About

What makes Cat 5 Music Publishing different from all other music publishing companies is that it is student run.  It is operated out the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where it specializes in placing music in movies, television shows and commercials for its catalog.  It also finds music for clients’ precise needs.

“The creative team at Cat 5 is plugged into a network of hundreds of great young musicians from within the Frost School and beyond,” says Dean Shelton Berg. “These relationships are a vital link to the discovery of new songs and new composing talent.”

Cat 5 is currently working with Phil Ramone on a musical about Mario Lanza entitled Be My Love.  Cat 5 is in charge of soliciting and licensing the music that will be placed in the musical.  The creative staff has been engaged with writers from its roster, the University of Miami and the greater Miami area.  The musical will debut this fall at Gusman Concert Hall on the University of Miami Coral Gables campus.

Cat 5 was founded in 2002 as the first and, to date, the only student run music publishing company in the United States.  It is operated by the Graduate Music Business and Entertainment Industry students at the University of Miami, with the purpose of showcasing the young creative talent of its employees.  The concept for a student run publishing company was conceived in 2001 by program directors Jim Progris and Rey Sanchez, when students submitted songs for the BMI John Lennon Scholarship.  In 2002, the business plan was developed Dave Schreiber, now a music business professor at Greenville College in Illinois, and Andres Sandoval, now the director of Repertoire and Exploration at EMI Music Publishing.  Since then Cat 5 has been signing songwriters from within and outside the University, and working on various projects.

As part of Festival Miami, Cat 5 annually hosts the Songwriter’s Showcase.  The showcase is a competition where student songwriters submit their songs for an opportunity to perform them live and be judged by Grammy award-winning artist Bruce Hornsby and other Grammy award-winning artists.  The first place winner receives the honor of opening for one of the judges at their concert the following night.   

In April 2006, Cat 5 was retained as the music supervisor for the feature film Gringo Wedding.  Cat 5 was responsible for pitching music to the film’s director to be placed in the romantic comedy, in addition to licensing all the music in the film.

In October 2007, Cat 5 and peermusic developed a “logical and innovative” partnership as Ramón Arias, former Vice President of Latin Operations for peermusic, described it. Peermusic was founded in 1928 and is one of the world’s largest independent music publishing companies possessing a catalog of 300,000 song titles.  In addition, it has 200+ employees in 35 offices spanning 28 countries.  Cat 5 benefits from peermusic’s worldwide creative and administrative support, where they give leads to Cat 5 of who is looking for music and what kind, to help further the growth and development of the young company.  Peermusic in return is able to utilize a new source of music discovered by Cat 5’s creative staff.  Chairman and CEO of peermusic, Ralph Peer II, described the partnership as “a symbiotic opportunity for peermusic to participate in the thinking of the next generation of composers and music executives while simultaneously providing them with access to an experienced worldwide team of professionals.”