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Berklee College of Music
Women in Music Berklee
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Arts in Global Entertainment and Music Business
Supervisor: Clara Barberá
By: Constanza Rivera Arizabalo, Maria Jose Guzman Basilis, Tayler Mooney
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Objectives
III. Resources
IV. Partnerships
V. Women in Music Events
a. Global Career Summit & Affinity Breakfast
b. G-ALL Talk
c. Songwriting Camp
d. Femaletronica
e. Yvette Noel-Schure ‘Master of Global Entertainment Award Ceremony’
f.
Girl Talk with Yvette
g. Breakfast with Georgia Meyer
h. Beyoncé’s Homecoming Documentary Viewing Party
i.
Mental Health Awareness Week
i. Acceptance of Self Workshop
ii. Meet your Counselor: Maria Zarza
iii. Hike for the Mind
j.
Disrupcíon Five Year Anniversary Party & Showcase
k. Musaico Music Festival
VI. Women in Music Berklee Presents ‘Someone’
VII. Marketing & Promotion
VIII. Gantt Chart
IX. Limitations
X. Conclusion
2
I. Introduction
Women in Music is a non-profit organization founded in 1985 with a mission to advance the
awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the
musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition. The organization is a
dynamic group of music industry pros working & learning together through educational seminars,
panels, showcases and our Touchstone Awards (2019). 1
In addition to the New York City headquarters, the organization has 14 chapters spread across the
globe, each in charge of taking local action. The Berklee College of Music Valencia chapter was
established in 2017 by a selected group of students from the Global Entertainment and Music
Business program. These students handed down the project to Maria Jose Guzman Basilis, Tayler
Mooney and Constanza Rivera Arizabalo, who along with supervisor Clara Barbera continued to
grow the project for the class of 2019. Each student was assigned the following roles:
v Tayler Mooney- Production Manager
v Constanza Rivera Arizabalo- Artistic Curation.
v Maria Guzman Basilis- Marketing, Sponsorship, & Partnership
1
Women in Music (2019) About Us. Available at: https://www.womeninmusic.org/about-us.html (Accessed June
10th, 2019)
3
This year’s mission was to:
v Internationalize
v Empowering unheard voices
v Go beyond conversations and initiate actions
With this mission in mind, the team organized or was part of thirteen events targeting both the
Berklee and Valencian communities. The events varied from workshops, conversations,
showcases, ceremonies and intimate meetings; some of which included guests such as Yvette
Noel-Schure (Schure Media Group), Georgia Meyer (shesaidso) and other Berklee
students/faculty. In addition, the team implemented three successful social media campaigns with
the launch of the Women in Music Berklee Instagram, which featured profiles on prominent
women in the industry, speakers, students and takeovers for special events such as Mental Health
Week and International Women’s Day. Finally, the team curated and released the second edition
of a Women in Music Berklee album which features the works of students from both the Valencia
and the Boston campuses.
Overall, the chapter achieved to grow exponentially and become an essential part of the Berklee
Valencia community. And for the first time since its founding, the Berklee chapter engaged with
the rest of the Women in Music community across the globe through the power of social media.
4
II. Objectives
v Create a relationship with the NY Women in Music HQ and other American and international
chapters.
v Establish the chapter’s name within the international music industry.
v Highlight female/non-binary/female identifying students at Berklee and generate opportunities
for them.
v Be recognized by the HQ as an official student chapter.
v Find action-based alternatives to raise awareness on the cause.
v Create a campus based supportive community that students can reach out to and find
themselves in a safe space.
v Create opportunities for collaboration and interaction within the Berklee and Valencian
community.
v Give students opportunities to interact with recognized music industry professionals in an
intimate setting.
v Create a musical body of work featuring Berklee female/non-binary/female identifying
students and release it in order to showcase the school’s talent and create opportunities that
build the portfolio for these students.
v Use our experience to educate and mentor the next administration.
5
III. Resources
Last year’s team left a total budget of €260, which was partially used for the first operational
semester exclusively for the organization of our initial events. At the beginning of our second
semester, we succeeded in receiving a €1,000 diversity grant, which was spent in the organization,
production and promotion of all events organized during the remaining six months. We were able
to start a PayPal account that now holds all the remaining money for next year. The remaining
total is €84.47. These funds allowed our organization to purchase a banner, stickers for promotion,
snacks during our events, and other marketing materials. Last year’s team also forwarded a Google
folder with all pertinent information to get the chapter off to a good start.
In addition to financial resources, the team had support from advisor Clara Barberá, who helped
facilitate communications with both Berklee and the Women in Music HQ. Berklee students
assisted by volunteering throughout the year with production, social media, and marketing needs.
The team’s connection with the student body and faculty proved to be one of the most important
resources for the chapter. Finally, the Global Entertainment and Music Business program served
as a great resource. Because the GEMB program has the music business seminar on Friday’s we
were able to utilize the female guest as features for some of Women in Music’s events and social
media content.
