JULIA MAH

AHPS ‘22

This year was my first year as an undergraduate student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. After considering all the programs Berklee has to offer, I decided to double major in Songwriting and Music Business/Management with an emphasis in Marketing.

My favourite part of this year was participating in the Berklee Billboard Hot 100 Club. This club is for artists, songwriters, producers, and managers to meet and collaborate with one another to make music that could be on the Hot 100 charts. The club brings in guest speakers and label executives who talk about their experience in the industry and provide advice on student songs. Through the Billboard Hot 100 Club, I submitted my song “Tattooed Butterfly” for a chance for it to be sent off to labels. Soon after the submissions closed, I received an email that Photo Finish

Records based in New York City wanted to meet with me and the collaborators of the record. I got the opportunity to sit down with the label executives and talk about my song and how we could improve the record. It was super rewarding to know that all of the late nights, heartbreak, and frustration that went into producing the track were worth it. This was the beginning of my relationship with Photo Finish Records which I intend to continue throughout my artistic career. I am so grateful for everyone who collaborated on the record since the record started off as just an artist project that a fellow Berklee producer/ songwriter and I started, but now there are a total of 5 songwriters, 2 producers, 1 vocalist and an entire string ensemble credited on the track. I am also very excited to announce that I was offered a leadership position for Billboard Hot 100 Club starting next semester where

I will begin my role as a Communications Officer.

In terms of classes, my favourite class this semester has been my Producing with Ableton for Songwriters class. Ableton is the digital audio workstation where I produce the majority of my music. Although my classes are done, I am still occupied applying for social media marketing and content creation internships out in Los Angeles. Hopefully this summer I will be working at an artist marketing agency part time, and spending the rest of my time in sessions with producers, songwriters and artists in Los Angeles. If there is one thing I have learned from Berklee, it is that hard work outweighs everything. It is such a competitive industry and people will try to tell you who you are supposed to be.