On any given day, a MAD Dragon Records Product Manager like Anna Drozdowski will be in constant contact with mangers, booking agents, photographers, distributors and other industry professionals working for her new client, the Redwalls. Anna acts as the band's point person at the record label, and must also be in touch with all of MAD Dragon's staff throughout the day. This is all on top of the rest of her classes and homework at Drexel University, where the label is just another one of her courses.

Major Course Offerings, Major Distribution, Major Opportunities
Like many student-run record labels, MAD Dragon is non-profit and supported by the university. Unlike many student-run labels, Ryko Distribution (part of Warner Music Group) distributes all of MAD Dragon's releases nationally. "It's less of a major vs. indie debate," says Drozdowski. "It's a matter of how can [majors and indies] work together to pool the best assets we each have to offer?" The MAD Dragon program was started by Professor Marcy Rauer Wagman in 2003. The CEO of MAD Dragon Unlimited., she's also established music publishing, music video production and concert promotion companies. Students can enroll in these businesses as courses, where they will work with and learn from industry professionals.

MAD Dragon has exclusive agreements with Matt Duke, The Swimmers and The Redwalls amongst others, and the label is set to release two artist albums and one compilation. Students will also help with marketing and promotion for Matt Duke's upcoming album, whose record was upstreamed to Rykodisc through an agreement the label has with Warner Music Group: If an artist begins to grow to the point where MDR doesn't have the funds or staff to take the artist to the next level, the label partners with Rykodisc for joint-releases.

Social Networking: For Once Not A Way To Avoid Doing Work
Base Trip Records, a Boston-based student-run label, also seeks guidance from a pre-established label. All upcoming releases will be sold through Amalgam Digital, a Boston-based online music store and label where Base Trip's founder, Conor Loughman, interns. His label plans to release all of its records digitally, and hopes to use sites like TuneCore and Amie Street as well.

Loughman founded BTR independently in 2007, using the money he saved up from a summer of working odd jobs to purchase studio equipment. As a young label, Base Trip is preparing for its first batch of releases this fall, including Base Trip Presents, a label compilation, due out in October. The current roster is made of all BU students: singer/songwriters Katie Uva, Steph Barrak, Allison Francis, street poet Steph Domingo and the four-piece jam band, Code: Motion. Since the label has basically no money, Base Trip's online presence has contributed largely to the label's popularity on campus. Base Trip has relied heavily on MySpace, FaceBook, PureVolume, Last.fm and OurStage to promote name associations and "brand recognitions." Thus one of the biggest obstacles facing older music industry entities—incorporating new social media and Web 2.0 sites—has proven to be Base Trip's launching pad.

Students who enrolled for Spring 2008 in UCLA's Extension course, "Music Marketing: Sales, Retail and Digital Distribution," also created a business model based on the problems facing major labels. Last semester, the class created Beet Music, a label that licensed artists, released a CD compilation (physically and online), hosted a launch party, promoted it digitally, distributed press kits and more. The business plan for Beet Music included innovative technologies like "press on demand" which bypasses retail stores by allowing consumers to order CDs online. The orders are sent to a headquarters, where computers and machines receive orders, create the CDs, spit them out and postmark them, preventing CDs from languishing on shelves. Beet Music's business model also included downloads at the lowest prices possible. In order to sell tangible copies of their compilation, the label included the price of the CD in the price of the launch party's concert ticket.

Club Music
Base Trip has raised awareness of its signed artists on the BU campus by rehearsing and recording in music rooms and dorm rooms, getting air-play on the student-run radio station, and staging concerts and open mic nights at the student-run venue. This semester, Music Entrepreneurs Club will make the affiliation with BU even more official. Because the university has rules that prevent clubs from being formed specifically for outside companies or interests, (meaning, any entity that has a bank account outside of BU—which Base Trip does have), the Music Entrepreneurs Club cannot specifically benefit one record label.

"By making BTR part of this school project, we will be able to tell more people about what we are doing, find passionate, interested students to help us out, and we will also be eligible for event space and free promotion," says Loughman, who had the club approved this summer.

A similar format has existed at SUNY Oneonta for years. In 1988, students started Red Dragon Records as a part of Music Industry Club, which was founded in the same year. "We receive a budget every year through the Student Association on campus that provides funding to all of the approved clubs," says Red Dragon president Jillian Divi. "The Red Dragon budget is tied to the club, but we have specific lines in our budget devoted strictly to the pressing of the albums we release. Because our school has a recording studio, all of that can be done free of charge on campus." The label also raises funds by putting on concerts with local and national acts.

Lab Work, Minus The Goggles
Rather than sticking with one label from semester to semester, Professor C. Michael Brae's classes at UCLA create an entirely new label each semester. Though the music marketing course has existed for five years, the student-run label section was added during summer 2007, and is considered to be a lab—when the course ends, the label is closed.

"Each quarter, my class creates its own synergy and excitement bringing in something new; new talent, music opportunities, contacts and networking affiliates," says Brae. "The course I teach shows the students short cuts and innovative ways to get product placement, write a marketing plan, set up a project release, acquire corporate sponsorship, gain retail and radio support, all within a short period of time." Last quarter, Brae's class schedule included visits from an attorney from Warner Brothers, a Virgin Megastore Rep, and an Administrative Executive from Fox Networks. Class members (all of whom are around 22-35) have to seek sponsorship from individuals and businesses, who, in return, are promoted heavily by the label.

Jeremy Nasta, former CEO of UCLA student-run label Beet Music, says these types of labels have two major strengths: "You get to choose what you want to do—there is no job interview, climbing up the corporate ladder... [and] you have the clout of being associated with a university, and business owners that take you seriously."

Smells Like School Spirit
UCLA's labels may dissolve (by design) after one semester, but labels like the University of Miami's Cane Records have been going strong for fifteen years. It was created on-campus in 1993 by a small group of students in the Music Business and Entertainment Industries program. With no office, no university funding and limited guidance from faculty advisers, Cane has been able to release over twenty albums over the years by raising sponsorships and donations from local businesses.

"This school year we will be releasing one artist, which was chosen from an audition we held last year," says label President Jessie Allen. "We will continue phase two of the marketing plan for our two artists that we released last year." When Cane signs an artist, the deal includes an exclusive personal service agreement for 18-24 months, required delivery of either one album or one EP, no advance, no recording costs to recoup, payable royalties from unit one of sale, and "many other typical clauses," says Allen.

To stay affiliated with the university, the label has worked closely with the university to release the school-centered Spirit 101 albums, which have been distributed to incoming freshman each fall. The label also sticks to signing only artists who are students in the University of Miami's renowned school of music. (One Cane artist, Sister Hazel, even went on to sign to Universal and have a platinum record.) Getting on the school's good side has paid off for the label. It's not run as an official club, so the university does not get involved with financial decisions. But in the fall of 2007, students holding staff positions can receive academic credit from the university. "We noticed that almost all of the other student-run record labels in the nation were receiving credit and thought, 'Well we should too!'" says Allen. "Our advisor felt that it would help motivate us to work harder, and reward us for our efforts."

Whether or not the kids are getting credit, funding or guidance, one thing is certain: during a time when major-label execs are struggling to find ways to keep their profits rolling in, these kids are creating music enthusiastically without making a dime. "For students to devote their time to something like this, on top of their coursework, social lives and jobs without receiving monetary compensation, means that they are really, genuinely passionate about it," says Loughman. "And that is very good news for the artists."

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