The Virginia State University Department of Music will be launching a recording label through the Music Production Technology (MPT) program.
This newly created record label will provide hands on experience for MPT students to be involved in every aspect of the music business from creating, performing, recording and even distributing their content to the broader community.
The goal is to have a platform for the ensembles to record their music as well as other artists. Professor Dustin Painter has been involved with developing the spaces needed for recording on campus.
“Currently hoping to have the main structure of the label set up by the end of the semester, because next semester we are going to start releasing our ensemble concerts on streaming services, and then roll out the other business functions that we want to,” Painter said.
Through the record label, outside artists will have an opportunity to rent out the multiple recording studios to record their music, and if needed the students and faculty will be able to offer final mixing services at a cost.
“So one of the eventual plans is that we want this to be for anyone essentially on campus,” Painter said. “So it’s not just going to be the music department ensembles, but we want this to be where any of our music production students are able to release their music through it.”
The department is also working on getting to the point where outside artists can come and rent production and studio time with the label.
This is part of the larger educational outreach that the music department has been developing at VSU.
“We did start a music production technology minor for anybody on campus,” Painter said. “If we have students that are even in psychology, or in the business department, they can come over to hang out with us and record.”
Painter also stated that any of the students in different areas of study are more than welcome to come in to help with the work that goes into the other areas of recording.
“At the end of the day, our goal with the label is to not just have that creative aspect, but we’re also working on building up the business aspect for our students too,” Painter said.
With such a new part of the music department finally underway the identity of this venture is still being established. Even the name of the label is still being discussed.
So far the label is calling itself Trojan Tracks. This is still in the early phases though. They might make this part of the educational experiment too and have a survey developed to allow MPT students to offer their input.
Such an endeavor has many desired outcomes for the department but ultimately it is to offer real life exeperience.
“The final goal that I would say for our label is for the curriculum that we have with music production to be so closely integrated with this label, both from a business standpoint and the creative standpoint,” Painter said. “We hope students really leave with three to four years of experience working in a professional context. So they’re not just leaving VSU with a piece of paper that says, I have an audio degree, but they actually have tangible experience and a portfolio that they can point back to.”
