Masters Degrees (Songwriting)

The MA Songwriting and Production course is delivered in the context of a dynamic contemporary music and cultural scene in Wales. You will study close to a range of music venues, recording, radio, TV and film studios, as well as many music organisations, and with access to high profile, successful musicians and other industry professionals.

This innovative degree will enable you to make connections and collaborations within the world of both professional songwriting, and the wider music culture. Designed for those interested in lyrics, music and studio production, you’ll learn a range of creative techniques, as well as the history of popular song and the world of music publishing. For your final project, you will create an original portfolio of work to be showcased at the state-of-the art ATRiuM Building, situated in Cardiff – the vibrant capital city of Wales, a thriving international hub for music and the creative industries.

On completion, graduates will have the expertise and experience to work professionally within a range of different contexts. Taught by practising songwriters, producers, and published academics, the course is also delivered through a series of master classes from industry professionals.

If you choose to study on a creative postgraduate course at the University of South Wales, you will also benefit from being part of a vibrant international student community.

See the website http://courses.southwales.ac.uk/courses/1558-ma-songwriting-and-production

What you will study

Selection of Modules include:
- Songwriting 1: Skills and Strategies
- Digital Music Production
- History, Analysis, Repertoire and Theory
- Research Paradigms
- Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship
- Research and Practice in the Creative and Cultural Industries
- Songwriting 2: Creative Co-writing
- Recording
- Performance: Practice and Presentation
- Major Project Portfolio OR Research Project (Learning Through Employment)

Research methods, business practice, publishing and promotion are embedded in all modules.

Common Modules:
The Faculty understands the importance of a strong grounding in research knowledge and skills, enterprise and innovation as part of a balanced postgraduate education.

We also recognise that each student has different requirements of their postgraduate experience.

You can choose to study one of the following three, 20 credit common modules. Each of these has a different focus, enabling you to select the module that will be most beneficial to you.

- Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship
This module aims to develop your knowledge of the methods to identify, develop and manage enterprise and innovation in the creative sector. It will then help you apply this to your own entrepreneurial project.

- Research and Practice in the Creative and Cultural Industries
The focus of this module is on the development of research knowledge and skills, while also encouraging critical engagement with approaches to creative practice. You will also explore ideas, debates and issues in the creative and cultural industries.

- Research Paradigms
This module focuses on research paradigms and their theoretical underpinnings. It also looks at key conceptual tools drawn from a wide range of subject areas relevant to postgraduate research in the creative industries.

PLEASE NOTE: Modules are subject to change.

Learning and teaching methods

The course incorporates desktop and studio-based production processes, with key business skills such as publishing, promotion, distribution and session planning.

Emphasis is on practical activities and encouraging you to find your own voice when developing material. Teaching sessions take place in a supportive environment, where students provide feedback on each others work. Practical sessions are underpinned by skills development and an understanding of theories about best practice in songwriting and production.

The course embraces singer/performer songwriters, as well as those who do not wish to perform their own material; solo and group outputs; creative collaboration; and material produced in studio/digital environments. The degree can also be studied by distance learning; UK and international students may choose to study using their own studio base and equipment.

“In an ever-changing industry where listening formats, recording processes and budgets are constantly evolving, songwriting and production are still a good way for a musician to have a long, fulfilling and successful career. It is hugely encouraging to see the University of South Wales offering [songwriting and production] to masters degree level. Creative areas can often be solitary places, so the opportunity to learn from others and share ideas in a creative environment such as the ATRiuM should prove an invaluable experience.”
Greg Haver, Record Producer – The Manic Street Preachers

Work Experience and Employment Prospects

In addition to working professionally as a songwriter or in song production, potential careers for graduates of this course could include working as facilitators in community and arts outreach activities, as educators in formal teaching settings, and as practitioners
such as performers, producers and writers.

There are also opportunities as researchers, administrators/managers of organisations, festivals and music events, or within music journalism and publishing, A & R, radio, freelance production, music promotion, or as part of other media production teams such as advertising, event management and games.

