The Music Business Association, better known as MusicBiz, launched its Bizzy Awards in 2022, adding six categories to its longstanding Presidential Award for Outstanding Executive Achievement. When the call for nominations for the 2023 Bizzy Awards went out, it included a new seventh category—the Music Business Educator of the Year. The Frost School of Music’s professor and director of the Music Industry Program, Serona Elton, was chosen as the winner among the four finalists in the new award category.
In a recent press release announcing the finalists on March 30, MusicBiz President Portia Sabin stated: “I want to congratulate all the 2023 Bizzy Award finalists!” The number of Bizzy nominees doubled this year, and the high quality of those submissions made this selection process incredibly hard. We’re proud to celebrate once again those doing great work in our industry and to support and shine a spotlight on those attempting to make change for the better.”
Last fall, MusicBiz, formerly known as the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), invited the members of the music community to nominate their clients, companies, and peers to recognize their work and impact in the global music industry. Guillermo Page, assistant director of Frost’s Music Industry program and an assistant professor of professional practice, nominated Serona Elton, stating:
“Serona has earned the respect of many of our colleagues in education for her collegiate work and leadership. She spent many years on the board of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA), including four years as its president. In addition to that work, she recently took on the challenge of collaborating with Tim Baskerville as co-author for the 13th Edition of the legendary music business college textbook “Music Business Handbook and Career Guide.” The book is perhaps the most widely adopted textbook in our field.”
In addition to Page’s nomination, MusicBiz required recommendations from three current students. However, going above and beyond the minimum requirement, Page worked with several additional people to provide letters of support illustrating Elton’s impact, including several successful and inspiring alumni and music industry executives.
“Professor Elton being a part of my network has opened up many opportunities for me, two of the biggest ones being my current job at The Recording Academy and being a part of the inaugural group of interns at The MLC during the Summer of 2022,” stated current Frost B.M. in Music Industry student, Carlie Anderson in her recommendation letter to the committee. “By the time I graduate, I know I will be more than prepared to work in the music industry full time, and that is due to Professor Elton and all she has done to make sure that her students are prepared to take challenges head-on. I will always be grateful for having her and continuing to have her as a professor. I believe she is incredibly deserving of the Music Business Educator of the Year Award.”
In addition to the new category of Music Business Educator of the Year, the Bizzy Awards include the following crowd-sourced categories:
- Leading Light Award
- Agent of Change Award
- #NEXTGEN_NOW One to Watch Award
- Master of Metadata Award
- Frontline Innovator
- Marketing Superstar
“Music Biz has long supported education,” said Elton. “Since 1966, its Scholarship Foundation has awarded scholarships to college students, regardless of their field of study. In 2015, they established an Academic Partnership membership category, and we were among the first schools to participate.”
Elton’s remarkable drive started at an early age. In junior high, she volunteered in a program called Junior Achievement, where she went into an elementary school classroom and gave lessons on financial literacy. That determination continued as she earned a B.S.B.A. in Finance from the University of Florida, an M.M. in Music Media and Industry from the University of Miami, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
During her early career at EMI Recorded Music, she was responsible for training staff nationwide on how to enter recording and product metadata into a Label Copy System. Mid-way through her time at EMI, she ran a 6-week User Acceptance Test (UAT) of a new artist royalty system, which brought members of the royalty department into a classroom setting to learn how to perform tasks in the new system.
“That was when I realized that I liked teaching, and the feedback I received indicated that I was good at it,” she said. Not surprisingly, in 2006, Elton joined the faculty at Frost School of Music as an assistant professor. Over the years, she achieved tenure, took over as the program director of the Music Industry program, became the chair of the Music Media and Industry department (2013-2018), and eventually became a full professor. In 2019, she added Associate Dean of Administration to her title and played a leading role in helping the school successfully navigate operating during a pandemic. At the end of 2023, she plans to hand the Associate Dean reigns over to a colleague so that she can focus more on the Music Industry program and teaching.
During her entire time at Frost, she has actively engaged in music industry activities, consulting or working for companies including Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. More recently, she took on the Head of Educational Partnerships role at The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC). She is also a Yamaha Master Educator.
On winning the award, Elton said, “I am so grateful to be named as the first-ever Music Business Educator of the Year. It is a huge honor. I am very proud to bring home another first for the Frost School of Music, to go alongside our being the first ever music business program at a university in 1966. The creation of this new category of Bizzy Award reflects how the industry at large has tremendous respect for what we do as educators in our programs. It has taken a long time to get to this point, and many educators who came before me laid the groundwork and deserve credit for doing so. I am inspired daily by my current and former students and fellow educators. That inspiration provides the fuel for all that I do today and will continue to do to grow and develop this industry. It is a true blessing when you finally figure out what you were put on earth to do, and this award serves as recognition that I am doing exactly that.”
