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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Music Data: Understanding the Relationship Between Live Music and Recorded Music to Build a True Fanbase
Zarrin Alam
2021This is research paper that examines the relationship between the music listening data and live music data and how it structures artist marketing, touring routes, and festivals. I will be analyzing the current data that is available, the perspectives of key professionals in both areas of the music industry, and how each influences the other whether by touring routes, A&R, marketing campaigns. This research seeks to find gaps and overlaps in the different aspects of the music industry, and how to bridge them in creating a centralized artist fan database.
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The Viability of Music IP as an Asset-Backed Security
Nikhil Anand
2021This project analyzes music investing via catalogue acquisitions and looks at the viability of creating asset-backed securities with music royalties as another form of investing in music. The paper looks at historical examples, other industries, and interviews industry professionals to conclude that music-backed securities are possible and a good alternative for institutional investors with little knowledge of the music industry.
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Record Labels Making Meaningful Change In The Music Industry’s Mental Health Crisis
Julia Antonia Amodeo
2021The music industry has been facing a major mental health crisis over the past decade, which has been heightened by the impacts of the global pandemic. From the uncertainty and high pressure naturally associated with a career in entertainment, these stressors have reached a new level of intensity this past year. Research shows that artists are now twice as likely to face mental health issues than the general population. Therefore, more support needs to be provided as we lose an increasing number artists every year due to poor mental health and addiction issues. As music industry executives work in the same environment and face many of the same issues, it is also important to address how they can be better supported, especially since they are often overlooked. One of the greatest stakeholders in an artists’ success are often record labels. They continually invest in artist marketing and promotion; however, they lack a real investment in the artist’s wellness to support career longevity. Furthermore, the record label’s role in artist and employee mental health needs to be addressed, especially with the resources they have at hand. This paper intends to present the context of the current music industry landscape in terms of the mental health crisis while analyzing current initiatives that have been put in place by both independent and major record labels. In order to explain the context of this topic, the paper evaluates past, present, and future issues in the industry while highlighting specific labels and trends. Research was conducted through secondary articles, primary interviews, and two surveys. More specifically, interviews were with music industry professionals to identify best practices for record labels in supporting artist and employee mental health. The paper also reviews two surveys conducted with artists and label employees to identify the most valued and desired mental health initiatives labels could implement. Lastly, it concludes with overall insights, possible action plans, and next steps for research.
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Revibe Competition Series
Andres Arenas
2021My project was a talent finding initiative that I created and ran through our Berklee based record label Disrupción Records. It revolved around a songwriting and production competition that ran over 4 months where I invited exclusively berklee students to participate and display their best creative abilities. Throughout the competition students were also paired together as they progressed through the rounds. This facilitated with not only finding and creating new talent but helped students find new collaborators and connect the different Berklee campuses. Each round was three weeks of submission with about one week of voting. This kept things moving smoothly along with applying some real life pressure to the contestants to race a deadline, while also working with someone completely brand new. Through this process I invited industry professionals to help me judge the contestants along with acquiring sponsors and cash prizes for any winners throughout the competition. At the end of the competition, we took our winning song and are planning a final release through the label. We will be helping them with A&R, final deliverables, marketing, and support.
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Flex | Creatorbase (Business Plan)
Yash Bagal
2021The following business plan outlines the product and business roadmap for Flex, a SaaS product to be launched by Creatorbase. Technology has significantly lowered the barriers to content creation and distribution, blurring the line separating content consumers and content creators. These content creators are now becoming entrepreneurs running businesses centred around their intellectual property. Our goal is to give them access to the tools that enable them to run their careers as lean and scalable enterprises. The following business plan outlines the details around Flex, our first product offering. Flex is a platform that uses natural language processing to analyze artist management and label contracts to give them clear and actionable legal insight helping them make well-informed decisions. The plan aims to build a product that creators love to use, rather than something that’s too complicated for them to understand. Our mission is to use technology to bridge the gap between art and commerce. We have detailed a comprehensive business plan with a macro-level analysis of the market, a micro-level view of the product, how it can achieve Product-Market Fit, as well as revenue projections that help prospective investors understand the intricacies of the business.
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Indian Music Expo
Vishruti Bindal
2021My CE is the business plan of a potential music export and education initiative in India. A music export office benefits all the stakeholders of the music industry, such as artists, managers and promoters, and supports their export activities. Music was first recognised as an exportable product in Asia only with the global success of K-Pop, even though European countries have successfully used and continue to use music export as a tool for soft diplomacy. An export office in as culturally rich and diverse emerging market as India would benefit the economy, create jobs and help recognise and develop the local music industry. A survey of artists and music business professionals from India was conducted, as part of my market research for this business plan. Through this research and plan, I learnt about possible ways of strategizing and funding private non-profit organisations such as the one I am aiming to build. Through the process, I have learnt methods of conducting surveys, analysing data, projecting finances and strategizing and writing a business plan.
