Octagon Records Marketing and External Relations Lead

Octagon Records is a student record label at the University of Sheffield, working to release music from other students. I played a pivotal role in the creation of this label, being one of three members in September 2023 working to get out our first release.
A vital part of this setup was to get the word out about the label and recruit new committee members and new artists. As Marketing Manager, this was my main responsibility. I ran our social media pages creating a strong brand look for them and used them to advertise our label. Then when we began releasing music I was responsible for creating a release plan for these and carrying this out on our pages as well as through press releases to external organisations. You can see some of my work on Instagram @OctagonRecordsSheffield.
In my first 90 days of running the Instagram page I increased our following by 103%, our organic reach by 563% and our non-follower engagement by 1,314%
I also took on the role of Relations Manager, building connections between our small team and a wider network of music projects such as students at Sheffield Hallam, venues such as the Dorothy Pax and even international projects such as Vermillion Records at Queensland University. This involved lots of planning, scheduling and communication to ensure we had the best people working for our shared goals and that everyone was working optimally. I was also the point of contact for many of the artists after building a working relationship with them through the open mic night and recruiting them to the label. This helped my communication skills immensely and I learnt how to manoeuvre between friendships and professional relationships effectively.
Given the newness of this project, we also had to take on other responsibilities to help the running of the label. This meant I took on the task of organising new members of the team, recruiting event planners and artist liaisons and helping them with their first few projects to aid their transition into the role. This involved talking to groups of interested volunteers, sending emails about projects they could be involved in and organising the right people for each task. I also took on some of these tasks myself as we searched for people to bring onto the team. I took a lead role in the organisation of some events and gigs as we were contacted through the Instagram page I run and so I got the ball rolling on these events before handing them over to available events volunteers to help spread the workload on these.
I also worked on the future planning side of the Record Label, not only planning for when the current team would be leaving the university but also finding new ways to work within the label and innovations we can use to push the label into the modern world. This includes looking at the way we sign artists and use contracts, our partnership with Hudson Records to release music and the forms in which we release music.


This led me to become the Marketing and External Relations lead for the 24/25 academic year. This meant I was leading a team to do all the marketing work. I recruited team members into their roles and aided the transition by creating introduction and handover documents. I created a CRM to keep track of all our external contacts and any press contacts.