Media

HKU Faculty of Arts is excited to launch its pioneering Music Entrepreneurship and Popular Practice (MEPoP) initiative. This practitioner-driven, first-of-its-kind initiative in Asia will address existing gaps in the popular music ecosystem and the creative and cultural industries at large by creating a rare space where stakeholders across the value chain — from music executives and entrepreneurs to artists, scholars and critics — can come together in meaningful dialogue and collaboration. MEPoP aims to re-centre Hong Kong as a dynamic hub of popular music in Asia by arming the next generation of music-sector creators and executives with skills and perspectives needed to succeed in the industry.

The Asian music industry is growing at an unprecedented pace: three of the top ten music markets worldwide — Mainland China, Japan and South Korea — are based in Asia. In this ever-evolving world of music confronted with technological innovation and disruption, MEPoP aims to build a community where music’s potential as a cultural commodity can be explored, questioned, and innovated in practice. Powered by global talent from both industry and academia, MEPoP commits itself to fostering unparalleled artistry and responsible entrepreneurship in the next generation of creatives and business leaders, while nurturing in them an ability to think with intellectual rigour and innovate with cultural sensitivity.

Founded on a unique industry-academia partnership, MEPoP seeks to bridge the worlds between art and business, and between practice and scholarship by bringing together stakeholders across the music value chain — from business executives and entrepreneurs to creative artists and cultural critics. While academia provides an intellectual foundation for students to excel in this marketplace, MEPoP supplements the classroom experience by providing an insider’s view of the industry, focusing on developing essential skills needed to take advantage of the vast opportunities in the music and creative cultural sector.

For its inaugural phase, the programming of MEPoP will consist of two main pillars, a music business and entrepreneurship pillar and a popular music and creative practice pillar. Among the offerings rolled out in this initial phase are three intensive courses: a course on Music Business and Entrepreneurship, a DJ course, and a Songwriting course. Participants may take classes across pillars, and additional courses will continue to be added and announced on the programme website. MEPoP also plans to offer a wide range of educational activities including but not limited to public lecture series and roundtables, specialised skill workshops and masterclasses, songwriting camps, innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, and other activities available to the general public.

MEPoP’s Co-Directors Mr Jonathan Serbin and Professor Stacy Huang have a fruitful history of fusing practical industry know-how with critical-cultural insights, having co-created and co-taught two popular undergraduate courses in music business and entrepreneurship at HKU since 2022. Professor Daniel Chua, Chair Professor of Music at HKU, will serve as MEPoP’s chief advisor. Day-to-day management will be overseen by Dr Li Meng de Bakker, a Lecturer and PhD graduate of Music at HKU who is also an international DJ / producer based in Hong Kong. MEPoP will leverage the foundations of these existing initiatives and momentum to create highly targeted, public-facing intensive courses, event series, and programmes for aspiring music executives and entrepreneurs, artists, songwriters, and producers. The MEPoP team will keep expanding to welcome music talent from around the globe.

Professor Daniel Chua stated, “We are thrilled to announce the launch of MEPoP. HKU has always been a leader in fusing theoretical learning with practical applications. We believe this exciting initiative will provide participants with an extra set of skills to succeed in the music industry, both as executives at the highest levels and as creators of the hits of tomorrow.”

Mr Jonathan Serbin shared, “The music markets across Asia continue to grow rapidly. Music is the perfect example of an industry where theory and real-world skills can mesh to provide a powerful toolbox for those who wish to excel in the field. For both entrepreneurs and business executives, a fusion of underlying theory — financial modelling, opportunity analysis, data analysis, for example — combined with real-world experience and know-how taught by those who have ‘lived it’ can serve as an accelerator for positioning students to uncover opportunities and build valuable businesses. MEPoP seeks to live at that very intersection, providing participants with the insight and skills they need to succeed in this exciting, but competitive, landscape.”

For Professor Stacy Huang, “What I most look forward to in building a platform such as MEPoP is the possibility it presents in connecting worlds otherwise distant or disjointed: between the creative and the critical, between ‘pop’ and ‘indie’, between makers and thinkers, between human and AI, and between industry and academia. None of this will be easy, especially in the increasingly fragmented and divided world we live in, but it is for this reality that I believe MEPoP has a reason to exist and a true difference to make.”

About Mr Jonathan Serbin
Mr Jonathan Serbin has represented some of the world’s most-recognised music brands in their Asia expansion. He was most recently Co-President of Warner Music Asia and CEO of Greater China of Warner Music, overseeing eleven countries / territories across the region. He was formerly Head of Asia for Billboard and is now co-founder of Mammoth Media Asia which is partnering with iHeartMedia to develop world-class, original podcast content in Asia. He has also served as a music-sector lawyer, investment banker and entrepreneur.

About Professor Rujing Stacy Huang
Professor Huang is a musicologist, critical AI scholar, and Assistant Professor of Music at HKU. She received her PhD in ethnomusicology from Harvard University, has industry and performing experiences, and is a co-director of the AI Song Contest Foundation. The foundation organises an annual international competition exploring human-AI partnership in songwriting that has been covered in mainstream media worldwide. She is also a co-editor of Music and Data, a new peer-reviewed journal that examines the impact of emerging technologies on global music cultures.

For more information about MEPoP, please visit: https://mepop.hku.hk/

For media enquiries, please contact Dr Li Meng de Bakker (E-mail: lmdb@hku.hk).