When Austin Oting Har joined Michigan State University in Fall 2025 as an Assistant Professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, now School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities (RCAH), one of his first goals was to launch a record label. But rather than building it on his own, he included students in the process from the beginning.
The result is Bogue Street Records. Launched in December 2025, the record label not only helps cultivate emerging artists but also gives MSU students hands-on experience in the creative and business sides of the music industry.
“As a label based at MSU, it’s important that students feel their voices heard throughout the process,” Har said. “This presented a unique opportunity for them.”
For Har, whose own work spans composition, performance, recording, and entrepreneurship, the label represents an extension of the experiential learning central to RCAH. Students are not simply observing the process — they are helping shape it.
Har has been impressed by the creativity, initiative, and perspective students have brought to building the business from the ground up.
“As a label based at MSU, it’s important that students feel their voices heard throughout the process. This presented a unique opportunity for them.”
Austin Oting Har, founder of Bogue Street Records
One of the first decisions was choosing a name. Cole Carlson, a junior majoring in Arts and Humanities, suggested Bogue Street Records — a nod to the East Lansing street the label calls home — and the name stuck.
Carlson now serves as the label’s social media manager and helps with public relations.
“The lack of precedent makes the work exciting,” Carlson said. “The label has so much room to expand and figure out what it is going to be, and it feels like the potential is endless. This also makes it challenging, as every decision feels very important.”
Students have continued to play an active role as the label has grown. Working alongside Har, they collaborated with a graphic designer to develop the label’s visual identity, provided input on its website, assisted with bookings, helped identify potential artists, and contributed to marketing and promotional efforts.
Those experiences offer students an inside look at the many facets of running an independent record label — from branding and communications to artist development and audience engagement — while building professional skills that extend well beyond the music industry. This collaborative, student-driven approach reflects RCAH’s emphasis on creative practice, interdisciplinary learning, and community engagement.
“The lack of precedent makes the work exciting. The label has so much room to expand and figure out what it is going to be, and it feels like the potential is endless. This also makes it challenging, as every decision feels very important.”
Cole Carlson, a junior majoring in Arts and Humanities
In February 2026, Bogue Street Records released its first two albums: Let the Landscape Hold Your Grief by bioPrism (Josh Epperly, a Lansing-based ecologist and electronic musician) and Day Zero Breakdown by Lansing Poet Laureate Emeritus Dennis Hinrichsen in collaboration with bioPrism and Worm Moon (Dylan Rogers, owner and founder of The Robin Theatre).
The label’s launch comes as Har also continues to advance his own creative work. His contemporary opera, “The Ghost — Act I: Part I,” was released in June 2026 on Neuma Records and digital streaming platforms, reflecting the same spirit of artistic innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration that he encourages through Bogue Street Records. Read more about “The Ghost — Act I: Part I” in the article “Nearly a Decade in the Making: RCAH Faculty Member Releases Ambitious Contemporary Opera” published by the College of Arts & Letters.
For Har, Bogue Street Records is as much about education as it is about music. Looking ahead, he hopes to expand opportunities for students by collaborating with student musicians and artists while continuing to give those working on the label practical experience to carry into their careers — whether in the music industry or another field.
“The students working with Bogue Street Records are seeing that it is quite a commitment,” Har said. “It requires discipline. And it shows that you need to be willing to continue to learn and refine your craft. That will give you a chance to stand out.”
Based on an article by Liam Boylan-Pett published by MSU Today.
