BA (Hons) Music Business, Events and Media

The first Creative Industries module will introduce you to the strategies and tools to set you on the right path toward pursuing a successful career. Whether focused on a particular career goal or considering several future possibilities, you will broaden your knowledge of the opportunities available to you as a future creative industry professional.

Summary

Developing practical content creation skills is essential in music marketing and content creation, as it enables you to create engaging and compelling content that resonates with your target audience. Photography, image editing, audio recording, sound editing, and graphic design are key tools that can be deployed to create high-quality content. By developing proficiency in these tools, music marketers and content creators can create professional-grade content that resonates with their target audience.

Module Aims

This module will help you develop technical skills appropriate for content creation across a range of platforms. Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Employability
• Creativity

Summary 

A carefully planned strategy can make or break events in a fast-evolving music industry. Additionally, understanding the roles and responsibilities of key personnel or stakeholders can help event managers ensure that everyone involved in the event is working towards a common goal and that all tasks are completed on time and to a high standard.

Module Aims

In this module, you will learn how to organise your own music events; from sourcing venues and artist negotiations, to ticketing and budgeting. You will explore the key roles and responsibilities involved in the process, such as booking agents, venue managers, and production teams. By doing this, you will understand the interconnecting relationships between these roles, and how crucial it is for them to work together effectively to ensure the successful delivery of music events. You will work collaboratively in small teams to produce an event plan.

The rapidly evolving music business is a multi-faceted, technologically driven industry. Effective music industry practitioners must understand how the numerous businesses, organisations and professionals operate, how they work alongside each other and interconnect. Furthermore, due to the rate of change, it is essential to make informed predictions about the future of the industry and evolve operations accordingly. This module is designed to offer you a holistic perspective of the industry, from where you can clearly identify conventions, standard working practices and growth areas.

In this module, you will further develop your investigative skills, exploring relevant underlying concepts and principles and interpreting these within the context of your area of study. You will explore the nature of creativity, the wider context of the industry and practice reflective techniques.

You will also evaluate sources and consider issues such as potential biases and cultural diversity. This evaluation will contribute to developing an enhanced awareness of your creative identity and greater insight into the topics that inspire and motivate you. In addition, you will improve your understanding of how your area of interest intersects with the wider creative industry.

Using academic enquiry, you will develop a reflective journal to evaluate your strengths and areas for self-development in relation to your studies, careers and personal aspirations. This investigative work will help establish a connection between the skills you have identified concerning specific careers and areas of the industry, enhancing your understanding of what is required to be a successful professional practitioner.

Summary

Music publishing is essential in the modern music business, an ever-increasing amount of visual content is being created and shared, much of which requires the synchronisation of music, this along with the development of new distribution channels has opened a wealth of new opportunities for songwriters and publishers.

Module Aims

This module aims to focus on the fundamentals of this topic covering areas such as: the definition of a song, the publisher’s role, the collection societies, the types of music publisher, and music publishing contracts. In this module, you will explore the relationship between these core concepts and current music industry developments.

Summary

Evaluating events is crucial to understanding what could be improved for future planning. By analysing the success and impact of an event, event professionals can identify areas for improvement and make adjustments to better meet the needs and expectations of attendees. This evaluation process can also help professionals identify what elements of the event were particularly successful and should be repeated in the future, whether that means planning a series of events, a live tour, or a similar event in a different location. By building on the success of previous events, event professionals can create a strong brand identity and reputation for their events, attracting repeat attendees and building a loyal following. Additionally, evaluating events can help event professionals identify any legal, ethical or safety concerns that may have arisen during the event, and take steps to address them in future events.

Module Aims

This module will give you the knowledge and skills to progress from delivering a real-world music event, through to planning a live music tour or series of events. You will organise, promote and deliver a live music event as part of a small team, and reflect on the process. You will also learn how to plan the logistics of a tour across multiple roles, such as tour managers and production teams. You will explore key industry documentation such as tour advances and technical riders, to ensure the events are delivered effectively and on schedule. Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Entrepreneurism
• Social responsibility
• Professionalism

Summary

The partnership between artist and manager is the creative ‘life-blood’ of the music industry. This module introduces you to the role of the modern music manager and the ways in which they help artists develop - and sustain - careers in the modern music industry.

Module Aims

Placing yourself into the role of artist manager, this module aims to help you develop your ability to analyse the needs and skills of artists, and well as recognise gaps and areas for development, in order to make informed and effective planning decisions about how to support their development as an artist.

Summary

This module will build on the skills you developed in your first year. In The Creative Industries and You module, you utilised concepts and principles to explore the nature of creativity, developing a short and longer-term plan for your personal and professional practice.

In this module you will carry out an individual investigation, utilising secondary research to investigate the lineage of your creative practice. You will directly apply ideas to your own discipline and development, selecting an area of investigation relevant to your own practice, and communicating your argument in writing or via a narrated slide presentation. The concepts you explore in this module, including your positionality and identity, are themes you will encounter frequently as a creative professional.

Module Aims

By examining existing case studies and undertaking a research case study you will further develop secondary research skills and contextualise your professional identity. The research methods and study skills you develop throughout this module will prepare you for next year’s Final Project, in which you will self-direct a significant piece of academic, creative and/or professional practice. Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Global Awareness
• Self-awareness
• Intellectual curiosity
• Professionalism

This module looks at the principles of modern marketing strategy. Combining real-world case studies, practical work with leading-edge marketing theory, you will learn how to analyse markets, use data, analytics and audience insights to help you segment, target, and plan compelling marketing strategies.

