On Teaching Next-Gen Startup Founders
On Teaching Next-Gen Startup Founders
When I conceptualized and developed a course on building and launching tech startups in the music industry at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, my goal was simple yet ambitious: I wanted to prepare the next generation of young entrepreneurs to enter the competitive startup landscape with a breadth of music industry knowledge, a fundamental understanding of strategic business research and planning skills, an entrepreneurial mindset, and founder insights gained from guest speakers, internships, and networking opportunities.
After spending several years advising, mentoring, and consulting founders of music tech and digital media startups, I felt that universities and colleges had a unique opportunity to prepare individuals early on with a robust class in music industry entrepreneurship and innovation. UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music agreed and hired me to develop and teach such a course course in 2016; a course that Billboard recognized among its list of “The 15 Best Music Business Schools In 2017.”
It is with this backdrop that I am made ever more proud by many of my former students who do exactly what I had hoped my class would inspire them to do: pursue a path towards music industry entrepreneurship.
That said, I’d like to shine a spotlight on one of my former students and his innovative startup.
David Hartley is a former student and the founder of SoundSmith, a marketplace for artists, labels and distributors to automate their influencer marketing on TikTok. They’ve recently been accepted to the Startmate business accelerator program.
David took my class in Winter 2018 and was a shining example of a model student. Not only was he engaged during lectures and guest speakers, he excelled in completing course assignments. He and his collaborators leveraged my officer hours to seek advice on their startup ideas and took full advantage of the ancillary opportunities that I offered students to land an internship at Repost by SoundCloud.
Students like David is what makes teaching music industry entrepreneurship enjoyable and stories like his is what makes it rewarding.
See David’s message to me below via LinkedIn (shared with his permission).
Dae Bogan To Moderate Panel On Los Angeles Music Startup Scene With Capitol360, Techstars Music, Expert DOJO, The Rattle LA, And Startup UCLA / Blackstone Launch Pad At UCLA’s Amplifying Music In Our Los Angeles Conference On| May 15th, 2019
Amplifying Music in Our Los Angeles
A Conference Amplifying and Connecting the Music Scenes of Los Angeles
Host: Center for Music Innovation at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Location: Charles E. Young Research Library Auditorium, UCLA North Campus
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Cost: Free for Registered Attendees
How can we support Los Angeles’ music scene(s) and work together to continue to create something robust, diverse, and dynamic in this changing era?
This day-long conference expands the conversation of how Los Angeles can grow and connect/collaborate around its diverse music scenes. If other cities are challenged by gentrification in having vibrant live music scenes, (a) why is Los Angeles seeming to be growing, despite these difficulties and (b) how we we enhance and amplify this growth?
Background
This Conference is the second in a series of events that UCLA Center for Music Innovation is holding with this Future of Music in LA focus across 2019 across LA, so we welcome you to be involved in those programs as well.
On February 6th, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs held a half-day Symposium as part of its February COMPOSE LA series of events. With partners that included UCLA’s Center for Music Innovation, they brought together different voices across Los Angeles and music to talk about the future of Music in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a complex environment. From panels and provocations, we came up with many things that weren’t right within the overall ecosystems in terms of policy, permitting, and procedures. We also explored our very vibrant environment that seems to be growing — despite the systemic challenges.
The Invitation
We invite the community gather again on May 15th at UCLA to both expand the conversation and to add new voices into the mix. We’re going to include people joining us from video conference from other cities and locations. We’re going to include new parties — and parties with different perspectives. And we’re going to include roundtable conversations, where the conversation will come out into and with the audience.
We invite you to join us for this community event at the Charles Young Research Library at the UCLA campus. The event will be free, along with the support from our community and marketing sponsors.
The Schedule
Sessions and the full schedule will be posted mid-April.
FREE REGISTRATION (INCLUDING ONLINE STREAMING OF CONFERENCE)
Enrollment Open – Music Industry Entrepreneurship Masterclass
Marcato Academy’s “Music Industry Entrepreneurship Masterclass” is now accepting enrollment for April 27th, 28th, and 30th. A recorded replay will be sent to individuals who cannot attend the live masterclass.
Learn More
Are Founders Of AI Music Services Being Disingenuous When They Tell Human Music Creators Not To Worry Or Are They Just Clueless?
If AVIA is a composer and Endel is a recording artist, and they can produce massive volumes of content (WMG is releasing 20 albums by Endel this year alone), what does this mean for the quality and pace of human-created music?
[Podcast] Dae Bogan Appears On Music Tectonics To Talk About Los Angeles’ Music Tech Scene
I was recently invited by host Dmitri Vietze to appear on his new podcast Music Tectonics for the episode “The Shifting LA Music Tech Scene.” It was a fun discussion about the various ecosystems and hubs of innovation, creation and thought-leadership that is taking place in Los Angeles right now.