Assessment methods

Learning activities focus on the needs of individual students and are designed to accommodate students with a range of ambitions in relation to different kinds of approaches to songwriting and song production. Emphasis is placed on practical activities and on encouraging students to find their own voice when developing their material.

Teaching sessions take place in a supportive environment, where students provide feedback on each others work. Practical sessions are underpinned by skills development and an understanding of theories about/best practices in songwriting and song production.

‘I’d like to support the MA Songwriting course. It being the only course of its kind in Wales it will be a hugely valuable addition to the ATRiuM choice of courses. The teaching staff’s experience with writing and the music industry will also be a valuable asset to the course … I often meet students who study at the Atrium and the breadth of courses, and the skills they are developing and injecting back into Welsh music should be applauded. I look forward to hearing more output from this course, and the songwriters of the future coming from it onto our airwaves.’
Bethan Elfyn, DJ BBC Radio Wales

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Songwriting remains one of the UK’s biggest exports, with UK music stronger than ever. Popular song is the heart of the industry; global demand for new songs is high. Focusing your portfolio through research prepares you to contribute to this field.

The MA is for students with a thorough grounding in their own specialism who wish to extend and develop their songwriting knowledge and skills at advanced academic level, in a creative environment.

Therefore, the course is aimed at both unpublished songwriters wishing to develop their craft to professional level, and published songwriters wishing to achieve academic accreditation while exploring their creativity and formalising their prior experience.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

From day one you’ll write songs, using alternative strategies designed to work alongside your current creative approaches. Applying practice-based learning at our world-heritage research centres, through a range of creative strategies and critical perspective on your songs’ relationship with audience and industry, you’ll develop and focus your output.

Lyric-writing, and a fluent command of imagery, metaphor and narrative is nurtured as chords and melody take shape around language’s meaning, and vice versa. You’ll investigate the power and potential of song forms, modes of address, perspectives, time-frames and characters.

Having stretched the range of creative options available to you within your own artistic palette, you’ll turn your hand to research; this is your entry to the post-graduate world. You’ll identify the industrial context relevant to your songs; your knowledge of your field will become intensified through primary research, secondary research and contact with guest speakers from industry.

Collaborating with songwriters from near and far will increase your creative and networking range; ahead of your Major Project contextual and collaborative research perform the vital tasks of shaping your song outputs.

MODULES

There are a range of modules which include:
Songwriting Skills: a twelve-week process during which you’ll develop a feel for sensory imagery, metaphor and a facility for narrative tension.

Song Identity and Culture: here you investigate and unravel your personal songwriting ‘DNA’. You’ll look at your own work and that of others, in the context of artistic identity and culture.

Professional Collaboration: you’ll negotiate collaboration with other students within a professional context. For example, songwriters might collaborate in the traditional manner of successful and acclaimed songwriting teams, or may work with choreographers, film makers, poets, composers, arrangers or remixers.

Research Methodologies and Context: a ‘pathfinder’ contextual study into an economic/cultural context for your future song outputs. From folk to hip-hop, indie, metal, etc., each industrial context possesses a uniquely different set of venues, publishers, labels, agents, producers and performers.

Major Project: bring all your research and preparation into focus. You are asked to present a showcase artefact representing the songs developed during your time on the course. Usually this is an album. For some it will be several projects for differing contexts, like a writer’s showcase for a publisher.

For detailed information on the course modules, please visit the course webpage: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/songwriting-distance/

TEACHING METHODS

The Distance Learning option is a blended learning design which combines formal online lectures with regular personal tutorials. Week to week you study a workbook of specific tasks which are reviewed and discussed with your tutor. Peer-based teaching and learning occurs in our regular Songwriter’s Circle webinars in which students from all over the world meet to share and critique their work.

For information about resources and facilities, please visit our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/songwriting-distance/

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Assessments range from simple audio sketches in the early stages to full album productions in the final stages; each of which is assessed for quality and market focus. On the research modules, formal, researched and referenced post-graduate papers express your intellectual and analytical development.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

There is a broad range of professional outcomes from this course and our graduates now work as:

• Signed artists
• Signed writers
• Lecturers
• Researchers
• Agents
• Performers
• Teachers
• Therapists
• Publishers

The course is also an excellent grounding if you’re interested in further study; a number of our alumni have progressed onto PhD study.

