2019 European DIY Musician Conference Project & Operations Manager
Culminating Experience Reflective Paper
By James Connor

Advisor: Alex Perrin
Global Entertainment & Music Business
June 11, 2019

Summary of Operational Project:
In the spring of 2018, CD Baby and Berklee College of Music Valencia came together to
create the first annual European DIY Musician Conference, a new European edition of the CD
Baby DIY Musician Conference in Austin, Texas. Due to the great success of the inaugural
conference, both CD Baby and Berklee agreed to put on the second edition of the conference in
2019, once to once again take place in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia, Spain.
Unlike many other music conferences that tend to be ‘industry’ focused (high level trends,
business strategy, new tech), the goal of the DIY Conference is to provide real, actionable advice
to DIY musicians over the course of two days. The European version of the conference is
technically tailored to European musicians, but in a day and age where more and more aspects of
the industry are becoming digital, information that is good for one DIY musician is good for any
other DIY musician. Because of this, we were able to attract 262 attendees and 26 speakers from
29 different countries.
The conference spanned over three nights and two full days. It consisted of three
showcases, one day of keynote presentations and panels in Aula Magistral, and one day of
breakout sessions, workshops, and office hours across Berklee’s campus. Topics included: How
to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams, Leverage YouTube to
Accelerate Your Career in the Music Industry, What Every Indie Artist Needs to Know About
the Law, Music Publishing: The Key to Getting All of the Money You Are Owed, The Truth
About Spotify Playlists, and many more.
The conference this year was organized by a team of students consisting of me (James
Connor) acting as the Project & Operations Manager, Annelise Rivera acting as the Talent &
Partnerships Manager, and Stephanie Piedrahita as the Marketing & Communications Manager.

2

Our team was led by our professor and Conference Organizer Alexandre Perrin, who oversaw all
aspects of the conference in addition to handling high level logistics such as speaker contracts,
travel accommodations and legal paperwork between Berklee and CD Baby.

Results/Process:
A strong network can be a catalyst for a successful career in the music industry. As an
artist manager, I understand the importance of having a strong network. Therefore, I am always
looking for opportunities to expand my professional network. From the moment the idea of the
Culminating Experience was presented to us in the beginning of the year, I knew that I wanted
my thesis to involve a music conference as I believed that this would be the best way to grow my
network of non-Berklee connections during my time here at Berklee. I had originally thought
about organizing my own conference, which in hindsight would have been nearly impossible.
However, when the roles for the DIY Conference were announced, I knew that this was the
project I wanted to get involved in during my time here at Berklee.
Although my initial intentions for this project were based on growing my network, as I
got deeper into the project my priorities began to shift and become more selfless. Heading into
the role I assumed that I would be in more of a project management role, managing the team and
being more focused on my peers meeting deadlines. It turned out that I would actually be in
charge of the entire Berklee side of the talent acquisition. I believe that given my background in
artist management, Alex came to the conclusion that I would be the right person to be
communicating with the prospective speakers. Although input was openly welcome from every
member of the team, it was Alex and I that were interviewing the candidates and making the
final decision for the conference schedule. Going into this project this role was barely on my

3

radar, yet it became the primary focus of my efforts. I took this responsibility of curating the
conference schedule very seriously. As more and more tickets were sold and the conference and
its future attendees became more ‘real’ to me, my goal of growing my personal network became
secondary to creating the strongest and most impactful lineup of speakers I could. I spoke
extensively with the CD Baby team to find out what sort of topics seemed to resonate the best
with attendees the year before, and from there Alex and I determined what speakers would
provide the most useful information possible for attendees.
Something that I really appreciated and benefited from throughout this speaker curation
process was Alex allowing me to bring forward candidates that I either had prior connections to
or thought could add real value to the conference. Because of this, we were able to secure one of
the biggest and most influential YouTube music curators in the world, Gereon Sommerburg aka
Cloudkid. His YouTube channel has over three and a half million subscribers and over one
billion views. The DIY Conference was the first conference Sommerburg had ever spoken at, so
Alex and I helped him to develop the theme and subject matter for his presentation from the
ground up. It was a special moment for everyone involved. His session on leveraging YouTube
was one of the most attended of the entire weekend. Sala E (70 capacity) was overflowing with
attendees and there were dozens of people lining up after he was finished to ask him questions
and network.
A lesson that I learned through all of our correspondence with potential speakers was to
always have ourselves covered in times of uncertainty. For example, during the process of
finding a speaker to represent YouTube, Danielle King at CD Baby introduced us to three
women who were employees at YouTube who were expressing interest in coming out to speak.
Alex and I had two video calls with them and had to wait to confirm Cloudkid because we did

4

not want YouTube to be overrepresented. However, they ended up pulling out of the conference
pretty late in the selection process, which would have been a big setback for us. Luckily, Alex
and I had been communicating with Cloudkid throughout the entire process, so when they pulled
out, we were able to officially lock in Cloudkid as a speaker with CD Baby and ensure that our
attendees would be able to learn about YouTube at some point over the weekend.
Being able to execute and see this plan come to fruition was extremely rewarding and I
highly recommend next year’s Project Manager to try and do something similar. I think that
another Berklee student with their finger on the pulse of the industry would be able to find
another amazing guest to bring to the table.
Moreover, I had expectations of a more collaborative team environment going into this
project. Although we did come together for our weekly call with CD Baby, we mostly operated
independently of each other on a day to day basis. I personally enjoyed the fact that we were
working on our own a lot of the time. I have sometimes found in groups that too many opinions
and perspectives can inhibit progress, and I believe our trust in one another to complete our work
independently was a main reason that we as a group encountered relatively few setbacks.
However, the closer we got to the actual conference, the more we enlisted each other for help.
There were times during this process that required all hands on deck, and we came together as a
team to get all of the last minute things done. I think that Alex’s ability to effectively manage us
as individuals was a major contributor to our collective efficiency and allowed us to work
independently towards the same goal. For the majority of the project, Annelise and I did most of
our communicating surrounding our weekly video call with CD Baby.
Due to this being the second year of the conference, we had measurable results from last
year that we could base our expectations off of. We knew how many tickets were sold, we could

