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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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.
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How Has Secondary Ticketing Evolved With Technology
Olympia Ornelas
2018The live music business has developed to become the most profitable sector within the overall music industry. Income from streams and album sales currently cannot compare to the revenue that artist and bands can generate from touring. Because of these circumstances all bands and artist that are able to tour, are touring. With an abundance of bands and artist on the road, a secondary market of ticket sales has also benefited and grown stronger. In many cases the sale of concert tickets on the secondary market has become extremely more profitable for sellers of these tickets than for the artists, touring crews, and venues. Although secondary ticketing has always existed parallel to live events such as music, sporting, dramas...etc it wasn’t always as invasive. Various factors have contributed to the current success of the secondary ticketing market such as legal regulation, technological advancements, ticket supply, high concert demand, and ticket pricing to name a few. The market of secondary ticketing is different from country to country and region to region but some similarities do exist. I will address some of these differences and similarities while ultimately uncovering the overall infrastructure that can either encourage or hinder the success of secondary ticketing in the live music business. Secondary Ticketing is a global market and in my research, I will briefly cover parts of Spain but largely focusing on the United States market.
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CD Baby/Berklee DIY Musician Conference EU
Anna Parry
2018This conference was a chance for Berklee and CD Baby to work in collaboration to bring the pre-existing American DIY Musician conference to Europe. The primary focuses were, helping independent musicians gain knowledge on being successful and how to monetize their work, giving Berklee GEMB students the opportunity to gain work experience, and strengthening the CD Baby and Berklee brands in Europe. The conference spanned over 3 days, consisted of 2 live music events, 25 speakers, and 26 topics. The outcome was; 252 individuals purchased tickets, arriving from 31 different countries, with a gender break down of 161 males to 91 females (data taken from Eventbrite). Conference topics consisted of; Building Your Online Brand, How A Song Makes You Money, Authentic Artist Branding, Management, and many more valuable topics. The conference took place at the Aula Magistral, directly across from Berklee’s campus and many spaces on the Berklee Valencia Campus including the recording studios, classrooms, and practice rooms. The main aspect which truly made this project DIY was that it was spearheaded by a team of students consisting of myself acting as the operations manager, David Pozeulo acting as the artist manager and Kim Ortiz acting as the creative manager, all lead by our project manager GEMB Fellow Shana Swayne. In the following pages, I will reflect on how this project aligned with my original expectations, lessons learned, contribution to my professional career and how the project can carry on with success.
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Women in Music – Berklee Chapter
Amisha Patankar, Hillary Storm, and Peter Robaudo
2018Women in Music is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985 whose mission is to, “... advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition”. This organization is composed of men and women who want to bring awareness to the disproportionate representation and mobility of women in the music industry. There are many mediums through which the organization educates and empowers including seminars, panels, showcases, and youth initiatives. The organization, headquartered in NYC, has 13 chapters worldwide and now for the first time has a presence in Spain. Berklee selected three students, Amisha Patankar, Hillary Storm, and Peter Robaudo, to work alongside Clara Barberá in bringing the new chapter to life at Berklee Valencia. Each student was assigned a separate role: Patankar/Marketing, Storm/Sponsorships, and Robaudo/Operations. The team worked over the course of six months to launch the chapter and build its brand not only within the Berklee community, but also within the greater Valencian public. Along with the initial launch mixer, the Women in Music Berklee chapter executed a total of eight events featuring prominent guests such as Patrice Rushen, Susan Rogers, and Yvette Noel-Schure. These events included multiple performances, speeches, and workshops all geared towards bringing a wealth of knowledge on the roles of women in the music industry, skills related to working in the industry, and the power of being a woman and supporting women. To round out the successful launch, the team also worked on a special project with Disrupción Records. This project, a compilation album, was the perfect way for the team to celebrate the accomplishments and relationships established throughout the last six months of the chapter and was properly recognized with a launch party at Sala Matisse on April 11, 2018. Overall each event was unique according to location, topic, guest, and audience. The outcomes were equally diverse but came together to form a beautiful mosaic of values, students, community members, and lessons. All of these established Women in Music Berklee as another branch of an essential organization, seeking to play a role in disseminating positivity and unison within the industry and communities we all love.
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Kilómetro Cero: Música y Comida Local
Ben Pirog and Antoine Jaeger
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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DIY European Conference
David Pozuelo
2018The DIY Musician Conference EU was the first European Cd Baby Conference with Berklee Valencia College of Music focused squarely in independent musicians. An event where artists and industry representatives attended panels, breakout sessions, showcases, network and collaborate.
