$ounds of success? UNC student wins entrepreneur ‘Race To BE’ music event

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The sounds of music could lead to a profitable business career for Tripp Gobble, his partner and aspiring musicians.

Gobble, who is co-founder of a student-run record label and music incubator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, played his way to the $5,000 first-place prize at an entrepreneurial event earlier this month.

Gobble, a junior, won the national “Race To BE” music event in Austin, Texas. The music competition was one of five in the arts put on as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The contest was open to entrepreneurs between ages 18-29.

Gobble, who is from Louisburg, launched Vinyl Records at UNC-CH. He was one of five finalists in the contest. Vinyl works with students to record and produce their own music while preparing them for a potential professional career.

“Vinyl Records is a music incubator,” the founders say in information published at MySpace. “We will be working to cultivate the music scene on campus and provide the necessary framework for the incredible artists here at UNC to grow to their full potential.”

Gobble found the event more beneficial than just receiving cash.

"The most valuable part of this experience is the mentoring - the chance to work with such incredible entrepreneurs and learn from them," Gobble said. "To me the opportunity is worth everything."

A Morehead-Cain scholarship student, Gobble is a major in environmental studies.

He and Allen Mask, a junior studying journalism and mass communications, launched Vinyl Records with the help of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. The two received a $25,000 grant.