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Berklee College of Music

The 29th Annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture Series with David Israelite

The Music Business/Management Department hosted its 29th Annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture Series and featured one of the music industry’s most influential advocates for equity in the music business, David Israelite. As President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Israelite has dedicated his career to advocating for publishers and songwriters. He fights to protect and advance their interests in the music industry, specifically relating to their domestic and global protection of music copyrights. He played an integral role in raising the CRB rate for songwriters, as well as modernizing copyright laws. He visited Berklee and joined Professor Tonya Butler, Chair of the Music Business/Management Department, to talk more about his career and work in the industry.

From a young age, Israelite always had a passion for music, but he had an equal love for debate, politics, history, and government. His collegiate and professional careers were spent pursuing law and government where he collected many experiences working for the government in Washington D.C. During this time, Israelite noticed a lack of government protection on intellectual property which inspired him to create a task force dedicated to raising awareness and changing protection laws on intellectual property. His initiatives led him to land his current position as President and CEO of the NMPA, which is a trade association that represents all publishers and their songwriters in the music industry. As a member of the NMPA board, he participates in a trial every 5 years in which he litigates with streaming services to decide on how much money streaming services should pay their songwriters. Just recently, he championed the largest CRB rate increase in history, meaning songwriters will now receive even more royalties for their music. 

As for other ways songwriters can monetize their music, David Israelite had lots of advice for songwriters. Israelite dove into the complicated calculations of streaming royalties and explained how artists really get paid from top streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. He stressed the importance of signing up for a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) in order to collect all applicable royalties. Both organizations are extremely crucial for songwriters to get paid for their work. There are also other ways to monetize your music aside from streaming, such as public performance (radio) and synchronization placements (TV/Film). Additionally, songwriters should join songwriter advocacy groups like Nashville Songwriters Association International and Grammy Advocacy. 

In the Q&A session, Israelite shared his favorite piece of advice, “Grit is the most important quality of success. You can be born with it but you can also develop it.” He encouraged aspiring songwriters to always keep going in their careers, pushing through any rejection and advocating for themselves in any way possible. For the full-length recording of the lecture, click here. We recommend watching if you’re interested in how songwriters get paid!

Finding Opportunity in Spatial Audio

By Yao Wang

Last spring, I was 9 months away from graduating, and the panic of post-graduation uncertainty was becoming unbearable. I was struggling to plan my career and I wanted to do something different. That was when I first got introduced to the world of virtual reality and spatial audio by my friend Jason Parks.

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Becoming A Freelancer

Alumni Profile: Taiga Kunii

Taiga is a recent graduate from the Contemporary Writing and Production department at Berklee. For the first several years he focused on music, however, as time passed he realized he wanted to launch his own company. Aware that he lacked substantial knowledge in business, he became involved with BerkleeICE and was able to take part in several exciting opportunities including a trip to New York City and most importantly, attending the European Innovation Academy (EIA) Portugal 2017. The program which lasts 3 weeks, was meant to mimic the process that an entrepreneur would typically go through when launching their business from customer development and prototype to launch.

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Inspiration Abounds on the 2017 Nashville Trip

By Abby Anastasio

Nashville skylineWhen the students going on the 2017 Berklee Nashville Trip boarded the bus in Boston, none of us anticipated that our 25-hour journey would include a breakdown and subsequent pit stop at a secluded Waffle House franchise in the small town of Lexington, VA. Even more surprised than all of us were the employees at that location, who were given no warning that 120 hungry, tired college students were about to touch down and make their day interesting. Within minutes, the tiny restaurant filled with deafening chatter, one student had queued up “All Star” by Smash Mouth on the jukebox, and the hashbrowns were flying from the first order until the bus was finally fixed. As funny as it is to look back on all of us invading that Waffle House, the week in Nashville that followed was far less stressfully spontaneous. Having gone on the trip the year prior, I had a vague idea of what I was getting into, but this trip proved to be a very fresh experience in many ways.

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At Earthapalooza, Awakening to Environmental Truths

Environment health progressions discussionAs a person who recycles, I thought I had this “saving the earth” thing down. All I had to do was follow the three “R’s” of recycling: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Well, since my time in elementary school, three more “R’s” have been revealed to help us along our way to preserving our planet: Rethink, Refuse, and Repair. Berklee’s Earthapalooza be like: Yes, the world is suffering, and YES we need to change it, SO here’s how.

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