BA (Hons) Songwriting & Music Business

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.

The techniques module enables you to explore songwriting through a carefully constructed programme of practical creative tasks. The course is delivered by a teaching team of established, published contemporary songwriters. Career planning, research and freelance skills are embedded in the curriculum, and you will also benefit from opportunities to collaborate with production and performance students.

Further study will be the building blocks of songwriting: chord theory, melody, harmony, lyrics and rhythm. The module involves aural perception, giving you the opportunity to develop your musical ear and recognise intervals and chord sequences by listening.

The module will take a traditional view of songwriting as well as contemporary, by exploring how approaches have changed over time. There will be writing partnerships, giving you the ability to collaborate effectively. Chord theory, structure and writing intuitively will be the focus of the module, as well as an introduction to lyrical and poetic devices.

In this module, you will be taken through the process of arranging and rehearsing your compositions to a standard suitable for public performance. After initial composition workshops where you’ll receive feedback and guidance on writing, there’ll be further activities in live arrangement skills whether that be for a duo, trio or multiple musician line-ups. Much of what you study in the Songwriting Techniques module will help inform what you do in this module, such as dynamics, harmony, rhythm/groove, structure and the use of backing tracks. You will also engage in co-writing, co-arranging and creative collaboration as part of your ongoing development.

Regarding live performance skills, you will work towards achieving and maintaining appropriate rehearsal methods and instrumental and vocal performance skills. Additionally, the development of musical director skills will promote listening and performing simultaneously, as well as communicating effectively with other musicians and leading an ensemble in rehearsal.

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.

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.

Styles and Genres is concerned with the deconstruction of musical and non-musical elements that create successful popular songs. This module will analyse the historical, social and biographical contexts that may have had a bearing on specific musical genres and notable songwriters, as well as examining external influences on these styles.

The module will require you to employ critical listening and aural perception to analyse music and lyrics objectively in order to understand how songs may work on us subjectively. This module will also look to broaden your songwriting vocabulary via the creation of an original work/song, in addition to providing a platform for self-reflection on the skills and aptitudes necessary for lifelong learning in this field.

Music publishing is essential in the modern music business, an ever-increasing amount of visual content is being created and shared, much of which requires the synchronisation of music, this along with the development of new distribution channels has opened a wealth of new opportunities for songwriters and publishers.

This module will focus on the fundamentals of this topic cover areas such as; the definition of a song, the publisher’s role, the collection societies, the types of music publisher, and music publishing contracts. In this module, you will explore the relationship between these core concepts and current music industry developments.

You will be encouraged to apply your knowledge through simulations and in a real-world situation, this experience will be invaluable for a career in artist management, A&R, label management and music publishing.

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.” Seth Godin

What do you think creates that magic that propels you to buy a product? The reason you even know about a brand and have become entwined in its story? It’s a tool behind every business and every brand and without it, they wouldn’t exist. It’s the wonder that is Marketing.

Whether discussing a brand, musician, product or event, it is without a doubt that marketing and PR will have been involved in their journey. Whether you have seen an advert on Instagram, streamed a song on Spotify, bought a product online or attended an event, it is because it has been marketed to you. Marketing is a sales tool, but it is also something that needs to be creative, unique, exciting and visible. Everything and everyone is marketable, it’s just understanding how and ultimately, how to do this well.

In this module, you will look into brand identity, messaging and communication, study marketing theory and PR practice and develop concepts, strategies and pitches. You will examine brand case studies, looking at examples of marketing campaigns with a focus on the positives and negatives.

The module will allow you to manage the marketing for your own music/event brand, looking into how marketing and PR are used in the contemporary music and events industry, and create ‘a big idea’ and marketing plan around this. The invaluable tools you will learn will be adaptable to whichever path you take for your chosen future career.

The creative arts have the power to bring people together, unite communities, support mental wellbeing, raise awareness of social issues and above all, bring joy to many people around the world. In Creative Industries & You 2, you will discover how you can turn your passion and talent into a collaborative project with a positive impact on society. Employing research and networking skills, you will develop a greater understanding of a charity, cause or campaign. In teams of students from all courses, you‘ll select a cause and identify a way to support its key objectives, either by raising awareness, raising funds or contributing as volunteers. You will be introduced to your college's partner charities but you are also able to find your own, or work independently of an existing organisation.

