Rick Beato

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Richard Beato is an American YouTube personality, music professional, and educator. Since the early 1980s, he has worked variously as a musician, songwriter, audio engineer and record producer. Beato lives in Georgia, United States. He has written songs with, and produced music for, a variety of musical artists, including Needtobreathe, Parmalee, and Shinedown.

Beato was born into a large family from Rochester, New York. He studied at Ithaca College, obtaining a bachelor of arts degree in music. He earned a master's degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1987.

Beato has worked in academia and the music industry. He has been a session musician, university professor, songwriter, studio engineer, mixer and record producer.

Beato has lectured at several universities including the University of Alabama and Berklee School of Music.

Beato owns Black Dog Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and began recording bands there in 1995. He also started the record label 10 Star Records, which he ran with business partner Johnny Diamond.

Standards, Expertise and the Art of Judgment

by Patrick Keeney
June 13, 2026

American musician and musicologist Rick Beato recently criticised a list of the 30 greatest contemporary American songwriters compiled by music critics from The New York Times. He dismissed the exercise as meaningless. His objection was not primarily to compiling such a list, nor to the names nominated, but rather to the dubious authority of the critics themselves. Rick Beato is among the more knowledgeable commentators on contemporary music. He holds a Bachelor of Arts ...

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