
Jim Lucchese Talks About Being an Artists Advocate and How Hell Approach Berklee Presidency Lucchese, whose career as an entrepreneur and lawyer has focused on helping musicians, becomes Berklee's fifth president in January.
By
Kimberly Ashton
December 9, 2024
Incoming Berklee President Jim Lucchese in the Berklee Performance Center.
Image by Kelly Davidson
In a letter Jim Lucchese wrote to the chair of Berklee's Presidential Search Committee last spring, he starts with a disclaimer. His life's trajectory seems more certain in hindsight than it did at the time, he writes. But a theme comes through: He's been continually searching for ways to support artists who've had the courage to live creative lives.
Lucchese, who becomes Berklee's fifth president in January, doesn't really consider himself one of these artists despite his decades of gigging in local bands- I'm not calling myself a drummer when Omar Hakim is a block away, he says-but rather an advocate for them.
It's this mission that Lucchese brings with him to Berklee, along with decades of expertise in helping artists through his work as an entertainment lawyer and then as an entrepreneur at the Echo Nest, Spotify, and Sofar Sounds. In a Q&A, he shared how he plans to approach his presidency and what he sees as his immediate priorities, as well as those for Berklee, while also acknowledging that many of these initiatives are already underway.
Can you tell me about your early experiences with music? Was your family musical?
My father never had any formal training, but was a natural drummer. He had a hand drum and he always played it. So I started playing when I was young and my parents were always incredibly supportive.
How old were you when you started playing drums?I was around 11. I always gravitated to drums, and my parents were great and tolerated a drum set in the house the whole time I was growing up. My instructor had a relationship with Berklee. He's the one who suggested I apply for a scholarship to the Five-Week program. I got it and attended. That was a transformative experience for me that began a decades-long relationship with Berklee.
Do you still play drums?
I've been playing locally and regionally for 25-30 years. Berklee is a common thread among nearly everyone I've played music with, whether they be alumni or faculty. For example, the last gig I played included two Berklee faculty members and three Berklee alumni.
What have you learned about the music industry from your time gigging?
All of my work has been driven by a deep respect for independent working musicians. They give cities their soul. They make all of our lives better. I believe everyone relies on local musicians and creatives, but there's certainly a risk that we, as a society, could take for granted that they'll always be there. Im motivated by a desire to hopefully help make the path for independent musicians a little easier and more sustainable. Playing music and building many of my closest friendships with local and independent musicians definitely informs that work.
You started your career working in music as an attorney. Can you tell me about that?
I decided to go to law school because I wanted to directly work on behalf of artists. I knew what I wanted to do as a lawyer before I even applied to law school. Also, I wanted a deeper understanding of copyright and IP as technology was creating new opportunities for artists while also really changing the overall landscape. It became clear to me that if you wanted to create opportunities for independent musicians using technology, you needed to understand copyright and IP. And that's why I went to Georgetown [University's] law school. After that, I worked at Greenberg Traurig as an artist-side transactional attorney, where I primarily represented musicians, with an additional focus on emerging music technologies.
How did you go from that to the Echo Nest?Funny enough, playing music was integral to how I met the founders of the Echo Nest. I played in a quartet with a wonderful pianist who was getting his MS degree at MIT, and his father-also a great pianist-taught at MIT. The two of them said, You should meet these two musicians at the Media Lab who are trying to apply their research in machine learning to fix music discovery. I did. I found their vision incredibly exciting and we really hit it off.
Another music connection our first institutional investor at the Echo Nest was a former road manager of another band I'd played with. So, I guess some of those gigs paid off.
All of my work has been driven by a deep respect for independent working musicians. At that time, music discovery and recommendation was based on a retail mindset: If you bought this, you might buy that. But there was no understanding of the music itself, and recommendations had a heavy popularity bias because recommendations were mostly influenced by purchase frequency-which was the same way it worked for a blender or a pair of jeans. That's the problem that the Echo Nest sought to solve: to more deeply understand the music itself in order to make what would otherwise be considered niche music, or an artist who's putting out their first record, as visible and easy to discover as an artist on the Billboard Top 100. Tens of millions of songs were coming online, but if they weren't understood and visible to recommendation systems, it would be nearly impossible for those artists to find their audiences.
So, at the Echo Nest, we built a music discovery platform that tried to understand music the way that you and I do, but at a scale to understand over 50 million tracks. We built a business powering music recommendation and other music data applications for hundreds of music apps, focused on serving artists and audiences
North America Stories
20/01/2026
SVG Sit-Down: BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on the Future of Cloud, Remote, Softwar...
20/01/2026
From architecture to reality: What CBC's Milano Cortina 2026 workflows tell ...
20/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: Making the Winter Olympics and Paralympics workflow work fo...
20/01/2026
Countdown to Milano Cortina 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to...
20/01/2026
Grand finale: Rally Saudi Arabia pushes WRC to make the most of cameras and dron...
