Head of Music
The Head of Music is responsible for updating the database of music on Myriad, and responding to emails and letters from artists requesting airtime. They are sometimes responsible for organising gigs for student musicians, and booking acts for larger events. They should expect exact tasks relating to music events to change each week, with jobs swapping between the Head of Events and Head of Music.
In 2009/10, the Head of Music organised a DJ mixtape series, Hear no Evil. [Source]
In 2010/11, the Head of Music created a compilation CD of artists in and around St Andrews, and an accompanying night of live music in Venue 1 (the predecessor to 601). Artists involved included The Blueswater and Polarsets. Some of the artists were also invited to perform live on STAR, together with an interview. [Source]
The Head of Music is a big role, which is sometimes not understood during applications. This has resulted in an unusually high dropout rate.
They are contactable via [email protected].
Contents
Previous Heads of Music
| Year | Name | Position Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2012/13 | Kelly Provan | Director of Music |
| 2013/14 | Abby Frank | Head of On-Air Music |
| 2014/15 | Hector Selby | Head of Music |
| 2015/16 | Unknown | Unknown |
| 2016/17 | Unknown | Unknown |
| 2017/18 | Jess Morgan | Head of Music |
| 2018/19 | Hugo Jobst | Head of Music |
| 2019/20 | Greer Ross-McLennan | Head of Music |
| 2020/21 | Emily Baxter | Head of Music |
| 2021/22 | Emily Baxter | Head of Music |
In 2019/20, Jimmy (James) Fortuna was appointed as Head of Music, and Greer Ross-McLennan as Assistant Head of Music. Jimmy left the University over summer, and Greer became Head of Music.
Assistant Head of Music
Some committees may decide to appoint an assistant to the Head of Music. This was introduced in 2019/20 to alleviate some of the workload. Applications for this position were opened in September, to allow new students to apply. In 2020/21 the Music Events Manager was introduced to manage Sounds of Sandy's.
| Year | Name | Position Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | Olivia Ramo | Assistant Head of Music |
| 2020/21 | Sachairi Nixon | Music Events Manager |
| 2021/22 | Sachairi Nixon | Music Events Manager |
Handover
Intro
You need to be in the know when it comes to musicians in St Andrews, Fife, and Scotland, as you'll be booking them regularly. You also need to have a big library of mp3s, and a willingness to sacrifice many hours uploading mp3s to Myriad.
Tasks
- Liaise with the Head of Events to find musicians to perform at our live music events.
- Familiarise yourself with Myriad Playout, especially mass-editing songs (/carts), adding metadata to songs, AutoFade, and AutoFade's presets and schedule.
- Keep STAR's Spotify, Soundcloud, and Mixcloud profiles active.
- Update the database of music on Myriad, which is used by AutoFade. Use the AutoFade schedule to set specific genres for hours when there are no live shows (i.e. 2am-9am). You now effectively control more hours on air than anyone else!
- In Myriad Playout, go to Station -> Edit InstantTrack Assignments Grid/Presets. Ask the Head Technician for help, and to make sure your account has access to this.
- Respond to messages and emails from local musicians; be nice to them! Offer to play their songs on STAR, let them perform at a live lounge, or send them over to Hearing Aid for an interview. Any way you can think to promote their music, suggest it. You, along with your assistant, will be added to the music@ and [email protected] email groups. These receive musical spam from across the globe.
- Handle any music-related mail STAR receives, i.e. CDs from musicians
- Depending on the DoES this year, you might be asked to help look for a bigger act for (re)Freshers' Week.
- Make sure to ask the DoES if starTV or Hearing Aid can interview acts in Freshers' Week.
- Allocate tasks to your assistant, to split the workload.
Links
- Google Drive: drive.google.com
- Myriad Playout tutorials, especially this one and this one
- Musicians of St Andrews Facebook group
- standrewsradio.com/music STAR list of musicians – you should work with the Head of Web to update this.
- open.spotify.com/user/standrewsradio
- soundcloud.com/standrewsradio
- mixcloud.com/standrewsradio
Contacts
- Previous Head of Music
- Director of Events and Services (DoES): [email protected]
- Whoever runs Sofar St Andrews this year – they're a useful person to befriend, as they can forward visiting musicians that don't fit with their dates/venues, or musicians who could perform for both Sofar and STAR (we found Mauvey this way).