Berklee Launches Independent Record Label

Students at Berklee College of Music can now learn the ins and outs of an independent record label through the college’s new label, Berklee Internet Radio Network Cooperative Records (birnCORE). birnCORE records some of today’s best independent artists who visit Berklee’s campus performance facilities, from the 200-seat Red Room @ Cafe 939 to the college’s state-of-the-art internet radio studio. Student engineers mix the albums to the artists’ specifications. Released digitally, birnCORE LPs are priced to sell at about $5.

Harnessing the impressive roster of performers already visiting campus, birnCORE’s model focuses on simplicity. While earning academic credit and on-the-job training, students gain real-life record making experience at birnCORE. Music business students act as artists and repertoire executives, while music production and engineering students earn album credits as mixing and recording engineers. Students are also the creative forces behind the album art. A birnCORE record costs artists nothing; their only investment is promoting the birnCORE album to their fans.

birnCORE’s inaugural release is Sing to Me – Live in Boston, birnCORE’s release of singer-songwriter Brooke Waggoner, who performed on campus earlier this year. A rising star on the online music scene, Waggoner’s singles have been downloaded 270,000 times, and this is her fourth LP. Sing to Me - Live in Boston is available for purchase on iTunes.

About Berklee: Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music is through the study and practice of contemporary music. For more than 65 years, the college has evolved to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business, leading the way with the world’s first baccalaureate studies in jazz, rock, electric guitar, film scoring, songwriting, turntables, electronic production, and more than a dozen other genres and fields of study. With a diverse and talented student body representing nearly 100 countries and alumni and faculty that have collectively won more than 270 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, Berklee is teh world’s premier learning lab for the music of today - and tomorrow.