New Emerging Technologies Course to Future-Proof Students for the Evolution of the Music Business

Berklee Valencia's Master of Arts in global entertainment and music business program is adding a new course, Emerging Technologies, to prepare students for the rapid technological change that web3 tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse, could have— or are having already—on the music industry. 

The course's aim is to provide students with a practical understanding of new technologies, demystifying both the technologies themselves and their impact from ideation through to early adoption and mainstream use.

The course will study existing technologies already used in music, such as AI, as well as new concepts, including extended reality, augmented reality, and potential spatial Internet. 

The course will tackle the legal and legislative aspects as well as the creative side of new tools and technologies and how they might be used in areas such as composition, production, and recording. As a topics course, its focus will adapt to consider the technological content and new business trends resulting from it.

Bay Backner, who will teach the course, is a web3 artist and producer whose installations have been featured by CNN, Vanity Fair, Dazed, and Vogue. Backner will take up the role on a part-time basis, having previously taught on the subject of metaverse culture as a guest lecturer at Berklee. As well as art and teaching, she is the cofounder of the international art collective Vueltta and curator of the Metaverse Art Week 2023.

“[The course] is about how [students], as creators, producers, or business leaders, are going to be looking at not just specific tech, but how the tech hype cycle will implement decisions,” says Backner.

The course will also teach students how to start looking at future trends concerning their discipline and how to evaluate the different tech platforms taking hold in performative spaces. It will be split into three projects so that students can explore the specific impact of certain tech in relation to their specialization. Backner hopes that students will be able to apply her teachings to other courses.

On the importance of the course and its relevance to Berklee students, Backner says that “these things are going to have a huge impact on the next generation of music producers, legal experts, performers—anyone who's going to be looking at the future of the music industry.”