Music Business and Media BA(Hons)

Why study with us? 

• You will graduate ready to take on a wide variety of roles across the music industry, from PR to A&R.
• The subject matter is a fascinating and ever-evolving mix – you will examine how the music and media industries intersect, investigating the social, cultural, economic, political and technological changes associated with their development.
• Our dedicated placements team organise excellent work placements and you’ll work on live industry projects.
• A variety of modules mean you can choose a path through your degree that suits your interests and expertise.
• Brighton is a fast-growing creative media hub and home to a thriving music scene.
• The course team are experts in their field who are passionate about sharing their knowledge with a new generation of media and music professionals.

Year 1

In your first year you will study methods of understanding and theorising the media and music industries. You will also examine the social, cultural, economic, political and technological changes associated with their development.

Modules

Core modules

• Critical Approaches to Media 1

  This module will introduce you to a range of critical academic approaches to media. It tackles the most cutting-edge topics in media studies and introduces canonical approaches used in their analysis. An introduction to these approaches will enable you to understand the workings of media audiences, industries and texts. The module will focus on media experiences that are relevant to your everyday life, ensuring that as well as academic development, the module will give you the tools to analyse your own engagement with, and consumption of, the media.

• Critical Approaches to Media 2

  This module introduces key media studies theories and concepts and applies them to the analysis of real-world issues. You will develop skills and techniques to critique media representations, showing the importance of media analysis in everyday life. By analysing media technologies, you will engage with the most innovative media content, forms and practices of the day. By questioning mediation, the module will bring to life the role of media in society and enable you to critique the media in terms of culture, politics, innovation and environment.

• Popular Music: Histories and Contexts

  The module introduces the cultural contexts of popular music genres, styles, issues and debates – enabling you to place popular music within key historical developments. You'll explore the key formal debates of popular music studies and how they relate to popular music studies research.

• Music, Technology and Everyday Life

  This module explores how people engage with popular music, by focusing specifically on how they engage with music technologies and popular music texts, for example, music, lyrics, performers, representations, in their everyday lives.

Options*

• Video Production 1

  This module will equip you with the essential skills and practical experience required to create short-form non-fictional audio-visual content, suitable in form to contemporary web-based - as well as more traditional - delivery platforms and audiences. It covers all three stages of video production: pre-production research and planning, production and post-production, including editing. It will introduce the fundamentals of video and sound-recording techniques as well as give you the skills required for successfully engaging with contributors/participants.

• Photographic Practice 1

  In this module you will explore the role and use of photography in visual media. You will engage with various aspects of the language and production of promotional and editorial photography. You will respond to set briefs and create your own website that includes an online portfolio as well as learn the core skills in which to consider, articulate and document reflections on your practice.

• Producing and Consuming Social Media

  This module explores your critical understanding of consuming and producing social media in  personal and professional settings.

• Business, Creative/Digital Industries and Innovation

  On this module you will develop a sense of commercial awareness, including key entrepreneurial skills and knowledge required to engage with innovation in the creative and digital industries. You will work as a part of a team to recognise trends and opportunities and then develop your ideas into a business plan. You will reflect on your ideas, considering issues around collaboration, innovation, sustainability and intellectual property.

• Creative Industries and Promotional Cultures

  This module will introduce you to the creative and promotional industries such as advertising, public relations, marketing and branding. It offers a historical overview of and contemporary perspectives on their development and change. You will engage critically with questions surrounding the political economy of the cultural industries, new consumer practices and the politics of consumption, and will develop an understanding of a range of mainstream practices as well as critical interventions in the language and dynamics of promotional cultures.

• Media and Popular Culture

  This module will introduce you to the concept of popular culture through the perspectives of media studies. You will critically engage with, explore and critique a range of popular cultural forms and practices. You will explore a range of current as well as historical examples of film, TV, music, and online popular culture through analysis of both the conditions of production - the entertainment industry - and audiences’ engagement with these texts.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 2

In your second year you will focus on an industry placement as well as looking at research methods for live projects, which will equip you with the knowledge and skills to execute independent research.

