Music Business (Taught)

Sharpen your music business and management skills and gain the confidence to pursue your career goals with the MA Music Business. With topics including the live music industry, intellectual property and talent management, alongside other key business skills, this course provides you with an opportunity to develop your personal organisation skills, self-discipline, time management, and dedication to succeed in a competitive field.

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?
BNU has been delivering courses in the music industry for over 25 years, and therefore we have a wealth of expertise from within our network of lecturing staff, guest speakers, and alumni, all with a track record of success in a wide variety of roles in the music business internationally.

The MA Music Business programme allows you to develop deep knowledge and advanced skills to enhance your career in the music industry, in both employed and self-employed capacities. You’ll be able to develop a detailed understanding of the professional environment of the music and media sectors and the entrepreneurial skills necessary to exploit current opportunities as well as instigate new lines of professional activity.

All our music degrees at Buckinghamshire New University come with membership of UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership (MAP), a ground-breaking collaboration between educational institutions and UK Music, designed to maximise the relationship between the industry and educational institutions in order to inform the next generation of industry professionals.

UK Music is the collective voice of the UK’s world-leading music industry. We represent all sectors of our industry – bringing them together to collaborate, campaign, and champion music. The members of UK Music are: AIM, BPI, FAC, The Ivors Academy, MMF, MPA, MPG, MU, PPL, PRS for Music. UK Music also has an informal association with LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment).

What will I study?
The course combines core modules that develop your understanding of the modern music and entertainment industries. You’ll explore areas such as A&R development, talent management, music business entrepreneurship, research methods and an independent research project. These modules focus on discovering and developing talent, managing artists, building entrepreneurial skills and understanding current industry practices.

Optional modules allow you to specialise further in areas including contemporary industry issues, intellectual property, social media marketing and the live music industry, helping you build both creative and commercial expertise for a professional career in music and audio production.

What are my career prospects?
Graduates from this course pursue careers in numerous roles and areas of the music business, for example; artist management, artist and repertoire representative, music marketing executive, booking agent, music publishing executive, record company executive, the live music industry, music entrepreneurship, music business educator, music publisher, social media, tour manager, further postgraduate study or research.