Read less

Songwriting remains one of the UK’s biggest exports, with UK music stronger than ever. Popular song is the heart of the industry; global demand for new songs is high. Focusing your portfolio through research prepares you to contribute to this field.

The MA is for students with a thorough grounding in their own specialism who wish to extend and develop their songwriting knowledge and skills at advanced academic level, in a creative environment.

Therefore, the course is aimed at both unpublished songwriters wishing to develop their craft to professional level, and published songwriters wishing to achieve academic accreditation while exploring their creativity and formalising their prior experience.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

From day one you’ll write songs, using alternative strategies designed to work alongside your current creative approaches. Applying practice-based learning at our world-heritage research centres, through a range of creative strategies and critical perspective on your songs’ relationship with audience and industry, you’ll develop and focus your output.

Lyric-writing, and a fluent command of imagery, metaphor and narrative is nurtured as chords and melody take shape around language’s meaning, and vice versa. You’ll investigate the power and potential of song forms, modes of address, perspectives, time-frames and characters.

Having stretched the range of creative options available to you within your own artistic palette, you’ll turn your hand to research; this is your entry to the post-graduate world. You’ll identify the industrial context relevant to your songs; your knowledge of your field will become intensified through primary research, secondary research and contact with guest speakers from industry.

Collaborating with songwriters from near and far will increase your creative and networking range; ahead of your Major Project contextual and collaborative research perform the vital tasks of shaping your song outputs.

MODULES

There are a range of modules which include:
Songwriting Skills: a twelve-week process during which you’ll develop a feel for sensory imagery, metaphor and a facility for narrative tension.

Song Identity and Culture: here you investigate and unravel your personal songwriting ‘DNA’. You’ll look at your own work and that of others, in the context of artistic identity and culture.

Professional Collaboration: you’ll negotiate collaboration with other students within a professional context. For example, songwriters might collaborate in the traditional manner of successful and acclaimed songwriting teams, or may work with choreographers, film makers, poets, composers, arrangers or remixers.

Research Methodologies and Context: a ‘pathfinder’ contextual study into an economic/cultural context for your future song outputs. From folk to hip-hop, indie, metal, etc., each industrial context possesses a uniquely different set of venues, publishers, labels, agents, producers and performers.

Major Project: bring all your research and preparation into focus. You are asked to present a showcase artefact representing the songs developed during your time on the course. Usually this is an album. For some it will be several projects for differing contexts, like a writer’s showcase for a publisher.

For detailed information on the course modules, please visit the course webpage: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-songwriting/

TEACHING METHODS

There are regular taught sessions running across each of the three trimesters. Lectures, visiting speakers, seminars, workshops, tutorials, presentations and playback sessions work on song material and research outcomes. Students play their songs to one another in a supportive yet dynamic environment facilitating networking and analysis and developing the language of creative critique. This can be in a live capacity or via playback.

For information about resources and facilities, please visit our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-songwriting/

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Assessments range from simple audio sketches in the early stages to full album productions in the final stages; each of which is assessed for quality and market focus. On the research modules, formal, researched and referenced papers express your intellectual and analytical development, and presentation skills bring your work to life.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

There is a broad range of professional outcomes from this course and our graduates now work as:

• Signed artists
• Signed writers
• Lecturers
• Researchers
• Agents
• Performers
• Teachers
• Therapists
• Publishers

The course is also an excellent grounding if you’re interested in further study; a number of our alumni have progressed onto PhD study.

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Learn from industry professionals on Scotland’s only songwriting Masters programme. Ideal for graduates from a range of music/ performance disciplines and professional writers/performers, there is a strong focus on live projects to develop your professional career alongside your studies.

About the programme

The programme provides an exciting, transformative creative environment for the development of songwriting skills. Explore your creative identity through a series of structured collaborative projects interwoven with individual music briefs, with feedback from renowned industry practitioners. The programme provides a broad range of demanding content, strongly reflective of the creative industries but with an academic focus, to offer opportunities to conduct research and analysis, undertake critical reflection, and develop a major creative project.

