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Tommy Romano bounces between emailing professors and emailing stars like Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding. While sitting in lecture, sometimes he has to leave early to shoot videos, some of which reach over 900,000 people. He said he felt like Hannah Montana, living the double life of the Disney star.

“I feel like I’ve always just been into pop culture ever since like Disney Channel and Camp Rock and all those movies,” Romano said. “I want to show people good music, that’s as simple as I can put it.”

Romano, a senior in the Bandier program at Syracuse University, runs a TikTok account with 92,700 followers called “For Your Rotation” where he highlights new musicians and recommends music to followers. As a self-proclaimed media expert, he spends his time DJing at SU venues like Babylon and Oz, and running the TikTok account, now using it for his Bandier capstone project. Through his TikTok, DJing experience and working with friends, Romano is prepared to turn his account into a business and enter the music industry.

“I’ll read comments (on the account) and I’ll get one from someone who says that I showed them their favorite song, and that’s really cool to me,” Romano said.

The account consists of recommendation videos highlighting a specific artist and recommending those with a similar sound. With graphics from music videos and live performances, the videos are dynamic and visually appealing, he said.

He has a big media diet of pop culture news and new music, so staying in the know doesn’t feel like homework, he said. The account is a music outlet for Romano to get out of his comfort zone and share his recommendations and engage with the music world.

Laurel Matsui, a friend of Romano’s and co-director of the University Union Concerts Board, said that Romano is an amazing researcher with a unique skill to understand music culture and keep track of current releases.

“His TikTok account is so in tune with the current musical landscape,” Matsui said. “We (University Union) really trusted him as a tastemaker on this campus … so it was the perfect opportunity for him and us.”

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In Romano’s sophomore year, he was a member of the a cappella group OttoTunes with his friend Andy Torres-Lopez. The pair met through the group and both felt like they had too much free time, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. They created a music news channel on TikTok that they ran for a year and accumulated 50 followers.

“When we started out, we were uploading twice a day, and really building an audience from the ground up,” Romano said.

Later on, they decided to rework the account and change their approach. Rather than doing music news, they decided to “show it rather than say it” in regards to the music and highlight artists through music videos and live performances, which kickstarted the large following that the account has today. Torres-Lopez graduated from SU in 2020, but Romano keeps it going and is using it for his Bandier capstone assignment to make it a business.

The class allows students to focus on their business ventures for the entirety of the spring semester. Being put into groups, such as the media group for Romano, helps them to work together and give feedback to their peers.

Romano has highlighted some Syracuse artists, such as Sarah Gross, NONEWFRIENDS. and Lauren Juzang. Besides local artists, he has worked with high-profile stars such as Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran and major music labels like Universal, Warner and Sony. He aims to use his large following to bring attention to new artists.

“I like to bring all those eyes to Syracuse because we got a pretty banging music scene here,” Romano said.

Sydney Panzer, a peer of Romano’s in Bandier, said she goes to him for recommendations and ideas about new music to listen to.

“He’s incredibly knowledgeable of the space that he’s working in. There’s no one who knows more about pop culture and music than Tommy,” Panzer said. “It’s a really cool community that he’s built on TikTok.”

After he established his TikTok, Romano said he started feeling burnt out spending all of his time both in school and professionally working on music. He wanted to find a way to remind himself why he loves music and started DJing in his room.

He spent time perfecting his DJ skills alone before transitioning to bigger venues. He used mixing experience and inspiration from other DJs to create his personal sound with a variety of genres. With all his experiences, UU asked him to DJ Block Party.

Matsui said it was an easy decision to choose Romano to DJ at Block Party. She said he’ll be playing before and in between artists, keeping the energy up throughout the night.

In Romano and Panzer’s freshman year, their first Bandier class talked about TikTok. The professor asked how many students in the class had been on TikTok in the past week, and he was one of three to raise his hand. Romano had no idea how big a part of his life it would become.

This semester, artist Shygirl invited Romano to New York City to collaborate and see their show at Webster Hall. Traveling to NYC for business while still in college was an incredible experience, he said, and helped with his TikTok and DJ pursuits.

He doesn’t have plans of slowing down anytime soon.

“The big labels and big artists… they see the power that (TikTok) has to create,” Romano said. “I’m super excited to keep it going past graduation.”

Published on April 26, 2023 at 9:23 pm