Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Berklee Honors Tina Davis, President of EMPIRE, at Annual Music Business Lecture Series

13/12/2024

Berklee Honors Tina Davis, President of EMPIRE, at Annual Music Business Lecture Series The leader of one of the most successful independent record labels shared insights at the 31st annual James G. Zafris Lecture Series.

By

Kelly Wong

December 12, 2024

Tina Davis, president of the independent distributor, record label, and publisher EMPIRE and Tonya Butler, chair of Berklees Music Business/Management Department.

Image courtesy of Music Business/Management

Berklee's Music Business/Management Department commemorated the 31st annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series on November 14 by honoring Tina Davis, president of the independent distributor, record label, and publisher EMPIRE, for her sustained success in an extremely competitive and traditionally male-dominated industry.

Moderated by Music Business/Management Department Chair Tonya Butler, the conversation offered students a professional's insight on relationship-building, perseverance, and how to build a lasting career in music as an A&R executive.

Davis described how she began her career under the mentorship of LaRonda Sutton, who kept her promise by firing Davis after only one year of employment, a move meant to encourage her growth and expand her opportunities in the industry. This unexpected turn of events led to a position at Def Jam Recordings, where her people skills, work ethic, and talent-spotting prowess earned significant recognition throughout both the company and the music business. Following her departure from Def Jam, Davis was approached by Grammy Award-winning artist Chris Brown to take on the role of his manager. Though initially reluctant, his persistence won her over. How could I say no to Chris Brown? she reflected. He's undeniably the next Michael Jackson.

Davis continued to uplift and encourage the Berklee students by urging them to approach setbacks, such as being fired, as opportunities for growth and redirection. Challenges can be stepping stones to something greater, said Davis, who took multiple questions from more than a dozen students that lined up to seek her advice.

After the interview, students showcased their original music in a live A&R listening session, hosted by Chris Wares, assistant chair of Music Business/Management. Joined by Latoya Lee, the Berklee Career Center's director of industry relations, the EMPIRE president critiqued and offered feedback on the strength and viability of the student's submissions. Rarely do up-and-coming artists get the chance to hear from a genuine record label president and A&R icon like Tina Davis, said Butler. The students were both honored and grateful that she took the time to listen to their music and share her honest opinion of their work. This turned out to be one of our most inspiring Zafris events to-date.

About the Zafris Lecture Series The James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture Series for Music Business/Management is Berklee's first endowed visiting lecture series, established by the Board of Trustees in 1992 and named after James G. Zafris, a longtime chair of the board and one of its founding members. Past Zafris lecturers have included Andreea Gleeson, CEO of Tunecore; David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA); Jon Platt, chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing; Dina Lapolt, renowned entertainment attorney; Jeff Harleston, general counsel and executive vice president of business and legal affairs at Universal Music Group, and many more.

Related Categories

News

Most Popular

Rihanna sings during the Concert for Valor in Washington, DC, November 11, 2014.

Image by EJ Hersom / CC-BY-2.0

This Rihanna Song Has Secret' '80s Easter Eggs The SOS songwriter revealed a nostalgic twist to the lyrics, and it's going viral on TikTok.

Latest

Berklee concert at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival on June 29, 2024, in Essaouira, Morocco.

Image by Zakaria Latouri

Berklee at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival Returns for Its Second Year The Berklee on the Road program will be held June 16-21, 2025, in Morocco.

Students performing at Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics in Perugia, Italy, in July 2024.

Image courtesy of Berklee Global

Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics to Celebrate 40th Anniversary in July 2025 Applications for the 2025 edition will open December 17, 2024.

Alissia Benveniste BM '14

Grammy-Nominated Producer Alissia Benveniste Makes Magic, Inside and Outside the Studio Since graduating a decade ago, bassist Benveniste has been exploring collaborations with legends and forging new creative connections.

Read All

Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/berklee-honors-tina-davis-pre...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

07/05/2026

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray G...

07/05/2026

Powerful four generation story A Traveller Family airs on RT One and RT Player this Monday night

RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...

07/05/2026

Linked and Loaded: Gaijin Single Sign-On Now Available on GeForce NOW

Less typing, more tanking. Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Expands Leadership Structure Appoints Marc Engroff...

Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...

06/05/2026

Production Sound Mixer Dirk Sciarrotta Delivers Camera Re...

For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing Brie Clayton May 6, 2026 0 Comments ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Media

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...

06/05/2026

NAB Launches Weekly Podcast on Local Broadcast Policy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Mavis Launches Mavis Studio iPad For Media Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Narrative Entertainment partners with Encompass to provid...

Narrative Entertainment has partnered with Encompass to deliver high-quality subtitling of its Great! network content using the Altitude Intelligence AI assiste...

06/05/2026

SipRadius extends its seamless creation and connectivity...

SipRadius, widely recognized for making content processing and connectivity secure and seamless, is proud to launch a dramatic new approach to AI content creati...

06/05/2026

Big Blue Marble at ANGA COM - TV as a Service in the spot...

When the broadband and media industry gathers at ANGA COM in Cologne from May 19 to 21, Big Blue Marble will be at the forefront. The international broadcast an...

06/05/2026

Cinegy makes its MPTS debut with software-defined televis...

Cinegy GmbH, a leading developer of software-defined television technology, is proud to exhibit at MPTS for the first time. Visitors to the stand will discover ...

06/05/2026

Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award

Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award Jeanty, a composer, percussionist, and turntablist, is the fourth Berklee recipient of the prestigious award ...

06/05/2026

Zeiss Launches CinCraft LensCore

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Gomez Urges Rigorous FCC Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live...

When live cycling races and international marathons stretch for miles across cities and countryside, there is no margin for RF failure in live broadcast. As Chi...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore - Cinema Lens Looks for Compositi...

Oberkochen/Germany, May 5, 2026 ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a novel solution for creating physically based cinematic lens looks for visual...

06/05/2026

VEON's Kyivstar Authorized to Resell Starlink for Businesses & Enterprises in Ukraine

06 May 2026 VEON's Kyivstar Authorized to Resell Starlink for Businesses & ...