Music Production, Performance and Business BA Honours

This module exposes you to a range of creative practices, analytical skills and psychological strategies that you can feed into your artistic development.

This module immerses you in a set of real-world music industry projects. Participants work in teams on collaborative tasks, including business, songwriting, production and performance, leading to a music release. The curriculum fosters fundamental skills and industry insights, preparing you for the collaborative nature of the music industry.

This module provides an induction and understanding of creative and collaborative research practice, assessment processes and group working required in creative practice subjects. The module will introduce you to the University’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).

You'll be challenged to experiment individually, undertaking contextual and practical research, which will contribute to a significant group project where students will be allocated creative roles in groups working collaboratively.

As well as exploring creative processes, the module provides an opportunity for you to gain an understanding of other disciplines, and if you choose, to work with students from other disciplines, or use disciplinary approaches beyond your own course of study. It also introduces you to the wider community of creative practice at the Harrow Campus.

This module introduces you to the complex network of stakeholders that make up music industries. The module will explore the key developments that have influenced different stakeholders in the music industries from music makers, music publishers, record companies, digital aggregators, and streaming service providers. The module will consider emergent AI in its three main areas of Music Information Retrieval, Creativity and AI as a competitor. The module will explore how public policy and entrepreneurialism are at the heart of the contemporary music industries.

This module will enable you to gain confidence in using digital tools by learning the fundamentals of music production and developing an individual creative practice sound. You'll be required to produce industry-standard productions employing bold and innovative methods. Overall, the module will develop digital skills, critical thinking and listening and technical, discipline-related competencies designed to foster creative practice in music.

This module investigates the profound impact of Black British music cultures on the UK's post-war popular music landscape. Focusing on the African diaspora's essential role, it explores marginalised British groups' vital contributions. Drawing from the BMRU archive, it connects pioneering British Black music innovations like dub plates, breakbeats, and genres like jungle, drum, bass, garage, grime. It highlights these music economies under-explored importance. Incorporating research by UK music bodies like BLiM, BAD, MU, and contemporary student work, it holistically examines British popular music outsider origins through a culturally-grounded, interdisciplinary lens synthesising oral histories, sociology, diaspora narratives, and music business.

This module introduces students to professional songwriting and music publishing through creative work, collaboration and industry briefs. Students will develop songs either from a publishing or songwriting role, exploring commercial and creative decision making and gaining a practical understanding of roles, rights, contracts and the wider music industry.

In this module, students will explore concepts, techniques, and creative processes involved in contemporary music production, particularly in the context of recording, music creation, and mixing of recorded music, using industry-standard tools and software. The role of the music producer is discussed throughout the entire module and continuously evaluates the producer-artist relationship, including contexts in which the producer also functions as the artist.

This module offers a deep dive into the live music industry, blending production, performance, and business aspects. You'll plan and execute live events, engaging with current technologies and creative strategies. Emphasis on teamwork and critical reflection prepares them for diverse industry roles, enhancing skills in event management, sound engineering, and artistic performance.

This year-long module develops skills in music marketing, digital creativity, and online communication. Students learn key marketing principles, audience engagement, and brand development while creating digital content and online identities. Through practical tasks and collaboration, they apply theory to produce effective, reflective, and professionally informed creative work.

This module introduces you to the professional creative industries and provides you with experience of related workplace environments, relevant to the host course, through a range of tailored professional projects, including a work placement (alternatives may include client-set briefs and curated public events). Taught sessions introduce different career possibilities and provide an overview of professional skills, as well as introducing you to relevant support within the University and external professional networks and support services.

This module develops your technical and creative skills in programming, recording, arranging and mixing contemporary music. You'll explore arrangement, vocal production, sound design, and digital audio workstation (DAW) techniques while analysing current industry trends. Practical projects and collaborative studio sessions are used to identify professional workflows and artistic identity in contemporary music production.

The module is delivered by the Black Music Research Unit (BMRU) external music industry experts, and guest speakers. This module introduces you to a range of accessible early career funding opportunities for musicians, performers and business projects. As well as providing an outline of the current UK funding landscape, this module prepares you to understand, plan and prepare for the different requirements between investment, funders, and different streams of capital. A key deliverable and learning outcome for you will be understanding how to adapt your content to meet different funder requirements from three key stakeholders. These are trade body/governmental organisations, music organisations, and angel investors.

Composing and Performing for Media is a dynamic module that sees you placed in authentic learning environments as you are challenged to compose and perform music for video games, brands, music, adverts and library companies. You'll work on professional briefs designed to facilitate the skills and knowledge required to work as a professional creative. The primary outcome of the module is to showcase the expanding opportunities for composers and performers working in the media. This will also require you to work together as artists, producers, musicians and performers to deliver creative work that meets a professional brief and develop the communication skills and resilience needed for this competitive creative sector.

