BA (Hons) Music Business & Event Management

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

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.

• Entrepreneurism
• Resilience
• Creativity and Collaboration

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.

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.

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

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

Safety underpins all successful events; no matter their scale or format. Many well-documented cases of audience injuries or deaths at events could have been avoided with more thorough planning. In this module, you will explore the key health & safety tools and strategies you will need in the events and business world. You will look at famous cases of when it went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to avoid similar incidents happening at your events.

Through considering the hierarchy of safety management and the associated roles and responsibilities, you will explore a range of relevant legislation and guidance to be applied across a variety of event types. You will evaluate event risks and develop expertise and experience in proposing solutions to health & safety concerns through proper planning, strategy and management.

Summary

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, an effective and creative marketing campaign can make any brand stand out from the crowd and achieve its goals. Whether it is the discovery of a new artist, buying tickets for an event or festival, or the everyday products and services we consume, marketing continues to influence us across every part of our lives. Developing a personal brand enables individuals to effectively communicate their unique value and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Module Aims

In this module, you will explore contemporary music and events brands, their audiences, branding, and communications. You will learn about emerging trends and technologies in social media, and how human psychology impacts our decision making. Whether you want to work in a marketing role directly, run your own events or manage an artist; marketing will undoubtedly play a crucial role in your future career success.

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

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.

Students will gain a comprehensive insight into the inner workings of the outdoor events industry with a detailed and definitive overview of on-site operations, as well as the pre-event logistics planning required to ensure operational success.

The first part examines the tools and techniques underpinning operations planning, including a site production schedule, management and command structures and a detailed site plan, taking into consideration the relevant regulations supporting safe event design.

The second part explores on-site operations and considers what happens when functions are disrupted by unplanned events. You will study how to identify and tackle potential hazards, as well as leadership and decision-making, thereby learning the importance of establishing and observing correct procedures, and how to deploy the right resources.

For decades, venues have been at the heart of British international music, arts, and culture. This module will give you the knowledge, and the transferable skills, to launch or manage your own venue.

From The Cavern Club to the Hacienda, from Studio 54 to Café Del Mar, you will explore how iconic venues have captured people’s imagination throughout history and learn how you can apply those same concepts to contemporary venues. We will explore how a venue’s concept, programming, and production all align to create memorable experiences for audiences. You will learn how to build a motivated and happy team of staff, and how to manage relationships with key external stakeholders, such as Licensing and drink suppliers. This module will also give you the tools you need to manage the finances of a venue, to ensure that your business is financially and socially sustainable long term.

The assessment gives you creative freedom to design your dream venue and produce a viable strategy that you could one day implement in the real-world.

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.

Summary

As one of the primary stakeholders for any event, knowing your audience and ensuring their safety is an important part of managing any event. Throughout this module you will be able to address audience needs and expectations not only to ensure a positive audience experience, but also their safety.

Aims

This module aims to develop your understanding of the different types of audiences and their behaviour,, enabling you to effectively manage crowds at a variety of events and adapt management tools and techniques for crowd management plans ensuring safer event design.

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.

The module provides an introduction to economics and innovation, and how they interact in the music and culture industry.

You will examine the relationship between cultural, social and economic factors influencing and influenced by the music business.

You will explore economic theories through the lens of everyday phenomena and/or moments of significant change in the music business past, present and future.

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.

Sustainability is currently at the forefront of people’s minds. This module assesses the sustainability impact of an event and explores the influence that events have to mobilise positive change.

The International Standard for Event Sustainability is used as a framework by which to evaluate significant event-related risks and opportunities, including the need for sustainability processes and practices to be embedded in the event management cycle.

Contemporary perspectives and trends in event sustainability will be a central theme. Using appropriate tools and templates, you will learn how to apply the requirements of the International Standard and create an event sustainability policy and action plan to increase the sustainability of an event.

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.

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.

In this module you will be given an exciting overview of the technical production side of live events, covering lighting, audio, pyrotechnics, staging, backline, video and rigging in both indoor and outdoor venues. You will learn transferable skills around touring, festivals and theatres/arenas, and gain in-depth knowledge of production management and stage management, as well as specific disciplines.

The module will focus on practical application in a range of environments (including practice rooms with real equipment), as well as covering health and safety, working with artists and clients, and industry best practices. This technical production module will aim to give you the tools needed to work both backstage and on stage as part of a tour, in a venue, and at outdoor events and festivals.

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.