My First Month As A Spotify Student Brand Manager – What It’s Like To Have The Perfect Student Job.

(For The Founder – Royal Holloway’s student newspaper, as Music Editor)

Having made it through a three-stage application process over the summer (much to my genuine surprise) I’ve managed to secure myself what many people deem the ultimate student job. The application was intense due to the popularity of the position with 1000s of people applying; an online form followed by a phone interview and then an assessment day including presentations to a group. To break it down, being an SBM allows you both a termly pay package and an incredible series of perks and experiences. Throughout my time in the position I can earn cash bonuses and tickets to festivals, I get to attend amazing events like the Spotify Secret Social and even the assessment and training were brilliant fun with the added bonus of free snacks and a post training party. In addition, I can get special consideration for summer internships and make both great friends and great contacts for graduate job prospects, all while achieving something that will look brilliant on my CV with a big name company. Considering all of the benefits of being an SBM, I should also mention that as part of the job you receive a PS4, a portable Bluetooth amp and various lights, balloons, disposable cameras and general party equipment as well as an ENORMOUS amount of paper cups and then host or support pre-drinks, parties and socials around campus. Considering that I’m a pretty sociable person anyway, this is basically the perfect job for me even without my keen interest in music and spreading music love through my positions at The Founder and Insanity Radio.

Freshers’ week saw the launch of Spotify’s ‘Hello Freshers’ tour, with buses driving around the country to spread the love and give out freshers’ packs for pre-drinks and ice-breaking in new flats. Alongside this was the launch of ‘Spotify Mix Mates’, which allows you to enter your favourite artist and a friend’s and work out how similar your tastes are, whilst creating a bespoke playlist. Overall the campaign was a roaring success and the beginning of term was improved with a little bit of Spotify delight. It was brilliant to start meeting freshers and to get involved in societies starting up for the year. Since term started I was invited to support LGBT+ Society’s first big social and have hosted numerous Spotify themed pre-SU gatherings. Friends and acquaintances alike have been really keen to get involved and help me with the job – from blowing up giant balloons to transporting equipment, which has helped me enormously whilst creating the buzz and sense of community that Spotify aims to achieve.

The company introduced Student Brand Managers not to act as sales associates but simply to help create a love for the brand in an environment where Spotify is particularly appreciated. The successful students are get to ‘enhance student life’ and create ‘incredible music moments’ which is hardly difficult when university life revolves around music so acutely to begin with. Royal Holloway has an incredible musical base with Insanity Radio, musical content in both The Founder and The Orbital, as well as the Red Cup Company events, club nights and a whole host of student bands and artists. These elements allow me even more potential for the role and I definitely hope to incorporate them into my Spotify projects. I am already in love with the position; as it allows me to meet and engage with people, help maintain the sense of community that Royal Holloway is so well known for and promote music (one of my greatest passions) all through creating great playlists and maximising social events. For anyone looking to add something brilliant to their CV, I would definitely recommend the job for next year and that’s after only a month in the role!

The two main events of last year were the Spotify Secret Social and the Spotify Sound Clash, which were run brilliantly by last year’s SBM with Royal Holloway’s Feminist Society being amongst the national winners of the Spotify Sound Clash and receiving £500 sponsorship. This year I will also have the social kit (amp, PS4, disposable cameras, balloons, cups, lights and logo projector) available to support any events, pre-drinks or socials your house or society might be holding. You can follow the ‘Sound of Royal Holloway’ account on Spotify from which I will post Insanity’s weekly playlist as well as the top picks of various societies and lists to hype you up for event nights at Medicine or the SU. So make sure you get in touch if you have any upcoming events you want a little extra Spotify support for or if there’s anything you particularly want to see from the ‘Sound of Royal Holloway’ profile and keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter for upcoming campaigns!

https://open.spotify.com/user/royalhollowayuniversity

The Darker Side Of Freshers’ Week

High levels of socialising, alcohol consumption and teens living away from home for the first time, make university campuses the prime environments for the rise of lad culture. The freshers’ week influx of younger students high on the excitement of their newfound freedom creates even more space for the problem to exist. For most people, freshers’ week means awkward small talk with flatmates until you start drinking and immediately become best friends, joining as many clubs or societies as you can and grabbing whatever freebies are on offer in-between parties and club nights. It will probably be one of the best weeks of your life: the sense of independence combined with the friendly nature of a campus full of people looking for new social groups, plus the fact that it’s a week designed for nothing but partying, is amazing. But for a lot of people the experience is tainted with sexist comments or harassment on the dance floor.

