RHYTHM ROULETTE was a one day project completed just before Record Store Day. It was designed to give student musicians experience of working to a strict creative deadline and to help business students understand the legal, creative and marketing processes involved in releasing an album.
With a budget of £5 each, students were taken shopping for charity shop vinyl to sample from. They were then asked to create entirely new tracks from the sampled material. The entire process would take place in one day, with shopping, sampling and composition overseen by tutors.
The finished tracks were recorded onto a run of 75 limited edition cassette tapes in four different colourways. Music business students deigned the artwork by PhotoShopping scans of the record labels and a short inlay essay on creativity was written by a journalism student. The finished run of subtly different and unique tapes were then sold in an independent record shop on Record Store Day.
Students promoted the release on social media channels and the finished tracks were uploaded to SoundCloud. All profits were divided between the students according to calculations made by music business students. Business students also wrote their own contracts for the project, which could be signed by the participating musicians.
