Alumni Profiles
Jordan Passman ’04
For Jordan Passman, “standing around in circles, socializing in the Alley” at Crossroads nurtured a skill set instrumental in his success as an entrepreneur.
For Jordan Passman, “standing around in circles, socializing in the Alley” at Crossroads nurtured a skill set instrumental in his success as an entrepreneur.
“School is like a small city. When you’re navigating that world, you’re learning how to network, whether you realize it or not,” says Jordan, who founded Score a Score in 2009 at the age of 22. The marketplace connects music composers with clients searching for the perfect soundtrack for multiple platforms, from film, TV and advertising to Web, video games, apps and podcasts.
Two years after launching Score a Score, Jordan was named among the “best young entrepreneurs under 25” by Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2014, Forbes included him in a list of “30 under 30” brightest stars for music alongside Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. In 2015, he made it into Rolling Stone’s “17 Young Innovators Shaking Up the Music Industry.” In 2020, Score a Score was featured on the Inc. 5000 list for its 5th consecutive year.
After joining Crossroads in seventh grade—“a natural fit for me,” he recalls—Jordan learned teamwork playing volleyball and accumulated “lasting memories of laughter and growth” in Life Skills. He majored in sociology at Pitzer College, then moved to New York City. His goal was to become a talent agent for film composers, but the agency he joined only represented writers and actors, so he gave his two weeks’ notice after just two weeks.
Unsure of his next step, he volunteered for the Obama presidential campaign, which honed his cold-calling skills. While in New York, “stressing out about my life,” he saw a need for a one-stop music platform. “I’ve always loved to connect people,” he says. Suddenly, his talent for networking and his passion for music came together.
In the years since, the Cannes Lion-winning Score a Score has expanded in revenue, office space, employees and services. In addition to custom and original music, it now offers sound design, voiceover, music supervision and clearance. “I love that my clients are more and more comfortable collaborating with an artist who lives on the other side of the world,” Jordan says. Clearly, it’s working: recent work includes ad campaigns for Microsoft, Verizon, Apple, MasterCard, Facebook, Google, Taco Bell and LinkedIn; blockbuster trailers for all of the major film studios; and music supervision for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and more.
