Celebrating Womens History Month with Tonya Butler Berklees music business chair talks about the importance of authenticity, the evolution of the media industry, and being a role model.
By
Alicia Taylor Bard
March 9, 2023
Tonya Butler
Image by Kelly Davidson
As a child, Tonya Butler told people she wanted to be an actress, a lawyer, a teacher, and a politician. Not only has she succeeded in doing all those things, but she says theres still a lot more she wants to do. In 2020, Butler became the first woman and person of color to chair Berklees Music Business/Management Department. The accomplished educator and attorney has more than 14 years of expertise as an entertainment attorney and record label executive, as well as 17 years of undergraduate and graduate-level teaching experience.
In celebration of Women's History Month, we caught up with Butler, whos been blazing trails for most of her career.
Your r sum speaks for itself-professor, attorney, motivational speaker, and author. You have been described as hardworking, fierce, and a trailblazer, and anyone who knows you knows that you are always working. What motivates you? It can be difficult to find your passion. We ask young people to identify their passion, but its not always easy to find a line of work that allows you to align with your passion, so for me thats Berklee, it really is. Ive been teaching now going on 18 years, prior to that about 14 years in the law, and it wasnt until I got to Berklee that I felt as if I found the type of work that aligned directly with my passion, which is working with, guiding, advising, and helping to cultivate the careers of musicians. Thats what I love to do, and it doesnt matter how busy I get or how stressed I may get. I always keep my eye on that prize of helping someone to live their dream, which allows me to live my dream.
You made history in 2020 when you became the first woman and person of color to chair the Music Business/Management Department. It is a major accomplishment, but is there a lot of pressure being the first? There's not a lot of pressure when you've always been the first or when youve always been the only. After a while, I hate to say you get used to it. You dont feel as if theres any additional pressure or burden because youve been in the role before, maybe not in that specific job or area, but youve been the first and before. Its not the first time and probably wont be the last time. I've been the only one before so with that said, no pressure whatsoever because I know that I really believe in my authentic self. I like to say to people, I love being me, and it took a long time to get to a point where I could say, I love me some me. I dont feel any strain or any pressure to be anyone other than me, so thats why when people see me they see pretty much the same me all the time.
From music streaming services to the prevalence of social media, the music industry continues to change and evolve. Musicians can now record at a minimal cost thanks to home recording software. Are there challenges to teaching students in this fast-growing industry? Absolutely. Every day is a challenge when youre teaching students, who are creatives at heart, how to think of themselves as a business, and now more than ever before because they can record their music on their own and they can distribute their music on their own. Unfortunately, they dont recognize that there are a whole bunch of other things that go along with that that they also have to do on their own. No longer do the days exist where you could just sign with a major record company and then they would get you a manager and a lawyer and a publicist, and they would do all those things for you; those days dont exist anymore. Even if you did sign with the label, they are expecting you to have to do and continue to do many of those things yourself, and I dont know if that mentality has quite caught up with our students yet. Theres just as much creativity in business as there is in art, which is also very often overlooked by our students. They think, Oh, if Im doing the business end Im not creative. No, you have to be creative to be in business...take what you learned in your art and apply those same skills to your business. Just as committed as you are to the creativity of your art, you should be that way in your business.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise in the music industry, with composition apps, mastering platforms, song identification tools, and highly personalized playlists. Is AI changing the way music is created and listened to? Yes! And it will continue to change, and after AI there'll be something else, and therell be something after that. One of the things that I always speak to my faculty and my students about is that change is scary, technological changes in particular...they are very hard to predict because it's very hard to determine what the outcome will be. I got into the music business around the same time that Napster was created so I had the opportunity-and Im so grateful for it-to work in the industry for those last few years of its heyday. But then another thing that Im also grateful for is I also had the opportunity to work in the business during those first few years of its decline, and I got to see how fearful people were of this thing called the internet and file sharing and downloading. I got to witness it firsthand, and I also got to see how many of us in the industry either wanted to ignore it or tried to control it. I feel the same way about AI...if we cannot be afraid of it, we need to educate ourselves about it and figure out how we can use it to our advantage, not how we can keep students from using it. And unfortunately, because Im a little old school, I do believe there also has to be some element of monitoring. But it is already here and theyre already us
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
09/05/2025
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Studio Technologies said the Harvard University athletics department has integrated Dante-enabled equipment from the vendor into its broadcast ...
09/05/2025
NEW YORK ITN, a provider of a local linear supply side platform, and Magnite, a independent sell-side advertising company, have announced that they working toge...
09/05/2025
LEEDS, U.K. Nugen Audio has launched a new speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck and offered up quotes from technologists working at places like Netflix p...
09/05/2025
AJA I/O Gear: The Heart of Broadcast Solutions' VEGO Mobile Editing Solution
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
When working remotely on broadcas...
09/05/2025
What do they teach in an Advanced Adobe After Effects Course?
