Calling an Audible: Music Industry grad plays the field as student and professional

A week ahead of her spring break trip with friends, Emma Bell-Black started her first full-time job before she ordered her cap and gown. 

“It was not a difficult decision,” the Moorestown, New Jersey native said of deciding to add a 40-hour-a-week gig to her senior year spring. “Football and music are my two biggest passions.” 

And so, with the blessing from her professors, she audibled in her final weeks as a student and began working for NFL Films as a music licensing assistant, processing license requests and approvals for song clearances.

A lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, sports have always been part of Bell-Black’s life. She started flag football in third grade and continued playing in a girl’s league in Moorestown, eventually taking her team to the championship, dressed as her favorite NFL team. 

Home sick instead celebrating her team’s 2018 Super Bowl win at the parade, Bell-Black started thinking more seriously about her path. Her biggest musical inspiration is pop singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes. Bell-Black was a fan from the beginning and admires Mendes and the work of his manager, who she says really helped jumpstart his career. 

“Most people don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes and the amount of effort that goes into producing an album or organizing a tour,” said Bell-Black, “I wanted to get into it.” 

This thinking led her to an open house where she heard Mathieu Gendreau, Director of Music Industry at Rowan, talk about the program. Bell-Black immediately wanted to attend. 

Forward Progress 

From the start, Bell-Black’s time at Rowan has been an all-out blitz. 

She enrolled in the Music Industry program, in which one of two concentrations in Business or Technology, are required. Bell-Black chose both. The program requires students to have two internships in the field. Bell-Black completed five. She also picked up minors in Spanish and Entrepreneurship.

“Emma has the right mindset for this business. She’s built her skillset that way,” says professor and booking coordinator for Rowan Music Group, Barbara Adams. 

During her first semester, she joined SoundGirls, a national organization supporting women in the professional audio community and became an Ambassador for GrammyU. Part of the Recording Academy, GrammyU provides aspiring professionals with networking opportunities for a career in the industry. And then, March 2020 happened. No in-person classes. No events. No live concerts. Anxiety-inducing is an understatement. 

“With all the uncertainty the industry kind of shut down,” Bell-Black recalls, “It made me stop and think how I would even get a job.” 

For someone as driven and ambitious as Bell-Black, the “Covid years” as she calls them were merely another audible. 

Beyond her Magna Cum Laude achievements in the classroom, she is involved in several organizations on campus, all centered around service: Vice President of Service for Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, Secretary of Rowan’s chapter of Circle K, Treasurer for Habitat for Humanity, to name a few.

Extra Point(s) 

Bell-Black’s initiative caught the attention of the Music Industry faculty, who describe her as an enthusiastic problem solver, attentive student, and exceptional communicator. 

“She gets it,” says Gendreau, who has Bell-Black for her senior capstone class. “Emma understands the importance of the entrepreneurship side and how to present and promote herself.” 

During the final two semesters in the Music Industry program, students produce a capstone project top-to-bottom. As a “freak out planner,” Bell-Black recalls thinking through her capstone project over the summer. She teamed up with her classmate, Emily Ginsburg to form “813 Entertainment,” an entertainment/production agency that planned, promoted, and produced shows at Glassboro’s Landmark Americana. Their first event had more than 200 attendees, something Bell-Black says makes her proud. 

“You don’t learn how to be hardworking and driven in class,” says Bell-Black, “I picked that up on my own.” 

And early, too, noting she enrolled in a guitar class in eighth grade, but taught herself the chords and a song before the class had even begun. She’s been playing ever since.

“More women, please!” 

With Bell-Black signing on to work with NFL Films, Gendreau says she is proof the program is working.

“It can take you a while to make it in the industry, but we have many students making it right away,” he says.

Aside from being excited that concerts and events back, Bell-Black says her main hope for the future of the industry is more diversity. 

“To have someone who is just starting out say she wants diversity, means she will encourage more women, which is what we need,” says Adams. 

According to a USC Annenberg study, when it comes to women in the industry over the last decade there has been “insignificant change.” SoundGirls.org reports women make up only 5 percent of the professional workforce in audio and music production.

Bell-Black notes that despite the statistics, she has had the opportunity to work alongside women in the industry, including Adams at Rowan and Christine Black-Reimel, Director of Music Administration and Supervision with NFL Films, her supervisor.

“We’re not there fully yet,” says Black-Reimel, after more than two decades in the industry, “but the future is looking bright for this new generation of young businesswomen like Emma.”

After her first month on the job, Bell-Black says she is grateful to work for what she describes as her dream team. Somewhere she feels supported and comfortable being herself.

“More women need to get out there and show them who’s boss,” Bell-Black says with confidence.