The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. The podcast includes news roundups, interviews, and more.
Listen to the episode here or on Spotify, Stitcher, or Google.
Dae Bogan To Provide Mentorship To Music Makers And Tech Founders At The Rattle Los Angeles
RattleCCPitch2018 from The Rattle on Vimeo.
Apple To Recruit College Students For Apple Music From UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
I am pleased to announce that Apple has selected my Billboard-recognized class, Music Industry Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a preferred source to recruit aspiring music industry professionals into its college internship programs at Apple Music.
Upon successful completion of an internship and graduation from UCLA, recent grads may become eligible for full-time employment at Apple music divisions.
An Apple Worldwide Recruiting representative will visit my class in January 2019 to promote their internship program to my students and answer any questions that students might have.
I am pleased with Apple’s decision to partner with universities and educators that deliver best-in-class education and experiences to students who may become tomorrow’s music industry leaders.
In reviewing my class students have shown great appreciation for the course and the speaker series that I curate throughout the quarter:
Hi Dae, Just wanted to thank you for an awesome class. This was one of the few classes at UCLA where I felt I was taught skills, not just about the subject matter but in how to go about achieving my career goals, that were applicable to my endeavors and will be used for the rest of my life. I got more out of it than I had with any other course here and I would highly recommend your class to to anyone interested in a music industry career.
– Student testimonial, Winter Quarter 2018
Without a doubt one of the most useful classes I have taken in my undergraduate career at UCLA. Professor Bogan has so much real world knowledge and knows how to convey that knowledge in a classroom setting immensely well. All the course material was invaluable to my progression and aspirations of being in the music industry. Every lecture was extremely well-prepared, with amazing guest speakers and information that I will be using for the rest of my life. Professor Bogan did a phenomenal job and I will be recommending this class to all my friends interested in music or starting their own company. Can’t say enough good things about this class.
– Student testimonal, Winter Quarter 2018
In addition to the relationship with Apple, I am excited to announce that I’ve established a relationship with music tech start-up accelerator Techstars Music that allows me to recommend student and alumni owned start-ups for consideration to receive seed investment and to participate in its accelerator program.
I look forward to continuing to add value to my course to offer students one of the best experiences in their academic careers at UCLA.
Music 2020: The Next Era of Innovation in the Music Industry
Wednesday night, at California State University – Northridge (CSUN), I conducted my latest workshop, “Music 2020: The Next Era of Innovation in the Music Industry,” in Professor Andrew L. Surmani’s class for his M.A., Music Industry Administration students.
In this workshop, we explore the art and process of ideation; discuss the differences between invention, disruption, and innovation; and profile a number of developing innovations within the music industry including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain and crypotcurrency. The presentation ends with a design thinking exercise where students break out into groups to work through the fundamental design thinking process of developing a minimum viable product to solve a vetted problem in the music industry.
The students seemed to like the workshop:
Dae, you were fantastic and the CSUN MIA students thoroughly enjoyed your very organized, insightful and forward thinking presentation. That was evident in the line of students waiting to talk to you at the break. Thank you again for coming to talk to our graduate music industry students.
– Andrew Surmani, Associate Professor of Music Industry Studies, California State University – Northridge
I’m looking forward to conducting this workshop next week at the College of the Canyons.
Dae Bogan To Join Panel On The Future Of Rights Technology At A2IM Indie Week In New York
Dae Bogan will join Shanna Jade (Director of Brand Strategy, Stem) and Rob Weitzner (Head of North America, The state51 Music Group) on the panel “Future of Rights Technology” on Wednesday, June 20th at A2IM (American Association of Independent Music) Indie Week conference taking place at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center in New York. The panel will be moderated by Anna Siegal, SVP FUGA North America.
For more details, visit https://a2im.org/event/a2im-indie-week-2018/
[Podcast] “How Tech Can Save The Music Industry” Panel Recording From SXSW 2018
I had the pleasure of participating on the panel “How Tech Can Save The Music Industry” at SXSW 2018 with Benji Rogers (Pledge Music & dotBlockchain), Jason Robert (HelloSugoi), and moderated by Eron Bucciarelli (Soundstr).
The music industry is in dire need of change not only to thrive, but survive. Streaming, pirating and the secondary ticket market have dealt serious blows to our industry’s major revenue streams, but technology can be our savior. Join experts from the royalty, rights, ticketing and metadata blockchain sectors to learn not only how tech can provide short-term solutions, but also build a more sustainable industry. Join us to learn how tech can save the music industry.
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