This course is highly regarded in both music business education and the industry at large. It will prepare you to become one of the next generation of music industry leaders and entrepreneurs. All teaching staff on the course are currently working in the music industry, and every week there are a number of high-level industry guests. You will need to be a self-motivated and open-minded student, as this is an intense course, but one which can help you to progress your career across a wide range of music business disciplines.
Working with music industry leaders and organisations, the course has developed a unique curriculum. You will be able to combine a strong underpinning of key business skills (entrepreneurialism, leadership, organisational management, and marketing with essential music industry management knowledge (strategic innovation technology, intellectual property and copyright) and academic concepts and theories relevant to the industry today.
Formal teaching is conducted through sessions which each include a formal lecture, industry guest speaker and seminar exercises. Each of the six modules has a minimum of two assignments. The final project (equivalent to three modules) is a report of a minimum of 12,000 words.
The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Core modules
The course is globally recognised and industry leaders are weekly guests to the Central London Cavendish teaching campus for guest speaking , Q&A sessions and networking with students . Furthermore , our alumni are working across the international music industry on all continents, in areas of the industry ranging from music companies to live music and publishing , artist management to tech start up, with a wide variety of companies and organisations, large and small, including:
Course graduates have gone on to work in a wide variety of creative industries, from mobile marketing through to the Arts Council. Many of our graduates are working in the music industry, with companies including Apple , Spotify Universal, Sony Music , Pledge Music , Kobalt , Shazam and PIAS. Our international students are working around the globe in music and music –tech related companies, including EMI Holland , PIAS European office and Outdustry in mainland China .
Today's music industry organisations need graduates with both strong degrees and skills relevant to the workplace. The MA Music Business Management course is committed to developing employable graduates by ensuring that:
Commercial success and a sustained career within the music industry increasingly depend on the artist’s ability to set up their own small record labels, administrate their copyrights, facilitate live events, develop their careers professionally and, equally in today’s marketplace, maintain their health.
Directed by a team of highly experienced industry professionals with unique insights and unprecedented experience in the field, you will have the opportunity to study key concepts in managing and developing your own career - or that of an act you represent.
Under the direction of a team of highly experienced industry professionals, this course covers the key concepts of managing and developing your own career, or the career of an act which you represent.
The course modules have been specifically developed and written to provide the demand from students for the knowledge to develop their entrepreneurial and transferable skills to help develop new businesses within the music industry, or to help secure employment within specialist sectors of the music industry.
• Leadership and Creativity
• Independent Label Management
• Developing your Career
• Artist and Repertoire
• Live Events Management
• Copyright Law
• Research Methods
• Dissertation or Project.
By completing this course successfully, you will have developed enhanced skills and knowledge, and have an advantage in developing your own career, or that of an artist or artists you represent.
Successful graduates have gone on to enjoy roles in:
• major record Labels in the UK and internationally
• independent record labels
• publishing companies
• PR companies
• artist management
• agency and promotion
• professional music
• tour management
• teaching
• radio station management
• creating new businesses.
Click the following link for information on how to apply to this course.
Information about scholarships and bursaries can be found here.
Music is art, but also a cultural and economic resource. Music professionals, music producers and agents constantly have to keep up with technical innovations and successfully define themselves in the creative industries.This part-time advanced master’s program supports motivated students and professionals to qualify for rapidly changing national and international music markets, combining theory and hands-on practice of music with media studies, economics and legal competences. Due to its international focus the program is fully held in English.
International top academic lecturers as well as music business professionals prepare the students for dynamic shifts in creative, operational and commercial requirements for the global music market. Interactive teaching atmosphere, international excursions and intensive networking stimulate the individually specialized development of each student. The program’s modular strucuture enables full-time students and working professionals alike to study at their own pace while maintaining or building their careers. Global competitiveness, continuous professional development, self-management, professionalism, and economic performance are considered core objectives in the program with the aim to enhance the graduates’ employability and careers.
The Austrian Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) supports the Music Management program by granting partial scholarships.
Selected topics from the master’s program:
The MA in Arts Management, Policy and Practice enables students to develop their knowledge and understanding of the history, theory and practice of arts management; to gain an insight into the range of professional opportunities in the creative and cultural sector; and to acquire direct experience of the many areas of arts management. The programme has a strong practical, hands-on element. At the same time it offers a solid theoretical grounding, exploring cultural policy in its historical context and encouraging critical engagement with the philosophical, political, social and economic imperatives informing contemporary practice. Above all, we aim to produce pioneers rather than bureaucrats.
