwan
Yi-hsuan Chou
2018This Culminating Experience (CE) was dedicated to the planning, primarily logistical, of an international tour for independent artists from Taiwan. The CE should serve as an approachable and practical guide or a reference of know-hows for Taiwanese indie artists who are not signed to a label with extensive international network and resources yet established enough with the budget to tour internationally. Additionally, this serves as a foundation for artists without booking agents or concert promoters to pick up the tour and would like to organize their own tour in a DIY model. Upon completion of a simple tour plan based on this CE as a reference point, artists should also be able to have a concrete plan to submit to potential investors, sponsors (including government grants) or partners, with whom artists can work to enrich the content of the tour, to obtain financial support or to introduce a long-term relationship with brands.
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Analysis of Chinese Hip-Hop Music: Situation and the Possibility of Development
Zhaoyin Dai
2018The goal of this research is to analyze the hip-hop music market in China and evaluate the methods which could help Chinese hip-hop music continue growing stably. By collecting materials from books and documentaries, also combined interviews and surveys, there are several possibilities for this kind of music to live well and be developed in Chinese market. Otherwise, with time passing by, the music trend is updating rapidly not only among Western countries, but also in Eastern countries, especially for South Korea and China. The analysis will base on these changes which are happened recently, for example, the Hip-Hop competitions influence and the cognition of the audience about the music trend changes. At the same time, there are analyze of barriers for developing Hip-Hop music in China and several methods provided as solution reference.
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Weatro as a new source of Entertainment
Nicolás Guasca Santamaría
2018Weatro is a ticketing platform for tourists who don’t know what would be the best event to go on their travel. We have realized people struggle and have the need of finding out the best show to go when visiting. For that reason, we provide the solution for thousands of tourists that want to know a place in terms of culture and entertainment while they are traveling (music, theater, performance, dance, drama, etc.)
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The Impact of Music Festivals to Cities: Is Festivals Worth Investing in?
Ronnie Hansen
2018States spend a significant amount of money on financing various cultural events, but they do so without knowing the exact and broader effects of these investments. To deal with this problem, appropriate methods have to be developed to investigate the actual effects of a specific investment. Doing so would allow for qualification of decision making when it comes to public support of cultural events. We investigate following research question: How do we measure the broader effects of a cultural event? Based on an empirical case of a documentary film festival CPH:DOX we investigate the impacts, economic and social, the festival has on the surrounding society. We develop a mixed methods research design consisting of 58 interviews and 987 survey respondents to map both economic effects and what we term societal effects such as raising political awareness or improving civic engagement. We conclude that we do see an economic impact such as the added value from tourism and increased employment as well as we see a social impact, especially in terms affecting CPH:DOX participants cognitively and emotionally. This framework contributes not only with means to evaluate a given cultural event but also to optimize value enhancement. In addition, it can be used to conduct comparisons between cultural events, both nationally and internationally.
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XCVIII
Kevin Hyun
2018I created a business plan for my brand project "XCVIII". XCVIII is synonymous to a talent management company and a fashion platform. The artist and models of XCVIII will mainly serve as influencers that fashion brands can advertise their designs through. The purpose of this business plan is to better explain to investors the seemingly abstract concept of XCVIII.
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House of Shoom Records
Christina Isaacs
2018A globalized record label with an anthropologic approach to preceding and emerging music in niche markets.
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Kilómetro Cero: Música y Comida Local
Antoine Jaeger and Ben Pirog
2018The following paper describes the background, objectives, actionable tasks, execution, and challenges of organizing Kilómetro Cero: Música y Comida Local. This event was a one-day music and food festival focused on themes of sustainability and local consumption that occurred on May 20th in La Escuela de Ruzafa. The purpose of this Culminating Experience project was to develop our competency as event promoters. while also creating a meaningful, positive environment for promoting the initiatives of Valencian producers and associations acting on change at a regional scale. In order to execute such an event successfully, many actionable steps were necessary including the development of a visual brand, promotion through both printed and digital media, execution of Facebook campaign tactics, development of various partnerships with local businesses and associations, and, perhaps most importantly, the practice of patience and persistence. Over the course of several months, our understanding of the Valencian culture and people who work to preserve it was enriched through personal connections. We hope this event can continue on in our absence, either through Berklee our other partners we made along our journey.
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Indo Flamenco Concert
Dhaval Kothari
2018Indo Flamenco Concert that I organised in Valencia was a successful event of 300 Spanish people enjoying Indian and Flamenco music. It was organised with Dhaval music foundation which is registered with Cultural ministry of India and was supported by Berklee college of music. The other local sponsors were Ayurveda, Taj Mahal restaurant, Raffello, Reina Roja band, and support of Indian Consulate Madrid. The goal of the Indo-Flamenco concert is to raise funds for non-profit organisations that work for the well-being of children. The concept of this concert is to contemplate the Spanish roots of Flamenco that come from the western part of India called Rajasthan. The Romani population (gypsies) emigrated and settled in Spain, after having traveled through the Iberian peninsula, gathering vibrant influences from different cultures. The exuberant and omnipotent joy of Spain shows a great resemblance to the contagious joy impregnated in the Indian dance and its patterns, as well as in the Kathak dance style of northern India. All the money was proceeded to Foundation Vicente Ferrer and Foundation Fuvane.
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Sofar Sounds Valencia
Ali Kutay Bengi
2018My culminating experience project was to organize concerts in Valencia as a city leader of Sofar Sounds. I managed volunteers to help me with various tasks. The first concert was on March 5th in Portland Ale with 2 bands. The second concert was on April 13th in Contrapunto Les Arts with 3 bands. I signed partnership and sponsorship deals, researched and negotiated with various bands and venues, designed marketing materials and promoted the events.
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Streaming Wars Continue Case Study
Artur Elísio Mendonça Melo e Castro
2018My Culminating Experience project – a case study by the name of “Streaming Wars Continue” aims at providing research and a deeper look into the fascinating music streaming business models, its challenges, opportunities and strategies.
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How Blockchain is being used as a solution to solve the music metadata mess
Kirstin Moffatt
2018This paper aims to describe the Blockchain and Ethereum technologies and how they are being utilized today by two leading application developers to realize solutions to the metadata mess in the music industry. Blockchain has some of the essential characteristics needed to record the ownership of intellectual property, immutability and ownership consensus which is reached by a majority audience. This topology has paved the way for investors and entrepreneurs to seek solutions in resolving the issue of intellectual rights claims. The paper starts with a short introductory section divulging the genesis of where the music metadata mess all began and it contextualizes Blockchain within the World Wide Web. It is then followed by the first section which presents a literature review that reports the fundamental components of the platforms and is meant for someone who has no prior knowledge of Blockchain. The second section of this paper dives into the topic of music metadata and explores two companies, one sitting on the Blockchain platform and another on the Ethereum platform, through qualitative interviews. Through conducting these interviews, it can be deduced that both these developments are sitting in the early phases of the technological life cycle, with Blockchain slightly ahead of Ethereum. Nonetheless, both of these technologies are sitting in their infancy and have much potential to flourish and to offer great solutions to the music industry.
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Dreaming in Third Person
Fariz Nasser Ahmed
2018Dreaming in Third Person is a visual, musical and storytelling project that creates art for artists and aims to help develop their business. Behind the scenes, it is a marketing company that creates marketing timelines for release campaigns and a production house that projects the artistic brand through pieces of content within that campaign. Dreaming in Third Person was created to contribute to the value gap that exists for independent artists seeking to build sustainable careers with their music without having to resort to a label.