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Noize Virtual: Business Plan
David Čajčík
2021This document is a business plan of Noize Virtual, an intermediary entity/agency in the emerging landscape of in-game concerts, virtual realities and other digital platforms. Noize Virtual is primarily focused on independent artists and other music industry entities from growing Eastern-European market. This business plan also outlines controlling mechanism, marketing and implementation strategies and maps the current market. It also provides a professional background of the creator.
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Why and how to build an all-in-one self care platform for artists?
Edouard Chretien
2021This is a business plan for the creation of a platform (website/app) meant to help artist with a focus on mental health. an all-in-one self care platform 100% dedicated to artists. The company will help them in the following fields: nutrition, sport, mental health, inclusion/diversity and personal development.
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Merak Ltd.: Be The Buzz!
Simran Doshi
2021My culminating experience for masters of arts in global entertainment and music business from Berklee College of music is a prospective business plan of a music supervision and sync placement company in India following a series of educational initiatives to improve awareness and knowledge about sync placements in the Indian market. An improvement in the sync and licensing market benefits several stakeholders in the music industry, such as artists, publishing houses, and production houses and supports their goals in the industry. Music licensing is an underdeveloped market in India, where normally a song only gets licensed if a script calls for it, and even after repeated attempts at changing this pattern with the help of production houses independent of the Bollywood film industry, a vast majority of the industry remains hesitant to change ways. A music supervision company, in an enormous market like India, would benefit all its stakeholders with recognition, economy, and further development of the market. A series of interviews with individuals from the Indian market with extensive knowledge in sync and music supervision were conducted as a part of market research for this business plan. While conducting the research and developing the plan, I learned about ways to introduce concepts to individuals, strategize and plan finances for a business, conduct research, create marketing plans and a business blueprint.
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The Feeling of Community: Live Events, Fandoms, & Artist Connections
Corinne Gomez
2021The purpose of this research paper is to gain knowledge on how the feeling of community is created among fandoms, live music events, and also the impact of Covid-19 on the attendance and interest of future live events. This study will explore the different building blocks needed to create the feeling of community, joy, and inclusion from the stance of festival directors, artist managers, music event producers, and superfans. To understand this concept, the conduction of interviews, creation of survey's and research of applicable literary works took place.
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Case Study on Amuse and the Independent Music Distribution
Alejandro Hernández
2021Case study on the independent music distributor Amuse and and the indie music distribution scheme.
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Label Manager at Disrupción Records
Laure Herouart--Siamina
2021A dive into the life of the student-run, independent on-campus label in 2021, Disrupción Records. Founded in 2014, Disrupción Records has seen and lived evolution in many ways. innovation, diversity and inclusion, first student-label NFT ever, global artists, pandemic... Dive into an intimist and factual summary of what the year 2021 looked like for the expanding label, the music industry in general, how indie label work, the ambitions of a team and their achievements, all through the eyes of the label manager that year, Laure Herouart.
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MAGS LLC. - Business Plan
Magda Jedrzejewska
2021MAGS LLC. is a music marketing consultancy company based in Europe, which works with independent artists and labels on their marketing and promotion. My project is a complete business plan for the company.
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INO CON 2021
Chris Kireopoulos
2021As you all know, in 2020 the world was turned upside down and all live events came to a halt. In an effort to bring the school together and showcase Berklee Valencia's incredible talent, a team of GEMB and MPTI students came together to create INO CON -a 4 day live- streamed virtual conference that aims to highlight innovation in the music industry. After the incredible success the team had in its inaugural year, Berklee decided to continue the conference and pass it on to the following class. Our team was fortunate to take on this project and solidify it as part of Berklee's academic program. It was our job to take the conference to new heights, taking the framework that was provided to us and giving it a fresh look that is still representative of the INO CON brand. From May 18-21 2021, INO CON hosted 20 hours of content, nearly 1300 attendees from 83 different countries, 20 panels, 18 performances, and gathered music industry professionals from all sectors of the industry in one event. INO CON is more than just a virtual conference. It is an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop as a music business professional.
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Oxyd Music SRL
Nicolas Klersy
2021The creation of a record label and publishing company gravitating in the EDM sphere. The concentration of the project is on the Dance Pop subgenre. We will be distributing and promoting records from various producers and will control the publishing of those releases. We also will create collaboration opportunities for our producers through our publishing department.
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The Three Bs: Artist Service Company
Ziyuan (Lisa) Liu
2021A business plan about an artist service company, The Three Bs.