5

see the caliber of speakers that they were able to secure, and we had speaker and attendee
testimonials. All of these things gave us a well-rounded picture of how last year’s event went and
allowed us to create a set of realistic goals that we hoped to achieve for the second edition.
Although none of the Berklee team from the first year returned to the project this year, we were
able to learn what could be improved upon from Danielle King and Kevin Breuner, our main
points of contact at CD Baby. For example, they told us that people did not like that the
showcases were so far from the Berklee campus last year, so we made it a point to be more
strategic about the venues we chose for these late-night events.
Through my work as the Project Manager, I was able to really develop my organizational,
time management, and project management skills. In general, I felt that these were places where
I had room for improvement. I knew that they would be paramount to my success in this role, so
I went into this project with the intention of addressing and developing these skills. At any point
during this project I was in communication with nearly a dozen people, so it was really important
for me to stay on top of each conversation. Additionally, I created and managed several project
management applications (Asana, Trello, and Slack), so we could stay organized as a team.

Next Steps:
Given the success of the first two years, I would assume that there is going to be a third
edition of the DIY Musician Conference in 2020. CD Baby, Berklee, and the attendants were all
extremely pleased with the way things went this year, and I can only see it improving with
another new group of students who can learn from and improve on our work. I have a couple
ideas for next year that I think could really help take the conference to the next level.

6

Firstly, I think that the conference would benefit from a third day. One of the more
common complaints was that people had to choose between two Sunday workshops that they
wanted to attend. I think that this problem could be solved by adding another day to the
conference. If the day in Aula Magistral were to take place on Friday during the day, you could
free up both Saturday and Sunday for workshops at Berklee. Doubling the amount of time
dedicated to workshops would allow for next year’s team to comfortably increase the total
number of workshops by 50% while still allowing for 50% less overlapping. So, by adding
another day to the conference, you would not only be able to increase the amount of material that
would be available to the attendees, but also decrease the chances that they miss out on
something they really want to attend. If the budget allows for it and it is logistically possible, I
would strongly recommend adding another day.
Additionally, for next year I would suggest changing one of the nighttime events from a
music showcase to a more intimate networking event. A lot of the feedback that we received
from our post-show surveys had people asking for more networking time. I think that we
assumed that as a musician-oriented conference most attendees would prefer to be in a showcase
setting. However, it was clear from the feedback that many attendees would have appreciated a
calmer, quieter place to network with their peers. I think that substituting one of the showcases
for a more relaxed cocktail party would be well received by next year’s attendees.

Contribution to the Discipline & Profession:
This experience has allowed me to grow immensely as an individual and team member;
undoubtedly preparing me for future career endeavors in the music industry. Prior to working on
this conference, I primarily worked as an individual manager of my artists. I have always had full

7

control of creativity, finances, deadlines, and everything in between. Because of this, I
sometimes find myself having trouble working in groups. I typically enjoy the ability to be in full
control of the work I am doing, especially because I consider myself someone who thinks and
operates differently than most people. It may sound cliché, but the ability to work well on teams
does not come naturally to all. In a way, it is something you must learn and experience firsthand.
Sometimes you have to put your frustrations aside, and really just focus on what is most
important to the event. Although there were some commonalities between the work I do in
management and the work related to this project, I felt that my role of Project Manager was
drastically different to what I had been used to. This role required team collaboration, flexibility,
and trust in my teammates. We were a team and I needed the support from my team members as
much as they needed the support from me. I’m proud of how much my teamworking skills have
developed while working on this project and have no doubt that it will serve me well in my
future career.
During my interview with mtheory, I felt confident in speaking of my time working on
this conference, and I know that my interviewer felt impressed by the fact that I had this
experience under my belt. Being able to speak about my role in this conference during my
interviews definitely helped me secure the position.

Student Impact:
Overall, I feel very pleased with my performance in this conference, and I feel lucky that
I had the chance to do this as my Culminating Experience. I may be biased, but I truly believe
that this is the best choice for a GEMB student’s Culminating Experience. The opportunity to
work with a company as reputable as CD Baby to any degree is beneficial, but to be able to work

8

so closely with their team of executives to create an event like this in unparalleled in this
program.
During the actual conference, I remember feeling very nervous about everything running
smoothly. I had also never spoken in front of such a long crowd, and the MC experience was
one that boosted my confidence and reminded me no one is truly judging or critiquing you as
much as you are yourself.
I also feel very thankful that I had the support of Alexandre Perrin; he supported and
guided all of us throughout the conference while simultaneously allowing us to make our own
final decisions. As I mentioned earlier, I truly appreciated that Alex trusted me to make
recommendations for speakers that I thought would add value to the conference. As a student,
being given this opportunity was motivating for me because I felt as if I was making a real
contribution to the conference and its attendees. Seeing the packed room for Cloudkid was a
special experience, and it was only possible because Alex trusted me to deliver a high-quality
speaker.
All in all, working on the 2019 CD Baby, Berklee European DIY Musician Conference
was an incredible experience - one that I will carry proudly with me in my future in the music
industry.

9