Music Business at Penn, a newly established club, recently held its first concert and plans to expand its opportunities for students to learn about the business aspects of the music industry.
Wharton sophomores Levi Gans and Paco Prio said that they founded the club to provide students with the chance to explore music as a professional career. Speaker events and concerts allow students to gain real-world experience in the music industry and connect with prominent firms, such as Universal Music Group.
Both founders said that they have harbored a deep passion for music from a young age.
“I grew up in a rock band in Miami and played with them for eight years,” Gans said. “Paco grew up in cinematography, managing local artists in Miami, and playing DJ sets across Miami clubs. So, when we first got to Penn, we applied for all these Wharton clubs and networked like everyone else, but we both always felt something was missing.”
Gans and Prio's shared passion for music, combined with aspirations in business, motivated them to create Music Business at Penn.
“Given that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to study business, but I also knew I wanted to study music,” Gans said. “When applying to Wharton, I wrote my essay about starting a music business club and wanted to make that happen as soon as I got to campus.”
To kickstart the club, the pair sought advice from various sources, including the president of the University of Michigan’s Music Business Club, to gather insights on club establishment. After introducing the club and its committees — production, marketing, creative, events, and internal — through social media outreach, the club received approximately 100 applicants, from which Gans and Prio selected about 30 individuals.
“One thing Penn clubs always have in common is that they always bring value to the club members,” Prio said. “We always ask ourselves fundamentally how we can create value for our members, which is our main goal.”
In addition to hosting various speaker events, the club recently organized its inaugural concert, Soundscape, on April 17. The concert featured four artists, including the Penn band Denis Coleman and Blueshade. After dedicating the entire week to preparations, the club said that it sold several hundred tickets to the concert and now aims to expand the scope of its next events.
“We’re planning on bringing Music Business at Penn to colleges around the Northeast,” Gans said. “We’re already planning an event for NSO next year with a couple of live bands, all in hopes of bringing more live music to Penn.”
With such initiatives in progress, the founders believe that the impact of the club will only continue to grow.
“Now that we’ve seen our efforts pay off, we’re excited for the next steps that Music Business at Penn will take,” Prio said.
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