About Music to the Ears
Creativity is a pathway to the future.
Music to the Ears Foundation delivers high-tech, hands-on creative education experiences that connect students to creativity, career exploration, wellness, entrepreneurship, and the industries shaping the future.
Our mission
To help students discover their creative potential by expanding access to education, technology, industry standards, real-world experiences, and opportunities that turn creativity into a pathway for their future.
Music to the Ears works across K-12 schools, school districts, libraries, community organizations, public spaces, higher education, workforce development, and industry partnerships. Different environments, one shared goal: help students discover their potential, develop real-world skills, and see where their creativity can take them.
Why creative education matters
The talent is not the missing part.
Schools are rarely short of creative students. They are short of professional tools, current technique, and a visible route from a student's interest into an industry that will pay for it.
The interest is already there
Students are making music, editing video, shooting photos, and building audiences long before anyone offers them a class in it. The gap is not motivation. It is access to real tools, real technique, and someone who has done the job.
The industries are local
Media, music, live events, design, and content are working economies in the communities Music to the Ears serves. Students can see those industries from their neighborhood and still have no route into them.
Creative skill is transferable
Running a session, hitting a deadline, taking a critique, pricing your work, and shipping something finished are the same skills every employer asks for. Creative work is simply where students will practice them willingly.
Our approach
Four principles that guide our work.
These principles shape how we design, deliver, and grow every experience, creating meaningful learning opportunities that connect creativity, education, and the real world.
Hands on the equipment from day one
Students work on professional software and hardware, not simplified classroom versions of it. The tools change over a career; the fluency does not.
Taught by practitioners
Sessions are led by people who work in these industries and still do. Students get current technique and a candid answer about how the work is actually paid for.
Everything ends in finished work
A released track, a screened film, a published episode, an exhibited series, a produced event. Something with the student's name on it that exists after the program ends.
Built around the school, not the other way around
In-school, afterschool, intersession, or intensive. Programming is designed to fit the master calendar, the funding cycle, and the goals already written into your plan.
Our education framework
The BEAT Framework
Business. Entertainment. Arts. Technology.
Modern creative careers rarely sit inside one discipline. A producer runs a business. A designer ships software. A stage manager is a logistics professional. The BEAT Framework is how Music to the Ears makes those intersections visible, so a student who loves one thing can see the four that surround it.
BEAT is the proprietary framework that runs underneath every Creative Pathway, every signature program, and every BEAT Lab. It is why a student who arrives for the music ends up fluent in four industries.
The part nobody teaches the creative student.
Rates, ownership, splits, contracts, pricing, and the difference between a hobby and an income. Students learn how creative work is actually paid for.
- Entrepreneurship
- Rights & ownership
- Pricing & margin
- Pitching
Community implementation
Turning ideas into real opportunities.
Music to the Ears serves as the Community Implementation Partner, turning frameworks, partnerships, and resources into programs and experiences that reach students where they learn and live. From schools and libraries to public spaces and community organizations, we bring the people, programs, tools, and industry connections together to make creative learning happen.
01
Local partnership first
Nothing starts without a school, district, library, or community organization that wants it and can host it. The site owns the program; Music to the Ears brings the model, the people, and the equipment.
02
Programming students choose
Creative Pathways, signature programs, Creative Career Days, field trips, and industry experiences, selected for the students actually in the building.
03
Capacity that stays
BEAT Labs are specified, installed, and commissioned on site, and staff and student leads are trained to run the room after Music to the Ears leaves it.
04
Pathways out
Workforce development, higher education, arts and culture, and industry partners give finishing students somewhere to go next.
Strategic ecosystem
Two organizations.
One shared mission.
Academix builds the frameworks, systems, and industry connections. Music to the Ears brings them to life through onsite education, programs, experiences, and implementation.
Strategic partner
Academix
Creative Economy Platform
Designs the frameworks, partnerships, standards, credentials, and systems that enable communities to build sustainable Creative Economy ecosystems.
Community implementation partner
Music to the Ears Foundation
Community Implementation Partner
Activates creative education and workforce pathways through local partnerships, K-12 programming, workforce development, arts and culture, and community engagement.
Impact
More than a decade of impact.
10+
Years of impact
20K+
Students reached
40+
Schools & partners
250+
Program activations
Leadership
Experience behind the mission.
Music to the Ears is led by educators, creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders committed to expanding access to creative education and opportunity. Our leadership brings together real-world experience across education, entertainment, technology, business, and community impact.
Practitioners
Producers, engineers, designers, photographers, filmmakers, and event professionals who still work in these industries and teach from current practice.
Educators
Classroom teachers and school leaders who know how a master schedule, a site plan, and a funding cycle actually work, and who keep the programming realistic.
Industry and community partners
Higher education faculty, technology partners, civic organizations, and employers who open doors students cannot open on their own.
Music to the Ears is led by experienced education and industry professionals and supported by Leaders of the New Schooled, a network of experienced professionals who contribute mentorship, industry insight, and real-world perspective.
Partners
What each partner brings.
Capabilities a school cannot buy on its own: campuses, credentials, professional technology, and the framework that ties them together.
District Partner
Los Angeles Unified School District
Music to the Ears is an approved K-12 education provider for LAUSD and an approved “Qualified Arts Vendor” for Creative Education Programs.
Higher Education Partner
Loyola Marymount University
LMU Extension connects students to education and industry-aligned instruction through the Academix Creative Entrepreneurship certificate program.
Music Technology Partner
Serato
Academix BEAT Lab is a Serato Certified DJ School, providing industry recognized credentials for K-12 students in CTE pathways.
Industry Network
Leaders of the New Schooled
A network of creative professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders who bring mentorship, real-world experience, and career insight directly to students.
Bring creative learning to your students.
Tell us about your school, your students, and your goals. We will help identify the right pathways, programs, experiences, and implementation options.