Women In Music - Berklee College of
Music
2018-2019
Reflective Paper
By: María José Guzmán Basilis

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of
Master of Arts in Global Entertainment and Music Business

Supervisor: Clara Barberá

Berklee College of Music, Valencia Campus, Spain

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Table of Contents

I.

Summary ………………………………………………………………………… 3

II. Results …………………………………………………………………………… 4
III. Process …………………………………………………………………………… 6
IV. Next Step …………………………………………………………………………. 7
V. Contribution to Discipline & Profession ……………………………………….. 8
VI. Impact on Student ……………………………………………………………….. 9
VII. Bibliography …………………………………………………………………….. 10

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I.

Summary

Women In Music is an international nonprofit organization that exists to oversee and direct
the music business into a more inclusive direction. Shining light into women on the
business and their amazing work. Today it has 14 chapters across the globe, each of them
taking action in their own territories.

Our hopefully soon to be chapter was created last year by a group of students that were
part of the GEMB program, and they passed the torches to us. Along with my teammates
Constanza Rivera and Tayler Mooney under the supervision of our advisor Clara Barbera
we continued the project and grew it to something more tangible.

In order to do so each one of us had a different role, I was head of marketing and
promotions, Tayler Mooney was head of production and Constanza Rivera was head of
artistic curation. Together we concluded that our era of the chapter would be base on three
main ideas:

- Internationalization: every corner of the world has talent and stories to grab
inspiration from.
- Empowering unheard voices: too many have been silenced for too long.
- Solution-driven: conversations will and should be had, they drive change, but
actions create change.

Guided by these objectives, the team prepared different events at Berklee and at Valencia
in general, from workshops, breakfasts, intimate dinners, songwriting camps, hikes, and
social media campaigns.
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Social media was a huge part of our chapter since it was the team’s desire to find a way to
create awareness beyond the campus wall. With initiatives like Women of Berklee that
highlighted Berklee students that were doing great things and our campaign with different
legends executives from the music industry and their accomplishments #inwomenwetrust,
This year social media efforts positioned our “chapter” as the fifth in fourteen with more
reach across social media in terms of following.

In general terms, the chapter was a success, we accomplished our goals and got
recognized by Women In Music headquarters, setting the basis for an even more tight
relationship between Women In Music HQ and the next Women In Music Berklee
chapters.

II. Results
Overall the project had a lot of positive outcomes. I personally think we could’ve done
more significant things but we have to keep in mind that we only had four months and that
our main objective was to created awareness inside the Berklee community which we did.

Our second goal was to create a tighter relationship with the headquarters and other
chapters, and we did. At MIDEM we got to meet with Mayna Nevarez, the head of global
communications and also head of the Miami chapter, and with her, we started the
conversations about mentorships programs between the WIM members around the world
and the Berklee students as a possibility for next years chapter. We also got published at
the Women In Music main Instagram page many times and the headquarters recognized
and thanked us for the work we did.

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When it comes to our album, it’s safe to say it was an incredible experience. With more
than 50,000 streams only on Spotify at the moment, being highlighted by the VP of A&R at
Atlantic records and the success of the media plan, we can conclude that the hard work
paid off. More importantly, the Berklee students that were part of it were immersed into
their first process (most of them) of putting a song they made out to the world, from dealing
with the distributor to marketing, so it was a great feeling for the team when the feedback
we got from them was so positive.

I honestly think we did a good job, the chapter grew exponentially this time around, we
became an important part of the campus life and activities, awareness was created, the
internationalization was stated, and we definitely did everything while aiming to a solution
driven action based result.

III. Process

As I stated before, everybody in the team had their own areas, but to get this to work we
had to blur the lines a little bit and help each other out. I think in order to help each other
out we had to communicate better and that was or is our main issue, and the only thing
that took from this project from being beautiful and smooth, for me it still was a beautiful
experience but it should’ve been smoother.

We are three completely different individuals and I think overall that’s a plus to the project,
what different people can’t have in order to work together is: different directions because
no cultural background is going to guarantee you they will end up at the same place.
Because of that, the most important asset for a project like this a leader with great
communication skills that would help, listen and understand everybody’s perspective and
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ultimately make the call on what they believe is better for the project instead of just an ego
war with their own believes.

