CJ E&M Teams With Berklee

One of Korea’s biggest entertainment companies, CJ E&M, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Boston’s Berklee College of Music to bring about “cooperative global growth of the entertainment sector,” EnewsWorld reports.

Following the signing, the head of CJ E&M’s music division, Ahn Seok-jun, and president of Berklee, Roger Brown, talked about their joint plans.

 
Among the projects the partnership will promote is a student exchange program and an internship at CJ E&M for Berklee students that will help them “understand the Asian music business.” 
 
Berklee professors will also participate at the M Academy, a music school in Korea run by CJ E&M in conjunction with Polaris Entertainment. 
 
The two partners will develop textbooks and other educational materials and CJ E&M will bring Berklee’s online education system to Korea.
 
Education will not be the only endeavor for the partnership. Both parties said it was possible they would collaborate on musical events both inside and outside of Korea, including concerts and large-scale festivals. 
 
CJ E&M is in charge of the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, one of Korea’s biggest, as well as all concerts staged by its global concert brand M-Live. It is assumed that Berklee will utilize these resources to promote its own concerts and festivals, which have yet to find an Asian outlet. 
 
During the discussion, Brown mentioned that many Koreans attend Berklee and that several have become famous, including the biggest pop star of the moment, PSY. 
 
“I have been keeping an eye on CJ E&M’s influence in the Asian music market,” he said. “And I hope we can lead a great partnership that stretches outside of what has been mentioned and find global talent, including artists, producers and songwriters.”