Program Overview

Music Management and Creative Enterprise

Overview

The Music Management and Creative Enterprise degree provides students with the tools and training needed to take the first step in their career in music management. This programme focuses on established industry practice, grass-roots development, artistic creativity, and contemporary digital marketing and distribution techniques.

Introduction

This degree is designed for students who are passionate about new music, want to develop their skills in entrepreneurship, and help aspiring musicians achieve success. Students will study music management from a broad range of perspectives and interactions, from leading professionals, emerging trailblazers, influencers, and artists themselves.

Course Details

Year One

• Introduction to Music Management: This module provides an introduction and examination of the UK and global contemporary music industry.
• Content Production Skills: Students will be introduced to a variety of multimedia production techniques, empowering them to commission or create their own content.
• Music Rights Management, Publishing, Synchronisation and Sponsorship: This module takes an in-depth look at intellectual and mechanical property rights, royalty collection societies, publishing and label deal structures.
• Popular Music History and Culture: Students will develop their understanding of popular post-war, English-language musical forms.
• Popular Music and Postmodernity: This module examines key artists and movements from the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

Year Two

• Artist Development and Management: Students will learn how to effectively combine knowledge and skills to balance and manage an artist's personal, interpersonal, creative, and emotional development.
• Arts Enterprise: This module equips students with the knowledge and skills to work within and influence an ever-evolving music industry and wider cultural and arts sectors.
• Digital Marketing, Communication and Futures: Students will study how to implement and integrate a range of disciplines, tools, and platforms to predict the latest trends and innovations.
• Event Management, Promotion and Touring: This module combines the practices and protocols involved in the management, curation, and promotion of a live music event.
• Music Journalism: Students will examine and construct a variety of forms of journalistic output as related to music and develop a critical understanding of the interrelationship between market, industry, and culture.
• Releasing Music and Label Management: Students will meet a range of people involved in releasing music at every level and consolidate knowledge and skills to propose and make their own digital release.

Year Three

• Professional and Creative Practice 1: Students will work in teams to plan an ambitious, real-world project, putting into practice the culmination of their previous two years of study.
• Professional and Creative Practice 2: Students will carry forward feedback from Professional and Creative Practice 1, adjusting plans accordingly and executing their ambitious music integrated music project.
• Specialist Study 1 (Project Scope MM&CE): This module enables students to undertake a comprehensive project encompassing two areas of specialist study.
• Specialist Study 2 (Negotiated Major Project MM&CE): Students will further develop one of their specialist areas of study, assisting in the realisation of creative work and honing artistic and academic skills.

Teaching

• Classes will be based at the New Adelphi building, with a combination of lectures, seminars, practical classes, and workshops.
• Lecturers and visiting professionals will deliver workshops, encouraging collaboration with students from complementary degree programmes, grassroots practitioners, and established organisations.

Assessment

• Assessments will include mostly coursework assignments, such as project portfolios and presentations, essays, dissertations, critical evaluations, and analyses.
• Grades from formal assessments count towards module marks.

Employment and Stats

• Graduates can pursue a variety of career options, including working within a record label, as an artist manager, or as a festival director.
• Career links include partnerships with Sounds from the Other City Festival, Manchester International Festival, Low Four, Off The Record, Manchester Collective, 80 HERTZ Studios, and the BBC Philharmonic.

Requirements

• Applicant Profile: Students should be passionate about music and arts and culture in general.
• Personal Statement: Students should submit a personal statement (up to 4,000 characters) outlining their motivations, experiences, and aspirations.
• Standard Entry Requirements:
  • GCSE English Language at grade C/level 4 or above (or equivalent).
  • Maths at grade C/level 4 or above (or equivalent) is preferred but not essential.
  • UCAS tariff points: 104-112 points.
  • A level: 104-112 points.
  • T level: Merit.
  • BTEC: MMM.
  • Access to HE: 104-112 points.
  • Scottish Highers: 104-112 points.
  • Irish Leaving Certificate: 104-112 points.
  • International Baccalaureate: 31 points.
  • European Baccalaureate: Pass Diploma with 71-75% overall (in a relevant subject).

Tuition Fees

• Full-time home: £9,535 per year (2025/26), £9,535 per year (2026/27).
• Full-time international: £17,650 per year (2025/26), £18,120 per year (2026/27).

Additional Costs

• Students should also consider further costs, including books, stationery, printing, binding, and general subsistence on trips and visits.

Scholarships for International Students

• High-achieving international students may be eligible for scholarships.