Modules

• Research Methods for Live Projects
• Media Project Management
• Popular Music Industries
• Media Placement

Options*

• Video Production 2
• Photographic Practice 2
• Social Media Applications in Activism, Business and Life
• Digital Fabrication Methods
• Brands and Branding
• Community Radio
• Media and Public Relations
• Journalism

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placement 

During the second year of study you will complete a professional work placement in a media-related organisation. You will receive guidance to help you focus your search from a dedicated placement team who will support you with writing your CV and cover letter, making online applications, setting up a portfolio and managing your online presence.

Placements are usually around four weeks and are academically assessed. Your degree award will reflect your industry experience. In the third year you will undertake a live project during which you will research, plan, execute and evaluate a real-world music industries project in partnership with an external organisation.

Final year

You will work in creative partnership with music innovation labs and gain practical understanding of digital media marketing as well as conceptual knowledge of the celebrity economy. With the university’s support you will undertake a live project and go into industry and complete an independent research project.

Modules

• Music Innovation: Design and Development
• Live Project

Options*

• Audiovisual Professional Practice
• Celebrity Media
• Sustainability and Innovation in Digital Culture
• Digital Media Marketing and Innovation
• Inclusive Media Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Facilities 

• Digital and analogue stills equipment, including DSLRs and a range of lenses plus an offsite darkroom
• Video recording equipment, from Canon DSLRs to Blackmagic cameras, in a dedicated TV studio
• Audio recording kit and facilities, including bookable sound/radio booths 
• Dedicated video editing suites including Mac and PC computers with specialist software.

Meet the team

Staff who teach on the course include:

Dr Eleftherios Zenerian is a lecturer in media studies and course leader of the Music Business and Media BA(Hons). He studied political and social sciences at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (BA, MSc) and the University of Sussex (MSc, PhD). He has taught sociology, politics and media, and cultural studies in the University of Sussex and University of Portsmouth. His research interests encompass creative labour, popular music cultures, and social and cultural theory. He currently researches fan creativity and the materiality of popular music.

Iestyn George, senior lecturer, is a journalist, who previously worked as an editor at NME, GQ and Golf Punk. He was marketing manager of the Manic Street Preachers between 1999 and 2003.

Podcast: listen to Iestyn talk about his work in journalism and marketing, why he believes media is the most important subject to study at university and the future of magazines.

Paula Hearsum, lecturer and researcher in media studies, with specialisms in popular music and journalism. Paula worked as a music journalist and continues to write for the wider press. She maintains a relationship between academia and media practice, developing innovative industry-relevant courses and national online educational resources. Her research has focused on the mediation of popular musicians' deaths as way to consider dominant social discourses and narratives.

Dr Stephen Mallinder, singer and musician who was a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies, although we have tried to keep this to a minimum. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in your fees, while studying a course in the School of Media are listed here.

• There will be opportunities to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but you can budget approximately £30–£700 for these. The nature of the costs vary from provisions for a packed-lunch to flight and accommodation costs for international field trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• Typically, practice-based courses incur more costs than text-based subjects. These costs are normally associated with specialist equipment and materials for making work and for the public presentation of work.
• Specialist equipment is provided to cover essential learning. Students may choose to buy their own specialist equipment, these may include cameras, or computers and software. Budgets can range from £50–£2,000. Buying specialist equipment is best undertaken in consultation with our academic and technical staff. This expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £200 for printing and publishing. Photography courses may incur higher costs (£500–£2,000) when printing and framing images of professional standard for public presentation.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £150 for stationery.
• Final-year graduation shows are opportunities to present your final, independent project work to the public. Practice-based courses will typically incur higher costs. Depending on the specific nature of your final project you will need to budget between £20–£2,500. 

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2021–22.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

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