6
IV. Partnerships
Women in Music’s new and pre-existing partnerships resources throughout the year. Below is a
list of partnerships and their contribution to the chapter in 2019.
v Disrupcion Records: Women in Music Berklee had previously established a partnership with
the campus-based label last year through the release of the compilation album ‘Sincerely,
Women.’ This year, the team didn’t have to worry about how the newest compilation album
was going to be released or distributed since this deal was on the table from the start. In
addition to this, because the album was released through them, Women in Music artists were
able to participate in the record label’s five-year anniversary show case.
v The Orchard: Thanks to the partnership with Disrupcíon, the team was able to distribute the
album through this major distribution platform, which represents an upgrade from last year’s
deal with DIY service CD Baby.
v Musaico Festival: Women in Music had a slot during the student ran festival last year, which
made the process for securing a slot this year smoother because of the pre-built relationship.
Being aligned with Musaico also meant the Women in Music artists and album gained free
promotion targeted towards the Valencian community.
v She Knows Tech: Jasmine Pkok approached the WIM team early on with a collaboration in
mind in celebration of International Women’s Day called ‘Femaletronica.’ Jasmine was a great
asset to our team. Because she was the Student affair fellow she was in charge of newsletter
emails for students which ultimately helped event communications for the year.
7
v Global Entertainment & Music Business Program: The team members being a part of the
program facilitated access to speakers and resources which the team would not have been able
to access otherwise.
v Shesaidso: Established in September 2014, shesaid.so has a diverse international community,
comprising of women from across all sectors of the industry - from tech to record labels, PR
to management, and more. With headquarters in London and LA, the shesaid.so community
has 15 active chapters around the world including NYC, Paris, Berlin, Mumbai and more. Their
vision is to connect and empower marginalized communities in the music industry with a focus
on women's rights. After Georgia Meyer’s (shesaidso London) visit to campus, the WIM team
was introduced to the shesaidso network in London and vice versa.2
2
Shesiad.so (2019) Our Story. Available at: https://www.shesaid.so/our-story (Accessed June 10th, 2019)
8
V. Women in Music Events
The following events were accomplished by the Women in Music Berklee team in the extent of
six months.
Global Career Summit & Affinity Breakfast
Date: January 18th, 2019
Venue: Aula Magistral
Summary: The team had a slot during the session to pitch the project to new coming undergrad
students and persuade them to participate and engage with the project.
Results: 20% Instagram follower growth and 4 inquiries about the project and volunteering
opportunities via email.
G-ALL Talk
Date: February 8th, 2019
Venue: B65
Summary: A conversation and introduction between the
Women in Music team and the student body. We wanted to
create an opportunity for the team to learn about what students
expected from the organization, what the organization had plan
for the year, and how they could get involved. Our goal was to
create a sense of community.
Results: Unfortunately, there were no attendees, but it served as a learning opportunity where the
team understood traveling schedules of the study body, marketing strategies, and timeliness when
executing an event.
9
Songwriting Camp
Date: February 16th, 2019
Venue: Berklee campus- Various practice rooms
Summary: An all-day songwriting session aiming to bring
producers, singers and songwriters together in order to
create new working relationships between students.
Results: Two groups of students (four students per group)
who had never collaborated before wrote two separate pieces of work, one of which got recorded
and was produced and arranged by students. The team received feedback requesting for another
camp to take place in the future.
Femaletronica
Date: March 8th, 2019
Venue: Contrapunto
Summary: An all-female electronic concert, in honor of
International Women's Day, where technology meets music and
girl power. This event was in collaboration with She Knows Tech
& Women in Music.
Results: The 100 RSVP target was hit, the event ended up having
more attendees than expected, including Berklee Valencia students and faculty, as well as members
of the Valencian community. It ran successfully and smoothly.
Attendees: 110 Facebook: 6.1k people reached, 174 responses Instagram: 1.k impressions
10
Girl Talk with Yvette
Date: March 13th, 2019
Venue: Sorsi e Morsi Restaurant
Summary: An opportunity for female, non-binary, and
female identifying students to share an intimate dinner
with publicist Mrs. Yvette Noel-Schure in order to spark
conversations about the female experience in the music
industry, share stories and seek advice from one of the top
industry professionals in the world. The team put out an application and selected the submission
which best fitted the purpose of the event and conversation.
Results: The team received twenty-three applications and eleven students were selected to join
Yvette and the team for a dinner. Stories were shared, tears were shed, the table turned into a safe
space where every guest shared their story and felt supported by everyone in the room. A real
intimate bond was created between the students and Mrs. Noel-Schure. Students were elated and
so grateful to have shared this bonding experience.
11
Yvette Noel-Schure ‘Master of Global Entertainment’ Award Ceremony
Date: March 14th, 2019
Venue: Berklee Library & Aula Magistral
Summary: The team along with Berklee faculty organized a ceremony in honor of Mrs. NoelSchure, the first Global Entertainment Award recipient. The ceremony involved two curated live
musical performances, spoken word, and an interview by Tayler Mooney. It was a celebration of
Yvette’s career, contribution to Berklee, and the music industry.
Results: A successful ceremony we approximately sixty in attendance. This event ran smoothly
and on time, all participants delivered and it was perfectly executed. This ceremony was followed
up by a congratulatory mixer for Mrs. Yvette. The ceremony was featured on Billboard and Variety
the following week.
12
Breakfast with Georgia Meyer
Date: April 16th, 2019
Venue: Mama’s Bakery
Summary: An opportunity for female, non-binary, and female
identifying students to share an intimate breakfast with Georgia
Meyer in order to spark conversations about the female experience
in the technology space and music industry and seek advice from
an industry professional.
