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WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. (March 12, 2019) – MassBay Community College is pleased to announce the first Entrepreneurship Business course that will allow students to develop the business and technical skills needed to launch a tech-focused startup in the creative sector. This innovative, interdisciplinary course will combine business, marketing, music, and technology to guide students through the entire entrepreneurial process of music production. Students will journey through creating a digital music package, developing a marketing plan, and ultimately launching their new business.
This unique and accelerated course, “Own Your Masters: Entrepreneurship in the Music Technology Industry”, will begin on March 26, 2019 as an 8-week course offering and will meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings 6 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
The Beat Academy will guide students from idea to innovation to inspiration, ending the course with a digital product that can be registered and sold to companies in the film, TV, music, advertising, or video gram industries. A hands-on experience from start to finish, students will know what it is like to create and launch a business as a STEM entrepreneur in the 21st century. On Tuesdays, students will study theory and fundamentals and on Thursdays, students will use practical application, giving students the skills and knowledge they need to master all stages of launching a new business. Students will also participate in field trips and hear directly from guest speakers in the industry.
The course concept is designed by “The Beat Academy”, a music technology organization-founded by a 2016 recipient of Harvard University Award for Education Justice and Toni Morgan. Toni, an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and former high school drop-out credits her personal experiences in education and professional experience launching and leading large-scale education and workforce development initiatives as the inspiration for this work.
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“In school, I got in trouble for teaching myself to code during art class,” said Toni Morgan. “That was in 1996, but the feeling of being forced to choose between art and technology. I created The Beat Academy for people who are gifted with the skill of creativity, but don’t have an “in” in these very exclusive tech-driven sectors. Our programs and events leverage music technology to help our student members to hone their talent by developing technical skills in music production. This gives students the “in” they need to meaningfully participate and contribute to the innovation economy."
“We are pleased to offer this course and give our students the unique opportunity to discover how the music production startup world works and how to build a career in the industry,” said MassBay Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Lynn Moore. “This partnership will position MassBay and our student’s access to music tech space that other area students can’t get anywhere else.”