Berklee College Of Music Starts New Program For Teaching Business Side Of Things
BOSTON (CBS) - It's called ICE - the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship.
Berklee College of Music is launching ICE as a new initiative to foster the best practices of business and technology in the music business.
Sonicbids founder Panos Panay has been named the Founding Managing Director of ICE. He wants to reach out to other universities like MIT, Harvard and Babson.
"I'm a big believer in partnerships, and certainly we haven't formalized any agreements with these institutions, but more than ever before, the worlds of creativity, technology and commerce are coming together," Panay told me.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Anthony Silva reports
Panay moved to the US from Cyprus in 1991 to go to Berklee. He's a graduate of Berklee's first-ever Music Business/Management class.
Panay says Sonicbids was founded 13 years ago. "It's effectively a matchmaking site for bands, and people who book or license music."
He ran Sonicbids out of his apartment, before selling the company last year to Guggenheim Partners.
The Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship will focus on the changing music business model.
"The industry's changing," Panay says. "It's not enough as a musician or music producer, or a sound engineer or a music therapist to just have the talent and the skills to apply your craft. You are also thrust into a marketplace where, by and large, you are a free agent. You are going out there, and looking to create your own career and make a career out of doing what you love the most."
The Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship will launch this spring.