Results: Women in Music paid for the breakfast for the five attendees.
Beyoncé’s Homecoming Documentary Viewing Party
Date: April 17th, 2019
Venue: Marina Real Collegiate- Theatre Room
Summary: A viewing party experience of the Netflix
‘Homecoming’ documentary by Beyoncé. A celebration of the
artist’s career and Coachella performance.
Results: Ten guests plus the team attended the very fun watching
party where Women in Music provided drinks and snacks to enhance the experience. Not only did
the guests provide positive feedback, but the Women in Music Instagram account had a surprising
amount of responses to the team’s live updates.
13
Mental Health Awareness Week
The purpose of MHAW was to educate and continue to build awareness and support
for mental health issues. This gave our student community an opportunity to think about how we
all play a vital role in creating a more inclusive community. These events focused on supporting
one another, acknowledging struggles, celebrating resiliency, and continuing to work toward
positive mental health as a community. We wanted to spread the message that we are never
alone.
Acceptance of Self Workshop
Date: April 24th, 2019
Venue: Sala Blanca
Summary: In alliance with the yoga club and Berklee
counselor Maria Zara, Women in Music organized a selfidentity workshop with a yoga and mindfulness movement
exercise. Participants got the opportunity to reflect,
experience, and learn about the connection between
sexism, homophobia, trauma, and our own perception of the “self.” This workshop encouraged
students to connect with their bodies in a positive, warm, accepting, respectful way.
Results: Fifteen students rsvp through our type form link created and nineteen students attended
the workshop.
14
Meet Your Counselor: Maria Zarza
Date: April 26th, 2019
Venue: A26
Summary: Maria Zarza held 30-minute individual sessions available
for students to discuss any and all issues pertaining to their mental
wellness.
Results: Ten sessions were available through Google calendar and six
were scheduled.
Hike for the Mind
Date: April 28th, 2019
Venue: Chulilla Hiking Trails
Summary: In honor of Mental Health Awareness Week
Women in Music Berklee organized a hike in Chulilla.
A hiking day sightseeing mountain, rivers, reservoirs,
hanging bridges, and rock painting. The route is one of the
classic Valencian trails that took about three hours (moving)
which is approximately 15km. This tour was planned through a Valencian company called
International VIP tours. This company provided us with transportation, tour guide, and proper
insurance for safety for €15 per student.
Results: Forty-three students rsvp through our typeform link and forty students attended the
excursion.
15
Disrupcíon Five Year Anniversary Party
Date: May 3rd, 2019
Venue: Funkadelia
Summary: Disrupción Records celebrated their five-year
anniversary with a live music showcase. Three songs from
the album were selected to be debuted at this party.
Results: Exposure for Women in Music Berklee Album
release to a sold-out venue served as promotion for both the artists and the organization.
Musaico Music Festival
Date: May 4th, 2019
Venue: City of Arts and Sciences
Summary: Musaico is a free one-day, family-friendly
festival, a full day of eclectic music by undeniablytalented artists from Berklee College of Music.
Women in Music Berklee was granted a 20-minute
slot on the B stage to showcase the Women in Music
Berklee Album release. Four of the most upbeat songs were selected to be performed in front of
the Valencian community. In addition, Women in Music Berklee had a promotional stand at the
festival’s ‘social village’ that expounded on our mission and social efforts.
Results: Women in Music had a successful set which allowed our talent to be exposed and interact
with the Valencian community, the same goes for the organization itself, since many conversations
were had with locals about Women in Music and possible involvement.
16
VI.
Women in Music Berklee Presents “SOMEONE”
Summary: The women in music team curated a compilation album of works created by Berklee
students from both Valencia and Boston campuses called “SOMEONE”. Stories told by women,
different perspectives on growth, strength and resilience was the essence of the album. Students at
Berklee College of Music Valencia campus were selected by the Women in Music team to be
featured in this album and share snapshots of their stories with the world. A story told through pop,
R&B and alternative sounds that create a piece of work that could only come out of the creative
hub like Berklee. This project was released to all major streaming platforms on May 3rd, 2019.
Curation: The team received over thirty submissions from students across various programs. The
selection criteria consisted on three main points: Quality of production, theme and sound. The
selected songs had to be of the best quality, as well as align with the message of the album, and
have a coherent sound to make a cohesive body of work. The team listened to every submission
and selected a total of eleven tracks. The tracks vary from pop to alternative and follow a theme
of storytelling from a female perspective, stories of growth, evolution and empowerment.
17
Artwork: The artist was selected after conducting an extensive social media research. The team
wanted the artwork to be designed by the female/fem identifying creative and efforts were put in
to find the best one that could fit our budget. Instagram digital artists, Athina Efthimiopoulou, was
the selected designer. The team explained the concept and Athina and she exceed our expectation
in her delivery. The artwork received many praises.
Marketing & Promotion: The team focused the marketing in three principal aspects, first prepromotional campaign with an Instagram story video teaser at midnight when the album went live.
The second step was the IG post of each artist personally, explaining the song and what it meant
to them. The third step the team took was to highlight each girl individually on the Social Media
account, writing a review on the song they each wrote and short review of their careers and
aspirations.
