Michelle Conceison holds a BA in English and Ethical Philosophy from Tufts University and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Simmons University, both in Boston. At MTSU, Conceison instructs courses including Artist Management, Marketing of Recordings, Concert Promotion & Touring, Survey of the Recording Industry and Music Entrepreneurship & Strategic Planning for the Arts. Prior to MTSU, she taught graduate and undergraduate level music business and arts administration at Northeastern University, marketing and brand management in the MBA program at Simmons University, Advertising in the Experimental College at Tufts University, and she was a Graduate Assistant in Creative Writing at the University of California at Berkeley.

She is a practicing Artist Manager, operating Mmgt, an integrated marketing and artist management company she founded in 2004 to manage international singer-songwriters and bands in folk, bluegrass, Americana, and roots music. Conceison has managed artists and songwriters who have been nominated for GRAMMY Awards and International Folk Music Awards, and won JUNO Awards, East Coast Music Awards, International Bluegrass Music Awards, and many other prestigious music industry awards. She has had artists’ albums and singles top radio and sales charts while teaching students how to manage artists and market music. She’s had artists sellout world tours while teaching students to promote concerts.

Conceison is the Global Chair of Mentorship for Women In Music, and was co-founder of the Nashville chapter. She recently served as Secretary of the board of the International Bluegrass Music Association, and was the Chair of that organization’s Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She assists with programming and research for Folk Alliance International, an organization for which she served on the board for 9 years and is a past-President and former Programming Manager. In 2017, she won the Spirit of Folk Award, “presented annually to honor and celebrate people and organizations actively involved in the preservation, presentation, and promotion of folk music through their creative work, community building, and demonstrated leadership.” She is also a member of Leadership Music Class of 2024 and Leadership Bluegrass Class of 2019.

Folk Alliance International has published two papers Conceison has authored that have been considered significant in the advancement of folk music. In 2015, Conceison was the lead author on a paper entitled “Understanding Copyright, Royalties and Practical Application in Folk Music.” In 2019, Conceison authored initial findings from a multi-year research study she is conducting in partnership with the organization. Conceison was selected to present that paper entitled “Measuring Folk” at this year’s Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) conference. She has mentored and spoken on music industry panels at many conferences including ASCAPExpo, Folk Alliance International, Americana Music Week, East Coast Music Week, Folk Music Ontario, Music NL and Music PEI. In recent months she has moderated and spoken on several webinars about teaching online, cultural equity and anti-racism, and music marketing strategy.

Here recent research has focused on representation and change-making in the music industry. Those papers and reports can be found at mmgt.co/research

Prior to music, Conceison worked in advertising in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and New York. She worked with major brands including AT&T, Bank of America, General Motors, Saturn, Sirius/XM, and Musician’s Friend (Guitar Center). She bought some of the first search keywords Google sold in 1999 while working in San Francisco. Later, as Vice President Director of Media, Conceison built and led Search practices at leading agencies Arnold/MPG/Media Contacts and Digitas in Boston and Starcom Worldwide in Chicago. She managed teams through startup, consolidation and rampant growth that formed the Search and Social Media landscape, and has been involved in many innovations that shaped the digital media industry as it is today.​

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