CommonTime Pathways provides the proactive scouting system that athletic departments have utilized for decades, finally applying it to the arts. By identifying artistic students as early as age 13, the platform allows colleges and universities to build and seed deep pipelines of talent years in advance of the typical recruitment cycle.

“CommonTime Pathways is building critical infrastructure for a part of education that has long been overlooked,” says Jennifer Carolan, General Partner of Reach Capital. “We believe elevating the arts is essential to cultivating a more humanistic experience on school campuses, and to shaping a more human-centered future — one where art, empathy, and creativity become even more essential in an AI-enabled world. We’re excited to back Eytan Wurman and his team as they make this a reality.” 

Modernizing a Passive Recruitment Model 

The systemic gap in music recruitment is a missed opportunity for institutional stability. While an estimated $5 billion in music and arts scholarships are awarded annually, recruitment of musicians who intend to major in other degree programs has historically remained passive, and funding often fails to reach students capable of driving tremendous value for a campus. 

CommonTime Pathways replaces the pre-internet arts recruiting model and leverages existing outreach in performing arts spaces to actively connect artistically intelligent students across every degree program on campus. While the platform currently serves a community of musicians across all 50 states, the infrastructure is engineered to serve the entire creative spectrum. CommonTime allows institutions to identify artistic and creative intelligence years in advance and match prospective applicants with specific scholarship opportunities. Admissions officers now have the tools to engage with an ever-growing, multi-year creative student pipeline. 

“CommonTime creates a powerful and long-missing connection point,” says David Hautanen, VP of Enrollment, St. Mary's College of Maryland. “It fundamentally changes how I can recruit and enroll an academically talented class of students who also elevate the artistic life of the campus.” 

Artistic Intelligence as a Predictor of Success 

CommonTime Pathways was founded by CEO Eytan Wurman, a former music teacher and public school district administrator who saw firsthand the inequities of college scouting and recruiting in comparison with available systems in athletics. 

“Universities are bracing for significant enrollment decline, yet they are systematically overlooking their most resilient talent pool,” says Wurman. “We give schools the infrastructure to find best-fit students by recognizing the value that already exists in them. When an institution scouts a student’s creative trajectory early, they aren’t just filling a seat; they are welcoming someone ready to contribute and flourish.” 

The students served by CommonTime Pathways are among a campus’s most resilient demographic. Whether they major in business, STEM, or liberal arts, students with years of creative education and experience arrive on campus with a proven capacity for persistence, empathy, and collaboration. These traits are the primary drivers of mental health, student achievement, and retention, all of which are critical metrics for the long-term success of an institution. 

Standardized tests and GPAs fail to capture these “invisible assets.” CommonTime illuminates the value of these skills and talents and makes them measurable, providing enrollment officers with data on students who are uniquely prepared to stay enrolled, contribute to campus culture, and thrive. 

“CommonTime opens doors nobody else can,” says Dominic Castillejo, Director of Admission, Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. “By uniting recruiting efforts across universities, we can now access students from places we never thought we’d be able to reach. It’s about access and equity in recruiting.” 

Scaling to Adjacent Markets 

With new funding, CommonTime is deepening the early success of its music vertical and accelerating its expansion into adjacent dance and theater spaces, creating a comprehensive, nationwide recruiting ecosystem for all creative disciplines. 

“In the future, we believe that there will be a premium on human creativity,” says Andrew Kahn, Managing Partner of the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund. “CommonTime Pathways has the potential to fill a gap in arts education and recruiting in higher education, and become a critical platform for talent to discover opportunities to continue their arts training and participation at colleges and universities globally.” 

For institutions looking to modernize their enrollment strategy, and for students ready to be recruited for their creative abilities and artistic intelligence, get started at CTPathways.com.