Challenges: Releasing “SOMEONE” proved difficult because the release depended on third
parties to deliver material. Gathering paperwork from all the artists was very time consuming and
required the team to remind the talent multiple times of what was needed. The team was always
patient and understood that paperwork will never be an artist’s priority. The biggest challenge for
the team was solving the mistakes Disrupcíon Records made after the release. To this day, some
songs and artist names are misspelled and the album is not the easiest to find. The metadata sent
to the label has been checked and confirmed correct. Unfortunately, the artists affected were quite
upset and to this day the WIM team hasn’t heard a resolution back from Disrupcíon Records.
18
Marketing Results: The teaser campaign was a great success. I was shared more than 500 times,
made it to different outlets, a few music high executives also shared it. More importantly it was
the first initiative of Women in Music Berklee to be posted at the Women in Music’s main
Instagram account, it was shared by them for a total of four times.
Overall Results: Over 50k cumulative streams on Spotify, posted on social media by Atlantic
Records A&R Ed Grand. For all the artists featured, this was their first released through a major
distributor (The Orchard) and was the first ever release for some of these artists.
VII. Marketing & Promotion
Summary: Social media was one of the most important tasks of the project for the team, we
believed that social media would help mold our organization, by achieving long term results. For
this we started different segments inside our social media pages. The first main decision was to
focus on Instagram instead of Facebook because all other Women in Music chapters are based on
Instagram.
19
Humans of Berklee
Summary: Weekly posts featuring female Berklee Valencia students from different programs. A
platform where students could share their stories, experiences, and advice for other upcoming
students, as well as being professionally exposed the music industry executives following the
account.
Results: Ten student features with high rates of social engagement.
Instagram Inspirational Profiles
Summary: Featuring female GEMB seminar guests’ speakers to highlight their careers and
promote campus activities as well as present the internet with inspirational success stories of
women in the music industry. In addition to visiting speakers, the team reached out to outside
industry professionals and featured profiles for them as well.
Results: Nine inspirational profiles, which actually reached accounts that weren’t following
Women in Music Berklee. Each profile had at least a 6% rate of engagement from non-followers.
Mental Health Awareness Week- Social Media Takeover
Date: April 22nd - 28th, 2019
Summary: Casper Schadt, Berklee Study Abroad student, served as a great asset this year. She
did a very successful social media takeover for specialized content during Mental Health
20
Awareness Week. These posts aimed to get the online community engaged, open, and in honest
conversation about mental health and encourage to destigmatize the topic.
Results: Strong engagement at the beginning of the takeover, which decrease throughout the week.
It wasn’t unsuccessful but it showed the team that the Instagram audience prefers more spread out
posts over everyday multiples.
21
VIII. Gantt Chart
22
IX. Limitations
Sadly, the legal battle on becoming an official chapter was not been solved yet. This put a hold
on many of the great ideas we wanted to achieve. For instance, we had a great idea to create tshirts with the logo to sell on campus. This would have provided us the opportunity to create
more awareness and grow our funds for the year. Nonetheless, we decided to go forward and
produce other merchandise such as stickers and an informational banner for subsequent
chapters to utilize. These types of merchandise were selected because it was less likely for our
chapter to get sued.
Although, the diversity grant was crucial to our success this year it was also a limitation. In
order to utilize the money to fund our activities we had to come out of our own budget first
and then give the receipt to Clara for reimbursement. We believe that there should be easier
process that not only benefits the school but the students as well. Perhaps Berklee can give the
organizations who receive Diversity Grants a pre-paid debit that has the fund allowed to them
in return for the receipts at the end of the term. Because most students do not have disposable
incomes, this takes the stress off of them having to fund their organizations.
23
X. Conclusion
All in all, Women in Music Berklee was no easy feat.
This initiative took patience, determination, and poise.
Three young ladies came together from different cultural
backgrounds, views, and professional expertise to take
this project a step further. Our greatest commonality was
the fact that we wanted to make our mark to make a
change. Our job was to advance the hard work completed in the inaugural year. January 2019
was the relaunch of the chapter; however, our activation strategy was slowly coming together.
With the help of Berklee’s graduate fellow Jasmine and our supervisor Clara, we were reassured
to focus on our initial goals and to make those most impactful as possible. Getting the student
body involved, creating an international footprint through our social media campaign, and
becoming the first official collegiate chapter of Women in Music were our top goals. Even
though we weren’t able to become an official chapter we have created a solid relationship with
Mayna Neverez, head of Women in Music HQ Communications and the Miami chapter. Mrs.
Neverez has stated desire to have a mentorship program between our two chapters in the coming
years. We have also established lasting relationships with other operating chapters throughout
the United States. Tangibly we were able to execute thirteen events, a second annual album
release, Mental Health Awareness Week that Berklee will continue in the coming years, and
three curated live music showcases. Our hope is for the future students of this organization to
continue to strive for greatness. As we continue to progress through our careers in the music
industry and set out to be a part of this present-day women empowerment movement, we can
proactively act in breaking barriers. Although this year’s journey is coming to an end, with
24
gratification we would like to thank Berklee for the immeasurable support behind us and for
trusting us with this job, even through our mishaps and obstacles.
25
XI.
