If you’re on the search for an awesome playlist for your next pregame, darty, or even study session in the library, look no further than Mugatunes, a music sharing community started by some of Trinity’s own! R.J. Ugolik, Rob Gau, Drew Meagher, Stefan Harnes, and Stephan Morse met during their freshman year at Trinity and bonded over a mutual love for unique musical tastes. Together, they came up with the idea for Mugatunes, an online intercollegiate community where users can find the best new music, handpicked by music lovers on their respective campuses. Mugatunes currently has a chapters at thirty campuses including 8 of the 11 NESCACs (yes, Trinity is one of the eight!), and larger universities including Michigan State, Arizona State, Penn State, and San Diego State University.
Recently, Mugatunes won The Ad Club’s 2nd Annual Brandathon, which allowed them to join forced with Viewpoint Creative, a creative agency aimed at assisting startup companies with marketing strategies and publicity. Ugolik descried the process of working with Viewpoint Creative saying, “Their team took all of our previous work and channeled it into a brilliant branding campaign, so it can resonate more with our target demographic of college students. They spent 72 hours straight brainstorming clever taglines, brochures, posters, graphics, video – you name it.”
“Mugatunes has been one of the most enlightening and educational elements of my collegiate experience. In addition to being a great way for students to develop their resume and online presence, joining the team allows for an introduction to new-age journalism, public relations, social media and marketing that cannot be found elsewhere. Ideal candidates of Mugatunes become Editors in Chief on their campus, who then build a team of contributing authors with diverse interests and tastes. Authors post music they discover (often via SoundCloud) on their campus’ page, publish articles about what’s going on in music, art and culture, as well as create themed playlists celebrating their unique campus life and aestheticism. As a result of establishing a campus presence that spans the country, those involved gain access to a vast network of opportunities in an industry that is currently experiencing exponential growth,” Ugolik stated.
With the catchphrase, “No Sh***y Music,” printed on stickers and posted all over campus, Mugatunes promotes their mission of “sift[ing] through the sh*t and deliver the best sounds to those in search of them.”