HSE University Launches Media Sharks Music Label

Media Sharks—HSE University’s first official music label—will help students and teachers to produce and promote their own music content. HSE Life spoke about the project with Evgeniya Evpak, the label’s founder and composer, and Daria Parfenova, promo manager, Media Sharks resident, and student of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design.

On February 10, the grand opening of Media Sharks will take place in the large hall of the Centre of Cultures. Guests of the event will learn about the goals and objectives of the project, hear about upcoming contests and events, and listen to music from the label’s first residents and its project partner—Oleg Paiberdin, composer, artistic director and conductor of the GAMEnsemble. To register, please follow the link.

Evgeniya Evpak
Label founder, composer, doctoral student of the HSE Art and Design School

HSE University provides many creative initiatives for students and staff, including its own choir and theatre, but there was no single official platform to develop musical ideas into high-quality audiovisual products and to promote them on digital music streaming services. Today, when a third (if not already half) of musicians' income comes from digital music streaming, it seems strange not to explore the potential of HSE community music products with the help of a label.

The University of California, Berkeley, for example, has a record label that has been operating for more than 70 years. The Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory has also opened its own label.

The main principle of our label's activity is to encourage students’ creative initiatives and to develop creative collaborations. The concept of Media Sharks includes academic aspects (in terms of research trends into popular styles of modern music), industrial ones (producing our own audiovisual content and organising  internships for students) and educational ones (master classes from industry representatives). To a certain extent, the label is an educational innovation, and in the long term, it may be of interest to music industry researchers as a discussion platform for experts in music, sound and even design. We are currently collaborating with GAMEnsemble, led by composer Oleg Paiberdin, and we have our own stylist—my colleague from the HSE Graduate School of Art and Design, fashion designer Mikhail Fedorov.

In the near future, we plan to organise a ‘Revived Fashion’ concert with the participation of label residents, GAMEnsemble musicians, and a fashion show by Mikhail Fedorov. We also plan to hold regular music competitions with gala concerts. Professors of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design and representatives of leading music companies will serve as the jury.

Daria Parfenova
Promo manager, label resident, student of the programme in Media Communications

I have been involved in music for 15 years, starting from a children's choir to a solo performance at the 16 Tons Club. The whole time I’ve studied at HSE University, I have wondered why they teach us everything (film production, media, design and even programming) except music PR and management. I’ve seen a lot of talented students with a love of music who wanted to find like-minded people, but there was no organisation that could help develop their talent.

When I was looking for a company for my internship, I saw a vacancy at the Media Sharks music label and I immediately applied. I had to do a test task: to develop a press release for one of the residents.

It's amazing that HSE University has supported the initiative to open a music label. After all, now there are more and more opportunities to create music (even on your phone), and the main difficulty is to get your tracks out there and show them to an audience. At Media Sharks, we plan to provide a full track release package: mastering and mixing, distribution on music platforms and social media promotion. Now I’m working simultaneously as PR manager and a resident. My first release is already scheduled for March 7 and we are currently working on positioning, the track cover, a photo shoot, etc.

We would be glad to welcome students to our team, especially in the PR and SMM departments!

If you make music, send a demo via the form on the website. You will get feedback from A&R managers, and selected tracks may be included in the release plan and released on the Media Sharks label.

February 08, 2022