MEIEA Summit 2025

                  Justin Sinkovich, Moderator
9:00 - AI in Music Business Education: A Case Study
9:30 - The AI Rabbit Hole: Music Industry Implications and Teaching Strategies

AI in Music Business Education: A Case Study
  Monika Julien, Drexel University
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most relevant – and controversial – topics in the music industry today. As the technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous and unavoidable, many students have expressed hesitancy or resistance to embracing AI – particularly within creative fields like music – due to concerns about its potential to diminish the creative process, eliminate jobs, and disrupt established practices. That said, music industry educators are uniquely positioned to introduce students to AI in a way that familiarizes them with the technology in a practical way, addresses current trends, and prepares them for careers in the music business, while also teaching them how to use and approach AI meaningfully and responsibly.
This presentation discusses the integration of AI into a music business course at Drexel University to address AI’s growing presence in the industry. The curriculum was designed to create a space for open-minded exploration of AI’s role in the music industry while examining how the technology can serve as a tool to enhance both creativity and efficiency. The topic was addressed in three parts: 1.) a structured class discussion on students’ perspectives and concerns around AI’s role in the industry, 2.) a guest speaker session focused on the legal considerations of AI in music, and 3.) a group assignment that challenged students to apply ChatGPT to music business scenarios and analyze its effectiveness. By incorporating an accessible and familiar AI tool like ChatGPT, the course demonstrated how this technology can be applied meaningfully in practical music business situations. Students were also provided with foundational knowledge in prompt architecture and criteria to evaluate ChatGPT outputs for quality and accuracy, equipping them to critically assess AI applications.
This presentation will highlight how this curriculum was developed and key takeaways, including its role in shaping an AI policy for syllabi. It offers insight into ways that educators can introduce AI into their teaching and curriculum in a practical, mindful way that encourages students to explore their own perspectives and deepen their understanding of AI’s role in the music business.

The AI Rabbit Hole: Music Industry Implications and Teaching Strategies
  Jerry Brindisi, Columbia College Chicago
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry presents both exciting opportunities and significant challenges for educators. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into music creation, marketing, live performance, fan engagement, and distribution, educators must grapple with the implications for teaching and learning. One of the key challenges is developing clear policies on the use of AI by students in the classroom and on assignments—often in the absence of clear institutional guidelines.
This paper will explore how AI is currently being applied across various sectors of the music industry, highlighting its potential to disrupt traditional business models. Specific areas of focus will include content creation, marketing, live performances, fan engagement, and music distribution. Ethical, economic, and copyright considerations surrounding AI in the music industry will also be addressed.
Additionally, the paper will review current AI policies in higher education institutions and offer recommendations for integrating AI into the classroom. Pedagogical approaches, teaching strategies, and assignment examples will be provided to help educators navigate the challenges and opportunities AI presents in music business education.

               Yvan Kelly, Moderator
9:00 - From Creators to Engineers: Understanding the Motivations of Audio Production Students in Music Education

From Creators to Engineers: Understanding the Motivations of Audio Production Students in Music Education
  William Thompson, The University of Southern Mississippi
  Paul Linden, The University of Southern Mississippi
Academic programs in audio production offer graduates a diverse range of career opportunities, including live sound engineering, recording, mastering, game audio design, and sound design. However, the motivations driving students to pursue these degrees often diverge from the traditional professional pathways associated with audio production education. Many students in these programs self-identify as music creators, emphasizing artistic pursuits over technical production. Despite this, they frequently choose technical audio production degrees rather than artistic disciplines focusing on performance or composition.
This study aims to explore the motivations behind students’ academic and career choices in music-related fields, specifically investigating the potential misalignment between students’ creative aspirations and the technical focus of audio production curricula. Through surveys of undergraduate audio production students, the research examines their self-identification, career goals, and preferences in musical styles and creative roles. The findings will illuminate the barriers and perceptions influencing these decisions and provide insights into the evolving landscape of music education. Ultimately, this research seeks to inform curriculum design, fostering better alignment with students’ aspirations and the demands of the contemporary music industry.