Roland Kahlenberg May 8, 2025
0 Comments
There aren't many advanced After Effects co...
09/05/2025
Larry Jordan Sits with Trevor Morgan of OpenDrives at NAB 2025
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
Trevor Morgan, COO of OpenDrives, shares how the co...
09/05/2025
Berklee Popular Music Institute Announces UK Festival Debut and Tour Dates For the first time, BPMI will bring Berklee-affiliated artists and students to the ...
08/05/2025
A sinister fairy infiltrates a desperate family in Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother's Skin, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Photo co...
08/05/2025
As expected, continued weak demand from key sales markets and declining economic...
08/05/2025
A new three-part series is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One
(Image: The Christie Archive Trust)
The BBC has announced Agatha Christie's Endless Night, a...
08/05/2025
For skyward-bound operators, training focuses on the unique aspects of flying ISR missions, including the management of onboard surveillance equipment and the e...
08/05/2025
The cable industry has told the Federal Communications Commission it supports the National Association of Broadcasters' proposal to allow broadcasters to us...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Consumer Technology Association has continued its opposition to mandates requiring that NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 tuners be included in new TV sets, sa...
08/05/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real time visualization, has named Paul Maroni as Vice Pres...
08/05/2025
This year's UK Pavilion in hall 5, once again managed by Tradefair, will provide visitors with the unique opportunity to discuss and be involved in cutting ...
08/05/2025
Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its latest energy-efficient transmitters and 5G Broadcast technologies, designed to support network operators and content provider...
08/05/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group has tapped Bill Nardi as vice president of station operations, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day broadcast operations ...
08/05/2025
SEATTLE LumaTouch is partnering with CNN Academy to improve mobile storytelling techniques and support training across all of CNN Academy's training simulat...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Society of Broadcast Engineers has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission that support a proposal by the National Association ...
08/05/2025
Senior adviser to the United States Agency for Global Media Kari Lake has announced that One America News Network (OAN) will provide newsfeed services for fre...
08/05/2025
EdMon Expands as AI-Driven Post Production Workflows Gains Traction in Sweden an...
08/05/2025
Using Luma Mattes in Adobe Premiere Pro
Graham Quince May 7, 2025
0 Comments
This very quick tutorial shows you how to take an RGB clip and apply its ...
08/05/2025
OpenDrives Unveils Free Your Data' Initiative with New Astraeus Cloud-Nativ...
08/05/2025
Student Spotlight: Grigori Balasanyan The Armenian composer, who was named Boston Conservatory at Berklees 2025 student commencement speaker, talks about his ...
08/05/2025
08 May 2025
VEON Shareholders Re-elect Board at 2025 AGM, Founder Augie Fabela ...
08/05/2025
Comedy and entertainment channel U&Dave bring back their #1 ranked programme of ...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils New Premieres Spanning Film and Music
Slick Rick's Victory with Idris Elba a...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Lineup for Inaugural Storytelling Summit
11-Day Industry Event Launches with Tal...
08/05/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundarie...
08/05/2025
Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta...
08/05/2025
PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are...
08/05/2025
Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Produ...
08/05/2025
Expect even more chaos this July with Harriet Webb leading the returning cast, p...
08/05/2025
Back to All News
Now in Production: Comedy Action Film Husbands in Action'...
08/05/2025
TenneT relies on Arvato Systems for market communication
Energy industry: Impressive market communication know-how and system integration expertise
G tersloh...
08/05/2025
When Taiki Hamamoto, 22, came across a Hanafuda deck at his local game shop, he was intrigued. He had grown up playing the traditional Japanese card game with f...
08/05/2025
The Liveline is now open , said Joe Duffy earlier today, as he previewed this af...
08/05/2025
RT , in association with the BBC, Screen Ireland and Cineflix Rights has reveale...
08/05/2025
Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next.
Fires in th...
08/05/2025
Calling all wiseguys - 2K's acclaimed Mafia franchise is available to stream...
08/05/2025
As AI use cases continue to expand - from document summarization to custom software agents - developers and enthusiasts are seeking faster, more flexible ways t...
07/05/2025
Discovering music should feel effortless and fun. That's why Spotify continu...
07/05/2025
SBS and NITV mark National Reconciliation Week with compelling premieres recogni...
07/05/2025
SBS commences search for a new Western Sydney production hub location
7 May, 2025
Media releases
SBS has today launched a Request for Expressions of Intere...
07/05/2025
Warsaw, Poland - April 28, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest March All Screens Video Landscap...
07/05/2025
LONDON Movie fans hoping to save money by waiting until their favorite new films appear on streaming services will have to wait a bit longer now, according to a...
07/05/2025
MECCA, Saudi Arabia Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has selected Grass Valley to provide a major technology upgrade of its broadcast facility here....
07/05/2025
Sony and Nevion provide guidance on IP network architecture options for live pro...
Celebrating Womens History Month with Tonya Butler Berklees music business chair talks about the importance of authenticity, the evolution of the media industry, and being a role model.
