Music Business Management MA

Course summary

The Music Business Management MA is an exciting and challenging course reflecting the dynamism, creativity, and inventiveness of the global popular music sector. This course aims to develop the next generation of creative, and critically agile music professionals. Music is at the heart of everything we do, and we use it as the lens through which we critique and enhance the potential of the creative industries to produce a rich, sustainable, inclusive, and diverse environment from which all can flourish.

All teaching staff on the course have comprehensive professional experience or are currently active in the music industries. The course is designed to reflect the interdisciplinary collaborative and entrepreneurial nature of music sector working practices. We examine the music environment using a transdisciplinary approach that includes business, cultural, economic, and sociological theories that cover the creative and cultural industries. Additionally, we will provide you with the flexibility to choose between the informal pathways specialising in artist management, business management and live music management.

The music industries are known to be highly networked, hyper-competitive and fast-paced. Since the impact of the global pandemic, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, there has been a renewed interest across the music industries in equality, diversity, inclusivity, and mental health. The Music Business Management MA is at the forefront of research initiatives, investigating all aspects of music. Our research groups which include the Black Music Research Unit, Centre of Research in Arts and Media and Communication and Media Research Unit contribute to our rich and diverse profile of high-quality research. You’ll be encouraged to become leaders in various fields, ranging from music entrepreneurship and ethical management to social justice and sustainability in the music ecosphere.

Top reasons to study with us

• Our exciting and challenging course is focused on enhancing your employability and preparing you for future music industry leadership
• Contemporary global popular music and entertainment culture is at the centre of all of our teaching
• Music industry guests deliver in-class talks every week throughout the teaching semesters
• Our teaching team is involved in cutting-edge music industry research, from music and mental health, to the new landscape for emerging musicians, to diversity and inclusivity

Our course is globally recognised, and our teaching team has links with employers in all areas of the music industry. We're committed to developing your employability by ensuring that key career skills are embedded in the course and that you're supported in exploring internships and work-related opportunities.

The course will prepare you for a variety of roles, including:

• Artist management
• Copyright administration
• Digital content creation
• Music marketing
• Music publishing

Course alumni

Our alumni keep in close contact with the course, often returning to deliver guest speeches and meet and network with students.

Graduates from the course include:

• Andrew Mikkelsen, A&R, Atlantic Records UK
• Colin Hembus, Senior artist/producer management, Eaves Music
• Esther Oram, Senior event manager, Association of Independent Music
• Lauren Powell, Senior marketing manager, ILuvLive
• Rhys Dsouza, Copyright assistant/Copyright management, Sony Music Publishing
• Shanice Edwards, A&R, Since '93, Sony Music