Intrigued by the potential of online education, J. Anthony Allen started a small company in 2018 to provide music instruction via the web. It grew organically at first, with a handful of classes and a few licensing agreements with larger platforms.

Then came the pandemic. 

“It was really a question of the right place and the right time,” said Allen, an assistant professor of music, media, and management at Augsburg. was already established when the world saw a huge increase in demand for online classes of all kinds in 2020. Today, it serves more than a million students from every corner of the globe. 

Allen entered Punkademic in the prestigious entrepreneurship contest earlier this year. The competition, which is based at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business, provides seed funding and support to emerging entrepreneurs from across the state. His goal was to make it past the first round in order to connect with a mentor from the ed tech world. 

Punkademic did make the first cut. And the next one. In September, it was named a semifinalist for the grand prize and took first place in the Education and Training division. 

Allen plans to invest the $25,000 MN Cup award in marketing and general operating infrastructure for the company, which remains a slim operation despite its explosive growth. Punkademic’s flexible model offers individual class purchases as well as structured courses on a subscription basis. The site’s most popular offerings include courses on music theory, composition, film scoring, sound design, and ear training.    

Allen sees a clear connection between his “side hustle” and his work at Augsburg, where he teaches classes in music business and technology, runs the music production minor, manages Augsburg’s recording studio, and serves as interim music department chair. 

“Teaching is a practice. All of this work online has informed my teaching style and abilities,” he said. “Here in the music business program we also talk about how all of music is an entrepreneurial act in one way or another. 

“For me, Punkademic is proof of that concept.” 

To learn more, or .

(Photo of J. Anthony Allen by Jade Patrick)

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Following the presentation, students will be able to talk with an all-star panel of industry experts including an Augsburg MBA graduate, Sarah Phelan ’09. Phelan is a marketing program manager with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Phelan was working in marketing at Thrivent Financial when she was recruited into the Augsburg MBA program. Soon after she finished her graduate studies, she started looking for a job. “I decided that it was a good time to put some feelers out there, given that I had a new degree on my resume,” she says.

Though she has an undergraduate degree in theology and philosophy of religion, Phelan enjoyed marketing and wanted to stay in it. She also found the arts scene in Minneapolis and St. Paul intriguing. “It’s a very vibrant scene,” she said, “and I always saw myself going in the non-profit direction.”

Phelan landed a job with SPCO and works on a grant project from the Wallace Foundation. She is taking a grassroots, community-based approach to marketing for the orchestra, a somewhat unique method for an arts organization in a major metropolitan area. “‘It’s been a really unique opportunity. We’re doing everything for the first time so everything is a new experience.”

Phelan hopes to share her experience on the marketing side of music business with students next week. “Everything I do is hands-on and focused on how to get the word out,” she says. In that sense, she says her work is very similar to how a band or smaller organization would market themselves—using social media and grassroots communication.

Phelan says the Augsburg MBA program was very beneficial for her career. She says what she learned at Augsburg could be applied to a variety of industries. “I think the Augsburg MBA is a great fundamental learning experience, and it gave me a solid foundation to make the jump from financial services to the arts.”

The music business seminar will be held Tuesday, Apr. 13 from 4-6 p.m. in Sateren Auditorium. The seminar is open to all students, and admission is free but reservations are recommended. Email musicdept@augsburg.edu to make a reservation.

Panelists include:

-Jeralyn Steele, Steele Family performing artists and WCCO Radio personality

-Brad Eggen, attorney and president of the Twin Cities Musicians Union, Local 30-73, American Federation of Musicians

-Shantel Dow, president of Dow Artists (artist management)

-Steve McClellan, executive director of Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMOMN.org); faculty member, McNally-Smith College of Music

-Sue McLean, president of Sue McLean and Associates (concert promotion)

-Sarah Phelan ’09 MBA, marketing program manager, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

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