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Boomerang Music Brazil
Pedro Lohman Coda
2021Boomerang Music Brazil is a Brazilian record label and music production company aimed to spread Brazilian music to the world. Currently located in Goiânia, in central Brazil, the label’s roster embraces artists from the most different Brazilian cultural manifestations, traditional and contemporary, and is already recognized for working with the most reputable musicians in the country. The recent experience of the label with physical media, particularly Vinyl Records, and the owner’s DJ and record collector background have biased the company towards the physical music market, once it has proven to be more profitable and able to provide more fair remuneration to the music supply chain around the label’s orbit. Physical media still represents 20% of the total revenues of the music industry, and Vinyl have been experiencing subsequent increases in the last years, in what has been called the Vinyl revival. This business plan regards the internationalization of Boomerang Music Brazil, targeting the European market, and deploying new business models and services such as a subscription service and the release of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the latest format that has shaken the foundations of the music industry in 2021.
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Head of Marketing and Branding for Disrupción Records 2021
Camille Lopez-Silvero
2021For my CE project, I oversaw Disrupción’s Marketing and Branding department. My project was operational, and I worked in conjunction with the record practicum during the Spring semester. My project was twofold: define the Disrupción brand and implement a content and marketing strategy to communicate the brand; and provide branding and marketing guidance for all the artist teams within the label. I solidified Disrupción’s brand as a youthful, innovative, and global independent record label by implementing a soft rebrand and various social media campaigns. I also compiled a number of marketing and branding resources for the teams to access at their convenience and followed up with the project managers to ensure that all the artist projects were on track. The reflective paper and operational slides go into detail about my accomplishments and my future plans. I will continue to serve in this position until we transition the label to the next team of GEMB students.
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VALKYRIA STUDIOS: The Branding & Digital Marketing Agency that all Ecuadorian Indie Artists need
Carolina Luciano Freile
2021This Business Plan analyzes the possibility of developing a Consulting Marketing Agency in Quito, Ecuador to provide Branding and Digital Marketing services to emerging and mid-size Ecuadorian artists to help them further their professional music careers. Valkyria Studios’ services consist of different bundles, based on a monthly subscription or a flat flee, depending on the client’s needs, at reasonably affordable prices. Its main objective is to help artists develop a successful, long-term musical career by focusing mainly on creating a strong visual and conceptual identity that can be easily recognized and endures with time, accompanied by a great story to be told along the way. The independent music scene in Ecuador has increasingly been growing for the past decade; which has led to the appearance of many musical acts, most of them dangerously similar to one another. Many music artists don’t realize the importance of having a unique artistic identity and the big role it plays in the music industry. This business plan emerges from the need to provide specialized marketing services to artists so they can develop a strong artistic identity, and with that, a creative digital marketing strategy to boost all of their upcoming launches and professional activities. Valkyria Studios’ aim is to advise music artists how if they treat their ‘band as a brand’ they can take their music career to the next level and into the big leagues. The company’s services are meant to set apart the amateur musician that creates music as a hobby from the professional musician that wants to make music for a living.
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Investment in Entertainment post-Covid
Ignacio Martin Sancho
2021After analyzing the global macroeconomic climate and entertainment industry with the aim to point out current trends that will mark business and the relationships between consumers, creatives, governments, companies, and largely the global population, a conclusion has been reached in terms of what could be one of the best mechanisms for investment in the entertainment industry for the long term. With the expectation of world economies going through a wave of inflation that will cause serious economic turmoil, along with market trends in the entertainment industry that lead us to believe that the best investments in entertainment for the long term include the following characteristics: a global perspective, market leaders, differentiated content, technology driven, sustainable, diversified and a strong balance sheet. In the other hand, investments in royalty catalogs were also analyzed in relation to the economic environment, and although the final conclusion was to not invest currently in this asset class, a market based queue to be followed for investment was found. Along with that, a top 25 list of publicly traded companies within the entertainment industry was arrived at through both technical and fundamental analysis. These companies are the most optimal for investment, according to the specified parameters within the thesis.
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Steps: Gamified Artist Accelerator Program
Chrystelle Nammour
2021This CE project is about developing an education tool adapted to the modern independent artist. I searched for the most efficient way to empower the independent artists’ community, and education has been the first and main answer that came to my mind. In this project, I developed a full business plan for an artist accelerator program that I named Steps. Steps has the potential to help thousands of artists take their music careers to the next level. My approach has been very pragmatic, learning from my own artistic experience and the artists I have worked with as well as interviewing important actors of the independent music industry sector to frame the most efficient idea possible. Berklee college of music gave me access to a huge database of knowledge that I based my program on. I took out of my own GEMB classes the most useful information, I tailored it for artists and imagined a 7-modules program to cover these notions. If the program will be enhanced in the future with the help of professional music business teachers and consultants, I believe I now have a solid basis to take as a starting point. Steps is about climbing up the stairs toward success, one step after another. This program has huge potential for profits but this is not the primary reason why I decided to develop it. If it is important to show proof of profitability to potential investors, I believe it is even more important to demonstrate real value for artists and stakeholders. Indeed, too many programs have been overpromising and charging a substantial amount of money to artists in search on guidance. Steps is not one of these. Not only will we create real value for our stakeholders but also charge lower fees than competitors, because we believe making profits with artists as partners is possible but not make money off artists' back. We will build a relationship of trust, transparency, inclusion and kindness with our artists because being an artist is one of the hardest positions in society, it requires courage, perseverance, resilience and hard work. Artists deserve the best; we will give them Steps.