Our Ayr Campus features state-of-the-art recording/television studios and performance spaces suitable for the development and completion of course work.

Practical experience

The modules and assessments are built on professional models. The Songwriting Workshop includes a five day co-writing residency, and a short work placement to develop and run a small-scale project within the community. The Creative Skills 2 module requires the completion of a professional project (e.g. record release). The Collaborative Project is an interdisciplinary module culminating in a music performance.

Your learning

Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits)
Awarded on successful completion of:
• Songwriting Workshop (40 credits)
• Analysing Songwriting (20 credits)

Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits)
Core modules (20 credits each at SCQF 11 unless otherwise noted) include:
• Songwriting Workshop (40 credits)
• Analysing Songwriting
• Collaborative Project
• Creative Skills 2 (NB you may opt for the Music Film and Sound Aesthetics module instead with the consent of the Programme Leader)
• Research: Critical Development

Masters Creative Project (60 credits)
A substantial practice-led research project, e.g. recording an album, the creation of a performance or series of performances with written contextualisation.

Our Careers Adviser says

UWS graduates enjoy recording and touring careers, writing and producing for other artists, developing and managing large-scale research/ knowledge exchange projects and teaching/supervising at school, undergraduate and MA level. Graduates are accomplished, reflective arts practitioners with a set of excellent creative tools and the ability to thrive autonomously in a range of professions.

Great facilities

Accreditation by Creative Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for Creative Media, has led to the creation of the UWS Creative Media Academy. Operating across our campuses and through the UWS Glasgow Creative Enterprise Cluster, the Academy offers:
• A wide range of practice-led programmes

• First-rate facilities including an £81million investment in our new campus at Ayr

• Teaching in skills which are in demand by the creative industries

Research excellence

Our vibrant research culture spans a wide range of areas, including:
• providing advice on the cultural and educational aspects of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games

• student and industry collaboration on the creation of transmedia projects that offer real research and development potential and generate new online experiences for mobile and tablet users

• practice-led research in popular music, theatre, broadcasting and the visual arts

• new media art, ethics and emerging media technologies

• collaboration with leading arts festivals and venues including CCA Glasgow and Film City Glasgow

• creative writing for fiction, film, theatre and TV, working with leading broadcasters and arts companies

• cultural policy, cultural practice and cultural economy in Scotland and Europe, from small island communities to large urban areas

• participatory arts and media practice, community regeneration and public art

• journalism, politics and media representation

• the future of journalism and social media

• independent film and new media

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This is a modular course leading to the award of MA in Popular Music. The course taught at our Kingsway Campus in Chester, and will be of interest to those concerned with the exploration of all aspects of performance, songwriting and composition or popular music studies.

Our course is designed to develop your creative skills and theoretical understanding to an advanced level, and has pathways in: performance; songwriting and composition; and music studies.

Initially, you will follow a core curriculum that seeks to contextualise your own practice and start an engagement with the general field of study.

Our course offers you the opportunity to shape your learning through a series of modules that will enable you to integrate scholarly work with your own practice as a musician, composer or musicologist. Our modules consider current theoretical and practical debates in the subject area, and will guide you through the kind of research methodologies required at Master's level. You will be given the opportunity to negotiate the most effective means of approaching your subject, with a view to producing an intensive study of your specialism.

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This course will enable you to study popular music from a practical perspective with an emphasis on music production and songwriting. For your final major project you will focus on composition and production within the popular music genre, producing an extended professional-quality album of your popular music compositions/covers.

Key features
-The wide selection of option modules allows you to tailor the course to your interests.
-Several members of staff are engaged practically with the professional production of popular music. You will also have the chance to attend masterclasses and workshops run by national and international producers, performers and composers - such as Youth, Gavin Greenaway, Rick Astley and Steve Martland.
-We have five, state-of-the-art recording studios, including one with a large live room used for professional recordings. We also have two computer laboratories containing iMacs with full music software for sequencing and processing.
-Lunchtime concerts, involving students or visiting artists, take place throughout the year.

What will you study?

You will focus on the production of current popular music, creating and recording tracks using the University's high-quality recording facilities.

