Culminating Experience projects are completed in fulfillment of degree requirements for Berklee's Graduate Studies programs. Browse project titles and abstracts below and click on individual entries to access project files and further details. You can also browse project titles by year.
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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.
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Harutek Records
Keturah Brown
2017My project was the creation and execution of an experience based label. I was inspired of this concept after Benji Rogers came to speak to the GEMB class about Pledge Music platform. It seemed to me to be a perfect concept, inviting the the fans of an artist to have access to the creative process. This way the fan is engaged in the process from the beginning to end and revenue is guaranteed throughout the production process instead of solely relying on the end product to yield a profit. I wondered why no label had attempted to tap into profit on the front end in this manner, with the right artist (say Beyonce or Justin Bieber) a label could easily make an killer and inspire brand loyalty while facilitating a sense of intimacy between fan and artist.
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The Art of Hype
Alexis Colett
2017This project is a critical and analytical look at how hype within the music industry can be created through digital marketing tactics.
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TEDx BV 2017 as an Artistic Work
Maria de Luna Visa
2017The September 28th, 2016 I was notified that I got selected, together with Taylor Tobak, to be the Creative Coordinator of the TEDxBerkleeValencia’17. The excitement was unmeasurable. I knew that taking care of a worldwide recognized event was going to be an incredible experience. I still remember the first Business Seminar class in Sala E in which we saw an amazing TEDxBerkleeValencia video. Was since that moment that I wanted to be part of the team in charge of organizing such incredible event. I told Emilien my intentions on our first meeting, and I almost prayed for it (if I didn’t make it). Before TEDx, my only experience with music live events was as musician. I wasn’t able to imagine all the work that needs to be done to make an event a reality. But the TEDx creation started, and I had to learn quickly.
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Externship
Angela Gil
2017The idea is to secure an externship that allows me to explore career paths in which I am interested.
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A&R/Management Externship
Sarah Hau
2017Seeking an externship that would develop my experience in identifying, developing, and marketing artists.
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Externship with ZZK Records
Clara Jaeger
2017I'm following the live practicum this semester but also wanted to take advantage of this year to discover how record labels function.
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Brand | jarrett Management
Brandon Jarrett
2017Brand | jarrett Management is a music start-up that takes a hollistic approach to artist development. Supporting services include career management and consultancy, industry education, mental health support, and resource discovery tools. Our goal is to empower artists by equiping them with extensive knowledge and practical skills needed to pursue an independent career until otherwise desired.
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Digital Streaming Platforms in China - Playlists Focus
Wenyue Jia
2017The aim of this research paper is to analyze the leading digital streaming platforms in China with focus on playlists. The five major music streaming portals in China are: QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou and Kuwo. The purpose of the work is to provide a general insight of digital streaming services in China to Western music labels and independent artists to develop their business in the China market.
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The Anti-Label Era: The Feasibility of Being and Remaining a Successful Unsigned Artist Today
Rika Joy Hauschild
2017This paper is about the surge of emerging unsigned artists and other artists leaving record labels, which I call exaggeratingly ‘the anti-label era’. I do so with the aim to stress that times are changing. In attempts to investigate the discourse in the feasibility of being and remaining a successful unsigned artist the primary methods used are documentary analysis and survey. This highly theoretical paper explores issues such as why artists are turning away from labels and the necessity to rethink the music industry.
