The Music Experience Lab was formed in 2008 (fka Music Cognition Lab) by Richard Randall at Carnegie Mellon University with a focus on human auditory cognition. In 2011, Randall partnered with scholar Richard Purcell and CMU's Center for the Arts in Society to form the Listening Spaces Project —-a three-year initiative to examine how technological, political, and economic forces influence how we make music in the 21st century. The work of Listening Spaces prompted MEL to develop research programs around public music events, music as a good, and music labor/value relationships. Currently, MEL works with Romani musicians in the Balkans to promote Roma as important cultural producers and combat human rights abuses.