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RA. SOUNDS SRLS: Cross-Culture Art and Music Exhibitions
Antonio P. Rescigno
2018This project describes the current status of Ra. Sounds SRLs’ business plan, an events company I opened and run during my year at Berklee College of Music. The objective of this paper is to define aspects of the company such as its corporate identity and customer segmentation, while also identifying the presence and characteristic of its business environment. The company’s mission is key to the understanding of the work. Ra.’s main objective is to promote art and music exhibition, merging cultures and ideas. Here, I focus on the theoretical approaches used when developing business ideas, nevertheless real results justify what formulated. The events organized so far have been a success. I have great hope for the future of this project, I trust it will keep growing in the following years as I will keep learning on the field.
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Women in Music – Berklee Chapter
Peter Robaudo, Hillary Storm, and Amisha Patankar
2018Women in Music is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985 whose mission is to, “... advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition”. This organization is composed of men and women who want to bring awareness to the disproportionate representation and mobility of women in the music industry. There are many mediums through which the organization educates and empowers including seminars, panels, showcases, and youth initiatives. The organization, headquartered in NYC, has 13 chapters worldwide and now for the first time has a presence in Spain. Berklee selected three students, Amisha Patankar, Hillary Storm, and Peter Robaudo, to work alongside Clara Barberá in bringing the new chapter to life at Berklee Valencia. Each student was assigned a separate role: Patankar/Marketing, Storm/Sponsorships, and Robaudo/Operations. The team worked over the course of six months to launch the chapter and build its brand not only within the Berklee community, but also within the greater Valencian public. Along with the initial launch mixer, the Women in Music Berklee chapter executed a total of eight events featuring prominent guests such as Patrice Rushen, Susan Rogers, and Yvette Noel-Schure. These events included multiple performances, speeches, and workshops all geared towards bringing a wealth of knowledge on the roles of women in the music industry, skills related to working in the industry, and the power of being a woman and supporting women. To round out the successful launch, the team also worked on a special project with Disrupción Records. This project, a compilation album, was the perfect way for the team to celebrate the accomplishments and relationships established throughout the last six months of the chapter and was properly recognized with a launch party at Sala Matisse on April 11, 2018. Overall each event was unique according to location, topic, guest, and audience. The outcomes were equally diverse but came together to form a beautiful mosaic of values, students, community members, and lessons. All of these established Women in Music Berklee as another branch of an essential organization, seeking to play a role in disseminating positivity and unison within the industry and communities we all love.
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Iceland and its Music Industry
Sandra Rún Jónsdóttir
2018This Research paper is about Iceland and its music industry. It looks at the main income of musicians, how is the music industry built up and what can be improved. It goes over popular venues and festivals and where the industry lies. The main finding is how hard it is for musicians to get their music played on radio, and that most people listen to music on radio. There is clearly that somethings have to be done to support Icelandic artists and help them develop as artist and to break into the industry. Iceland does not have to look far for ideas to improve the radio laws, for example Canada has a really good system Iceland could try to implement or even look over to France.
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Marabou Digital Business Plan
Abaasa Rwemereza
2018Marabou Digital is a music consultancy firm offering campaign management, marketing and business development strategy services to artists, indie labels and artist managers in the East African region. We also offer digital distribution, data analytics and media tracking services. The music industry in Uganda and East Africa has always taken small gradual steps towards full functioning and capacity, however, with the limited local solutions and lack of expertise, it is difficult for an artist to break through the African and global market. We strive to provide music companies, independent artists and label partners with access to the resources, relationships and experience required to share their creative vision with the African and global audience.
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Women in Music – Berklee Chapter
Hillary Storm, Amisha Patankar, and Peter Robaudo
2018Women in Music is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985 whose mission is to, “... advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition”. This organization is composed of men and women who want to bring awareness to the disproportionate representation and mobility of women in the music industry. There are many mediums through which the organization educates and empowers including seminars, panels, showcases, and youth initiatives. The organization, headquartered in NYC, has 13 chapters worldwide and now for the first time has a presence in Spain. Berklee selected three students, Amisha Patankar, Hillary Storm, and Peter Robaudo, to work alongside Clara Barberá in bringing the new chapter to life at Berklee Valencia. Each student was assigned a separate role: Patankar/Marketing, Storm/Sponsorships, and Robaudo/Operations. The team worked over the course of six months to launch the chapter and build its brand not only within the Berklee community, but also within the greater Valencian public. Along with the initial launch mixer, the Women in Music Berklee chapter executed a total of eight events featuring prominent guests such as Patrice Rushen, Susan Rogers, and Yvette Noel-Schure. These events included multiple performances, speeches, and workshops all geared towards bringing a wealth of knowledge on the roles of women in the music industry, skills related to working in the industry, and the power of being a woman and supporting women. To round out the successful launch, the team also worked on a special project with Disrupción Records. This project, a compilation album, was the perfect way for the team to celebrate the accomplishments and relationships established throughout the last six months of the chapter and was properly recognized with a launch party at Sala Matisse on April 11, 2018. Overall each event was unique according to location, topic, guest, and audience. The outcomes were equally diverse but came together to form a beautiful mosaic of values, students, community members, and lessons. All of these established Women in Music Berklee as another branch of an essential organization, seeking to play a role in disseminating positivity and unison within the industry and communities we all love.
