Music Industries Management | BA (Hons) at Leeds Beckett University

Course Details

This course will prepare you to enter the thriving music industry, part of the growing UK creative economy that now employs nearly two million people nationwide.

You might be a musician looking to complement your creativity and boost your employment prospects by developing a deep-rooted knowledge of different facets of the industry, or you could be an entrepreneur with ambitions to transfer your business acumen to the worlds of music and entertainment. More simply, you may just love music and want to explore ways of turning your passion into a rewarding career.

You will learn about key areas of the music industry, including marketing, developing online content, managing live music events, copyright and HR. Taught by academic staff with a wealth of industry experience, you will get involved in real-world projects and network with experts and creative professionals at guest lectures and music events around the city and beyond.

Course Benefits

As a student in the School of Film, Music & Performing Arts, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with other undergraduates who share your passion for music. You could be working on projects with musicians from our BA (Hons) Music Performance & Production course, helping them find the best creative outlets for their talents, or you could be working alongside students from courses around the University, including BA (Hons) Entertainment Management, in the planning of music events. You will also have the opportunity to work with professional artists through our Artist in Residence scheme. Folk-rock singer Tom Williams was Artist in Residence in 2016 and our students were able to help him perform, arrange and record his album.

You will be able to take advantage of the University's extensive links with the music industry. We are part of the Music Academic Partnership, a groundbreaking collaboration between a select group of educational institutions and UK Music whose aim is to prepare students for successful careers in the music industry. The partnership will give you access to careers advice and work experience opportunities with a variety of organisations, including Live Nation, the Association of Independent Music and PRS for Music.

Expert staff will also be on hand to support you throughout your studies and their experience will feed into your learning. The course team includes Sam Nicholls, former member of !Forward, Russia! and founder of Dance to the Radio record label which released records from Leeds acts The Pigeon Detectives, The Sunshine Underground and Pulled Apart by Horses. It also includes Justin Morey who has conducted research into sampling as a creative practice and the effect of copyright management in this area, and Vivienne Gaskin, whose specialist interest in performance art saw her run Vivienne Gaskin Cultural Management Ltd., a contemporary artist agency and consultancy, for five years.

Artist in Residence Programme

The Artist in Residence programme gives our students an opportunity to work with professional artists and gives them a taste of what is it like to work on a professional music project. So far we have welcomed artists Chris T-T, Ian Prowse, I Monster, Tom Williams and Utah Saints.