‘Lad culture’ is a term that is becoming well known in reference to the fact that misogynistic behaviour in young men has become an ingrained part of society. Last year The Guardian published statistics showing that around 40% of female students experienced ‘unwanted groping or touching’ as well as ‘unwanted comments about their body’ compared to 12% of male students. Two thirds of female students claimed to have heard unwanted sexual comments being directed at fellow women and just under a third reported ‘gender-based verbal harassment’. The additional problem in freshers’ week is that new students get dragged into this sexist culture believing that it’s the right way to fit in and make friends or simply assuming that at university this behaviour is acceptable. This only increases bad experiences for women and people of other genders who feel intimidated or unsafe on their campus.

When I asked students to give quotations about their experiences of lad culture during freshers’ week I was horrified to receive even more responses than expected. Almost every girl I spoke to had something to say and it’s also not only women who have had these experiences.

“I was seen as bitchy and unfriendly because I didn’t laugh at sexist jokes and leering when I was meeting guys during freshers week.”

“During freshers’ I was consistently regarded to be a bit of a party pooper. The boys in my halls just thought I was a killjoy because I didn’t drink very much, I didn’t want to sleep with any of them and I didn’t laugh at their gross misogynistic jokes. It’s hard arriving at uni and wanting to make friends and be seen as a fun person but not wanting to compromise your principles.”

“Freshers and lad culture are definitely synonymous as people associate freshers’ week with sex. A lot of people are out there to pull, which means “lads” can get a bit out of control.”

“I would meet guys on a night out and have a really brilliant conversation with them but as soon as you go into the SU they try to get with you. It’s really frustrating because I honestly just want to make friends. My friends from home always say I’m really naive thinking that if a male talks to me on a night out that he’s interested in friendship.”

“Just the fact that around Freshers you’d hear the phrase ‘Fuck a Fresher’ floating around is bad enough!”

“ “c’mon, it’s Freshers’, you have to be after a hookup” I was more bothered about Intstagramming and the free T-shirts and pens to be honest!”

“In freshers’ week I was in the car with three guys and as we drove past the SU. There was a girl walking to the SU wearing a body-con dress and one of them said ‘look at that SLUT she’ll take anything she can get what a SLUT she’s just asking for the D in that dress’.”

The launch of projects like ‘Everyday Sexism’ and campaigns aiming to empower women like ‘This Girl Can’ have been received positively and seem to be having an impact on raising awareness of sexist behaviour. However, as the term ‘lad culture’ suggests, gender based harassment is such a major part of our culture that it’s an incredibly tough job to tackle it and the same goes for student based campaigns. Despite campaigns like the NUS ‘I Heart Consent’ initiative and universities training their SU security staff in exactly how to handle complaints of sexual harassment, the problems remain. These projects have definitely raised awareness of the fact that firstly, lad culture and rape culture exist, and secondly that they are an important issue and people deserve to feel safe when they go out. But as the experiences of this years’ freshers show, there is still a lot that needs to change.

(For the Huffington Post)

#LiveFearless with Bodyform

This year Bodyform re-launched its #LiveFearless competition which aims to bring women together by inviting them to share what scares them, and what empowers them to overcome those fears. Royal Holloway University London (RHUL) Feminism Society is excited by the opportunity to get involved and asked for self-defining women to take part in a video discussing what fearlessness really means.

A group of us got together to chat about what Live Fearless means to us individually and the conversation that grew was both inspiring and fascinating. What stood out most was that each of us experienced varying levels of fear and needed the necessary courage to overcome it.

As students we are intensely familiar with nerves, anxiety and the major consequences these can have on a person’s life, given the pressure that young people are put under in relation to career aspirations and academic success, amongst other things. At the same time, we are lucky enough to have grown up without facing the fears experienced by young women living in countries at war, or in cultures where they have limited rights and far less freedom than us.

The conclusion we came to is this:

Fearlessness is a relative concept.

We talked about times when just getting out of bed in the morning feels like a major achievement, or when minor things like hurtful comments from other people or a fear of being judged seem to control your entire life. Each of us have our personal battles and coping mechanisms. By talking openly and candidly about them we’re hoping to support Bodyform in a bid to encourage women to take inspiration from each other and share their own stories of facing their fears – whatever that means to them.