                  Stan Renard, Moderator
2:00 - Beyond Keywords: AI and the Semantic Understanding of Music Metadata
2:30 - The Metrics of Music: A Field Guide to Music Research

Beyond Keywords: AI and the Semantic Understanding of Music Metadata
Jessica Muñiz-Collado, University of North Texas
The contemporary music industry, characterized by the rapid growth of streaming platforms and a rich television landscape (evidenced by the production of 481 new series in 2023 alone), presents a unique set of challenges for contemporary musicians. In this dynamic environment, the accurate and comprehensive embedding of metadata within musical works has emerged as a critical factor in securing lucrative media placements and achieving broader audience reach. This presentation delves into the significance of music metadata and tagging practices in the digital age, emphasizing the need for musicians to develop a robust understanding of these crucial elements. Effective metadata management facilitates improved self-representation, enhances discoverability, and increases the potential for synchronization licensing opportunities. Furthermore, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into music metadata management offers promising avenues for enhancing accuracy and mitigating inherent human biases often present in traditional tagging methods. Additionally, the intricacies of music metadata and tagging practices, examining how AI-driven techniques can empower musicians to accurately embed metadata, thereby optimizing the visibility of their musical works will also be discussed. The presentation further provides practical recommendations for music educators to integrate music metadata instruction into their curricula, encouraging a proactive approach to embracing the technological advancements transforming the contemporary music landscape and empowering musicians to assume greater control over their careers.

The Metrics of Music: A Field Guide to Music Research
Jeff Green, Stone Door Media Lab
Long gone are the days when a consumer heard a song on the radio, bought the album at a record store and then disappeared from view. Today, let’s say that John is in a cafe having breakfast and hears a song he likes on the speaker system. He thinks, “Shazam says it’s the new Zach Bryan. It’s pretty good; I’ll give it a ‘thumbs up’, add it to a couple of playlists and follow him. I could start a Zach playlist and see what else comes up. Maybe check out his social pages and follow him there, too. Some of his videos are great. I wonder if Zach will be coming to town for a concert.”
In the music business, John’s actions and impulses are all recognized as metrics – behavior in the form of indexes and statistics revealing important stories about how the artist and song are doing.  Today, nearly everything involving how consumers interact with artists and music is trackable, making music research a part of almost every role in the business. Various “dashboards” show which and when songs are being listened to, if they’re heard from start to finish, whether people like them and for how long, if they’re shared, if other media influenced their “consumption” and how “engaged” the consumers are.
Detailing many facets of the music industry and the roles that data plays, The Metrics of Music: A Field Guide To Music Research is a new textbook becoming available for classroom use in 2025. Its purpose is to familiarize college music business students with several forms of media, tools of the trade and myriad ways creatives and industry professionals study artistic performance and audience behavior to advance their priorities.
There are 12 sections: audio and radio; music streaming; social media; copyright and royalties; music licensing and sync; music analytics platforms, plus a separate section on Chartmetric; airplay and music charts; audience research; touring; executive “PROfiles”; and resources and reference materials.
The Metrics of Music, which lives online so that it can be continually updated, explains how music research plays a part in everyday practices, planning and decision making. Featuring colorful photos, graphs, charts and tables, The Metrics of Music currently includes more than 500 pages of content and almost 800 citations and sources.
The importance of using data to follow an artist’s progress at reaching an audience – from music discovery to becoming a follower, fan and ultimately, a super-fan – can’t be overstated. Analytics also offer defensive virtues, becoming valuable for detecting stream fraud, identifying “fake” artists and tracking unauthorized use of AI to appropriate songs, playlists and artistic individuality.
Because music data can even be predictive, understanding what the numbers mean significantly influences whether an artist gets signed to a label deal, receives radio airplay and marketing/promotion support, is chosen by streaming curators and algorithms, is able to tour strategically, generates an active following and ultimately, becomes successful.
The Metrics of Music will be free of charge to professors and students. Instead of paying for access, users will be encouraged to donate any amount to one or more of 20 renowned organizations supporting low-income music students and musicians in need.

Dan Galen Hodges, Jr., Moderator
2:00 - Steve Albini: A Study of Fierce Independence in Underground Music Entrepreneurship Through One of His Final Interviews
2:30 - Chibsons and Chenders: Counterfeit Guitars from China

