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Syracuse University sophomore Tommy Romano’s New Year’s goal was to have his TikTok account, “foryourrotation,” reach 10,000 followers.

By the end of January, the account had already doubled that number. Now, the account has 23,000 followers in total.

Romano runs the account, which gives recommendations based on more popular artists, with SU senior Andy Torres-Lopez. The two recently did a video where they suggested rappers D Smoke, Vince Staples and JID for those who like to listen to Kendrick Lamar.

Romano and Torres-Lopez begin their creation process with a lot of back-and-forth communication and brainstorming, Torres-Lopez said. They also text at all hours of the night and pitch artists until something sticks. Then, based on their personal preferences or ideas from followers, the duo will decide on a popular artist and choose similar artists and songs to accompany them.

Besides giving out artist recommendations, foryourrotation suggests song and songwriters that Romano and Torres-Lopez think their viewers should know about. They even give out recommendations based on astrology signs.

Through the app’s analytics, Torres-Lopez and Romano can view when many of their followers are most active on the app. They’ve begun to vary the times they post, hoping to engage with more viewers.

“(We’re) making sure that the video is really captivating and the text is coming in in a way that catches peoples’ attention,” Torres-Lopez said.

When posting their videos, Torres-Lopez and Romano hope that the comments will lift artists up rather than focusing on artists they may have left out, Romano said.

The two founders met on campus through one of the Syracuse acapella group “Otto Tunes.” They immediately bonded over their love for music and under-the-radar songwriters. So, when Torres-Lopez got the idea for the account, Romano was the first person he thought of to collaborate with. He texted Romano a proposal on expanding Romano’s music radio show on WERW-AM 1570.

“I have an idea,” Torres-Lopez texted at 8:34 p.m. on May 4. “And this is one of ten that sift through my mind a day.”

“I’m all ears,” Romano texted back.

“What if we started a blog … playlist curation, promo for your radio show lists/articles type thing,” Torres-Lopez texted. “Just a thought, let it marinate and lmk what u think.”

They created foryourroration a few months later. Torres-Lopez sought out Livia Jones, a recent SU graduate who majored in advertising, whom he met on campus through University Union. Jones said she was given free reign, and she later had the two founders create Pinterest boards to show what they wanted their platform to look like.

After going through several rounds of possible logos, the three of them landed on a three-letter “FYR” design for both the TikTok and Instagram accounts. Jones wanted to find an identity for the brand that was between youthful and mature while also appealing to the niche audience the creators were looking for.

“I needed to make sure that (the logo) could work in all settings,” Jones said.

Jones said she believes Torres-Lopez and Romano have “cracked a code.” As long as they keep doing their job, she expects the platform to continue to grow exponentially.

In the future, the pair hope only to grow and reach more people. The platform has already grown more than either expected, Romano said.

“The sky is really the limit here,” Romano said.

Published on February 9, 2021 at 10:06 pm