Commercial Music

This Commercial Music course is about creation: songs, projects, bands and entrepreneurial ideas. You’ll acquire skills that broaden your future career choices through writing, designing, promoting, performing, researching, touring and launching your creative material.

Songwriting/original music - develop your songwriting skills, whether you’re a singer songwriter, play in a band, or want to write music for media.

Music production - capture and present your musical ideas. Whether you’re into vintage studio techniques or the latest digital technologies, we’ll teach you the skills you need to achieve your personal creative goals.

Contextual studies - understand the context of your musical work through the analysis of your own creative outputs and the work of artists relevant to you.

Performance - develop performance skills as solo performer, or within a band.

Year one
Your first year focuses on songwriting, performance and production. This raw material will define the launch and release cycles of your second year.

You’ll write songs and journalistic/promotional material, and learn how to produce and develop your material in the recording studio. Meanwhile, you’ll work towards live showcase events.

Year two
You’ll write, produce, and record your own original material. You’ll explore semiotics, marketing, cultural theory, photography and advertising, and develop an understanding of branding in a crowded marketplace.

You'll create an online presence through designing and editing your own promotional video, as well as other website and audio-visual content. Using this for promotion, you’ll set up your own national tour.

Year three
Choose to specialise in production, songwriting or music business. Songwriting, performance and production all combine within our outward-facing Portfolio module which will showcase your skills on leaving University. You’ll also explore an aspect of music culture, leading to a final dissertation.

You’ll be given "seed funding" to work in a team to develop and actively pursue a "real-world" music-related business project. Many graduates continue successful business projects beyond graduation.

There are no formal exams. You’ll be assessed through the production of your portfolio materials which will include songs, live performances, audio productions, promotional material, website design, photographic output, video staging, video editing, critical thinking, tour management, written dissertations, business plans, business diagnostics and presentations.

You’ll be taught in a variety of ways, including group practical lectures in practice rooms, formal group lectures, small group seminars in band rooms, group lectures in technology suites (video, website design and music production), small group seminars in recording studios, one-to-one tutorials, and instrumental teaching in small groups and one-to-one formats.

• Songwriting
• Composing with Technology
• Performance (Collaborative)
• Culture, Context and Criticism in Popular Music
• Commercial Music Studio Production
• Performance (Projects)

• Brand, Identity and Promotion
• Music Video Production
• Song Production
• Visual Performance and Identity
• Music Think Tank
• "Going Live" (Tour and Events)
• Working in the Music Industry
• Composition
• Work placement
• Professional Placement Year

• Professional Portfolio (Development)
• Professional Musician
• Professional Portfolio (Presentation)
• Commercial Music Research: Planning and Methods
• Commercial Music Research: Writing and Revision
• Music, Money and Enterprise 1
• Music, Money and Enterprise 2
• Live Music TV Show
• Composition for Media
• AudioVisual Performance

Partnerships with other liberal arts institutions and international connections with educational partners in Barcelona provide opportunities for you to gain an international perspective and experience relevant to your musical career.

We don’t just teach you about the music industry, we bring it to you. Music Think Tank is an annual ten-week lecture series that brings you into contact with practitioners from a wide spectrum of the industry.

Making music is one thing, but understanding how to present your music is key. We’ll teach you how to present your projects through understanding the links between sound and vision. You’ll design logos, make and edit videos, be involved in photoshoots and design your own websites and social media campaigns.

The Bath Spa University Cullum Family Award supports music students by providing grants which help them explore and better understand the music industry and the various career pathways available to them.

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of “with Professional Placement Year” to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

You'll have access to a range of music facilities. Many of these spaces are accessible seven days a week in term time, with full technical support available.

• Recording studios
  Equipped with industry standard equipment including TL Audio valve desks, high-end outboard and top-of-the-range microphones.
• Rehearsal spaces
  Fully equipped rehearsal rooms with high-end drum kits, amplifiers (Mesa Boogie, Orange, Ampeg and Vox) and Nord Keyboards.
• Technology labs
  With state of the art iMACs loaded with Logic, Protools, Native Instrument, Waves and numerous other industry standard music software
• Performance spaces
  Our performance spaces include Burdall’s Yard, a venue in central Bath particularly suited to acoustic music. We also have relationships with various venues in Bath, Bristol and the Students' Union, for regular performances, events and assessment activities.
• TV studios
  We have a state of the art TV and media production facility; Commercial Music students use these facilities when making videos and working on post-production audio mixing/editing.
• Michael Tippett Centre
  A theatre venue where we undertake lectures, performance seminars and location recording sessions.

Students can hire out equipment using SISO, Bath Spa University’s free equipment loan service. Commercial Music students can hire our instruments, PA systems, recording equipment, video cameras and laptops for their creative projects.