Apple Creates Playlists of Emerson College Musicians

Well, not that Apple.

Recently Elizabeth Apple ’22, marketing coordinator for the Iwasaki Library, created a growing playlist of Emerson College alumni musicians.

The three-plus hour-long playlist includes pop, alternative, folk, rock, hip hop and more. Apple spoke to Emerson Today about why she created the list, other Emerson-related playlists she’s creating, and (considering her last name) why she used Spotify instead of Apple Music.

Listen to the Sounds of Emerson: Alumni Edition on Spotify.

Why did you create the Spotify Sounds of Emerson College: Alumni Edition list? 

Apple: The idea for an alumni playlist came to me while thinking about what would make incoming Emerson students feel connected to each other. As a former student myself, I knew music could bridge that gap. This community is full of extremely talented artists, and I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce new students to this creative environment than letting alumni’s music guide their way and be the soundtrack to their first few days of their journey at Emerson.

Additionally, the concept of the library making curated playlists for students has been one [Iwasaki Library Executive Director] Cheryl McGrath and I have been wanting to pursue for a while, such as creating playlists for students to listen to while studying — so it’s been very exciting to finally start putting this hope into action!

When was it created?

Apple: Around the start of August, I reached out to the Emerson Mafia Facebook group asking for song submissions. I explained what I was hoping to do and the response was overwhelming! I reshared the finished playlist with the group at the start of orientation week (at the end of August) and was still receiving more songs to include!

What are the requirements to be added to the playlist?  

Apple: The only requirements I had for making that playlist was including any musical work from an Emerson alum. Are you an Emersonian who’s a musical artist? Are you in a band? Do you write music? Sing and produce your own songs? If yes to any of these questions, you are welcome to be added! Any piece of musical work with Emerson fingerprints is welcome to be included. 

I try to keep the playlist to one song submission per artist so listeners can get a taste of the artist’s musical style! The last requirement was asking folks to submit a Spotify link to their work – I know there are some Apple Music fans out there, but I figured using Spotify playlists was the best way to make the playlist more accessible and shareable to all. 

What else would you like people to know about the playlist, yourself, the library in relation to the playlist, etc.?

Apple: The Sounds of Emerson: Alumni Edition playlist was just the start! Now I’m working on building out a Faculty Edition, Staff Edition, current Student Edition, and a master playlist with all alumni, faculty, staff, and student submissions in one spot, called the Sounds of Emerson: Community Edition playlist. 

If you are an Emerson musical artist (alumni, faculty, staff, or current student) you can submit your song requests to me through this form, and I will add them to the appropriate playlists!

I’ve also created a Wicked Awesome playlist (with help thanks again to our friends in the Emerson Mafia Group on Facebook) of songs that emulate the feelings of being in Boston. This playlist was designed for new students who may have never been to the East Coast before! I’m hoping to do the same with [Emerson Los Angeles] and [Kasteel Well], plus more community-focused and curated playlists that relate to Emerson in the future. 

I recently discovered Holly Sverdrup Hoyer ’13 made a similar playlist back in 2021, and I want to give them credit and highlight Holly’s work. Holly made a playlist of 2,922 songs, and that’s a lot of work to compile each one! In my opinion, Holly’s playlist features more tracks that really showcase the best of each artist, while the Library’s playlist serves as an introduction. Definitely check out Holly’s playlist to get a deeper sense of the music from alums and learn more about them.