BA (Hons) Music Marketing, Media and Communication

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.

“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success” – Paul J. Meyer

Communication is at the core of society and commerce. Understanding communication and being agile in how we communicate brings the power of influence, which is crucial in marketing, sales, politics and trendsetting and a successful career. The entertainment industries thrive on a tapestry of communication channels and styles. Success is dependent on being able to navigate these and weave your own narrative in this tapestry of media to reach your audience and paint your picture for them effectively.

In this module, you will develop an understanding of the variety of communication channels, platforms and methods used in digital media through practical production work and analysis. You will learn how to facilitate exploration of the skills behind producing mixed and multi-media communications, as well as the theories behind them. This broad set of skills and understanding of theory will provide a foundation on which to build your developing media communication style, preparing you for modules at L5 and L6 and a career in a flexible and dynamic marketplace of communication.

“You too are a brand. Whether you know it or not. Whether you like it or not” – Marc Ecko

This module teaches you how to establish your own personal brand in the fields of music, media, marketing and communication. You will learn how to refine your interpersonal skills and the ability to set realistic (achievable) targets, the necessity of maintaining an active online presence and the ability to identify key target audiences.

You will take part in regular debates, engaging and responding to appropriate industry topics. Lessons will take the form of workshops wherein you are an active participant working both individually and as part of a group, to discover and develop your journalistic and interpersonal skills, based around feedback from your tutor and peers. By engaging in these group sessions and debates, you will find your own voice and develop your own personal narrative.

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.

“Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier” – Pierre Bourdieu

Identity is a tricky concept. In this module, you will explore a wide range of theories of reproduction to investigate the construction and representation of single and multiple identities in popular culture, starting with the traditional western notion of the individual as a free, independent and knowledgeable agent.

You will consider the complex and multi-layered construction of fluid modern identities, drawing from the study and discussion of key readings and relating them back to your own personal and professional experiences.

The nature of the topic demands an interdisciplinary approach that will introduce you to the research and theories from fields as diverse as philosophy, political sciences, sociology, media and communications studies, and business and marketing studies.

“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.

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is the portfolio career? The concept is based upon the way the music industry – and the field of employment itself – has changed radically in the last few decades. Instead of preparing for a lifetime spent in loyal service to one employer, many graduates – especially those within the creative industries – find themselves working in multiple jobs with a multitude of different employers.

This module helps you prepare for ‘The Portfolio Career’. You will learn basic necessary music industry skills such as how to pitch, how to budget, how to negotiate, how to network, time management, essential storytelling and journalistic skills, and a grounding in law and ethics. The focus of the module is on creating a relatable narrative and surviving as a creative entrepreneur. Classes will frequently take the form of debates, following a half-hour brief from the tutor.

Experts from within the fields of marketing, music, media and communication will be brought in to teach students specialist skills and to serve as a panel of judges to give industry feedback on the first assignment.

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.

“Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be” – A.O. Scott, New York Times

Today, pretty much everyone is a writer – a texter, a blogger, an emailer, a Tweeter... Ironically, given the digital character of our age, the time-honoured business of conjuring up the mots justes (‘the right words’) has never been more crucial. Written communication skills are constantly evolving – and adapting prose styles to a dizzying range of platforms, outlets and audiences is a crucial part of the modern communication professional’s skill set.

In this module, you will address contemporary issues head-on through your ingenuity as creative industry writers, whether as journalists, critics, podcasters, broadcasters, media influencers, editors or producers. Class sessions include analysis of, and practical workshops in, writing for editorial, subediting, narrative/storytelling, promotional text, social media and digital content creation.

You will engage with practical and creative skills, reflection and critical reading and apply them to a range of innovative writing practices and techniques covering a spectrum of genres, cultures and identities. The module also considers a variety of key texts about creative and critical writing practice and asks you to connect your own original and imaginative work to social, cultural and creative industry-relevant theories and contexts.

“Content is king” – Bill Gates

In this developing digital world, businesses of all types and sizes around the world continue to prioritise social media and online promotion at the heart of their marketing strategy. Digital literacy is increasingly seen as a must-have skill by potential employers. This module will give you the key practical skills in a variety of social media and digital communication platforms.

From Facebook to Instagram, from Social Influencers to Search Engine Optimisation, you will explore how to maximise the effectiveness of these digital strategies, using data analytics to enhance and evolve creative content-driven campaigns. Contemporary issues and trends in the digital world will underpin the module, as well as discussions on ethical concerns.

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.

“To effectively communicate, we must realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others” – Tony Robbins

The media and entertainment industries are dynamic and ever-changing, embracing established and emerging technologies, with diverse audiences around the world. Context, form, platform culture and identity all affect the way that messaging is received and interpreted. Our success in our working lives, in industry as individuals and as organisations is dependent on having a holistic and agile approach to engaging with varied audiences and platforms and our ability to adapt to make sure our message hits home.

Building on the Introduction to Digital Media & Communication module, Communication Techniques looks further into the theories and practices which the world uses to communicate. Through cyclic development, you will deepen your understanding of industry norms in communication theory, channels and practice. You will continue to underpin the development of practical skillsets with a strong understanding of the theories that inform practice.

The skills explored at Level 4 will be revisited and used to create more refined productions/publications; in particular, developing agility in the choice and use of different media to modulate a message. Further to this you will explore the concepts of identity and the psychology behind followings, allowing you to use a choice of medium and communication channel as a catalyst for growth.

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.

Your stories, your audience, your content, your way…

In this module, you will find and apply a unique direction to your multimedia skills developed in L4 Introduction to Digital Media & Communications and L5 Communication Techniques. Through the development of these skills, you will identify a gap in the market for a project that to be developed throughout the duration of the module. This can take elements of video, photography, audio or web-based non-linear storytelling as appropriate for the audience you have identified. You will build teams for your project, and be members of other teams as required, to successfully complete projects to an industry standard.

On completion of the module, you will be able to manage whole projects from start to finish, working in teams with a deep understanding of telling stories by applying journalistic ideas to photography, video and audio at a professional level.

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.