Berklee in Atlanta: Five Years of Feeding the Industry

This past March, a handful of Berklee faculty and staff took 21 students on a four-day, music industry-intensive trip to Atlanta, Georgia, marking the fifth anniversary of this annual immersion experience.

June 5, 2015

In the spring of 2011, a handful of Berklee faculty and staff took 25 students for a four-day, music industry-intensive trip to Atlanta, with the hope of introducing students to a bustling but often overlooked music city. One of the faculty members who has helped lead the trip every year, Prince Charles Alexander, professor of music production and engineering (MP&E), had noticed the gap, saying, “L.A. and New York shouldn’t be the only destinations for people that leave Berklee with a degree in various music fields.”

Read about the 2015 spring break trip to Atlanta.

Speaking to Atlanta’s geographic location, Alexander points out that, “There’s been a lot of major-label activity there because Atlanta is a central hub for southern [United States] distribution.” But that’s just a piece of the context. In truth, it’s a potent mix of geography, history, legislation, artistic openness, and a distinctly southern brand of hospitality that is as much in the recording studio as it is the fried chicken joints. From the first year of the trip, Berklee students were granted privileged access to professional opportunities. “We had people from ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers], SESAC, and BMI [Broadcast Music Inc.) in the same room,” Alexander says, describing the rare moment it is to bring representatives from moguls of the music-licensing world. “In many cities, that’s probably a very difficult thing to achieve.” 

Hip-Hop Hub to 'Hollywood of the South'

In the early 1990s, Atlanta’s hip-hop and R&B scene exploded into the wider national consciousness, where the talent, labels, and studios were all local. Artists and producers such as TLC, Toni Braxton, OutKast, Goodie Mob, and, later on, Lil John, Ludacris, and Cee Lo Green helped establish the area as a hotbed of chart-topping creativity. Many of these artists and all the personnel that supports them—from agents to mastering engineers—still collaborate widely across the city, eschewing the more siloed, fiercly competitive landscapes found in New York and L.A.

In recent years, Atlanta has also become a go-to city for other entertainment industries, particularly big-budget films. In 2008, Georgia implemented one of the nation's most aggressive film tax credit incentives, literally opening doors to the film industry, and in the years since has informally garnered the nickname "Hollywood of the South." The initiative has created over 25,000 jobs since 2008, and while any kind of art boom is good for related industries just in terms of energy and inspiration, many of those job opportunities have contributed to the growing need for people with musical training, from musicians to engineers to artist management.

An Infusion of Alumni

In addition to the industry connections the trip has become known for, the alumni presence is having more and more of an impact on the area. According to Karen Bell, chief Alumni Affairs officer and a trip coleader, part of the reason the Berklee network is strengthening is “because we’ve been consistent about coming down there for five years.” Many of these alumni came to Atlanta as a result of this trip. People like Danny Ji ’14, an MP&E major who is currently an intern at Tree Sound Studios after being introduced to the site on the 2014 trip. Or Melissa Myatt ’13, who, because of her music education certification has experienced a “You’re certified? You’re hired!” response from schools in the area. “I can comfortably pursue my dream here,” she says. “It’s a who-you-know town, but it’s not hard to find someone you know.”  

“Community has always been a thread,” says Carl Beatty, assistant vice president of artist and music industry relations at Berklee, who has also helped lead a majority of the Atlanta trips. But for some reason, in 2015 there seems to be renewed citywide energy to innovate within the industry, not so much wistful for the past, but spurred by it. “I have a longer range view on it because I grew up there,” says trip coleader Jason Stokes, assistant professor of MP&E and Atlanta native. “I was there in the ‘90s ... Even though things have shifted around, there’s still this common thread that I can hold on to.”

Stokes points out that it’s not just about showing students the industry, but also showing the industry the kinds of talent Berklee exports every year. “We have an opportunity to feed the industry,” he says, adding a uniquely Berklee spin on the ongoing conversation as to what’s next for the music industry: “It’s not just about taking the students somewhere and helping them get their foot on the ground. We’re actually having an impact on the future of that industry now.”