MIT Music Tech Speaker Series Presents: Mark Ethier

Music and technology have always co-evolved. Long before the synthesizer, innovations ranging from new tuning systems to the piano's sustain pedal haven’t just made music easier to produce — they’ve fundamentally changed what kind of music is possible to make. How will AI as an underlying technology fit into this history?

Since I was an undergraduate at MIT, I’ve spent my career building tools for musicians and watching this interplay firsthand. Sometimes, new technology inspires the music itself, like how rhythmic delay helped inspire U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Other times, musicians drive the technology. At iZotope, our collaboration with BT on Stutter Edit took intricate audio effects that could require hours of studio editing and made them playable in real time onstage.

I’ve also witnessed the impact of the democratization of music making. We helped build a path for musicians to launch careers from their bedrooms, but we also watched large-format studios close their doors. It’s too early to fully grasp how generative AI will impact creative possibilities and livelihoods, but I'll share some early signals from recent market research, including Berklee’s June 2026 report, In Sync: Music and Video 2026.

Now, we’re entering a new phase: the democratization of tool building. With a quiet revolution of musicians vibe-coding their own tools, this story is far from over. In these moments of change, it’s often clear what is being lost. But we also have to wonder what new artistic expression becomes possible, and with the evolution of generative AI, question who gets to shape that change and benefit from it.

Speaker Bio:

Mark Ethier is an entrepreneur and innovator dedicated to empowering creativity. In 2001, after graduating from MIT with degrees in music and computer science, he cofounded iZotope. Today, he is the Founding Executive Director of Berklee's Emerging Artistic Technology Lab (BEATL) helping musicians navigate technology.

Under Mark’s leadership as CEO, iZotope’s tools helped musicians, engineers, and producers realize their creative vision and earned numerous honors, including multiple NAMM TEC Awards (Technical Excellence & Creativity), two Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development, and an Academy Award for Scientific and Engineering Achievement. The company was also recognized multiple times on the Boston Globe’s Top Places to Work list.

Mark has served on Berklee’s Presidential Advisory Council, as well as on the boards of The Record Co., Native Instruments, WBUR, Curio Spice Co., the Waldorf School of Lexington, and other organizations. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, two daughters, two cats, and a puppy.