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EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Disrupción Records
Jeremy Vaughn
2018For my culminating experience in the Global Entertainment and Music Business (GEMB) program, I will work together with three other GEMB candidates—Henry Liao, Amisha Patankar, and Rodolfo Guimaraes—to relaunch Disrupción Records, and make it a preeminent, student-run indie record label. Together we will define and create a delineated blueprint for continued use by future master's candidates. Primarily, I will manage the production of the music for the label. This will entail overseeing recording sessions, managing and scheduling a group of top-notch volunteer engineers and studio musicians, and mastering all of the releases. As the Executive Producer, my role in the label will extend beyond the scope of production and be diverse in its range. Henry and I are the Co-directors of A&R; together we will draft a consolidated business plan that will outline the label’s mission, responsibilities, operational framework, and campus community engagement, and on the creative end, I will redesign Disrupción Records’s website. As a group, we will cultivate and sign artists to the label, create a timetable for single and EP releases, and generate social media content to promote the 2017/18 signed artists and the release of their music. We will also partner with the Women in Music (WIM) chapter in Valencia to release a compilation album highlighting and celebrating women in the music industry.
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A Chance to Dream Music Series
Carole Ann M. Vetter
2018A Chance to Dream was an original event concept conceived by the student club Creativo Collective, which the team built from the ground up with the support of Berklee College of Music. Our goal for this project was to do something educational and inspirational for the student community in Valencia while helping others in need. This is why we chose to use the event to raise money for Music Action International, which is a non-profit organization that supports survivors of war-related trauma and stress through music programs.
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Barrio Lírico - Mexico Tour 2018
Paula Alexandra Vicaria
2018As our CE project myself together with Laura Vidal, 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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Taking A Capella back to the Chinese Market – Working with The Metro Group through their China tour and mainland promotion
Roxy Wang
2018This Culminating Experience intends to develop such management plan that can be timely executed for the Metro Vocal Group (MVG), an American A Capella group based in Hong Kong specialized in singing asian pop/rock songs, with the author taking on the role of an artist manager. The group was formed in 1998 and consists of four male singers (Eric Monson, Sean Oliver, Michael Lance, Kevin Thornton) individually from Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska, and Kentucky in the USA. Each individual member has extensive experience in vocal performances. MVG has been in residency in Hong Kong since 2005 and is now touring around Asia and Oceania, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, southern part of China, and Australia. The unique area that MVP mainly specializes in singing - pop & rock Chinese & Cantonese songs with occasional arrangements of Western pop songs, has gained a special niche market space for the career development of MVP within Asia. The group has released seven albums, including one all-Chinese album No Borders and is now expanding their musical trace into the Greater China.
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Disrupción Records
Henry Yi Chao Liao
2018The entire idea of Disrupción records this year is to be an incubator record label preparing artists from Berklee Valencia for the real industry.
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Boundless Music Presents: Storytellers, Music and Culture – Concert Series
Renjin Zhao
2018This is an operational project describing a concert series held by Boundless Music. The concert series aims to provide 3-4 different concerts with a different cultural theme, in order to maximize the benefit of being in such a diverse and global campus, and benefit local people and Berklee students to have the opportunity to listen to music they might have never heard of before.
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Kobalt Music Group - A Case Study
Flavio Adrian Mondaini
2017A case study of Kobalt Music Group, an innovative company in music publishing, label services and neighboring rights.
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MILKMAN Launch Event
Jai Anand
2017I have launched my own company, MILKMAN, during my time in Valencia. MILKMAN is a hybrid of ideas, emotions and sounds that come to life through live events and extraordinary experiences.
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Externship: Serious Fan Music
Tess Anketell
2017My Culminating Experience consisted of an externship with Serious Fan Music, SFM, located in Valencia, Spain. The company offers a variety of services including: international artist management, concert production, artist promotion, as well as musical and cultural events. Julio Martí, who currently runs the organization, founded SFM over forty years ago. Specializing in Jazz, SFM has worked with artists such as Miles Davis and Chick Corea.
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Artist Management: Business Plan
Michael Bassal
2017XX Management is a collective of creative minds united by the common goal of curating and developing talents for the music industry.