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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Ask A Guru
Gabrielle Mella
2015Ask A Guru is an interactive platform that allows users to discover and share music. Paul Nnaoji, Nicolas Schipper and Gabrielle Mella from the Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, developed the platform. This idea was formed when we were presented with an industry problem in our Entrepreneurship & Innovation class and turned it into an opportunity. The issue is that there are more than 4 million songs on Spotify that have not been streamed and this gives listeners around the world the immensely difficult task of discovering new music and moreover choosing the music that matches their exact personal taste.1 Ask A Guru was created as a solution to this current music mess by offering a platform that will easily enable individuals to discover and share music and gets rewarded by doing so.
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Mexican Music Festivals: Is Mexico the next big music festival scene?
Alejandro Morales
2015For my CE research paper I decided to investigate the Mexican music festival market, using the question “Is Mexico the next big music festival scene of the world?” as the primary question of my investigation. This main question unveiled a series of other questions that I found very useful to complement the main topic and get a grasp of the Mexican market as a whole in terms of festivals.
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Ask A Guru
Paul Nnaoji
2015Ask a Guru is a music curation platform that allows users to quickly and easily share and discover music from all over the world in a fun and interactive way. The idea for the company began here at the Berklee College of Music Valencia, during the first semester. On the first day of Entrepreneurship and Innovation class, leaders were selected amongst the class. One of those selected was Nicolas Schipper. These leaders were entrusted with the task of selecting a team whom they would work with for the entire rest of the semester.
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Alcohol Branding in the Modern Music Industry
Ryan Kane O'Leary
2015Today’s music industry is convoluted by brands. As a result of social, cultural, and technological advances, the music industry is being financed and controlled by a new arsenal of forces. Over the past 20 years, the music industry has seen the emergence of brand activations. At pace like no other, non-music brands are beginning to control and influence the music industry. The category of brands most active in music marketing are undeniably alcohol brands. Despite this unstoppable force in music, there still remains many problems. The impact and influence of non-music related companies in the music industry can be detrimental to the quality and creative nature of the actual music. In this research paper, I investigate exactly how beer brands can positively engage in the music industry in a way that beneficial to the artists, the brand, and the overall music. I focus my research on two of the most active and powerful beer brands in the world: Heineken International and AB InBev.
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Content Evolution: The Episodic Video Game Model & Cross Sections Between Today’s Music and Video Game Industries
Louis George Pratt
2015This culminating experience will take the form of a Research Paper. The following thesis project aims to analyze the reemerging and trend-like popularity of the episodic video game content development and distribution model (hereby referred to as EVG). This research further explores the key conditions of the current video game industry that have since lead to the re- evaluation, experimentation, and implementation of the episodic gaming concept. This study was conducted in two phases, the first being a literature review of available secondary sources and information, followed by expert interviews with video game industry professionals of various backgrounds. In conclusion, this study will provide a deeper investigation of the current impact of episodic gaming processes, along with an evaluation of the sustainability of the model. The study has resulted in an understanding that the EVG is neither a fad nor a concept that will completely revolutionize the industry, but it is one of several emerging innovations that will thrive in upcoming years. This study also aims to shed light on various parallels and cross-sections between the modern video game industry and the music industry. By recognizing similar (yet sometimes vastly different) elements, concepts, and best practices shared by both industries, this paper hopes to encourage cross-industry analysis and increase shared learning between industry professionals. The successes and failures of each industry are lessons, and should fuel further growth and innovation in today’s dynamic and rapidly changing global entertainment and music business.
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Jazz Para El Autismo
Felipe Saalfeld
2015“Jazz Para El Autismo” was a collaborative Project between the Contemporary Performance (CP) and the Global Entertainment and Music Business (GEMB) Master Programs at Berklee Valencia. Jacopo Mezzanotti (Artistic Director, CP Program) and Felipe Saalfeld (myself, as head manager, producer and promoter, GEMB Program) joined forces together to create a unique an innovative show, in the form of a Symphonic Jazz concert, to be presented to the local Valencian community and raising funds for a local NGO.
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Ask A Guru
Nicolas Schipper
2015Ask A Guru consist of a website and an app that allows Internet users to connect, share and discover music in a fun and rewarding way, the platform allows users to find music from any genre, curated by the music Guru’s, who make up our user base. Ask A Guru rewards its top users with ranking earned by number of Karmas (likes) received. Ask A Guru is now a company that devoted to bringing the world the premier music discovery Experience. The company is founded on evidence that there are tremendous changes occurring in the music industry. The need for a perfectly simple way to discover music has never been more necessary.