Bibliography
1. Women in Music (2019) About Us. Available at: https://www.womeninmusic.org/aboutus.html (Accessed June 10th, 2019)
2. Shesiad.so (2019) Our Story. Available at: https://www.shesaid.so/our-story (Accessed
June 10th, 2019)
26
Women in Music Berklee
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Arts in Global Entertainment and Music Business
Supervisor: Clara Barberá
By: Constanza Rivera Arizabalo, Maria Jose Guzman Basilis, Tayler Mooney
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Objectives
III. Resources
IV. Partnerships
V. Women in Music Events
a. Global Career Summit & Affinity Breakfast
b. G-ALL Talk
c. Songwriting Camp
d. Femaletronica
e. Yvette Noel-Schure ‘Master of Global Entertainment Award Ceremony’
f.
Girl Talk with Yvette
g. Breakfast with Georgia Meyer
h. Beyoncé’s Homecoming Documentary Viewing Party
i.
Mental Health Awareness Week
i. Acceptance of Self Workshop
ii. Meet your Counselor: Maria Zarza
iii. Hike for the Mind
j.
Disrupcíon Five Year Anniversary Party & Showcase
k. Musaico Music Festival
VI. Women in Music Berklee Presents ‘Someone’
VII. Marketing & Promotion
VIII. Gantt Chart
IX. Limitations
X. Conclusion
2
I. Introduction
Women in Music is a non-profit organization founded in 1985 with a mission to advance the
awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the
musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition. The organization is a
dynamic group of music industry pros working & learning together through educational seminars,
panels, showcases and our Touchstone Awards (2019). 1
In addition to the New York City headquarters, the organization has 14 chapters spread across the
globe, each in charge of taking local action. The Berklee College of Music Valencia chapter was
established in 2017 by a selected group of students from the Global Entertainment and Music
Business program. These students handed down the project to Maria Jose Guzman Basilis, Tayler
Mooney and Constanza Rivera Arizabalo, who along with supervisor Clara Barbera continued to
grow the project for the class of 2019. Each student was assigned the following roles:
v Tayler Mooney- Production Manager
v Constanza Rivera Arizabalo- Artistic Curation.
v Maria Guzman Basilis- Marketing, Sponsorship, & Partnership
1
Women in Music (2019) About Us. Available at: https://www.womeninmusic.org/about-us.html (Accessed June
10th, 2019)
3
This year’s mission was to:
v Internationalize
v Empowering unheard voices
v Go beyond conversations and initiate actions
With this mission in mind, the team organized or was part of thirteen events targeting both the
Berklee and Valencian communities. The events varied from workshops, conversations,
showcases, ceremonies and intimate meetings; some of which included guests such as Yvette
Noel-Schure (Schure Media Group), Georgia Meyer (shesaidso) and other Berklee
students/faculty. In addition, the team implemented three successful social media campaigns with
the launch of the Women in Music Berklee Instagram, which featured profiles on prominent
women in the industry, speakers, students and takeovers for special events such as Mental Health
Week and International Women’s Day. Finally, the team curated and released the second edition
of a Women in Music Berklee album which features the works of students from both the Valencia
and the Boston campuses.
Overall, the chapter achieved to grow exponentially and become an essential part of the Berklee
Valencia community. And for the first time since its founding, the Berklee chapter engaged with
the rest of the Women in Music community across the globe through the power of social media.
4
II. Objectives
v Create a relationship with the NY Women in Music HQ and other American and international
chapters.
v Establish the chapter’s name within the international music industry.
v Highlight female/non-binary/female identifying students at Berklee and generate opportunities
for them.
v Be recognized by the HQ as an official student chapter.
v Find action-based alternatives to raise awareness on the cause.
v Create a campus based supportive community that students can reach out to and find
themselves in a safe space.
v Create opportunities for collaboration and interaction within the Berklee and Valencian
community.
v Give students opportunities to interact with recognized music industry professionals in an
intimate setting.
v Create a musical body of work featuring Berklee female/non-binary/female identifying
students and release it in order to showcase the school’s talent and create opportunities that
build the portfolio for these students.
v Use our experience to educate and mentor the next administration.
5
III. Resources
Last year’s team left a total budget of €260, which was partially used for the first operational
semester exclusively for the organization of our initial events. At the beginning of our second
semester, we succeeded in receiving a €1,000 diversity grant, which was spent in the organization,
production and promotion of all events organized during the remaining six months. We were able
to start a PayPal account that now holds all the remaining money for next year. The remaining
total is €84.47. These funds allowed our organization to purchase a banner, stickers for promotion,
snacks during our events, and other marketing materials. Last year’s team also forwarded a Google
folder with all pertinent information to get the chapter off to a good start.
In addition to financial resources, the team had support from advisor Clara Barberá, who helped
facilitate communications with both Berklee and the Women in Music HQ. Berklee students
assisted by volunteering throughout the year with production, social media, and marketing needs.
The team’s connection with the student body and faculty proved to be one of the most important
resources for the chapter. Finally, the Global Entertainment and Music Business program served
as a great resource. Because the GEMB program has the music business seminar on Friday’s we
were able to utilize the female guest as features for some of Women in Music’s events and social
media content.
