Point Blank is a global network of music production schools founded in London in 1994 by musician and producer Robert Cowan, offering a variety of courses in electronic music production, sound engineering, DJing, singing, songwriting, radio broadcasting, and music business. In addition to its original school in

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. I ...

, North London, Point Blank now has schools in Los Angeles, Ibiza, Mumbai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and online.

History

Point Blank started as a recording studio in Greenwich, London in 1994. Founder and CEO Rob Cowan had previously been a bass player in

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

-signed band Honeychile and worked as a studio engineer for Matrix studios, working with artists such as D:Ream and Blur. Originally set up as a recording studio, Point Blank quickly evolved into a school after clients expressed an interest in learning about how the gear worked themselves. The school eventually relocated to its current buildings in

, London where it offers courses on music production, sound engineering, DJ performance, singing, songwriting, radio broadcasting, music business, and live sound. In 2013, the school was banned by the Border Agency from sponsoring non-EU nationals for offering too many places to students who failed to meet the rules.Leading music college loses border licence – BBC News
/ref> It had previously had 'highly trusted' status for a decade, and the school's managing director blamed the issue on 'formalities and clerical errors on the side of the UKBA.' It was reinstated in the same year after a re-inspection. In 2015, Point Blank opened a school in Los Angeles, originally housed in the historic Mack Sennett Studios. In 2022, Point Blank L.A. moved its operations to a standalone campus facility on La Brea Avenue, one mile south of Hollywood. Point Blank's L.A. school provides students with postsecondary programs in music production, audio engineering, DJ performance, vocal & instrumental performance, and music industry studies. In 2016, Point Blank extended their facilities in London by opening a second studio complex. The second premises, also located in Hoxton, features 7 purpose-built teaching studios, including DJ and music production equipment such as a SSL Duality Delta mixing desk. In 2017, Point Blank opened an additional school in San Jose, Ibiza. The school, which is found in Ibiza's Can Blau facility, offers students a DJing and Music Producing hybrid course. In September of the same year, Point Blank announced the launch of a two-week DJ/Entrepreneur course in Mumbai, in collaboration with The True School of Music. In 2019, Point Blank opened a school in Hangzhou, China. The school, in partnership with NetEase FEVER, offers courses including music production, DJing, singing & songwriting, music industry, and weekend courses.

Notable alumni

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in th ...

- musician / DJ *

Felix Jaehn Felix Kurt Jähn (born 28 August 1994), known professionally as Felix Jaehn (), is a German DJ and music producer specializing in tropical house. He achieved international success with his remix of Omi's song "Cheerleader", which topped the char ...

- record producer / DJ *

Nicole Moudaber Nicole Moudaber is a Lebanese/British event promoter, record label founder, radio personality, and DJ/ producer. She is the head of her own imprint MOOD Records and runs an award-winning weekly radio show, In The MOOD. Biography Nicole Moud ...

- record producer / DJ *

Claude VonStroke Barclay Macbride Crenshaw (born July 7, 1971), who is known by the stage name Claude VonStroke, is an American house producer based in Los Angeles. He owns Dirtybird Records based in San Francisco. In July 2006 he released his debut album, ''Bew ...

- musician / DJ *

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

- singer / songwriter * Mishlawi - hip-hop artist * Luke Black - singer / songwriter

Partnerships

Point Blank is partnered with

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

and offers a BA (Hons) Music Production and Sound Engineering degree with the University. Point Blank is an

Ableton Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...

Education Partner, an

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

Training Centre,

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It also ...

Training Centre and

Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...

Training Centre. It has also partnered with

Solid State Logic Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound ...

(SSL) since 2016.

Record Label

Point Blank runs its own in-house record label, ''Point Blank Recordings'', founded to help establish talented students in the music industry.

References

External links

International Site
{{coord, 51.5360, -0.0851, type:edu_region:GB-HCK, display=title Educational institutions established in 1994 Audio engineering schools Music schools in London 1994 establishments in England