November 4, 2010 Cleveland, MS – Fighting Okra Records, a new student-run record label at Delta State University, officially launched on October 12, 2010 with a celebratory party in the Nowell Student Union building on the campus of DSU. Fighting Okra Records, housed in the Delta Music Institute, is the combined outcome of students enrolled in the Record Label Operations course at the DMI.

The mission statement of the new label reads, “Fighting Okra Records is a student-run record label at Delta State University whose purpose is to provide a practical, real world music industry experience to the students. Our mission is to provide a variety of independent artists with professional quality music industry services in an effort to expose their name in recordings to the broadest possible audience.”

Students staffing the label are assigned responsibilities within divisions similar to real-world record companies, including A&R, publicity, promotions, sales/marketing, production, product development, and new media.

“The DMI is working to develop scenarios for students to apply what they are learning in the classroom,” says director Tricia Walker. “Having to handle the planning, development, and execution of an actual record release really accelerates that learning.”

The first release on the label will be a compilation CD with artists and songs chosen by the label staff from the ‘best of the best’ of DMI recordings completed over the past two years. The CD release is scheduled for late November.

The Delta Music Institute is an independent center of study under the College of Arts & Sciences of Delta State University. It began with a generous donation by Fred Carl of the Viking Range Corporation in 2003. The focus of the DMI is to provide students with a broad and thorough education in the technological, creative, and business areas of the music and entertainment industry. For more information, contact the DMI at (662) 846-4579 or dmi.deltastate.edu.