Posted on July 21, 2015 by KC Gonzalez
Meet Julian Acosta ‘12. He started out studying music in his hometown of Querétaro, Mexico, but transferred to UTSA in 2010 to study business. Since then, he’s founded Austin-based music label Capitol City Records, which was named a top-10 label at the SXSW Music Awards.
Julian Acosta
Acosta always knew he wanted to do something in the creative world. As a college student in Querétaro, the aspiring musician knew that the music production resources he would have access to in the United States would be unparalleled. So he transferred to UTSA.
“I liked that UTSA was kinda growing,” Acosta said. “So you kinda grew with it. It wasn’t that big, but it was a big school.”
He studied marketing and continued fostering his own creativity.
“I worked on songwriting,” he said. “I played in coffee shops and at open mic nights. But then I just dove into the marketing program.”
Acosta was inspired by a friend who was studying under Anita Leffel, senior lecturer in the Department of Management, as part of Leffel’s entrepreneurship program. While still a student, Acosta began laying the groundwork for Capitol City Records as he developed his skills in the Department of Marketing.
“UTSA was the kind of place where professors planted a seed and told you to go out and do something, to go get it for yourself,” Acosta said.
He graduated from UTSA in 2012 with a degree in marketing, and founded Capitol City Records the following year. Even now, he said, his classes still come in handy.
“I still refer back to classes,” Acosta said. “It’s great having that security, that at any given time you can look back on the theory that you learned.”
Acosta says he was able to grow as an artist while also managing an expanding company, precisely because he earned his degree.
“Just learning the business and the marketing side of things has been very important,” he said. “A lot of artists in our business don’t know how to do that. I’m able to give feedback instead of just sitting back and saying, ‘Oh, you guys got it.’”
— KC Gonzalez