You will also explore the composition of popular music, recording techniques and the marketing of popular music. In addition, you will widen your musical knowledge and experience by choosing one option module from an extensive range, including those covering sound design, ensemble performance and composing for film and TV.

Assessment

Coursework, essays, compositions, productions, and major recording project.

Course structure

Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a definitive list.

Core modules
-Advanced Production of Popular Music
-Composing and Marketing Popular Music
-Major Project
-Researching Music

Optional modules
-Constructing Music Education in the UK
-Critical Reflection on Musical Performance
-International Music Education: Psychology, Culture and Philosophy
-Special Study: Arranging and Scoring
-Techniques and Technology for Composing for Film and Television
-Current Debates in Music Education
-Jazz Studies
-Live Performance Technologies
-Performance Studies
-The Psychology of Music
-The Studio Musician

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The Popular Music Performance course is designed to address the practical, academic and professional needs of contemporary musicians, and welcomes students from all genres.

Our postgraduate music performance courses offer substantial one-to-one instrumental tuition, with recitalists of international renown. They comprise fascinating and engaging modules that support and extend your practical musicianship and academic skills.

London College of Music's (LCM) regular Composition Workshops and Masterclasses offer great opportunities to learn new skills and network with students from other postgraduate courses. You can also benefit from being part of the vibrant LCM community with regular performance opportunities at LCM Sessions gigs, hosted by Popular Music students, and are encouraged to join in with musical activities throughout the LCM. The college runs several large ensembles including Pop and Gospel Choir, LCM Sinfonia, LCM Big Band, LCM Choir, and LCM Glee Choir, which students are able to participate in.

Course detail

This course provides specialist training for drummers, vocalists, guitarists, bassists and keyboard players that reflects the needs of today’s music industry.

The course is taught by postgraduate tutors from the London College of Music, all of whom are active professional musicians of the highest standard.

It combines technical and stylistic performance tuition through one-to-one lessons, as well as group sessions with other students from across the postgraduate community, to ensure an enhanced learning experience and the opportunity to network with like-minded artists.

The course runs throughout each calendar year.

Modules

• Performance Portfolio
• Ensemble and Music Direction Skills
• Critical Perspectives
• Research Methods
• Dissertation or Project.
Plus one option from:
• Studio Recording Project
• L Music Pedagogy.
Plus one option from:
• Performing in the Studio
• Live Event Management.

Format

You will have the opportunity to develop your technical and creative performance skills through a programme of one-to-one tuition supported by group-based lectures, seminars and workshops.

There is also an exciting masterclass programme which provides students with the opportunity to engage with leading practitioners from across all areas of the music industry - performance, production and songwriting.

Career and study progression

Graduates will likely pursue a career as a professional performing musician.

The degree might lead to further academic study, including DMus or MPhil/ PhD.

How to apply

Click the following link for information on how to apply to this course: http://www.uwl.ac.uk/students/postgraduate/how-apply

Scholarships and bursaries

Information about scholarships and bursaries can be found here: http://www.uwl.ac.uk/students/postgraduate/scholarships-and-bursaries

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Optional-Residency MFA Program

Where are our students writing from?

From all over the world! From Den Haag in the Netherlands to Santiago in Chile; from Gabriola Island, BC to Halifax, NS; from Brooklyn, NY to Portland, OR, we have students across North America and beyond. They may live miles apart, yet they’re all intimately connected to a community of fellow writers through the Optional-Residency MFA program.
Join our community, wherever you’re writing from.
Take distance education classes online while remaining at home. Optional summer intensives on the Vancouver campus of UBC enable you to meet faculty and other students face-to-face, and provide a complement to the work performed online.
The Optional-Residency MFA Program mirrors our highly-regarded on-campus MFA. You graduate with the same degree, and are evaluated by the same criteria and standards.

The Optional-Residency Advantage

A Focus on Writing

We emphasize the creation and critical discussion of original writing rather than the study of literature or literary criticism. Readings are assigned or suggested by instructors where appropriate, but there is not a significant reading or criticism component to the degree.

