BA (Hons) Music Industries

at Birmingham City University

COURSE IN DEPTH

Year one
 

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits):

 

Live Production 1
40 credits

 

You will get the chance to take part in multiplatform production days, delivering content for our in-house music media outlet, Eastside Sounds. There will also be a compulsory work placement in this module.

 

Creating Music Media Content
20 credits

 

The music industries are increasingly driven not just by songs, but by content – videos, images, and other texts which frame the music that we love. This module allows you to start to develop practical skills in content creation –including film editing, photography, PR, and a range of other skills – from our expert colleagues in Birmingham School of Media.

 

Valuing Music
20 credits

 

At a moment in time where revenues from traditional areas such as recorded music are falling, this module invites you to think about how the value of music might be reconsidered, and the problems and opportunities that this creates for aspiring music industries professionals.

 

Global and Community Impact
20 credits

 

This module allows you to start collaborating with music industries organisations and communities, exploring issues and challenges they face on a local and global scale.

 

Introduction to Media Contexts and Practice – Music Industries Landscapes
20 credits

 

This module will introduce you to the key sectors and revenue streams of the contemporary music industries. You will learn about how money is generated through music, and use this knowledge to learn-by-doing, establishing your own micro-label, events company, or other music-based project.

 

Year two
 

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 80 credits):

 

Live Production 2
40 credits

 

You will get the chance to take part in multiplatform production days, delivering content for our in-house music media outlet Eastside Sounds. There will also be a compulsory work placement in this module.

 

Advanced Media Contexts and Practice – Music Industries Ecologies
20 credits

 

This module invites you to think about the relationship between the music industries and a wider system of media production and consumption. You will be required to carry out research into the interrelated nature of music and media, and to consider how your developing media skills can help you to present this information in an engaging and professional manner.

 

Research – Popular Music Narratives
20 credits

 

Building upon the skills, knowledge, and experience from Level 4, this module invites you to examine the current state and changing nature of the field of popular music studies. You will learn about a range of critical perspectives and positions on popular music from the standpoint of both popular music culture and music business/ industries.

 

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete at least 40 credits from the following indicative list of OPTIONAL modules.

 

Faculty optional module
20 credits

 

The programme structure allows you to choose an option from modules that are operated on a faculty-wide basis. This option is taken in semester two of year two:

 

Collaborative Practice – this module allows for collaboration with students from other Schools within the Art, Design and Media faculty.
Work Experience – you may choose to undertake an additional work placement.
Live Project – you will work to a brief on a real-world or simulated project. A series of live project briefs will be set each year, including an option based on an overseas visit.
 

School of Media optional module
20 credits

 

The programme structure allows you to choose an option from modules that are offered within the School of Media across other programmes. Some options are closely aligned with your area of study but you may choose to take an option from any in the following list (note that not all options may be offered each year). This option is taken in semester two of year two:

 

• Creating Compelling Content
• Campaigning and Investigative journalism
• Lifestyle and Branded Media Content
• Bi-Media drama
• Television Studio
• Music, Media and Digitalisation
• Digital Content Distribution
• Advanced Visual Communication
• Music Industry Promotional Practices
• Commercial Production for Radio
• Radio Documentary
• Fashion Photography
• Photojournalism
• Gender, Sexuality and the Body
• Comedy in the Media and Popular Culture
• Perspectives on Community and Alternative Media
• Race, Ethnicity and the Media
• Media and Materiality
• Fandoms and Subcultures
• Communities of Practice: Culture, Heritage and Space
• Film Cultures
• Media Censorship and Regulation
• Celebrity Culture
• Digital Storytelling

Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.

Year three

 

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits):

 

Major Project
60 credits

 

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, theoretically and professionally-informed project, exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. This is your chance to align your practice with your specific career aspirations in the music industries. You will have the option to choose between undertaking an extended piece of academic research or an extended professional project.

 

Professional Media Contexts and Practice
20 credits

 

This core Level 6 module is delivered in Semester 1, over 10 taught weeks, and comprises parallel specialist media production workshops. 

 

The workshops will include both practical and theoretical elements, and will build on the technical, editorial and critical skills you learnt earlier in the course, taking them to a more professional level. The approach is practice-led, with theoretical knowledge applied. Depending on the specialism, you may further develop skills in operating particular technical equipment and specialist software, as well as developing your editorial ideas, and ability to develop, plan and organise activities. Each workshop will be situated in its media industry context, both nationally and internationally, and will help improve your employability, as potential creative industry workers. You will identify a target audience for your work, and create a cross-media/multi-media product/s in order to help engage your audience.

 

Critical Music Futures
20 credits

 

This research-intensive module provides a space for you to think critically about key issues and cutting-edge developments in the contemporary music industries. Working collaboratively with the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Studies (BCMCR), BCMCR staff and leading external researchers/academics will present and discuss their current research projects, to help inform your knowledge of issues and debates within the music industries.

 

Professional Academic Development
20 credits

 

This module prepares you for your transition from academia to the professional music industries. Through a series of lectures, workshops and masterclasses you will develop practical employability skills such as CV and professional profile building and interview preparation. You will critically reflect on how the previous three years of skills, knowledge and experience gained on the programme, have developed your professionalism.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.

Award: BA (Hons) Starting: Sep 2022
Full Time £13,500 in 2022/23

Enhancing your employability skills

 

DHLE data indicates that the average rate for those studying Music Industries in the Birmingham School of Media in employment or further study was 90% between 2011/12 and 2015/16.

 

Previous students have gone on to a number of roles within the music industry including work with music collection agencies, industry support bodies, live music promoters, record labels, and within music journalism and music media broadcasting. 

 

Organisations include: NEC group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Group, Nuclear Blast Records, Punch Records, Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham Symphony Hall, O2 Arena, Birmingham International Jazz festival, Shambala Festival, Supersonic Festival, Swingamajig, British Phonograph Industry, Sony Music, PPL PRS Ltd, Radio 1, Radio 1 Xtra.

 

As well as gaining course-specific skills, you could also gain broader tools through our Graduate+ programme, which will help enhance your employment options by helping with careers development, employability activities, volunteering and part-time work experience.

 

Allied with these course-specific experiences, you will also have access to a range of support staff and services from the University’s Careers Service, who can help with:

 

• Reviewing CVs, covering letters and application forms
• Career planning and decision making
• Preparing for interviews and assessment centres
• Developing portfolios
• Networking with employers
• Advice about self-employment and entrepreneurship

Links to Industry

 

As a BA (Hons) Music Industries student you will benefit from our membership of UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership. As one of only 17 institutions nationally, our MAP status is designed to maximise the employability of students; and future-proof the music industry by ensuring new entrants have the right mix of experience and skills most needed. As a MAP member, our curriculum is shaped and informed by the needs and wants of the industry itself, to ensure that you are developing the right skills, knowledge, and experience for a career in music.Through our membership, you will gain access to masterclasses from leading industry professionals, opportunities to get involved in industry research, networking and information events and input and support into your future career.

 

Birmingham Music Coalition

 

We play a key role within the Birmingham Music Coalition (BMC), a music industries lobbying group made up of, and linked to, a number of influential local, regional and national music industries organisations. We also have an industry advisory panel whose membership includes international music industries professionals from Warner Music UK and Kobalt Music Group. They advise and inform us of current music industries developments and practices, to ensure our students are developing the skills, knowledge and experiences that are sought by industry employers.