Lecturers from the Centre for Arts Management teach the MA with considerable input from arts professionals including staff from the Martin Harris Centre, Contact Theatre, the Royal Exchange, Whitworth Art Gallery and many other local cultural organisations. We also work closely with our sister programme, the highly regarded MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies.
The programme is designed to serve as an entry-level qualification for recent graduates as well as offering professional development for mid-career practitioners. It offers flexibility and opportunities for specialisation, while ensuring a thorough grounding in essential principles and methodology. It provides a solid foundation for careers in different areas of the arts and creative industries, and caters for arts practitioners as well as aspiring managers.
The siting of the programme close to a range of leading arts venues offers a unique opportunity for students to engage with the practical considerations of arts management. The Martin Harris Centre is a hub of cutting edge research and interdisciplinary investigation: in addition to the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall and John Thaw Theatre, it is home to the Tipp Centre (Theatre in Prisons and Probation), the Centre for Screen Studies, Centre for Applied Theatre Research, Manchester Theatre in Sound (MANTIS), Manchester Centre for Music in Culture (MC2), and the NOVARS Research Centre for Electroacoustic Composition, Performance and Sound-Art. Other cultural organisations based at the university - Manchester Academy, Contact Theatre, Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery - are only a few minutes' walk away.
The programme also benefits from the exceptionally rich grouping of arts-based institutions and agencies in Manchester and the North West - an area celebrated for containing more theatres than any other region outside London and now hosting the BBC at the new Media City at Salford Quays. Liverpool (European Capital of Culture 2008), Leeds and Sheffield are all within easy reach. A wide range of regional arts venues and organisations contribute to the programme by providing guest lecturers, site visits and work placements.
The programme is based within the School or Arts, Languages and Cultures. The core of the School's interest is the field of human cultures, beliefs and institutions. Its work embraces the material, visual, creative and performative dimensions of culture, and as such fosters a rich interdisciplinary culture led by world-renowned scholars with a diversity of expertise, from analysts to creative artists, from historians of ideas to cultural theorists. We work particularly closely with staff from the highly-rated departments of Music and Drama.
All students take two core modules (Arts Management: Principles and Practice, and Cultural Policy) and write a dissertation (15,000 words, or for a practice-based dissertation 8,000-10,000 words plus project documentation). The remaining credits (two or three additional modules) are taken from a range of options including:
All modules include a programme of guest lectures and/or practical seminars by experienced professionals based in cultural institutions in and around Manchester. The programme also features visits to a selection of key sites and venues in the North West.
Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: [email protected]
This programme prepares graduates for a diverse range of career opportunities as managers, administrators, policy-makers or practitioners in various branches of the arts and cultural and creative industries. Opportunities exist in the public, private, and voluntary sectors; in theatres, opera houses, concert halls, arts centres, museums and galleries, and the media; with orchestras, theatre companies, dance companies, etc.; or with the Arts Council, British Council, Local Authority, Tourist Board and various funding bodies. Discrete posts include: programming manager; marketing director; education director; development or outreach officer; tour organiser; promoter, agent or artist's manager; website, database or IT manager; producer; consultant or market researcher; fundraiser; community artist; freelance workshop leader. Graduates may also find work in related areas such as teaching, social and educational work. Some students go on to pursue further study and research at doctoral level.
Central to any 21st century creative practice is the need to respond to a technological and economic environment wherein disruption and hybridity are now commonplace. The MA in Creative Music Practice has been designed to enable graduate students, along with established creatives and professionals, to advance their skills, knowledge and understanding of a rapidly evolving global music ecosystem.
This course builds on the strength and diversity of the University of Gloucestershire’s undergraduate portfolio in Music, and will enable students who work across a range of music disciplines - including music and sound technology, business and management, creative practice, music and visual media, interactive music, community practice, social enterprise and music education - to develop and launch ambitious and sustainable projects. With an emphasis on research, where staff expertise focuses on international music cultures, political economy, audiovisual aesthetics and contemporary philosophy, the programme is designed to facilitate higher learning and skills development against the backdrop of both market/audience development and critical enquiry.