The UK music industry has seen growth and expansion in recorded music, publishing and live events, highlighting an industry ripe for entrepreneurial development. Recent enterprising examples have seen entrepreneurs collect waste left at festivals and transform it into usable products sold for charitable organisations benefitting society and the environment and creating an economy where there wasn’t one previously. This module is designed to get you thinking about the music industry as a whole, both nationally and globally, to consider what gaps might exist for new business or what services could be created for new customer bases.

Throughout the module, you will consider what tools you need to create the next industry product or service, as well as how to relate this to self-employment and wider creative industries.

Summary

In the Defining Your Practice in Context module, you evaluated the lineage and traditions of your creative practice, investigating how it connects to artistic and industry practices. This module will require you to utilise your acquired knowledge to plan and create, collaboratively, a piece of work that links to your practice. Collaborating with others can help you develop new and innovative ideas and can also help you develop confidence as a creative practitioner whilst practising your communication, project management, reflection and feedback skills.

Module Aims

• To develop collaborative working practices.
• To plan and execute a creative project.
• To document your creative process including the nature of your collaboration.
• Seek and use developmental feedback.
• Evaluate the nature of teamwork, communication and collaboration.
• Appraise your professional values, ethics and goals.

Additionally, this module will help you develop the following graduate attributes:

• Employable and Entrepreneurial.
• Creative, Collaborative and Connected.
• Socially Responsible.
• Self-awareness.
• Professionalism.

The live music industry is thriving, and with this comes a wide range of opportunities. Artist/bands and venues always need great sound engineers. This module will cover a number of important theoretical ideas that are necessary to get the job done well. The main focus though is the practical work and listening skills required to enable you to be as ‘gig ready’ as possible.

This module introduces the key concepts for financing creative projects and outlines the fundraising process. The module will cover a range of approaches that include grant funding, crowdsourcing, sponsorship, start-up loans, private income and support in-kind. You will develop practical planning and delivery skills including writing a fundraising strategy, pitching for money, filling out a grant application form, creating a sponsorship pack, managing budgets and risk, and evaluating impact.

In this module, you will undertake a significant project of your own choosing. It’s your chance to explore your passion within the industry and creative arts: experiment, take risks, strengthen your skills and create a product/cohesive portfolio of work that you are proud to showcase at the end of your degree.

This module will support you in consolidating the broad learning and development from the course so far, building a bridge into the industry, the workplace and future opportunities. You will be supported to self-direct your own learning through a series of lectures, seminars and 1:1 tutorials with expert supervisors.

This module provides an in-depth exploration of emerging trends, innovations, and challenges shaping the future landscape of the media and marketing, music business and events industries.

Through critical analysis of industry developments, case studies, and expert insights, you will gain a nuanced understanding of the evolving dynamics within media consumption patterns, technological advancements, regulatory changes, and societal shifts.

As companies all over the world diversify the range of media platforms they promote themselves on, branding and visual identity have never been more important. Students with digital skills in design can elevate themselves above other applicants in a highly competitive industry.

This module will arm you with key transferrable skills in digital arts software, through the creation and development of a brand. You will evaluate core branding techniques and design styles, including typography, semiotics, layout, structure and colour. Lessons will be grounded in industry-standard design software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. You will also learn how to work to a client’s brief, with a focus on the visual representation of brand identity and values.

Module Summary:

This module will enable you to apply the skills and knowledge that you have gained during your studies at BIMM
University and produce an extended piece of work exploring your creative practice. You will generate a project idea then extend and develop this project through to completion.

You can choose from three approaches:

• Practice research
• Enterprise work
• Extensive text-based output

You are advised to consider the approach for your project choice carefully and think about how It aligns with your personal and professional objectives. Please refer to Final Project: Glossary of Terms and Definitions

Module aims:

• You will be able to deliver an extended piece of work that explores your creative practice
• You will be able to contextualise your project with reference to previous practices and existing literature.
• You will be able to link your work to a methodological framework.
• You will be able to critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your work.
• You will be able to share your work and ideas in a supportive and inclusive environment.

This module is a final step in your academic journey. It will prove essential for working creatively in your chosen field. Drawing on evidence from your study, you'll critically evaluate your learning and the industry connections you've made. You'll explore theories of personal and professional development you can apply in the world of work. You'll learn with your peers in small and large mixed discipline sessions.

You will be challenged to create work competing in your chosen field. Specialist workshops from seasoned professionals are part of your learning. You'll create a portfolio on your journey so far- looking at your constructed professional identity- mindful that it is key to your working future.

Summary

In this module you will design and create a purposeful website utilising current building platforms and applications. You will have the opportunity to explore and implement various digital marketing strategies, theories and concepts including web design, user experience design (UX), digital branding, the consumer decision making process, search engine optimisation (SEO), audience engagement, user generated content and influencer engagement. You will also produce an accompanying document communicating your decision-making process, project rationale, and theoretical underpinnings.

Module Aims

By the end of the module, you will have used your web design and online PR learning to create a cohesive journalistic or marketing internet-based project for a clearly identified audience on a well-defined subject matter. This can include both written and multimedia content, as required to meet the needs of the identified niche. As well as a professional project, you will also learn to make your project legally robust, through contracts and the correct use of copyright. This module will also arm you with the skillset to create and apply your own campaigns and become tastemakers in your own right.