The Center For Music and Arts Entrepuenership

In the wake of Whitney Houston's sad and unexpected death, her music sales have skyrocketed. After her death was announced, one of her albums earned the top spot on Amazon.com for album sales. Houston's music has always been incredibly successful, selling 170 million albums throughout her entire career, her death brings this number even higher. While the world mourns the loss of an incredible talent she is remembered through her music. read more.

Merchandise is an essential part of a band's income. Because it is so important, bands are starting to create stores in the areas they are going on tour. Many people say that this is a trend, and will soon be out of "style" but many of the current pop-up stores are turning into actual stores where bands can sell their merchandise on a daily basis. The newest band to utilize this new form of revenue is Odd Future. The band has set up shop in Los Angeles while they will be performing there. For more information on these pop-up stores, read here.

John Paul interviews John Williamson of Music Dealers, one of the fastest growing music publishing companies.

John Paul and Billy O'Connell interview Shaneika Brooks, product manager at Blue Note records. She talks about what it takes to get a band signed to a selective label and how labels operate in the current Music Industry.

Music Publisher Kerry O'neil gives a senior seminar on the business and trends in publishing.

Joel C. High, a music supervisor based in Los Angeles, CA, describes for an audience at Loyola University, New Orleans the role and responsibilities of a music supervisor in the film industry. He discusses in detail how a music supervisor goes about securing the right music for the film at a price that is within the films budget, how someone in his job gets paid, and what skills it takes to excel.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edwards College in Austin TX, explains the Constitutional underpinnings of the American copyright system, and discusses some of the ramifications of the system. He also notes ways in which some copyright holders are trying to game this system.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edwards College in Austin TX, discusses digital rights management, why record companies are so in favor of it, and why these companies never manage to successfully predict what the next big threat to their perceived rights is going to be.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edwards College in Austin TX, answers the question, If music is property, why dont many people consider downloading music without paying to be stealing? He discusses the ethical, legal, and common-sense issues at play when discussing the culture of music downloading, and then looks at various sides of a related question: If the music is available for free, then why pay?

Dina LaPolt, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles, CA, discusses how her careers in music and in artist management led her to become an entertainment lawyer.