As the name suggests, the course is structured around students' creative ambitions, but remains broad in its range in order to allow practitioners within different musical disciplines to work and develop alongside each other. Practical modules will enable students to progress a core set of production and craft skills, whilst contextual modules will allow project work to be embedded within critical and commercial frameworks. This preparatory and explorative work then feeds into the major project wherein students develop a significant piece of work that is both market-ready and at the same time underpinned by conceptual and theoretical reflection.
The programme has a strong practical focus, which allows students to develop and prototype ideas, and is underpinned by a set of critical and theoretical perspectives.
The course is part of a subject community and Media School who are embedded in a wide range of creative industries partnerships and ongoing collaborations. The music team works closely with festivals and organisations across Gloucestershire and the South West, including Cheltenham Festivals, BBC Introducing, 2000Trees, Musicworks, and we're able to bring in high profile guests due to our staff's ongoing professional practice and networks.
In a time of rapid evolution in terms of music commerce and technological development, our strength is in our diversity. Students develop a programme of study that enables them to research and scope a creative, commercial or technological project and develop a range of higher skills that will propel them into professional practice, freelance careers or equip them to launch their own music-based start-up.
Our music and sound production facilities have been designed to facilitate a range of working practices, from studio recording, electronic music production, ambisonic installation and composition for moving image, through to live and networked performance. In addition, our teaching spaces have been created to respond to emergent pedagogic practices, and students engage in a range of workshops, business pitch and development labs, and make use of project management and communication softwares to enhance their learning and creative development.
Our staff work at the leading edge of their fields, and their practice and research positions music in terms of disruptive technology, aesthetics, audiovisual culture, ambisonic and interactive audio, composition and performance, along with new materialist and non-philsophical thought and political economy.
If you have a background in music or psychology, this programme will allow you to study existing research and theories in the psychology of music while continuing to follow your own musical interests.
You’ll develop your knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods, building your own research skills while learning to critically evaluate studies in the field of music psychology. Using real-world case studies you’ll explore areas such as music education, therapy, advertising, science and technology – but you’ll also be able to take optional modules in composition, performance, musicology, aesthetics, editing, electronic and computer music or other aspects of music.
Taught by experts in world-class facilities, you’ll gain an insight into the importance and role of research in music psychology to prepare you for further research or a wider range of careers.
We have a variety of excellent facilities to support your learning, including rehearsal, performance and practice spaces, a lab for studying the psychology of music and studios for sound recording, software development and computer music composition.
We also have good working relationships with a range of prestigious arts organisations: we host BBC Radio 3 concerts, Leeds Lieder and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, as well as enjoying a close partnership with Opera North and many others in a city with a thriving music and cultural scene.
Take a virtual tour of the School of Music.
Core modules that run throughout the year will develop your knowledge of music psychology, as well as your understanding of research methods. You’ll focus on case studies in different areas of the subject, gaining a sense of the key issues, debates and theories and becoming confident evaluating and using quantitative and qualitative techniques to collect data.
At the same time, you’ll select from optional modules that allow you to pursue your interests in different areas of music such as aesthetics, musicology, audience engagement, composition, performance, editing and archival studies, electronic and computer music or musicology. For some of these modules, we may need to see evidence of your ability before you begin – see ‘How to apply’ for more information.
By the end of the programme, you’ll be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills you’ve gained when you submit your dissertation – an independent piece of research, with an empirical component, on a topic of your choice within music psychology.
If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
These are typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You’ll then choose one from the optional modules below.
You’ll benefit from a range of teaching and learning methods. These will include seminars, tutorials and lectures in some modules, as well as instrumental or vocal lessons with our expert tutors if you select performance modules. However, independent study is crucial to this degree, allowing you to develop your skills and pursue your interests at your own pace.
You’ll also be assessed using a range of methods, including presentations, bibliographic exercises, essays and group project work. Specialised music modules will also use relevant methods of assessment, such as compositions, recitals, critical editions and commentaries on musical sources.
This programme will allow you to gain a range of transferable skills in research, analysis, interpretation and oral and written communication. All of these can be applied in musical as well as non-musical contexts.
Recent graduates have gone on to launch careers within the fields of music education, music advertising, business development, marketing and administration, and artist management. Others have also continued with their research at PhD level.
We also offer additional support as you develop your career plans: the School of Music boasts a unique Alumni Mentoring Network, where students can be supported by past students as they start to plan their next steps.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.
This MA is an opportunity to challenge yourself academically and musically, while developing a specialism.
This MA is an opportunity to challenge yourself academically and musically, while developing a specialism in a research-led university environment. We place an emphasis on flexibility and student choice and have designed a programme that allows you to personalise your course of study.
