Under the guidance of coordinator Kimo Williams, the AEMM Department’s Music Business Management concentration is undergoing a restructuring process. New technology is vastly affecting the music industry, calling for a greater importance on entrepreneurial skill sets. Williams is looking to restructure the existing courses in the curriculum, placing a stronger emphasis on knowledge that connects to the paradigm of the industry’s current reality.

     Key to the restructure is a redesign of AEMMP Records and the undergraduate Decision Making class. AEMMP Records, the AEMM Department’s student-run record label, has historically been the practicum component of the Decision Making: Music Business course. A two-semester course, students spent the first semester learning how the knowledge gained in other courses related specifically to running a record company, then applied that knowledge to AEMMP Records during the second semester. Under this structure, Williams feels the record company didn’t fully engage students in the industry’s current reality.

     The new structure will separate AEMMP Records from the undergraduate Decision Making class (The graduate Decision Making class will continue to include AEMMP Records, headed by Kevin Erickson). Undergraduate Decision Making will become a competitive capstone course, preparing a limited number of undergraduate students to make qualitative decisions about the knowledge gained during their years at Columbia, and helping them to apply that knowledge to the current music industry.

     AEMMP Records will become a year-long series of courses training the AEMMP Records executive team on the ins and outs of the record industry. At the same time, AEMMP will provide opportunities for students throughout the department and the college to learn specific skill sets as they relate to the record industry. For example, accounting students may work on projects where they manage AEMMP Records’ accounts, marketing students may assist with the marketing of AEMMP’s releases, and music performance students may be nurtured and developed as future artists. “The industry has moved towards mass marketing,” states Williams. “However, we are going to reestablish the artist and repertory (A&R) model; that’s going to be AEMMP’s signature and what makes us significant.” Williams has no small plans for AEMMP Records. “My goal is to have an AEMMP Release or a song from an AEMMP release be in the Billboard top 100 within five years.”