Steve Albini: A Study of Fierce Independence in Underground Music Entrepreneurship Through One of His Final Interviews
  Justin Sinkovich, Columbia College Chicago
  Philippe Ravanas, Columbia College Chicago
On May 7^th, 2024, legendary audio engineer, musician, and provocateur Steve Albini went home for the night during the sessions for an album he was engineering at his studio, Electrical Audio, and died of a heart attack. Albini was best known for his dedication to analog recording, producing albums like Nirvana, The Pixies, and PJ Harvey, his Chicago-based studio complex, and as the vocalist and guitarist for the Big Black and Shellac. He is also widely known for dismantling the mainstream music business in the media with his eloquent and often polarizing disdain.
Two months before Albini’s passing, Philippe Ravanas and Justin Sinkovich conducted an interview researching the creative, economic, and sociological factors shaping one of alternative music’s most notable entrepreneurs. The interview explored how an innovator like Albini succeeded by forging his path while maintaining strict autonomy and artistic vision. The series of scheduled interviews with Albini was unexpectedly concluded after the first. Still, Ravanas and Sinkovich interviewed Electrical Audio technician and engineer Greg Norman to discuss Albini’s death and the plans for the studio. Sinkovich also started working with Albini decades prior in the studio and as the Director of Digital Distribution and Promotion at Touch and Go Records, the label representing Big Black and Shellac.
The research is framed by several theories, including Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model, social capital theory, and entrepreneurship theory. Through the lens of the theoretical framework, the session will provide insight into Albini’s value system and business acumen that shaped his success and notoriety. The session will discuss the history of Albini’s artistic, recording, and business practices compared to industry standards. It will also reveal how Electrical Audio plans to move forward in a rapidly shifting industry without its fearless leader, Steve Albini.

Chibsons and Chenders: Counterfeit Guitars from China
  Christopher Reali, Ramapo College of New Jersey
During spring 2024, I visited a friend’s music store. As I was about to leave he said, “Have I ever showed you the guitars from China?” I replied, “No, I don’t think so.” Before opening his office door, he casually remarked, “Once you see these, there’s no going back.” He showed me several guitars, including a stunning “Gibson” Les Paul, Jimmy Page model, and said it was actually a “Chibson,” a Chinese-made counterfeit. As a guitar player, I was initially surprised. As a researcher, I was very curious. Over the next few weeks, I fell down numerous rabbit holes in an effort to learn more about Chibson’s. In brief, the name Chibson typically refers to all Chinese-made counterfeit guitars, regardless of which company is being copied. So there are Chenders, Chibanez, Chickenbaker, Chartin, Chaylor, and others all made to look, feel, and sound like guitars manufactured by Fender, Ibanez, Rickenbacker, Martin, or Taylor, respectively. These instruments are sold to customers across the world primarily via direct message links to hidden pages on websites or openly on sites such as Ali Express, Temu, DHGate, and eBay. Much of the marketing, promotion, and appreciation for Chibson’s occurs on private Face Book group pages.
 On November 23, 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Gibson announced the seizure of over 3,000 counterfeit electric guitars. According to the authorities, this is the “largest seizure of fake musical instruments” on record, with the guitars’ estimated value exceeding $18 million if they were authentic. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently valued the global scope of physical counterfeiting for all products at $509 billion dollars. This paper presents preliminary observations and findings about the buying habits of people who purchase “Chibsons” and the worldwide networks related to the sale of counterfeit guitars. This research draws upon survey responses from over one hundred Chibson owners, interviews conducted with musicians and guitar store owners, conversations with representatives from the U.S. Department of Commerce, and correspondence with guitar manufacturers.

                  Jeremy Polley, Moderator
3:15 - Creating a Music Industry Program In the Early Years; An Investigation of the Music Industry Studies Program at Appalachian State University and Its Relationship to the Development of This Degree Option Across the Country
3:45 - Popular Music Career Preparedness: An Analysis of Programs and Approaches

Creating a Music Industry Program In the Early Years; An Investigation of the Music Industry Studies Program at Appalachian State University and Its Relationship to the Development of This Degree Option Across the Country
  Kim L. Wangler, Appalachian State University
  Rebecca Shaw, Appalachian State University
  Veronica A. Wells, Appalachian State University
This paper researches the early adoption of music business (industry) programs and investigate the early creation of a degree at Appalachian State University and how that fit into the development of programs across the country. Research into this specific university, believed to be one of the first in the nation, will be conducted as well as music business degree acceptance in NASM and the College Music Society. A brief history and early participation in MEIEA will also be investigated. The intent of this research is to spur other schools into codifying their own unique chronicles in hopes that it might be the beginnings of a larger project to tell the stories of how this degree program option developed across the nation and in our university settings.

