Promote Scholar Musicians

UT Austin is dwelling to a wealth of proficient scholar musicians who write and produce their very own music; nonetheless, the coed physique stays unaware of the musical expertise on campus. The College ought to improve its promotion of its UT Austin Scholar Artists Playlist to higher help scholar musicians on campus. 

The UT Austin Scholar Artists Playlist is a Spotify playlist created by the Faculty of Design and Inventive Applied sciences (SDCT) to empower scholar artists. The playlist opens for submission each spring, giving musicians a chance to share their music with college students and college on campus.

“My major objective was simply to supply a chance for publicity for scholar artists,” mentioned Michaela Newman, a communications and trade relations coordinator on the SDCT, who began the playlist. “It’s not like I used to be preventing to make (the playlist) occur. All I needed to do was ask, which signifies that individuals need these sorts of issues.” 

Though UT administration was supportive of the playlist, efforts to put it on the market have been minimal. Because the playlist’s debut about three years in the past, the SDCT has opened submissions for scholar musicians solely 3 times and has solely acquired a mere 87 entries in whole, in keeping with Newman. 

“Presently, (the playlist) is a partnership between the Faculty of Design Inventive Applied sciences and UT as a complete. Normally, I’ll publish (the playlist) from SDCT social media accounts, tag UT and share,” Newman mentioned. “We (additionally) have an inner SDCT publication and we’ll put it on the market on that.” 

Quinn Changus, a current music efficiency graduate who goes by her artist title Qlue, mentioned that she was excited concerning the alternative to share her music with the UT neighborhood however stunned she didn’t discover out concerning the playlist sooner. 

“My good friend Paola truly discovered (the playlist) for me. Due to Paola, I might by no means have recognized that it existed,” mentioned Changus. “I hadn’t seen some other stuff on social media despite the fact that I observe numerous UT accounts referring to multimedia.”

Changus mentioned that she’s grateful for the publicity that the playlist has given her, however she needs the playlist and its musicians have been higher promoted throughout UT’s numerous social media pages and communications. By leveraging its partnership with UT, SDCT may help extra scholar musicians share their music. 

Beginning this fall, SDCT ought to share the playlist past social channels and newsletters. They need to forge partnerships with scholar organizations, improve alternatives for submission from annual to biannual and take into account increasing the playlist to different streaming platforms like Apple Music and Soundcloud. 

Newman mentioned that UT may even use the playlist as a launchpad for scholar artists to develop their music careers. 

“I’d like to see a partnership with KVRX occur…or a playlist showcase with Campus Occasions and Leisure,” Newman mentioned. “We will take this playlist to the subsequent degree and use it as an entryway to different alternatives to play dwell or get some airtime.” 

It’s clear that rising the UT Scholar Artists Playlist is an concept that excites each school and college students. Our campus is full of extremely proficient scholar artists who would profit from the College’s help. Increasing this playlist is one easy step UT can take to change into a greater advocate for its physique of scholar musicians. 

Mehta is a enterprise and Plan II sophomore from Frisco, Texas.