6
IV. Partnerships
Women in Music’s new and pre-existing partnerships resources throughout the year. Below is a
list of partnerships and their contribution to the chapter in 2019.
v Disrupcion Records: Women in Music Berklee had previously established a partnership with
the campus-based label last year through the release of the compilation album ‘Sincerely,
Women.’ This year, the team didn’t have to worry about how the newest compilation album
was going to be released or distributed since this deal was on the table from the start. In
addition to this, because the album was released through them, Women in Music artists were
able to participate in the record label’s five-year anniversary show case.
v The Orchard: Thanks to the partnership with Disrupcíon, the team was able to distribute the
album through this major distribution platform, which represents an upgrade from last year’s
deal with DIY service CD Baby.
v Musaico Festival: Women in Music had a slot during the student ran festival last year, which
made the process for securing a slot this year smoother because of the pre-built relationship.
Being aligned with Musaico also meant the Women in Music artists and album gained free
promotion targeted towards the Valencian community.
v She Knows Tech: Jasmine Pkok approached the WIM team early on with a collaboration in
mind in celebration of International Women’s Day called ‘Femaletronica.’ Jasmine was a great
asset to our team. Because she was the Student affair fellow she was in charge of newsletter
emails for students which ultimately helped event communications for the year.
7
v Global Entertainment & Music Business Program: The team members being a part of the
program facilitated access to speakers and resources which the team would not have been able
to access otherwise.
v Shesaidso: Established in September 2014, shesaid.so has a diverse international community,
comprising of women from across all sectors of the industry - from tech to record labels, PR
to management, and more. With headquarters in London and LA, the shesaid.so community
has 15 active chapters around the world including NYC, Paris, Berlin, Mumbai and more. Their
vision is to connect and empower marginalized communities in the music industry with a focus
on women's rights. After Georgia Meyer’s (shesaidso London) visit to campus, the WIM team
was introduced to the shesaidso network in London and vice versa.2
2
Shesiad.so (2019) Our Story. Available at: https://www.shesaid.so/our-story (Accessed June 10th, 2019)
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V. Women in Music Events
The following events were accomplished by the Women in Music Berklee team in the extent of
six months.
Global Career Summit & Affinity Breakfast
Date: January 18th, 2019
Venue: Aula Magistral
Summary: The team had a slot during the session to pitch the project to new coming undergrad
students and persuade them to participate and engage with the project.
Results: 20% Instagram follower growth and 4 inquiries about the project and volunteering
opportunities via email.
G-ALL Talk
Date: February 8th, 2019
Venue: B65
Summary: A conversation and introduction between the
Women in Music team and the student body. We wanted to
create an opportunity for the team to learn about what students
expected from the organization, what the organization had plan
for the year, and how they could get involved. Our goal was to
create a sense of community.
Results: Unfortunately, there were no attendees, but it served as a learning opportunity where the
team understood traveling schedules of the study body, marketing strategies, and timeliness when
executing an event.
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Songwriting Camp
Date: February 16th, 2019
Venue: Berklee campus- Various practice rooms
Summary: An all-day songwriting session aiming to bring
producers, singers and songwriters together in order to
create new working relationships between students.
Results: Two groups of students (four students per group)
who had never collaborated before wrote two separate pieces of work, one of which got recorded
and was produced and arranged by students. The team received feedback requesting for another
camp to take place in the future.
Femaletronica
Date: March 8th, 2019
Venue: Contrapunto
Summary: An all-female electronic concert, in honor of
International Women's Day, where technology meets music and
girl power. This event was in collaboration with She Knows Tech
& Women in Music.
Results: The 100 RSVP target was hit, the event ended up having
more attendees than expected, including Berklee Valencia students and faculty, as well as members
of the Valencian community. It ran successfully and smoothly.
Attendees: 110 Facebook: 6.1k people reached, 174 responses Instagram: 1.k impressions
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Girl Talk with Yvette
Date: March 13th, 2019
Venue: Sorsi e Morsi Restaurant
Summary: An opportunity for female, non-binary, and
female identifying students to share an intimate dinner
with publicist Mrs. Yvette Noel-Schure in order to spark
conversations about the female experience in the music
industry, share stories and seek advice from one of the top
industry professionals in the world. The team put out an application and selected the submission
which best fitted the purpose of the event and conversation.
Results: The team received twenty-three applications and eleven students were selected to join
Yvette and the team for a dinner. Stories were shared, tears were shed, the table turned into a safe
space where every guest shared their story and felt supported by everyone in the room. A real
intimate bond was created between the students and Mrs. Noel-Schure. Students were elated and
so grateful to have shared this bonding experience.
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Yvette Noel-Schure ‘Master of Global Entertainment’ Award Ceremony
Date: March 14th, 2019
Venue: Berklee Library & Aula Magistral
Summary: The team along with Berklee faculty organized a ceremony in honor of Mrs. NoelSchure, the first Global Entertainment Award recipient. The ceremony involved two curated live
musical performances, spoken word, and an interview by Tayler Mooney. It was a celebration of
Yvette’s career, contribution to Berklee, and the music industry.
Results: A successful ceremony we approximately sixty in attendance. This event ran smoothly
and on time, all participants delivered and it was perfectly executed. This ceremony was followed
up by a congratulatory mixer for Mrs. Yvette. The ceremony was featured on Billboard and Variety
the following week.
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Breakfast with Georgia Meyer
Date: April 16th, 2019
Venue: Mama’s Bakery
Summary: An opportunity for female, non-binary, and female
identifying students to share an intimate breakfast with Georgia
Meyer in order to spark conversations about the female experience
in the technology space and music industry and seek advice from
an industry professional.
