In the age of iTunes and Youtube, music sharing among college students is nothing short of inevitable. Dartmouth students are no exception from starting their own music blogs to blasting music at fraternities, students experiment with many different methods of sharing their favorite tunes. While the practice often begins as a hobby, it can quickly turn into a lifestyle, a legacy or even a business.
Anyone who has been in the vicinity of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity can attest that the brothers' preferred method of sharing music is simply blasting it across frat row. According to member Max Goldberg '12, deafeningly loud music is an ingrained element of the house's culture.
"It's part of our tradition," Goldberg explained. He added that brothers have been blasting music for as long as anyone in the house can remember.
The fraternity broadcasts its music from a CD changer. The huge contraption holds so many disks 300, to be exact that several CDs have been stored inside for an entire decade. This extensive music library consists mainly of classic rock hits, Goldberg said.
"It's a really diverse collection of songs from the '60s, '70s and '80s," Goldberg said.
Goldberg added that Phi Delt's music sharing helps attract a diverse crowd of music buffs to the fraternity.There is no designated brother who oversees music selection, however.
"It pretty much runs itself," Goldberg said. "Guys will go up whenever they want, put in a new disk if they don't like what's playing at the moment."
By contrast, the Song of the Day e-mail is a slightly more formal method of music sharing. Spearheaded by members of Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity, SOTD is a daily blitz with a song suggestion and a short blurb about what makes the song unique.
SOTD was conceived in 2009 when Ruslan Tobulatov '09, a member of Chi Gam who DJed under the name DJ Rukus, started blitzing out song suggestions to a small group of friends. When Tobulatov graduated, he bequested the enterprise to a member of the Class of 2010, who later passed SOTD on to Michael Dimitrief '12, Bryan Song '11 and Sean Schultz '12.
Schultz is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
SOTD has grown organically since Tobulatov started the project, with the recipient list increasing exponentially in the past year.
Schultz said he was honored to be tapped to help out with the project this year, although he described song selection as a fun but daunting task.
"It's also sort of a responsibility," he explained. "You need to put some thought into it to make it worthwhile not just spam peoples' inboxes."
Each of the brothers involved in SOTD this year puts his own spin on the daily e-mail.
"[Dimitrief's] taste in music is more frat basement-y, mine is more alternative and [Schultz] is more eclectic," Song said.
Schultz said he tries to maintain his own musical style when choosing songs, but keep his audience in mind.According to Song, feedback about song selections has been positive, with students often responding to say how much they liked a song.
Big Green Beats, a music blog created by two members of the Class of 2011, has also generated positive feedback but on a national stage.
Miles Suter '11 and Adam Boardman '11 started the blog in March of 2009 as a way to share music with their friends. Viewing the blog as a "solution" to the burden of constantly emailing out songs to their friends, the duo initially promoted their blog just by word of mouth, Suter said.
"I had no expectations going in," Suter said.
Since its inception, the blog has expanded into a full-time business venture, attracting attention from national and international internet surfers. Big-name musicians like Mike Posner, Chiddy Bang and Sam Adams were covered by Big Green Beats long before they became internationally known. Today, up-and-coming artists often e-mail Suter and Boardman asking to be featured on the blog.
"I'd say we get about 20 e-mails a day from people asking us to check out their music and put it up on the blog," Suter said.
Suter noted that artists today seem more receptive to using online forums to generate interest.
"The power of the internet is exponential," Suter explained. "The viral nature of it enables new artists to find their way."
Suter added that musicians have increasingly accepted the fact that college kids are more interested in obtaining music via the internet than buying CDs.
"Record sales are down because of the internet and the ease at which music can be found," Suter said. "The way artists build buzz has completely changed."
By reaching out to bloggers and other purveyors of online publicity, artists seek to capitalize on this trend.
As Big Green Beats has expanded its online following, Suter said he has struggled to balance his work on the blog with his duties as a normal college student.
"On a day-to-day basis, I can go a day where I don't do anything [on the blog] because I have schoolwork and other extracurriculars," Suter said. "I don't like doing that because I feel like I'm letting our audience down a bit."
However, Suter added that certain college courses have also helped him manage the blog more effectively.
"I've taken two digital music classes at Dartmouth and they were two of the best I've ever taken here," Suter said.
Suter said he plans to keep working on Big Green Beats after graduation, although he is not sure how the blog will change in the coming years.
"We say we're a college music blog and that's what we are we chart what songs are popular on college campuses," Suter said. "If our input isn't coming from that scene, then we aren't being true to our original concept."
At Dartmouth especially, unique forms of music sharing like Big Green Beats and SOTD play an integral role in promoting a campus music culture.
"We're limited by the fact that were not in a city," Schultz explained. "We don't have incidental interactions with people who make music or have a lot of new bands because there's just not the kind of population around here to support that."
Goldberg added that music sharing brings together the larger campus community.
"When we're coming up to the house, [the music] is nice to hear," Goldberg said. "It calls you home."