Popular Music Career Preparedness: An Analysis of Programs and Approaches
  Holly Riley, Middle Tennessee State University
This paper explores a diverging set of institutional approaches to college degree programs offering preparation for careers as performers in popular music. Over the past two decades, higher education degree programs in schools or conservatories offering degrees in music performance have been often criticized for their often narrowly focused curriculum centered mainly around traditions of Western Art, or “classical”, music. In these programs, many degree requirements—such as theory, history, ensembles, and individual performance instruction—are largely content-focused within the scope of classical music traditions. Although this type of specialized instruction offers value to students seeking to build careers as classical music performers, a significant downside is the identified lack of comparable training for students pursuing careers in popular or traditional/folk genres.
Some accredited music schools have addressed this issue by offering an expanding set of “non-classical” courses, instructors, and ensembles; this is most realized in jazz departments, but has grown in recent years to a growing number of programs featuring popular and/or traditional performance degree “tracks.” Alternatively, many colleges and universities have begun offering programs in various music or entertainment industry and technology areas that are departmentally housed outside of schools and colleges of music. These programs are often geared towards a more diverse body of students and offer training for a variety of careers within the entertainment industry, including performance; however, few focus exclusively on career training as a popular music performer, and many largely favor technical development and/or industry training over performance.
From an entertainment industry educational standpoint, I discuss examples and trends among these two paths to collegiate training for the aspiring performer within a broad set of popular music genres. How have entertainment industry degree programs emerged as a response to the lack of popular music performance training in “traditional” schools or colleges of music, and how have they diverged from performance studies entirely? What opportunities and requirements are afforded in either setting? These questions and analysis offer insight into the possibilities for ongoing growth and potential collaboration between both types of programs into today’s area of industry studies.

                Paul Linden, Moderator
3:15 - Improving Student Work Readiness and Graduate Outcomes through Strategic Training Partnerships
3:45 - Experiential Learning through Academic Artist Residency: A Case Study

Improving Student Work Readiness and Graduate Outcomes through Strategic Training Partnerships
  Katy Richards, Australian College of the Arts
To prepare students for careers in their chosen industries, educational institutions often partner with industry bodies to provide internships and guest speakers, offering valuable practical experience and career insights. In this presentation, however, I will explore a different type of partnership with an industry education provider designed to enhance student work readiness and graduate outcomes through targeted training and certifications. Launching in 2025, the Australian College of the Arts (Collarts) will begin a strategic partnership with the Arts Centre Melbourne (ACM) to provide training and qualifications that complement Collarts’ academic programs. ACM is a government-owned series of indoor and outdoor venues and a Registered Training Organization specializing in Creative Arts training. While their training has historically been for their venue staff, this partnership enables Collarts students to access ACM’s industry-specific certifications, such as:

• Work Health and Safety in Live Production
• Work Safely at Heights
• Arena Rigging
• Operate Flying Systems
• Develop and Implement Own Self-Care Plan for the Creative Industries

This initiative extends across various Collarts courses, including Stage Management, Music Production, Audio Engineering, Circus Arts, Performing Arts, and Event Management. Each course can select the most appropriate additional certifications for their students. These certifications are crucial for safety compliance and mandatory to work on a live production. Students will graduate with their diploma or degree from Collarts, along with the skill set and certifications required for immediate employment. By integrating these qualifications into Collarts’ curriculum, the partnership is anticipated to significantly enhance students’ work readiness and graduate outcomes by providing comprehensive skill sets and certifications. These qualifications offer clear pathways to employment, ensuring students are equipped for immediate and meaningful roles in live entertainment after they graduate. This presentation will explore the process of building a partnership with an external provider while ensuring cost efficiency. I will also demonstrate examples of embedding additional qualifications into the curriculum without compromising the quality of education.

Experiential Learning through Academic Artist Residency: A Case Study
  Joe Steinhardt, Drexel University
  Ryan Moys, Drexel University
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value and potential for Artists Residency programs in music industry education through a case study on work we did with Keith Secola at Drexel University in 2023 and 2024. Keith Secola is Anishinabe (Ojibwa), originally from the Mesabi Iron Range country of northern Minnesota. Secola is an influential and celebrated artist, whose best known song, NDN Kars (Indian cars), has been the number-one requested song on tribal radio since 1992. In 2011, he joined the ranks of Jimmy Hendrix, Hank Williams, Crystal Gale, and Richie Valens and was inducted into the Native Music Hall of Fame.
 Starting in 2023, we have been working with Keith to record a rock opera called Seeds in residency at the Music Industry Program at Drexel University. Recording the album at Drexel allowed Keith to bring his experience and knowledge to our program and allowed us to work toward the repatriation of our resources to Indigenous artists. While Keith has been working on the rock opera for nearly a decade, and has performed part of it live, including at The Kennedy Center and The Smithsonian, we utilized a recording and production technique that aims to incorporate the recording environment into the fabric of the recording itself. Thus, this recording project not only engaged student engineers and producers, but offered them a look at and chance to be directly involved in the writing and performance process of the work. The finished album will also engage students in the marketing and label elements. Thus, students leave the experience not only with hands on practice and knowledge, but with earned industry credits. The full learning outcomes from the experience are explicated, and describe the value of this type of learning and education to the student and professional experience.