Building Skills.Creating Pathways.

Building Beats is a nonprofit music education organization that builds career pathways for young people through music, technology, and creative media. We’re building a future where all youth, regardless of background, can access the skills, tools, and opportunities needed to thrive in creative and creative-tech careers.

Founded in 2013 with a small series of DJ workshops in the Bronx, Building Beats has grown into a citywide movement serving thousands of young people across New York City and Los Angeles. Our programs bring hands-on DJing, music production, podcasting, and digital media education into schools, shelters, community centers, and juvenile justice settings.

From the beginning, our focus has been on reaching youth with limited access to creative and professional opportunities. We serve students from kindergarten through young adulthood, including young people navigating housing instability, foster care, and system involvement.

We meet young people where they are, using music and media as a gateway to build technical fluency, digital literacy, leadership, and workforce-ready creative skills. From beat-making and DJing to podcasting and coding sound with JavaScript, our programs are project-based, flexible, and connected to real-world applications.

To date, Building Beats has delivered over 16,000 hours of programming, partnered with 250+ schools and community sites, and worked with more than 12,000 youth. Along the way, we’ve trained educators, built mentorship pipelines, and created pathways to paid gigs, internships, and career opportunities across the creative industries. And we’re just getting started.