Through this collaborative project, you’ll develop essential interpersonal and communication skills, experimenting with various digital tools for enterprise. You’ll reflect on your own values, applying theories of human psychology to explore how to get the best out of yourself and each other. Building on your industry research skills, you will assess your target audience and define clear SMART targets for your project that will enable you to execute an element of the strategy and evaluate its success. In teams, you will spend time working on your project both in class and in your own time, developing effective collaborative working methods.

You’ll record your project activity in your Personal and Professional Development Plan, reflecting on how you have developed and changed over the course of your first year and a half at BIMM. Working with your Personal Adviser you will identify objectives, opportunities and actions that will help you stay on the path to success for the second half of your journey towards becoming a Creative Industries Professional.

This module will allow you to further develop the tools required to put creative energy into practice, inspiring you to engage in compositional techniques and technological processes to improve your skills as a songwriter and enhance your creative and professional practice.

You will utilise Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) for writing purposes, including the recording, editing, mixing and production of new material using industry-standard software and equipment.

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.

This module continues the exploratory work you began in Context & Culture of the Creative Industries. 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 via your medium of choice.

The concepts you encounter will actively critique claims to authenticity and originality; themes you will encounter frequently throughout your career as a Creative Professional. You will debate artistic production, the motivations for it, and the problems of creative autonomy.

You will investigate relevant contemporary cultural issues and theories relating to society, race, gender, technology, and the environment to develop your contextual understanding of how these relate to your own creative practice, professional values, and sense of personal agency.

You will be encouraged to meet with your Personal Adviser in a 1:1 tutorial to help you reflect on the strengths and areas for development identified in your PPDP in the first year, tracking your academic progress and setting new actions that will support you to achieve your best work. The research methods and study habits 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.

In Songwriting & Arrangement, you will study established musical arrangement aesthetics, approaches and techniques in order to inform and inspire your own artistic exploration in the creation of original musical arrangements. Classes will be a combination of the stylistic and technical analysis of existing artistic and aesthetic approaches, and a process of experimentation through creative arrangement workshopping.

You will reflect on your artistic exploration of arrangement approaches, culminating in an overarching reflection on your writing and composition throughout your BMus study at the college, as well as practical work undertaken during your Songwriting & Arrangement module learning journey.

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.

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.

This module requires you to present a final body of practical work in an appropriate ‘industry-ready’ format.

You will provide elements appropriate to the needs of current and future industry expectations for up and coming songwriters, composers and artists. You will reflect on your current work rigorously measuring it against industry examples. The work presented should evidence equal weight to aesthetics, original music and appropriate material for furtherment in your chosen career path.

Success on the module will enable you to tailor your branding to address the type of songwriter, composer and/or artist career path to which you aspire.

Acknowledging audience needs and expectations are central to considering what motivates consumers to engage with a product or service. The Service Industry is no longer enough, people now want an ‘experience’, something to remember. The Experience Economy focuses on audience experience, on creating bespoke events, greater innovation in business and always ensures that value is created for an audience.

This module will deconstruct audience experience through the analysis of consumer trends, audience psychology, economic impacts and industry developments. You will explore how to create exciting and innovative businesses to understand how entrepreneurs engage with specific audiences to fulfil experiential requirements.

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.

This module is the final step in your journey and will support you as you look to enter your chosen field as a creative professional. Drawing on evidence from throughout your time here. you will critically self-evaluate your personal learning journey and industry engagements to date. You will explore concepts and theories of personal and professional development to support, challenge and test your assumptions, to determine your readiness for work in the creative industries. You will have the opportunity to discuss this with your peers and learn from your collective experiences in both small degree path groups and large mixed discipline sessions.

With this position in mind, you will then be challenged to create and consolidate creative assets to give you the edge over the competition in your chosen field. Specialist workshops will be offered throughout the module, informed and delivered by our wide-reaching connections and specialist lecturers in the creative industries. This culminates in the creation of a portfolio which tells the story of your personal and professional journey so far, communicating your unique professional identity and future career plans in the creative industries.