Fife College media students have been given a rare opportunity to collaborate with Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, by curating its official Students’ Union playlist for October.
Students Kelsey McAndrew and Billy Underwood, from Fife College’s Boom Radio, selected a range of tracks for the playlist, shining a spotlight on new and emerging local artists regularly featured on the student-run station.
For many of these artists, this marks their first appearance on an official Spotify playlist – a career milestone achievement. Fife favourites Shambolics feature on the playlist cover ahead of internationally recognised artists such as Lewis Capaldi, Lola Young and JADE.
The playlist is delivered through the Student Music Network, founded by Fife College lecturer Scott Hastie, which partners with Spotify to highlight the best in student radio. Each month, a different university or college across the UK is invited to co-host and curate the playlist. Spotify rarely collaborates directly with students, making this an especially valuable and unique professional opportunity for those involved.
The project also reflects the College’s wider commitment to supporting grassroots music talent across the region. Alongside Boom Radio, the media department regularly hosts and records local artists in its industry-standard sound production studios at the Glenrothes Campus.
HNC Media and Communication student Kelsey McAndrew, from Kirkcaldy, said:
“This has been an incredible opportunity as a student who is passionate about new music and broadcast journalism. Being given the opportunity to curate an official Spotify playlist is a big deal for my own portfolio to go alongside interviewing bands and writing about music, which I love.”
Media lecturer Scott Hastie said:
“I'm so proud to see Boom Radio involved with the biggest streaming platform in the world, taking over an important playlist which aims to spotlight the best student radio in the UK, and spotlight the best local talent to each of those stations.
"Working with Spotify is a valuable opportunity for people looking to work in media and music. It's an incredible and rare achievement for Kelsey and Billy to have on their CVs.”
The Students’ Union playlist, curated this month by Fife College’s Boom Radio, is available to stream on Spotify until the end of October. The playlist can be found here.
For more information about Media and Sound Productions courses on offer at Fife College, visit our course pages here.