Results: Women in Music paid for the breakfast for the five attendees.
Beyoncé’s Homecoming Documentary Viewing Party
Date: April 17th, 2019
Venue: Marina Real Collegiate- Theatre Room
Summary: A viewing party experience of the Netflix
‘Homecoming’ documentary by Beyoncé. A celebration of the
artist’s career and Coachella performance.
Results: Ten guests plus the team attended the very fun watching
party where Women in Music provided drinks and snacks to enhance the experience. Not only did
the guests provide positive feedback, but the Women in Music Instagram account had a surprising
amount of responses to the team’s live updates.
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Mental Health Awareness Week
The purpose of MHAW was to educate and continue to build awareness and support
for mental health issues. This gave our student community an opportunity to think about how we
all play a vital role in creating a more inclusive community. These events focused on supporting
one another, acknowledging struggles, celebrating resiliency, and continuing to work toward
positive mental health as a community. We wanted to spread the message that we are never
alone.
Acceptance of Self Workshop
Date: April 24th, 2019
Venue: Sala Blanca
Summary: In alliance with the yoga club and Berklee
counselor Maria Zara, Women in Music organized a selfidentity workshop with a yoga and mindfulness movement
exercise. Participants got the opportunity to reflect,
experience, and learn about the connection between
sexism, homophobia, trauma, and our own perception of the “self.” This workshop encouraged
students to connect with their bodies in a positive, warm, accepting, respectful way.
Results: Fifteen students rsvp through our type form link created and nineteen students attended
the workshop.
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Meet Your Counselor: Maria Zarza
Date: April 26th, 2019
Venue: A26
Summary: Maria Zarza held 30-minute individual sessions available
for students to discuss any and all issues pertaining to their mental
wellness.
Results: Ten sessions were available through Google calendar and six
were scheduled.
Hike for the Mind
Date: April 28th, 2019
Venue: Chulilla Hiking Trails
Summary: In honor of Mental Health Awareness Week
Women in Music Berklee organized a hike in Chulilla.
A hiking day sightseeing mountain, rivers, reservoirs,
hanging bridges, and rock painting. The route is one of the
classic Valencian trails that took about three hours (moving)
which is approximately 15km. This tour was planned through a Valencian company called
International VIP tours. This company provided us with transportation, tour guide, and proper
insurance for safety for €15 per student.
Results: Forty-three students rsvp through our typeform link and forty students attended the
excursion.
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Disrupcíon Five Year Anniversary Party
Date: May 3rd, 2019
Venue: Funkadelia
Summary: Disrupción Records celebrated their five-year
anniversary with a live music showcase. Three songs from
the album were selected to be debuted at this party.
Results: Exposure for Women in Music Berklee Album
release to a sold-out venue served as promotion for both the artists and the organization.
Musaico Music Festival
Date: May 4th, 2019
Venue: City of Arts and Sciences
Summary: Musaico is a free one-day, family-friendly
festival, a full day of eclectic music by undeniablytalented artists from Berklee College of Music.
Women in Music Berklee was granted a 20-minute
slot on the B stage to showcase the Women in Music
Berklee Album release. Four of the most upbeat songs were selected to be performed in front of
the Valencian community. In addition, Women in Music Berklee had a promotional stand at the
festival’s ‘social village’ that expounded on our mission and social efforts.
Results: Women in Music had a successful set which allowed our talent to be exposed and interact
with the Valencian community, the same goes for the organization itself, since many conversations
were had with locals about Women in Music and possible involvement.
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VI.
Women in Music Berklee Presents “SOMEONE”
Summary: The women in music team curated a compilation album of works created by Berklee
students from both Valencia and Boston campuses called “SOMEONE”. Stories told by women,
different perspectives on growth, strength and resilience was the essence of the album. Students at
Berklee College of Music Valencia campus were selected by the Women in Music team to be
featured in this album and share snapshots of their stories with the world. A story told through pop,
R&B and alternative sounds that create a piece of work that could only come out of the creative
hub like Berklee. This project was released to all major streaming platforms on May 3rd, 2019.
Curation: The team received over thirty submissions from students across various programs. The
selection criteria consisted on three main points: Quality of production, theme and sound. The
selected songs had to be of the best quality, as well as align with the message of the album, and
have a coherent sound to make a cohesive body of work. The team listened to every submission
and selected a total of eleven tracks. The tracks vary from pop to alternative and follow a theme
of storytelling from a female perspective, stories of growth, evolution and empowerment.
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Artwork: The artist was selected after conducting an extensive social media research. The team
wanted the artwork to be designed by the female/fem identifying creative and efforts were put in
to find the best one that could fit our budget. Instagram digital artists, Athina Efthimiopoulou, was
the selected designer. The team explained the concept and Athina and she exceed our expectation
in her delivery. The artwork received many praises.
Marketing & Promotion: The team focused the marketing in three principal aspects, first prepromotional campaign with an Instagram story video teaser at midnight when the album went live.
The second step was the IG post of each artist personally, explaining the song and what it meant
to them. The third step the team took was to highlight each girl individually on the Social Media
account, writing a review on the song they each wrote and short review of their careers and
aspirations.