Nine Genres of Study

More than any other Low Residency program. Study fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, writing for children, graphic novel, songwriting and translation. Students are required to work in at least three separate genres during the course of their degree – literary cross-training that makes our graduates more well-rounded writers and opens more doors for teaching and publication.

Study full-time or part-time

You can take up to five years to complete your degree, taking as little as one course per year if that’s all your schedule will allow.

Summer Residency

The residencies anchor the online courses, bringing students and faculty together at the beautiful Vancouver campus of UBC each July for ten days of workshops, seminars and community. The residencies are great experiences, but they are entirely optional. Some students complete their entire degree at a distance.

Workshops Online

The workshop format is at the core of the study of creative writing; online workshop critique is a powerful way for students to learn critical reading and writing skills and to make connections with other writers that will last beyond your time in school.
At the end of it all, you will emerge with a body of work in at least three different genres as well as your thesis, a book-length manuscript (or full length production) of your original creative work.

Quick Facts

- Degree: Master of Fine Arts
- Specialization: Creative Writing
- Subject: Creative and Performing Arts
- Mode of delivery: Online / Distance (100%)
- Program components: Coursework + Thesis required
- Registration options: Full or Part-time
- Faculty: Faculty of Arts

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This MMus builds on our international reputation in the popular music field, as seen in the success of our BMus graduates- http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/mmus-popular-music/

The programme offers you the opportunity to reflect critically upon your own creative practice – whether that consists of performance, songwriting, arranging, production, or collaboration – and to integrate theoretical perspectives from contemporary popular music studies.

You’ll also be able to extend your own practice through options in sonic and studio art, advanced music technology, exploration in audiovisual media, and ethnomusicology.

The MMus in Popular Music is intended for music creators who integrate these elements in the compositional, recording and performance work.

You’ll acquire graduate-level training in creative practice and subject-specific skills that could set you up for a career as a composer-performer or studio practitioner/producer, as well as other employment within the popular music sector.

This programme is distinguished by:

Quality

We have an international reputation and proven leadership in the field, evidenced in the success of our BMus Popular Music alumni

Innovation

The unique combination of theory and practice allows for forward-thinking, innovative practice-as-research through popular music

Industry links

You can benefit from our proximity to central London, our links with music industry professionals, and our record label, NX Records, run in collaboration with Matthew Herbert and Accidental Records.
Contact the department
If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Music

Modules & Structure

Core modules:
Critical Musicology and Popular Music- 30 credits
Popular Music Composition- 30 credits
Popular Music Project- 60 credits

Department

Music at Goldsmiths is ranked 12th in the UK for the quality of our research (Research Excellence Framework 2014, Times Higher Education research intensity subject rankings)

From opera to electronica, and from Errollyn Wallen to James Blake, music studies at Goldsmiths are unique and different. Firmly rooted in the 21st century, our programmes entwine academic with practice-based study, and historical with contemporary repertories.

Performance opportunities

We’re committed to high quality, ambitious and innovative performance, and we have a wide range of ensembles that you can join, including:

Goldsmiths Sinfonia
Chamber Choir
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Lunchtime and evening recitals
Music Collective
Studio Laptop Ensemble
Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble
Plus student-led ensembles: Chamber Orchestra, New Music Ensemble, Big Band and Film Orchestra
These culminate in our end-of-year degree show and public music festival PureGold, which in recent years has launched at London’s Southbank Centre.

Facilities

We have excellent rehearsal and performance facilities including:

Goldsmiths Music Studios
Electronic Music Studio
Sonics Interactive Multimedia Laboratory
Council Chamber (with its Steinway Model D)
Two suites of practice rooms

Skills & Careers

Employability and cultural entrepreneurship is in our DNA

Graduates may progress to be composer-performers, studio practitioners/producers and music industry employees within the popular music sector. Older students who have returned to advance their knowledge and practice base will be better positioned in the job market.

