The music department at most College Radio Stations offers students, perhaps, the best lessons about the business world. Students who are very interested in the music business should consider getting highly involved in the music department. I would venture to say that more music directors end up in the music industry than any other department can boast about its staff members or managers. (OK, I could have said it better, but you get the point!)
Now to the business of being a music director. Depending on the organization (or lack thereof) of your station, there are a number of issues facing the college music director. At this point, I will only focus on one... getting service from the labels.
There are two important parts to getting service.... they are repotring to trade magazines and developing at rapport with the labels reps. For a college station, the most important trade magazine is CMJ (College Music Journal.)
While CMJ has a virtual monopoly and the price is high, it is worth the money.
Below are a few good links. All three contain label contact info. If you are new to the MD position, take a look at the 'bubba' link in the parent directory of the first one. You may not agree with the contents, but it will make you think!
I will not provide a list of links to record labels, but if you want to suggest a link that includes links to labels, please send me e-mail.