Challenges: Releasing “SOMEONE” proved difficult because the release depended on third
parties to deliver material. Gathering paperwork from all the artists was very time consuming and
required the team to remind the talent multiple times of what was needed. The team was always
patient and understood that paperwork will never be an artist’s priority. The biggest challenge for
the team was solving the mistakes Disrupcíon Records made after the release. To this day, some
songs and artist names are misspelled and the album is not the easiest to find. The metadata sent
to the label has been checked and confirmed correct. Unfortunately, the artists affected were quite
upset and to this day the WIM team hasn’t heard a resolution back from Disrupcíon Records.
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Marketing Results: The teaser campaign was a great success. I was shared more than 500 times,
made it to different outlets, a few music high executives also shared it. More importantly it was
the first initiative of Women in Music Berklee to be posted at the Women in Music’s main
Instagram account, it was shared by them for a total of four times.
Overall Results: Over 50k cumulative streams on Spotify, posted on social media by Atlantic
Records A&R Ed Grand. For all the artists featured, this was their first released through a major
distributor (The Orchard) and was the first ever release for some of these artists.
VII. Marketing & Promotion
Summary: Social media was one of the most important tasks of the project for the team, we
believed that social media would help mold our organization, by achieving long term results. For
this we started different segments inside our social media pages. The first main decision was to
focus on Instagram instead of Facebook because all other Women in Music chapters are based on
Instagram.
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Humans of Berklee
Summary: Weekly posts featuring female Berklee Valencia students from different programs. A
platform where students could share their stories, experiences, and advice for other upcoming
students, as well as being professionally exposed the music industry executives following the
account.
Results: Ten student features with high rates of social engagement.
Instagram Inspirational Profiles
Summary: Featuring female GEMB seminar guests’ speakers to highlight their careers and
promote campus activities as well as present the internet with inspirational success stories of
women in the music industry. In addition to visiting speakers, the team reached out to outside
industry professionals and featured profiles for them as well.
Results: Nine inspirational profiles, which actually reached accounts that weren’t following
Women in Music Berklee. Each profile had at least a 6% rate of engagement from non-followers.
Mental Health Awareness Week- Social Media Takeover
Date: April 22nd - 28th, 2019
Summary: Casper Schadt, Berklee Study Abroad student, served as a great asset this year. She
did a very successful social media takeover for specialized content during Mental Health
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Awareness Week. These posts aimed to get the online community engaged, open, and in honest
conversation about mental health and encourage to destigmatize the topic.
Results: Strong engagement at the beginning of the takeover, which decrease throughout the week.
It wasn’t unsuccessful but it showed the team that the Instagram audience prefers more spread out
posts over everyday multiples.
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VIII. Gantt Chart
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IX. Limitations
Sadly, the legal battle on becoming an official chapter was not been solved yet. This put a hold
on many of the great ideas we wanted to achieve. For instance, we had a great idea to create tshirts with the logo to sell on campus. This would have provided us the opportunity to create
more awareness and grow our funds for the year. Nonetheless, we decided to go forward and
produce other merchandise such as stickers and an informational banner for subsequent
chapters to utilize. These types of merchandise were selected because it was less likely for our
chapter to get sued.
Although, the diversity grant was crucial to our success this year it was also a limitation. In
order to utilize the money to fund our activities we had to come out of our own budget first
and then give the receipt to Clara for reimbursement. We believe that there should be easier
process that not only benefits the school but the students as well. Perhaps Berklee can give the
organizations who receive Diversity Grants a pre-paid debit that has the fund allowed to them
in return for the receipts at the end of the term. Because most students do not have disposable
incomes, this takes the stress off of them having to fund their organizations.
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X. Conclusion
All in all, Women in Music Berklee was no easy feat.
This initiative took patience, determination, and poise.
Three young ladies came together from different cultural
backgrounds, views, and professional expertise to take
this project a step further. Our greatest commonality was
the fact that we wanted to make our mark to make a
change. Our job was to advance the hard work completed in the inaugural year. January 2019
was the relaunch of the chapter; however, our activation strategy was slowly coming together.
With the help of Berklee’s graduate fellow Jasmine and our supervisor Clara, we were reassured
to focus on our initial goals and to make those most impactful as possible. Getting the student
body involved, creating an international footprint through our social media campaign, and
becoming the first official collegiate chapter of Women in Music were our top goals. Even
though we weren’t able to become an official chapter we have created a solid relationship with
Mayna Neverez, head of Women in Music HQ Communications and the Miami chapter. Mrs.
Neverez has stated desire to have a mentorship program between our two chapters in the coming
years. We have also established lasting relationships with other operating chapters throughout
the United States. Tangibly we were able to execute thirteen events, a second annual album
release, Mental Health Awareness Week that Berklee will continue in the coming years, and
three curated live music showcases. Our hope is for the future students of this organization to
continue to strive for greatness. As we continue to progress through our careers in the music
industry and set out to be a part of this present-day women empowerment movement, we can
proactively act in breaking barriers. Although this year’s journey is coming to an end, with
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gratification we would like to thank Berklee for the immeasurable support behind us and for
trusting us with this job, even through our mishaps and obstacles.
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XI.
Bibliography
1. Women in Music (2019) About Us. Available at: https://www.womeninmusic.org/aboutus.html (Accessed June 10th, 2019)
2. Shesiad.so (2019) Our Story. Available at: https://www.shesaid.so/our-story (Accessed
June 10th, 2019)
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Media of
