Declarations Of Independents

ON A LEARNING CURVE: How often have you heard someone say about some industry fundamental, "Aw, that's Record Biz 101?"

Like many other college students, a group of 30 San Francisco State University (SFSU) enrollees are learning the basics of the music industry. But to do so, they have started their own independent record label.

The imprint, 19th & Holloway Rechords (named for the location of the SFSU campus), is the brainchild of C. Michael Brae. Brae runs his own indie operation, Hitman Records, and is the author (with Hitman COO Dameon V. Russell) of the business book Music Distribution—Selling Music in the New Entertainment Marketplace. This semester, Brae—who has also taught at the University of California Los Angeles—is leading a three-credit course, "Independent Record Labels: A-Z," at the SFSU extension.

While most college music business courses usually operate on a theoretical level, Brae, who is the principal lecturer, believes that the best way to learn is to do. So 19th & Holloway was founded to walk students through the record-making process.

"I say, 'You guys want all the glory and stuff, but this is what makes you successful,' " Brae says.

The class elected its own label officers (Vanessa Beggs is president of 19th & Holloway; Eugene Smith is CEO), and all students have prescribed areas of responsibility, such as operations, A&R, marketing, sales, promotion, and publicity.

The students are not just going through the motions: The 16-week course will culminate with the release of an album, the hip-hop compilation This Is Your Brain on Hip-Hop, which will feature 12 or 13 Bay Area artists.

"[The class members] select all the acts," Brae says. Production costs are virtually nonexistent, because the album artists brought finished tracks to the label. A class member from last semester is creating the package artwork. Mastering is being done at high-end facility the Plant in Sausalito, Calif., where one of the students is employed. An Oakland disc manufacturer will press 200-300 units of the set.

Total capitalization for the album is $700, raised through lab fees—suggesting that, like any other independent label, the SFSU imprint is under duress to get good results from a small fistful of dollars.

Also like any good indie, 19th & Holloway has embarked on a low-cost marketing campaign. The label has secured airplay for some This Is Your Brain on Hip-Hop tracks on the SFSU station, KSFS, and on April 11 mounted an on-campus performance by the album's acts.

The students are going direct to retail, for the time being: Bay Area indie retailers Amoeba Music and Rasputin Music have been