We all had different views of Women In Music, and talking with Miss Nevarez at MIDEM I
realized mine wasn’t as far off as the organization's main views. They see the project as a
community were women gather to create opportunities for one another, more so like the
business gentlemen clubs there used to be in the 80’s, or “peñas” in Latin America, were a
group of selected people will meet to create business opportunities among others, big
difference is this time the “selected people” are all the women that want to be here.
Looking back I have to admit that I should’ve fought harder to get my perspective out, and
I didn’t do it just to avoid confrontation.

I saw the project as a beautiful opportunity to create action and my point fair and clear was
instead of talking about it, let’s just do it. However, I think the main function of our advisor
was to help us keep our foot on the ground, which I completely understood, but in my short
experience I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes you have to let people fly, you
don’t know what they can achieve while they are on the sky.

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IV. Next Step

The next WIM Berklee chapter is a lucky one, and it has all the opportunities to create
action and tangible change at Berklee Valencia Campus.

We’ve left them all the materials at the Women In Music Berklee google drive, a growing
Instagram account with great engagement numbers, but more than that, with the work that
we put in this year we got recognized by the headquarters and they finally want to work
with us. I personally exchanged emails with Miss Nevarez from WIM HQ about the
possibility of them creating a mentorship programs for Berklee students, along with
coordinating efforts to get WIM members on campus as part of their main cause to talk to
the students, with the final intention of helping the women get internships and job
opportunities for the graduating classes.

V. Contribution to Discipline & Profession

Personally, I learned a lot about myself and about people while doing this project. For me,
it wasn’t a great time to be involved in the number of things I was involved. With that being
said I think that in order to make it out alive of the spring semester I realized (a little late,
but a realization at last) that I had to prioritize and to take care of myself.

I live a fast life, always on the go, hustling for the next thing, and that always worked for
me until this year, where I understood sometimes you have to stop and just breathe. I think
many situations that I went through this year might’ve compromised my performance for
the project, but overall I’m proud of myself mainly because it was an extremely difficult
situation and I handled it with grace, compassion, and gratitude.
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I still have a lot to do, a lot to grow, a lot to mature, but this year a Berklee in general,
made me question if I'm really made for this types of environments, for these types of
people, for the latch of honestly in many cases, I seriously wonder if that would ever break
my spirit or silence me, and it did, for a while, but in the end my conclusion is that I have to
do things as I’ve always done things, my way, keeping in mind respect for others, not
apologizing for what I believe in and for always being transparent and having good
intentions. I'm still sad I lost that part of me for a while this year, but more so than that I'm
happy I got it back, now I appreciate it more than ever.

If I had to summarize it in a sentence I would say “In a team you not only have to work and
do your part, you have to make sure people know you work and did your part too”.

VI. Impact on Student

If I had to put it in a word it would be education, I read as much as I could about his
subject, about women issues across the globe, I’ve talked to different icons of the industry
about this matter, I’ve talked to women from other industries about this matter and I have
to say, my views remain the same still.

I will forever state that action speaks louder than words and that economy grow every time
a woman is in a position of power, that we deserve those positions if we worked for them
and that we have it harder than most men. The difference is that I don’t see this as a
tragedy I see it as an opportunity, we only have room to grow. I didn’t know but the more I
inform myself about equal pay and gender gap the more I encounter with women that think
exactly like me.

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This project was an incredible tool for networking and for creating opportunities for us
while we were doing it, because of this we’ve found many amazing women willing to help
us and mentor us and watch us grow. Learning from Industry leaders up close like Yvette
Noel-Schure and Georgia Meyers, and even at MIDEM with Rebeca Leon has really no
possible price.

Back home I had the opportunity to work besides Mercedes Canalda for six months two
years ago, Mercedes was the president of the International Women’s Bank for many years
(worldwide), in the Dominican Republic their family bank ADOPEM was the first institution
to approve loans for women without needing their husband approval, from her I learnt what
I’ve confirmed this year, is not a matter of noise, is not a matter of political agendas, is a
matter of work, no-one can come at you when you are undeniably and simply the best at
what you do.

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VII. Bibliography

1. Women In Music (2019) About Us. Available at: https://www.womeninmusic.org/aboutus.html (Accessed June 10th, 2019)

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