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TEDxBerkleeValencia 2015
Laura Shand
2015The role of Artistic Direction Coordinator for TEDxBerkleeValencia 2015 was one that took on many responsibilities. I was in charge of the acquisition of speakers and performers for the conference that took place on April 25th 2015. Although the whole team was responsible for reaching out to potential speakers, the artistic team, Max Wright and myself, spearheaded this initiative including having the most speakers to coach throughout the coaching process along with the performers. Coaching consisted of bi-weekly Skype rehearsals with the speakers no on location and coaching on campus of speakers who were here. We conducted a contest on campus to create an official theme song for this edition of TEDxBV. Combined we had 62 speaker, 18 performer and 13 theme song submissions to sort through before narrowing it down to 13 speakers, 4 performers and 1 theme song that was in line with the theme of Changing Currents. The Artistic Coordinator also included being in charge of the main info email account and dealing with the stage, lighting and feel of the entire show. This meant that we were in constant communication with marketing and production throughout. I personally would go to production meetings and was there with the team when setting up and tearing down the day of the show.
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Operational Project Reflection
Michael Stanton
2015For my Culminating Experience, I have managed two artists: The George Lacson Project (GLP), a band of Berklee masters students here in Spain, and also Milk, a band of recent Boston University graduates based in Alston, Massachusetts. This has been an operational project. In the following reflection and appendices, I will show what I have done and how it has impacted my learning at Berklee.
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Pronebula Awards
Oscar Tecuanhuey
2015Pronebula Awards is a newborn and innovative yearly event in Valencia, Spain. This event became the first independent Music Video Contest from Valencia. The human efforts that met to build a strong work team ranged from a NGO expert to experienced professionals in the audiovisual scene of Valencia. The leader, myself, represented the unbeatable spirit of Berklee College of Music though it’s motto: “To be, rather than to appear to be”.
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Business Plan: OverHear
Aman Wadhwa
2015OverHear will be the first platform to offer a live music events discovery feature coupled with a public review and rating system for live music venues. With its unique combination of a free platform for public users and a paid content management system (CMS) for venues, OverHear is a revolutionary offering to the live music market. Unlike competitors that give limited information on venues and artists, and/or focus on only highly established or international acts, OverHear will offer its services to even the smallest of venues to give them the opportunity to compete with established venues. OverHear will assist live music venues, streamline their event planning process, better understand their customers live music taste and expectations and use that information to promote and reach out to their targeted market in the most effective way.
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Opportunities in South America’s Live Music Industry
Alexander Williamson
2015Over the past several years, Latin America has seen a drastic transformation from a region that is seen by foreign artists and companies as too risky to enter due to political unrest, piracy, and unknown market potential to one that has fully accepted global trends in technology and digital media and is now predicted to be one of the fastest growing markets for entertainment. The transformation in South America’s entertainment industry has led to a remarkable growth in the live music industries in Brazil and Argentina, and more and more foreign artists, promoters, and brands are forming strategies to penetrate these emerging markets. This research document collects the perspectives of some of the leaders in live music who have been active in the internationalization of South America’s festival and concert scenes and combines this information with the newest news reports, data, and industry reports to highlight the crucial areas of opportunity for strategies in the music industry of these countries. The report expands on the particular music consumption behaviors within Brazil and Argentina, the two largest markets for electronic music in the continent.
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Flits Music
Matej Zak
2015Flits is a social platform that allows concertgoers to find trending music events in their location. Its core added value with relation to existing services is providing multimedia (text, photo, audio, video) real-time user-generated updates from ongoing events. Although, we focus in its initial phase only on local small and medium size music venues (e.g. Facebook as a service for students on Harvard Campus), the business has a scalable model that can be applied in any musically rich urban area all around the world covering not only music, but also all kinds of other artistic events.
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Disrupt, Disintermediate, Disseminate: Twitter and the Music Industry
Tyler William Budd
2014Description: This work takes an analytical and critical approach in evaluating the theoretical concepts and applicability of the third party application Twitter and its use within the music industry.
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Culminating Experience Reflection Paper
Kareem Clarke
2014Description: This student focused on the different ways to brand himself as a DJ after graduating Berklee. The student details various perspectives on networking and performance.
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Around The World in Indie Days
Aalap Deboor
2014Description: This student offers a paper on conceptualising and producing an indie music TV show.
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Marketing for TEDxBerkleeValencia
Cristina Domínguez Fraile
2014Description: This student organized a TEDx event at the Berklee Valencia campus featuring 12 speakers from all over the world. The topics of the talks ranged from dance to creating your own sound to food synced with music. This student was the marketing manager.
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Playback
Jad El Alam
2014Description: This student has created a online digital music platform to promote unsigned artist, allowing for music streaming, merch distribution, tour information, and other information of the like.
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Hit Brewery
Trevy Kiy
2014Description: This student created a plan to establish a joint recording studio and craft brewery in Southern California.
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Is The Music Industry Killing Creativity?
Vanessa Martínez
2014Description: This student wrote an analysis of the music industry exploiting artists by manipulating their creative direction to try and fit a commercial platform. The student used Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Kool Keith, Outkast, and Lupe Fiasco as examples.
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Play GSA: Local Bands on Stage
Felix Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau
2014Description: This student created a business plan supporting Austrian musicians by providing a circuit of live venues, as well as a guaranteeing financial compensation.
