Special to Sun
Jim Lucchese, a pioneering music industry executive and a dedicated artist advocate will become the fifth president of Berklee College of Music, effective Jan. 1, 2025, the school announced last week.
“It is an immense honor to become a part of the Berklee community, an institution that means so much to me personally and has been a singularly positive force for creativity around the world,” said Lucchese, a Boston-born musician who has served Berklee in many advisory roles over the course of his career, in a press release.
Lucchese began his career as an attorney representing artists across a range of ventures. In 2007, he became the CEO of The Echo Nest, a musician-founded start-up that aimed to improve music discovery, making it easy to discover an unsigned artist on the other side of the globe. The Echo Nest was acquired by Spotify in 2014, where Lucchese later founded the Creator team, building products and services directly for musicians, including the popular Spotify for Artists.
In 2019, Lucchese was named CEO of Sofar Sounds, a global live music community that has curated over 30,000 live performances across 78 countries. As he did at Spotify, Lucchese also focused at Sofar on artist services, launching a new Artist Services division and acquiring the company Seated to provide artists with tools to control their fan data and take ownership of their fan relationships.
A drummer since high school, Lucchese is an active member of the Boston music scene and often collaborates with Berklee musicians. His relationship with Berklee began in 1989 when he participated in the school’s five-week summer performance program, an experience he said transformed both his thinking and playing.
“Jim’s success as an entrepreneur has stemmed from his ability to recognize shifts in the music industry and engage in collaborations to shape those changes, always demonstrating profound respect for artists,” Martin J. Mannion, chair of Berklee’s board of trustees, said in a press release. “He is a highly regarded and empathetic leader with a proven record of building career-advancing services for musicians and performing artists.”
Meanwhile, Lucchese can’t wait to step into his new role as Berklee enters its next chapter under his leadership.
“I look forward to working with this amazingly talented and diverse community—students, faculty, staff, alumni, and supporters,” he said in a press release. “I am eager to learn from their experiences and expertise across such a wide range of creative disciplines, from music education, dance, and theater to management, production, performance, music therapy, and more. All of these talents and perspectives are central as we uphold Berklee’s mission, honoring the artistic traditions of the African diaspora and centering diversity in all its forms.”