Synchronisation involves the licensing and creative use of commercial music by non-music industry businesses in visual products and media (ie music in advertising, TV, film, video games and online content). Synchronisation, along with 'brand collaborations' between musicians and brands for online content, is an increasingly important income stream for young musicians and producers. As a growth sector in the music industry, synchronisation also offers early career job opportunities for music students looking to work in the music industry.

The aim of this module is to teach you the real world creative, legal and business processes involved in a 'sync' project and create a portfolio demonstrating the acquisition of such skills. In addition, you'll also undertake a piece of contextual and professional research analysing a brand collaboration between an artist and a brand. As well as helping those who wish to pursue a career as artists and managers gain competence in dealing in this area, the module also aims to make you work ready should you wish to apply for entry-level jobs in the synchronisation field. This module is thus relevant to music students on all pathways (performance, production and business/enterprise) but will also be valuable to students studying industries which license and use music creatively (film, TV, media, fashion, games, etc).

The Final Major Project is the culmination of the production, performance and business degree course and the opportunity for you to create innovative and ‘remarkable’ work. You will apply knowledge and experience from Levels 4 and 5 to create a large-scale project with tutorial support, reflecting your career ambitions. In many cases, this may extend from work developed in previous modules; equally, it may allow you to explore and investigate a new direction. The first project phase confirms the conceptual framework, aims, structure, schedule and budgets (the project proposal); the main phase delivers the external-facing project.

Through self-directed research, informed by work experience, you'll develop a critical understanding of a chosen specialism within music practice, with particular attention to the specific demands of freelance work and entry-level employment in that area. You'll relate their learning in music production, performance, and business to the skills required in the workplace, thereby enhancing their ability to present and promote both their disciplinary expertise and transferable skills in a professional context.

The module addresses the activities necessary for Advanced Audio Production briefs and working in a professional context, to current professional practice standards. You can select a mode for working in a professional context in negotiation with your tutor, and on the objectives that you aim to achieve within the learning outcomes of the module. This module is designed to encourage you to engage with innovative professional, technical, and creative practices across various areas of audio production. You'll be challenged to synthesise a wide range of unfamiliar audio concepts into audio production and creative practice. The main outcome of this module will be to make you more aware of the wide variety of career opportunities available within the field of audio production, thus enabling you to explore new possibilities and encourage you to take a bold, experimental approach to audio production ideas and to further develop your unique producer identity.

This module explores advanced songwriting through practical exercises and critical evaluation of industry standards. You will engage in hands-on creation, applying varied techniques to develop their unique artistic identity, while workshops and feedback sessions enhance skills and challenge conventions, preparing you for professional practice.

This module offers you the chance to develop your enterprise skills and grasp the cultural aspects, opportunities, and challenges involved in creating music for audio-visual contexts. The module is delivered by the Black Music Research Unit (BMRU), external music industry experts, and guest speakers. You can provide pre-existing material and or produce original music for audio-visual contexts, in line with industry protocols, conventions, and expectations. Unique to the module, you'll be expected to deliver dual outputs, which are an increasing feature of the sector. These include, but are not limited to, music for audio-visual contexts alongside soundtrack albums targeting a commercial audience.

This module provides an introduction to and understanding of the way in which the music industry manages and analyses big data and metrics. You'll explore the use of AI-driven algorithms and metrics by major corporations to increase user engagement and will be challenged within the context of a group project to engage in the practical application of user analytics to develop a coherent artist marketing strategy from the perspective of an artist or artist/manager.

This module will explore the relationship between copyright law and contract law, examining contract law as it applies to the music and media industries and also the wider entertainment and technology industries. You'll examine the how contract law has to play a significant role within the music and media industries and how the reliance on contract is impacting, positively and negatively, on revenue streams within the music industries.

This is an innovative module that blends conceptual understanding and practical skills in music technology. Aimed at students with basic DAW and sound engineering knowledge, it offers hands-on learning through lectures, workshops, and tutorials. Focusing on electronic performance tools, the module encourages you to explore the dynamic relationship between technology, stage presence, and audience engagement. You'll learn about performance setups, artist branding, and the creative process, using case studies and academic research to enhance your critical thinking and creativity in music technology.

This module explores music business specialisms and takes a critical look at the role of development, risk and entrepreneurship in new business models across music and corresponding media and entertainment industries. You'll be encouraged to be creative and to produce focused research for supporting and justifying real-world business plans that may be taken into your future careers. Overall, the module introduces you to the academic and practical concepts required to start an actual business culminating in the creation of a minimum viable product (M.V.P) presentation aimed at acquiring funding either through a professional body or crowdfunded.