Good news, budding music stars. You don’t have to skip town to get recorded.
“Students don’t have to drop out of college to be musicians,” says Kamala S. Salmon ’03, who works for RCA Records. “There is a way to get their music out there besides trying to wait for an elusive record deal.”
And she should know. Salmon founded Mala K Music, a record label that distributes music exclusively from Harvard alumni and students. The label’s first album—H the Music, Volume 1—came out in March.
She chose the 10 final tracks out of a pool of 50 to create an eclectic mix of pop, reggae, dance, and other genres. Liz W. Carlisle ’06, a country singer/songwriter, landed a track on the debut album. “There is so much original energy,” she says of the CD in an e-mail.
Salmon is pushing a different single every few weeks, promoting them to college radio stations and on the web at malakmusic.com.
But Salmon isn’t stopping there; she’s already planning future album releases. “It will be a regular thing at Harvard,” she says, “coming out every 12 to 18 months.”
Hopefully, at that rate, every Ben Folds wannabe will get his shot.
