Recruit Musicians Like You Recruit Athletes
What if your next enrollment opportunity isn't another list of prospects, but an entire group of students hidden in plain sight? CommonTime helps colleges find musicians across every major and reach them before they apply.
TRUSTED BY:
THE STUDENTS YOU'RE MISSING
One kind of talent gets recruited. The other gets found by accident.
Colleges have a recruiting system for athletes. But millions of student musicians, especially those who won't major in music, remain invisible to admissions.
They're future engineers, nurses, and entrepreneurs. And they're hiding in plain sight.
HOW COMMONTIME SUPPORTS
Four goals already on your strategic plan.
Bottom-line Enrollment
A numbers game from the top of the funnel through graduation. This widens the top with students who stay.
Faculty integration
Your arts faculty already meet thousands of high schoolers. None of that contact reaches your CRM.
Divergent thinking
Musicians and artists bring different worldviews, and the creativity and empathy every classroom needs.
An Untapped Pool
Outside athletics there is no larger or more passionate affinity group in American high schools.
HOW COMMONTIME WORKS
A recruiting system built around relationships.
From discovering students your current pipeline misses to giving them a reason to apply.
Search by instrument, intended major, location, and more. Discover musicians across academic majors and prioritize matches with Commonality Score™.
01 Find students no other channel can
02 Reach them before anyone else does
See who's interested in your institution, message students directly, and build relationships years before they apply.
03 Turn Faculty Connections Into Recruiting Leads
Your faculty already meet prospective students at festivals, clinics, and events. Easily capture those connections and bring them into your admissions pipeline.
Track your recruiting pipeline and use Application Pledges to offer fee waivers, audition waivers, or scholarships before students apply.
04 Give Students a Reason to Apply
GET YOUR FREE STUDENT SNAPSHOT
Who could you be recruiting that you're not?
You may already have prospective students on CommonTime. Find out who's expressed interest in your institution and how many students are in your recruiting market.
See student interest in your school
Find the students in your state not on your radar
See what they play and what they want to study
No meeting required. We will send you your snapshot by email.
A CAMPUS-WIDE ENROLLMENT STRATEGY
Grow enrollment while strengthening your student body.
CommonTime helps enrollment leaders, arts administrators, and faculty grow enrollment and recruit academically talented musicians across every major, strengthening the incoming class, filling ensembles, and enriching campus life.
LET’S TALK
What students are you trying to reach?
The engineering major who plays violin. The oboist three states away. The musician who doesn't know your school is looking for them. They're out there. Let's talk about how to find them before someone else does.
Kelsey Cornwell | VP of Sales
Let’s talk about your enrollment goals and how CommonTime can support you.
RESOURCES FOR YOU
Get a closer look at CommonTime.
Explore the platform and download our Partner Guide to see how CommonTime can support your institution’s enrollment goals.
2-Minute Platform Walkthrough
Partner Guide (PDF): Platform Overview & Membership Details
WATCH OUR WEBINAR WITH EDTECH CONNECT
Weathering the enrollment cliff and AI revolution.
Watch a recorded panel discussion featuring David Hautanen (St. Mary's College of Maryland), Katie Luellen (New England Conservatory), and Jim Bouse (Past President of AACRAO).
The conversation covers new approaches to student recruitment, the challenges of the enrollment cliff, and the role of creative students in an AI-enabled world.
Company Update:
June 02, 2026CommonTime Pathways Secures $1M to Grow the First Collegiate Scouting Infrastructure for Artistic Intelligence
Frequently Asked Questions
-
CommonTime is a live recruiting network, not a static list. The student pool continues to grow through educator networks, conferences, and partnerships including NAfME, Yamaha, and ISME.
As new students join during your membership, they become part of the network you can recruit from.
-
Both music majors and musicians planning to study something else.
Students range from rising ninth graders through graduate applicants and represent everything from conservatory-bound musicians to students planning to study engineering, business, science, and other fields while continuing to make music.
That broader group is a big part of the opportunity: many never enter a traditional music recruiting pipeline.
-
Yes. CommonTime can integrate with Slate and Salesforce through API, allowing student information to flow into the systems your team already uses.
CommonTime sits at the top of the recruiting funnel. It helps you identify and engage students earlier, then feeds your existing admissions workflow rather than replacing it.
-
No.
CommonTime sits before the application and audition process, helping you identify, engage, and recruit students earlier. Your existing application, audition, and admissions systems stay in place.
Institutions can also use Application Pledges to encourage students they want to recruit, including opportunities for fee waivers, audition waivers, or scholarships when the institution chooses to offer them.
-
CommonTime is an annual institutional subscription. Pricing varies based on the institution and scope of the partnership.
Agreements are typically one year and do not automatically renew. Early-adopter pricing is currently available, and existing partners may receive pricing advantages as the network grows.
-
Students control what they share.
Student information is used to support recruiting connections and platform analytics, and contact information is only shared with an institution when the student has opted in through an action such as saving the school, messaging it, or attending an event.
We never sell student information.
-
CommonTime is designed around recruiting work faculty are already doing: meeting students at festivals, running camps and events, building relationships, and looking for the right musicians.
The platform gives those efforts one place to live. Faculty can search for students, message them, host events, and share recruiting activity with the broader institution. Guided onboarding is included for faculty and staff.
Administrators can also help manage students and recruiting activity across the team.
-
That depends on what your institution is trying to accomplish.
CommonTime tracks recruiting activity including student interest, messages, event participation, and Application Pledges. We work with each institution to define the outcomes that matter most, whether that means reaching more out-of-state students, filling a specific studio or ensemble, recruiting across majors, or moving more students toward application.