A significant proportion of module choices will be determined by your abilities and interests so that you can tailor your programme of study to best meet your career goals and ambitions.
This programme is ideal for performers, composers and music scholars with an interest in developing their area of expertise, learning valuable skills, and exploring a relevant course of study.
Areas of Study
You will have the opportunity to follow one of three pathways: Performance, Composition and Music Studies.
Performance:
This pathway is designed for performers who are committed to improving their skills as instrumentalists and/or singers, both as soloists and in ensembles.
Composition:
This pathway will equip composers with the techniques and practical experience to pursue their own creative goals to a professional level with confidence and imagination.
Music Studies:
This pathway is designed to allow students to develop a solid basis in research techniques and methods in the fields of Historical Musicology, Music Analysis, Popular Music, and Ethnomusicology, whilst exploring different music styles and traditions in their historical, analytical, and theoretical perspectives.
Distinctive features
You will have the option to specialise in one of three main areas:
You will be taught by staff who are internationally-recognised experts in these subject areas.
Our reputation for international research was recognised in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, the UK government’s assessment of research across all higher education institutions, where we are ranked 8th in the UK amongst music departments for research excellence and 2nd for the quality of our research environment.
Teaching of academic modules is delivered primarily through seminars and small-group tutorials, and you will have the opportunity to develop your own interests through fieldwork, interdisciplinary study, and other areas of work.
Our regular series of workshops and masterclasses allow you to work directly with distinguished composers and performers.
You will be expected to attend and participate in a weekly Postgraduate Forum and to attend the School’s research lecture series, which attracts visiting speakers from around the world.
Our graduates will have a broad spectrum of knowledge relating to the specialised subject and variety of skills, making them highly attractive both to potential employers and research establishments. Preparing for, and leading towards, the PhD in Music, the MA has been designed to provide graduates with advanced knowledge, understanding and skills in the chosen area of study.
93% of responding graduates between 2010 and 2013 reported that they are in full-time, part-time, self or unpaid employment and/or continuing study. Those graduates have entered a range of roles, including musicologist, administrator, music manager, freelance musician, research development officer and music teacher.
Our annual series of talks on Careers in Music offer a great chance to meet professionals active in a range of fields such as performance, music education, music journalism, arts and artist management, production and licensing, and composing for media.
Postgraduate study at Leeds College of Music offers you the opportunity to collaborate with leading composers, performers and producers as you develop your skills as a professional-level musician.
As part of an international and eclectic community, you will engage in one-to-one tutorials with a specialist tutor, and take part in lectures, workshops and seminars designed to help you explore methodologies for producing high quality material, and increase your critical awareness of how your work is received.
Representing a broad range of genres and disciplines and embracing everything from film music to jazz, classical, sound art and popular music, our course tutors are world-class musicians and leading academics with extensive experience in providing bespoke guidance.
The MMus Creative Musician curriculum is enhanced by professional mentors who give individual guidance to students, and informed by an annual steering group of experienced industry professionals actively involved in areas such as music journalism, artist management, and public arts funding.
Promoting the development of independent thought and original practice, the curriculum emphasises an appreciation of the social impact of music making, both at local and global levels.
Studying on the MMus Creative Musician, you will benefit from our uniquely flexible course, which allows you to focus on different creative specialisms from one trimester to the next. You can study to PgDip level (from September to June) or MMus level (from September to September).
Each trimester, subject to a suitable level of existing proficiency, you can request that you tuition incorporates one or more of the following specialisms: composition, performance and production. You then choose to be assessed either through recorded/scored work submitted as a portfolio, or by live performance or installation.
In the final trimester, all students progressing to Masters level are required to present their work publicly, rather than through portfolio; you develop this work with the guidance of one to one tutors, course tutors, professional guests and fellow group members.
In group-taught sessions, tutorials and through individual research you are invited to conduct critical and analytical research into your own practice as it relates to relevant surrounding creative and professional cultures. Assessment is either through submitted written essay or presentation/spoken exam.
With a deep understanding of the creative and industrial contexts within which your practice exists, as an alumnus you will be prepared for a career as a musician.
Our postgraduate students have received commissions, performed at regional and international festivals including South by South West, The Reeperbahn Festival, Glastonbury and Live at Leeds, progressed to teaching positions, and created public installations.
Create your own story at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts!