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Bxtchin’ Entertainment
Lydia Netterville
2021The outcome of this Culminating Experience is a business plan detailing a full proposal for a company called Bxtchin’ Entertainment. The company is a full-service management and booking agency catering specifically to women and woman-identifying artists operating within the electronic dance music genre. Women are generally underrepresented in the industry as a matter of principle, and the company seeks to remedy this problem. The plan explains in great detail the challenges that women in dance music often face. The company’s mission is to empower women within the electronic dance music genre, to help them overcome the barriers and problems that they face in their careers, and to ultimately make atangible difference in the industry gender imbalance. The company will offer full-scale services for artists, and will act as both manager and booking agent. The company will also offer extra enrichment opportunities to clients such as workshops, lectures, teaching opportunities, and mentor/mentee programs.
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Duson Audio: Sample Distribution & The Artist to Artist Market
Ryan O'Leary
2021With the rise of platforms like Splice and other music creation technologies, the market for samples in the music industry is rapidly growing. This project outlines the trials of starting a new sample label and exploring the emerging artist-to-artist market. A sample label is very similar to a record label with the difference of signing producers, musicians, and sound engineers instead of recording artists. Record labels sell songs to consumers on DSP’s like Spotify and sample labels sell samples to producers. Essentially, it is the B2B market for musical assets.
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Nigeria’s Music Industry: A Look at the Opportunities & Challenges in the Country’s Current Streaming Age
Oluwaferanmi Stephanie Ologan
2021With more of Nigeria’s biggest contemporary artists gaining traction on playlists and mainstream radio as well as receiving awards and recognition for their notable collaborations, it is evident that an increasing amount of attention is now being placed on the country’s talents and its growing music market. The influx of digital service providers, distributors, record labels and various startups expanding their operations into the country within the past five years, speaks to the sudden urgency for companies to focus on this particular industry given its rich cultural capital. Although streaming is leading the growth in Nigeria’s recorded music sector, issues centered around monetization and digital infrastructure are currently affecting the entire ecosystem, from artists to the consumers who go about seeking this music. Some digital service providers and distributors already present in the market have gone about their respective methods of maneuvering around these challenges or have attempted to solve them through the implementation of new initiatives. However, the biggest concerns that still remain are how companies can improve their value proposition to maintain a sustainable business model while also tailoring their services to meet the music demands of the consumers in this particular market.
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Hipgnosis Songs Fund: A Deep Look Into Hipgnosis Business Model
Lamberto Sanchez Carbajo
2021The objective of this research paper is to provide a dissemination document that easily explains and contextualizes the business model of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. This research will analyze in an exhaustive way how music intellectual property works, the growth opportunities it has, and based on that, what are the key reasons that make Hipgnosis Songs’ strategy one of the most interesting and disruptive today from both an M&A and rights management perspective. The first section will consist of a literature review on music intellectual property and why today is considered an attractive asset class for investors. It will describe what are music rights and how they generate revenue for rightsholders, as well as showcase why they are a stable, predictable, and uncorrelated source of income. The second section will focus on Hipgnosis Song’s business model. First, it will bring a little overview of the company’s purpose, followed by an analysis of the company’s catalog strategy and why it makes sense from an investment standpoint. It will also touch on the Hipgnosis advocacy argument and how it could positively affect Hipgnosis shareholders –apart from improving the paradigm for songwriters. Also, it will describe what’s “Song Management”, what effects it has had on the company’s results, and how it breaks with the traditional publishing model. Finally, a conclusion will be provided collecting the ideas drawn about the research and that simply will explain the “why” of Hipgnosis. To undertake this research and support the hypotheses, the research methodology carried out has been based on the analysis of articles, official reports, and essays from specialized sources such as CISAC, IFPI, Goldman Sachs, MBW, Music Week, Rolling Stone Magazine... Also, this research has been complemented with interviews made to experts in the field and music professionals from companies such as Sony Music Publishing, Association of Independent Music (AIM), Hipgnosis Songs Fund, and Warner Chappel.