Sharing Berklee's Past, Present, and Future

Since its early days, Berklee has embraced and even pushed the boundaries of technologies for musical creation, education, and getting the word out about the college. It’s widely acknowledged that the Internet is the most effective tool for connecting people and conveying information since the advent of the telephone.

Berklee has exploited the Internet in multitudinous ways. Two notable examples are Berklee’s online school and the effective use of social media. Berkleemusic.com, the online school, has become a successful means for offering a bit of the Berklee educational experience to people around the world and for alumni to continue their studies. Additionally, the college was recently hailed for creative use of social media, Berklee Blogs, and the college’s YouTube channel). And several new initiatives will offer many benefits to alumni and anyone with Internet access.

In June 1989, Berklee today published its first issue with its goal to be a “forum for contemporary music and musicians” stated on each cover. The magazine remains primarily a print publication, though several years ago the college began offering an electronic edition. HTML versions of recent issues are posted at www.berklee.edu/bt/archives.html alongside PDF versions of the earliest issues.

Last June, we started publishing the magazine in a flipbook version (visit http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com). The new e-publication edition has the look and feel of the print edition and offers notable new features. In addition to all websites and e-mail addresses appearing as hotlinks, tools enable readers to send full  Berklee today articles as well as  excerpts via e-mail or share any page via Facebook or Twitter. Readers can also download or print a PDF of any page or crop a portion of a page and save it as a JPEG.

In addition, Berklee today now offers virtual subscriptions to environmentally conscious alumni who wish to opt out of receiving the print edition. As well, it’s now possible to offer free virtual subscriptions to all interested parties anywhere in the world. The hope is that many will take advantage of the offer.

Another exciting venture is the launch of Air Alumni on the BIRN, Berklee’s Internet Radio Network (visit www.thebirn.com). In October BIRN3 began streaming music exclusively written, performed, produced, or engineered by Berklee alumni. Adam Renn Olenn, the channel’s curator, host, and producer, hopes Air Alumni will become the destination for listeners seeking high-quality new music.

Air Alumni capitalizes on the deep and diverse talents of alumni who are creating music in styles ranging from jazz to pop to hip-hop to metal to classical to film music, and all of the styles in between. Some shows will hearken back to the days when DJs passionate about music crafted programming that defied style boundaries in an effort to turn their listeners on to sounds they might not have otherwise encountered. For the 24/7 broadcast cycle, Olenn will create themed shows and intersperse interviews with known alumni discussing their music and influences. “My hope is that Air Alumni will become a marketing channel for alumni,” Olenn notes. “The message for all alumni looking to get their music heard is ‘We can help.’”

Finally, Berklee recently implemented a content management system to house the massive volume of calendar items, press releases, profiles, and feature stories posted on various college-hosted websites. This system-wide upgrade will enable all Berklee sites to share content to create a rich and timely stream of stories, articles, and events for all site visitors.

The aim of all these efforts is to share information about Berklee with the world and strengthen connections among members of the Berklee community. With the help of the Internet and technologies yet to come, the college will continue to find ways to make it easier for everyone to learn about the past, present, and future of Berklee.