Music Business
If you've got a passion for music, business and making things happen, this course is for you. Giving you the chance to explore a wide range of aspects of the music business whilst developing your entrepreneurial skills, our degree will offer a creative and immersive experience from the start.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
W370
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Start Date
September
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Location
Cardiff
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Campus Code
B
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£15,850*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
The perfect course for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love for all kinds of music.
Designed for:
If you’re looking to embrace your entrepreneurship and creative thinking while exploring the commercial potential of the artist-business relationship, this course is for you. Get a creative and practical grounding in the music business, developed and delivered by industry and academic experts.
Career paths
- Artist representative
- Tour manager
- Festival director
- Music publishing
- Creative industries marketer
- Music supervision and legal administrator
In collaboration with:
- NatWest
- Music Managers Forum
- Music Declares Emergency
- Orchard Media
Skills taught
- Management principles
- Strong communication skills
- Contracts and law
- Publishing
- Marketing
- Artists and repertoire (A & R)
- Events and tour management
- Business and finance
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Course Highlights
Module Overview
You’ll analyse, plan, strategise, collaborate, and create while learning the key principles of music management. The course is practically led, meaning you’ll gain a range of business skills as you work with a variety of artists on real-world music projects, such as Immersed Festival.
Year One
Principles of Music Marketing and Promotion
Music in Culture, Context and Criticism
Principles of Artist Development
The Music Entrepreneur
Introduction to the Music Industry
Principles of Music Business and Finance
Year Two
Creative Event Management – Immersed Festival
Digital Media in the Creative Industries
The Modern Live Industry
Music Contracts and the Law
Year Three
Music Publishing and Rights Management
Music in the Global Marketplace
Major Project
Strategic Business Management in the Entertainment Industry
Management in the Creative Sector
In your first year, you'll study the building blocks of the music industry including business, finance, publishing, and artist development. You’ll research music cultures and investigate the effects of technology on the sector.
Principles of Music Marketing and Promotion
Develop the skills you’ll need to make effective market analyses and develop marketing and promotional strategies based on detailed planning and case studies.
Music in Culture, Context and Criticism
Explore music and cultural theories with your peers, debating the role of the musicians and producers. Gain critical thinking and learn how to critique ideas.
Principles of Artist Development
Explore artist-manager relationships and the A&R process, covering ideation to execution, and aspects like sustainability, mental health, and touring.
The Music Entrepreneur
Understand the role and importance of research in your chosen area. Learn to present ideas, network and potentially gain new industry mentors for future business building.
Introduction to the Music Industry
Explore the music industry's framework, covering three main sectors: recorded music, live music, and publishing, for an overview of the contemporary music business.
Principles of Music Business and Finance
Investigate management, finance and business principles in different types of organisations, exploring the impact of the environment on the business’ behaviour.
In your second year, you’ll get creative with a practical media and marketing module and learn how to navigate legal, contractual, and ethical issues.You’ll also explore event management and the A&R process from creation to realisation culminating in Immersed Festival.
Creative Event Management – Immersed Festival
Jump into event management by planning, promoting and executing a multimedia festival in collaboration with other courses, industry partners and community.
Digital Media in the Creative Industries
A practical module focused on working in the digital domain, developing skills with the latest tech to create assets and strategies for marketing campaigns.
The Modern Live Industry
Build relationships that underpin the international live music industry and develop awareness of the legal obligations involved in planning and managing live events and tours.
Music Contracts and the Law
Develop an understanding of music recording, publishing, agency and artist management contracts, as well as copyright and intellectual property (IP) rights.
In your final year, you will concentrate on management, intellectual property, and global markets, applying all your acquired skills in a significant business project before graduating.
Music Publishing and Rights Management
Understand music publishing from traditional methods to DIY musicians. Gain practical knowledge about collection societies and monetizing musical rights.
Music in the Global Marketplace
Understand the global environment and the complex and variables that impact the music industry including cultural, commercial, ethical, and exporting aspects.
Major Project
An opportunity to plan, develop, and launch a real business initiative which will contribute to your employment portfolio. Each year, a project is selected for the NatWest Graduate Prize.
Strategic Business Management in the Entertainment Industry
You’ll gain an understanding of the role of strategic management, applying business concepts to diagnose, manage and overcome challenges.
Management in the Creative Sector
Learn how to design and manage organisations and groups for effective performance, and gain skills in management theories and practices.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
Taught in a variety of ways, our music degree includes seminars, workshops, tutorials, and immersive and challenge-based learning. Throughout the course, you’ll have guest lectures and take part in interactive workshops with various industry experts. By aligning our delivery with current industry practices, you’re provided with the best foundation and opportunities on which to shape your career progression. Assessments are a blend of coursework and practical tasks, often based on real-world briefs.
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Teaching staff
You’ll be taught by professionals with experience and a track record in the industry in a largely practical approach and not always in the classroom.
As part of your degree, you’ll have full access to all the technologies in the Atrium campus in the heart of Cardiff, including music studios. Our staff will support you in a hands-on approach to making sure you’re well-resourced as you study. You’ll also be encouraged to work with other students from across courses on both module work and your own projects.
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Placements
As part of this practical course, you’ll be encouraged to explore your business and entrepreneurial skills by organising events in the Students Union Zen Bar and other grassroots venues in the city. We’ve got strong industry connections with multiple organisations which offer placements as they arise and every year, we host a career fair to help build your network. There’s the opportunity to collaborate with students across courses to help organise and run our annual event, Immersed Festival, which will prepare you for various roles after graduation.
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Facilities
Positioned in the heart of Cardiff, you’ll have direct access to the latest in technology for recording, producing and creating music on our creative campus. From access to Adobe Creative Suite in our learning labs to exploring software such as Sketchup, Maya, Avid and Mudbox, you’ll be kitted out with the best technology for your personal computer too. You’ll get access to an extensive library and learning resources area, the Advice Zone, which will help give you support in finance, study skills and other services. You’ll get technical demonstrations throughout the course, working with real-world business and finance data too.
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Why USW?
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Why USW?
Top in Wales
Music at USW is top in Wales for Teaching Quality (The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025).
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS Points: 96 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC to include a relevant subject (this is equivalent to 96 UCAS tariff points).
- Welsh BACC: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C in the Skills Challenge Certificate and CC at A Level with a relevant art and design subject (this is equivalent to 96 UCAS tariff points).
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Merit Merit Merit in a relevant subject (this is equivalent to 96 UCAS tariff points).
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points.
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
Applicants in the UK: Selection for this course is based on a suitable application. If you do not meet the entry criteria you may also be required to attend an interview to help us assess your suitability for the course.
Applicants outside the UK: Selection for this course is based on a suitable application and submission of a portfolio of your work which the Course Leader confirms is suitable for an offer to be made.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£15,850
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
It is suggested that students have their own laptop computer and smart phone (All academic years)
Cost: £500
Students may be expected to travel to master classes/ conferences / events/ performances at their own cost (All academic years)
Cost: £100
Students may need to buy some course texts (All academic years)
Cost: £50
How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
Media Loans
You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.
Media LoansUniversity Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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