20/01/2026
State of Change: What's Happening in the Remote-Production Business?NEP Group, Game Creek Video, Dome Productions, Mobile TV Group, Program Productions exec...
20/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: A Look Back at SVG's Complete CoverageGo behind the scenes with ESPN, Game Creek Video, Van Wagner, and the champion Indiana...
20/01/2026
The Gotham, Film Independent, and Creators Coalition on AI Join Alliance
by Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute's Artist Programs...
20/01/2026
December, the first month of winter and the holiday season, has traditionally encouraged families to spend time together in front of the television. During this...
20/01/2026
During December, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.3%, an increase of 0.1 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...
20/01/2026
Christmas Day is Most-Streamed Day Ever with 55 Billion Viewing Minutes, led by...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Disguise and ASB GlassFloor today announced a strategic partnership that turns the arena floor into a fully customizable interactive digital surface. This will ...
20/01/2026
Last summer, ITV celebrated the tenth anniversary of its popular reality dating show, Love Island. To ramp up the excitement of series 12 (launched in the UK on...
20/01/2026
Berklee's Mark Ethier Named One of SPIN's Most Influential People in Mus...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Emergent, a provider of AI-powered media production solutions, today announced its presence at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, taking place February 3 6, where it will u...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Amend Agreement to All-Cash Transaction
Business
20 January 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
All-C...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Now You Can Play a Role in Our Live Events With Real-Time Voting
Elmar Nubbemeyer
VP, Member Product
Product
20 January 2026
Global
Link...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Indiana Football's Digital Crew Generate Hyp...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Van Wagner Relies on Experience for Indiana-Miam...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Game Creek Video Fields Premiere IP Compound for...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: For a Slew of Studio Shows, ESPN Turns Hard Rock...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: ESPN's Sweeping Live Game Production Leverag...
19/01/2026
The new L3Harris NOVA binocular system is the every-soldier goggle' - and the beginning of a new era for night-vison capability....
19/01/2026
The Majority of Those Surveyed Prefer to Buy Brands Who Advertise in Content Tha...
19/01/2026
Back to All News
Straight to Hell' Sets April 27 Premiere: Teaser Trailer,...
19/01/2026
New Workflow Enhancements for All Broadcast Pix Systems, Plus 4-Channel ISO Recording for Hybrid and Roadie Tyngsboro, Mass. - January 2025 - Broadcast Pix ann...
19/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces the Series Nights & Days, Directed by Kamila...
17/01/2026
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, is helping to elevate the Google Meet experience with the introduction of an integration with Taurus UCX. Th...
17/01/2026
Clear-Com announced a strategic partnership with NETGEAR AV to offer four high-performance networking switches as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solutio...
17/01/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, today announced a new U.S. distribution partnership wit...
17/01/2026
NUGEN Audio announces the latest evolution of MasterCheck, its industry-trusted optimization plug-in for cross-platform mastering and loudness verification. Des...
17/01/2026
BHV has announced that it will highlight its new SportsBox remote vision mixer and picture processor at ISE in Booth #4H900 marking its official introduction in...
17/01/2026
Clear-Com will return to ISE 2026 to demonstrate its latest intercom solutions for broadcast, live production, and AV professionals. Exhibiting at Stand #4P700...
17/01/2026
Grass Valley, a leading provider in live production solutions, will exhibit at ISE 2026 in Barcelona from February 3 6, presenting its vision for how modern Bro...
17/01/2026
Utelogy Corporation, the global leader in connected workplace management, monitoring, control, automation and analytics closes out a record-breaking 2025. The c...
17/01/2026
FOR-A, a cutting-edge video broadcast technology company backed by more than 50 years experience, will showcase its innovative production solutions at ISE 2026 ...
17/01/2026
Techex, the UK-based expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, today announced that Tim Jackson has joined the company as Senior Director of Sales and B...
17/01/2026
Redflag AI, an AI-powered content protection platform, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online, today...
17/01/2026
Encompass Digital Media has today announced the appointment of David Hunter as Chief Operating Officer (COO). As a highly respected technology and operations le...
17/01/2026
Glensound is set to showcase its audio and intercom solutions supporting broadcast, live events and professional AV environments at ISE 2026 (stand 7H800, Fira ...
17/01/2026
As Matrox Video marks its 50th year of innovation, the company will use ISE 2026 to showcase the latest advancements across its AV-over-IP ecosystem, highlighti...
17/01/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today announced the nominees for the 2026 HPA Awards Innovation & Technology, marking an expanded evolution of the ...
17/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/01/2026
From Berlin to London: Amazon delivers NBA Europe games for an international aud...
16/01/2026
How Vizrt, TriCaster Helped Harvard Athletics Embrace Vertical Video and More to...
16/01/2026
SVG GameDay, Ep. 1: PMY Group's Mike BonnerThe longtime industry veteran provides insight into his approach to producing live eventsBy Kristian Hern ndez, S...
16/01/2026
Attacking the Pin: Inside the PGA TOUR's Replay Remodel With Hawk-Eye Innova...