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 Drexel University's Mad Dragon Records label (listen here) is one of the most unique results of the burgeoning music production sector at colleges around the country. Andrew Mika interviews the president, Terry Tompkins, who sees a bright future for his company.
Indie record labels and colleges have had a symbiotic relationship for years now. In radio and sales departments, each has benefited one and other. Even in the '70s, indie music was just as popular with college kids as it is today. At Drexel University in Philadelphia, the two finally combined to form Mad Dragon Records, a college-based record label that gives students in the music industry program at Drexel real world experience while also functioning as a real label.
This is a first of its kind for the music industry. While the majority of record sales are declining and most labels are laying off large percentages of employees, Mad Dragon is functioning with precision and still pressing forward.
While speaking with Terry Tompkins, President of Mad Dragon, he explained the label’s history. “The music industry program, in itself is in its eighth year now,” Tompkins said. “A couple of years into it they started a label, Mad Dragon Records. Mad Dragon itself was branded through a compilation record which was called Unleashed, and Unleashed was essentially the first release in 2003.”
After the first release, Mad Dragon launched their first artist-driven record in 2004, consisting of three artists, Matt Duke, Julia Othmer, and Trisha O’Keefe. “With that in ’05 we got a national distribution deal with Ryko Distribution [Now Ryko/Wea] and we are the first student run-record label to have a distribution deal nationally. From there it opened the door for us to sign artists nationally that were not students.”
Tompkins explained the philosophy behind an indie label. “Indie labels are not relying on sales to make it or break it. When you look at sales, there’s a category in there classified as ‘non-traditional’. In non-traditional you have show sales, digital sales, and then you have non-traditional physical records being sold through Amazon. Non-traditional is now becoming traditional. So this impacts us a little less, it benefits us that we’re not reliant on radio to break our artists.”
What about the current state of the music industry? Record sales are declining at a rapid pace and essentially the industry is going under. “I think it’s an exciting time,” Tompkins said. “There’s just so many different opportunities presenting themselves, mostly through online means. Whether it’s going to be the evolution of social networking sites, or the prevalence of video, it’s creating more opportunities. It’s daunting in that you don’t know which direction everything is going to go.”
Not only have Drexel and Mad Dragon created a record label, they also founded a booking agency called Drako Booking to assist artists on tour. They founded a publishing company titled Mad Dragon Publishing to help place artist’s songs in movies and on TV. Meanwhile, they have a promotion division to produce shows and venue production teams to record live performances and produce music videos. “Our goal here is to find artists that are really driven to make this their career and willing to do whatever it takes, and make the sacrifices to get to where they want to be,” Tompkins said.
The music industry program, in accordance with Mad Dragon, is a “three prong program,” as Tompkins called it. Students can choose the technology side, where they learn about becoming producers and sound engineers, the business side, which includes copyrights and contracts, or the performance side, where students must take music courses and play in an ensemble.
Mad Dragon Records and all the entities that follow behind it are the future of the music industry. The reason the record industry is in such shambles is because there are people in charge that have no musical education and are strictly business minded. If more programs and labels functioned with the ideals Mad Dragon has in mind, maybe this industry has a chance at comeback.
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