Commercial Music

Course structure

The course begins with original songs and projects and moves through marketing and management into entrepreneurialism. Your first year models the developmental stage of a record deal, with its focus on songwriting, performance and production: this is the raw material that will define the launch and release cycles of your second year.

You write songs, you write the journalistic and promotional material (Creative and Applied Writing) and you learn how to produce and develop your material in the recording studio (Audio Production and The Music Workstation).

Meanwhile you are working with instrumental and vocal tutors in original bands, acts and projects within the Performance module towards three live showcase events.

Second year’s Image and Product asks you to write, produce, and record your own original material in our recording studios. Looking at semiotics, marketing, cultural theory, photography and advertising, you will develop an understanding of branding in a crowded marketplace.

Music Business Skills introduces you to the £3.8 billion UK music business (2011 figures) and our yearly Music Think Tank series features keynote speakers from the music business who always deliver fresh insight into contemporary practice.

In Staging, Video and Live you will design and edit your own promotional video to showcase (with photographic and audio material) your internet presence for Promotion and Tour.

Using your website and audio-visual content as a promotional launch pad, you then set up your own national tour before you return for your third year.

The third year will develop your song writing ability (Portfolio) your academic engagement with research (Dissertation) and your entrepreneurial flair (Creative Enterprise).

Portfolio’s showcasing output of original material sees you deepening your songwriting studies from both the traditional, rock and acoustic model to the more contemporary R+B and chart-orientated approach to songwriting.  In support of your own original identity, you will attend a mixture of production and/or performance lectures. Songwriting, performance and production all combine within our outward-facing Portfolio module which will showcase your skills on leaving University.

The Research module invites you to explore an aspect of music culture and ask a question which leads to a final dissertation. This will be an aspect of music culture that has always intrigued you, and this is your chance to explore that curiosity. You may go on to study a Masters Degree or a PhD, and this is where you begin to engage with research culture.

In Creative Enterprise students work in projects to design, fund and launch an innovative music product or service. All students write business plans and then implement their projects in the real world. Many graduates have taken successful business projects they started at university beyond graduation.