The campaign asks women to share a picture or video on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with a short caption summarising their story. The comfort we found purely through making this video and confiding in each other has helped begin to break down the stigma surrounding mental health and other types of anxiety or fear by encouraging women to support rather than criticise each other.

We want to create a sense of community similar to the incredible worldwide support we received for our recent #UglyGirlsClub project. It’s crucial that we maintain this community, using the modern power of social media to bring us together and help each other through rough times.

I’m personally a big fan of the #LiveFearless campaign and what it stands for. Having struggled with anxiety since my first year of university and knowing so many people with similar experiences, I think it’s a brilliant way to help women take strength from each other and find the courage they deserve.

Bodyform’s Live Fearless campaign is a fun and engaging campaign with a very important message, that could become something much bigger and help make fewer people feel alone in their fears.

Watch our video below and share your own story with Bodyform at http://bit.ly/1Ruc1aA to help create an online community of inspired women and become part of a fantastic cause. Upload a picture or video of your fearless moment for the chance to win the grand prize Trip Around the World. Plus, weekly £100 ASOS vouchers can be won. You can also post your entry to Twitter with #LiveFearless and @bodyformUK.

So What’s The Deal With Record Store Day?

Researching this piece was particularly interesting for me as I’d actually not heard of Record Store Day until it crept up on me and covered my Facebook and Twitter feeds. Held this year on April 18^th, I was surprised to find it’s an annual occurrence and began in 2007, founded by a group of record storeowners. As someone who is massively into music (you may have guessed from the ‘Music Editor’ title), often gets teased for being ‘that hipster that owns a record player’ and still cries soft tears of despair when I remember my Ipod classic got stolen, I’m thrilled to hear that a day of promotion for record sales exists. The day includes live performance from various artists and exclusive releases of limited edition vinyl and CDs. Each record store that gets involves basically holds a party, celebrating the culture of music and bringing together likeminded people. Marc Fayd’Herbe, Sales Manager of Universal Music described Record Store Day as “the single best thing that has ever happened” for independent record shops.

The event is immensely popular, with the Facebook community page currently capturing 336000 followers and a huge number of major artists getting involved. James Bay tweeted ‘Finally getting round to listening to all my RecordStoreSay buys! New clear vinyl @Alabama_Shakes sounding sweet!’ and Rolling Stone were live tweeting the event including a mention of Foo Fighters ‘turning Ohio Strip Mall into an intimate stadium’. Foo Fighters fans weren’t the only ones to experience the thrill of a special intimate performance, with crowds outside Schoolkids Records in North Carolina waiting hours in advance for an exclusive All Time Low appearance. #RSD2015 actually became number one trending hashtag in the UK, as radio stations, music magazines and record companies got the word out alongside individuals and artists. The Telegraph even included Record Store Day in an article ‘9 Great Things To Do This Weekend’.

London’s biggest independent record store ‘Rough Trade East’ which I have a feeling I’ve been to before as an excitable fifteen year old, reported having people camp outside the night before, Noreen McShane, five hundred customers greeted the store’s manager as she went to open up! Some of the first collectables to sell out were Faster John Misty picture disc, Mumford and Son’s 7-inch and The 1975, with older artists like Bruce Springsteen also getting significant attention. Rae Morris even popped down to the store to pick up a Denai Moore vinyl. Exclusive releases for the event this year include; A red vinyl edition of Johnny Cash live in Prague, Bob Dylan – The Basement Tapes, Foo Fighters – Songs From The Laundry Room and The Doors – Strange Days. But top place on the Record Store Day sales chart went to Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes, closely followed by No Life Til Leather by Metallica.

Overall I am freakishly excited to find out about such a brilliant occasion albeit mourning the fact I missed out a bit this year, not only did one of my favourite new bands, Twenty One Pilots, release three live tracks for the event, but the ability of music to bring people together is really being celebrated. It’s great to know that the feeling behind music is being cultivated, with the organisers of the day reinforcing that they ‘encourage people to use Record Store Day as a way to say thank you to each other: customers to record store employees, record store folks to customers’. Not only is it definitely worth pencilling the third Saturday of April into every year’s calendar, but people should also make sure to check out the new ‘official vinyl chart’ which has been introduced on the back of the success of this year’s Record Store Day. This is massively good news for anyone, like me, who is keen to maintain the fantastic culture surrounding music, that predates the digital age.

http://www.recordstoreday.com/

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/record-store-chart/