Music Entrepreneurship & Innovation: From Guitar Hero to Be the Beat

Join us for the Arts Startup Incubator launch event to learn more about creative entrepreneurship and opportunities on campus!

Hear from Eran Egozy, professor in Music Technology at MIT, about his early days as co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems and how they built the wildly successful video game franchises Guitar Hero and Rock Band. MTC grad student and Be the Beat co-founder, Z, will then demo their interactive platform that turns dance into a collaborative musical experience, share his experience working on it in the Arts Startup Incubator last year, and plans for the future.

Snacks and refreshments will be provided at this lively event!

Eran Egozy is a professor of Music Technology at MIT and director of the Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program at MIT, where he earned degrees in Electrical Engineering and Music. He went on to co-found Harmonix Music Systems, which developed the wildly successful video game franchises Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Eran’s current research and teaching interests include interactive music systems, music information retrieval, and multimodal musical expression and engagement. His latest projects are *12*, Tutti, and ConcertCue.

Eran is also an accomplished clarinetist, and has appeared as a soloist with the MIT Symphony Orchestra and guest artist on the radio show From the Top. He performs regularly with Boston’s Radius Ensemble.

Z is an artist, designer, engineer, and musician. He graduated from MIT with a dual bachelor's in mechanical engineering and music this spring, and is now a master's student in Music Technology and Computation at MIT. Z's work is multidisciplinary in approach, exploring the intersection of technology, music, and dance. A finalist in the 2025 Arts Startup Incubator program, his team Be the Beat worked on a real-time interactive platform that turns dance into a collaborative musical experience by capturing movement and matching music to the user’s rhythm, style, and energy.

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The supports creative entrepreneurship at the Institute, building on the legacy of MIT students turning innovative ideas into successful businesses.

A semester-long challenge, the program equips a cohort of students with mentors, resources, and workshops to hone their products, business models, and pitches. The program culminates in a spring pitch event, where finalists compete for a $15,000 prize to launch their business.

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The (MTC) is a collaboration between the MIT Music and Theater Arts section of SHASS; MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Music-making drives multidisciplinary technical research in music technology with the guidance of faculty, labs, and curricula from the three schools. Practitioners study, discover, and develop new computational approaches to music information retrieval; generative algorithms; machine learning and AI; interaction and performance systems; digital instrument design; acoustics; audio signal processing; and software development for creative expression and music applications.

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This event is part of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship's t=O festival that celebrates all things entrepreneurship and innovation around campus.

Accessibility

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage and participate fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

Host or Publisher Arts at MIT