The Curb S3E Program
The history of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) has its roots in Word Records. Founded in Waco in 1951, Word Records helped launch Mike Curb into the music business. Today, Curb Records is the largest independent record company in the United States not distributed by one of the three major labels. Curb now owns Word Records, the largest record company ever founded in Texas. Read its colorful history in the Word 60 Year Anniversary Story.
In honor of Word Records’ influence on the industry, the Curb Foundation generously provides support for the Curb Learning Lab for Sports, Music & Entertainment classroom and for the Curb Sales Strategy in Sports & Entertainment (S3E) program at Baylor University in the Marketing Department of the Hankamer School of Business. The learning lab classroom includes the history of CCM, featuring Word founder Jarrell McCracken (Baylor graduate), Mike Curb, Jim Van Hook, Terry Hemmings, and Billy Ray Hearn.
Curb Sports + Music + Entertainment
While music and film entertainment are the lifeblood of Curb/Word, Mike Curb has backed over 1000 winners across 55 divisions in motorsports. Combining sports, music and entertainment in the Curb S3E Program blends these interests in support of Baylor students pursuing fulfilling careers in the business of sports & entertainment.
The Curb S3E Program builds upon the success of the Baylor Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) program, founded in 2004 by Kirk Wakefield and Darryl Lehnus. Alumni of the S3 Program are successful leaders and managers in sports and entertainment, including graduates (2006-2012) of the Music & Entertainment (M&E) Marketing program. Thanks to Mike Curb’s early support of the M&E program and renewed support with the Curb S3E Program, Baylor seeks to continue to grow its presence in the business of sports, music and entertainment.
What do S3E students do?
As the only academic program focused solely on revenue generation in sports, music & entertainment, students are prepared to contribute to the bottom line by (a) making more sales and (b) analyzing sales data. S3E students
Sales Skills
- Develop personal values to foster ethical sales practices
- Understand the different roles of the sales function in organizations
- Prospect and research potential partners, customers and markets
- Understand sports and entertainment products, including tickets and sponsorships
- Create and deliver value through effective presentations to businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2C)
- Communicate comfortably through multiple channels: e-mail, mail, phone, face-to-face and social
- Build and maintain positive customer relationships
Analytics Skills
- Clean, organize, monitor and manage data, including database maintenance & hygiene duties
- Assist in lead generation, data collection, audience segmentation, automation, journeys and process
- Build and maintain dashboards and reports for various marketing efforts
- Coordinate CRM activities and processes, including building audiences for campaigns
- Work with digital marketing and media teams to use customer data for marketing campaigns
- Create customer insights to the marketing, promoting, and selling of tickets, partnerships, music, movies, merchandise, and media
- Use analytical tools to report, explain, and predict fan behavior
- Assist with research and analysis projects
Want to learn “All you need to know about the music business?” Click this link.
Want a short tutorial on the economics of the music business? Listen to My Sharona: The economics of everyday things.
