Sense of Place: This student-driven Boston label puts artists first

When you think of a record label, what do you picture? You might imagine guys in suits with gold records hanging from their walls, making deals and bilking bands out of their hard-earned money.

Green Line Records is the opposite of all of that.

“We want to provide the resources for emerging artists, I think, because a lot of the times, the actual music industry record labels are very gatekeep-ey,” says Michelle Wu, president of Green Line Records. “It’s very hard for newer artists to break in.”

Green Line is a totally student-run label at Boston’s Northeastern University, where the focus isn’t on making a profit but uplifting musicians.

As part of our Sense of Place: Boston series, we sat down with Wu to learn more about how Green Line Records puts artists first, how students take a project from start to finish, and what makes a Green Line Records contract very different from those at any other record label.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.