We are also able to offer a series of employability/placement/internship style opportunities to include:

the Music Professional Practice scheme - a departmental scheme supporting final year undergraduate and MMus/MA students with employability concerns
Music Management Course - specifically assesses students on cultural entrepreneurship and their own real world music projects
NX records - the departmental record label in association with Matthew Herbert and Accidental Records
PureGold festival - the annual departmental festival launched at the Southbank centre
Simon Says - showcase events in collaboration with Goldsmiths Students' Union
Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble - recent performances at Glastonbury, the Southbank Centre and Shepherds Bush Empire

Funding

Please visit http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/fees-funding/ for details.

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The MA Music Industry Entrepreneurship combines traditional business practice with specialised tools, techniques, approaches and case studies unique to the music and entertainment industries.

Modules in Creative Music Management, Economics, Lean Business Planning, Marketing, Legal and Business Affairs, Live Event Management and New Media Technology combine generic industry practice with a specialised focus on the music and entertainment industries.

The programme is designed to prepare students for a future as label owners, publishers, managers, promoters, new technology pioneers and creative business specialists and is jointly delivered by UWTSD and Tileyard Studios. Tileyard Studios is the largest professional music community in Europe featuring 82 recording studios and 110 entertainment businesses, based in King’s Cross, London.‌‌‌

Course Overview

The MA Music Industry Entrepreneurship is delivered on the UWTSD London campus and at Tileyard Studios, King’s Cross, London. Tileyard Studios is the largest professional music community in Europe featuring 82 recording studios, 110 entertainment businesses and the new Tileyard Education Centre.

The programme is designed to prepare students for a future as label owners, publishers, managers, promoters, new technology pioneers and creative business specialists. In addition to the UWTSD London Campus facilities and resources, Tileyard Studios provides students with direct access to more than 1000 creative industry entrepreneurs, while developing cutting edge thinking and insight into the management and growth of independent record labels, music publishing, artist management, promotion, marketing and new technology entrepreneurship.

The course provides a critical understanding of music and entertainment management and organisations in a global context both on and offline. The core of the programme focuses on digital and independent entrepreneurial skillsets and practice as well as more traditional business methods within the context of the new mixed media economy. The course consist of six taught modules in Part I and an industry-related major business project in Part II.

Alongside specialised modules in Creative Music Management, Marketing, Live Event Management and New Media Technology, MA Music Industry Entrepreneurship students will develop a major business plan project for presentation to a panel of seed and incubation investors and business angels, curated by Tileyard Studios, seeking to invest in new creative business opportunities and IP.

Students will have access to the new Tileyard Education Centre featuring a professional recording studio, audio-visual tech lab and writing production rooms where they can collaborate with other creative MA students such as Commercial Songwriting and Production.

This industry-centric course also includes regular, large-scale industry networking events, held at Tileyard Studios in partnership with Notting Hill Music and sponsors, an unrivalled masterclass series, a one-to-one electronic mentoring program, work-based learning projects and access to the annual calendar of industry-centric events held on site at Tileyard Studios.

Modules

-Creative Music Management
-Economics, Planning and Finance
-Legal and Business Affairs
-Entertainment Marketing
-New Technology in Music and Creative Entertainment
-Live Music and Event Management
-Creative Business Project

Key Features

-Industry-led, academically robust programme
-Direct involvement and access to industry networks
-One-to-one contact mentoring and supervision
-Co-learning opportunities with other students and creative practitioners to support discussion, sharing of ideas, innovation and practice
-Access to academic and professional facilities and resources

Assessment

The course assessment consist of a range of coursework including portfolios, essay, reports and presentations.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the MA Music Industry Entrepreneurship can expect to find employment with or set up in business as:
-An independent (or major) record label
-A music publisher
-An artist / composer / songwriter producer manager
-A live agent or agency
-A live music or entertainment promoter
-A live events venue, company, promoter or music / cultural festival organiser
-A creative designer for music and entertainment
-A music marketing consultant or agency
-A music PR consultant or agency
-A new media creative entertainment business, platform, application or online community
-An independent or national TV broadcaster
-An independent or studio film production company
-A games development company
-A music synchronization business
-A creative songwriter / producer / artist brand / entrepreneur
-A lifestyle, entertainment or youth focused brand or agency
-A music and entertainment education practitioner or business
-A music legal, licensing and/or music accounting business
-A music product and merchandise creator, licensor or platform

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