Cert HE Digital Marketing & Music Management

Music is creative; it’s a sector of performance, talent, and entertainment. But it’s also a multi-billion pound industry, powered by everyone from huge international companies to up-and-coming entrepreneurs. So, to truly thrive as a musician, producer, or in any other career in music, you need to learn how it operates.

In this module, we’ll introduce you to the core structures and functions of the modern music industry, and explain how the main industry sectors — recorded music, live music, and publishing — work. You’ll learn about the different kinds of music business organisations; study music copyrights; and explore the roles of collection societies, professionals and other organisations, as well as examining how they all work together. Ultimately, with a better understanding of the music business, you’ll more easily be able to find, and follow, your path.

This comprehensive introduction to digital marketing covers everything you need to know about the purpose of marketing, best practice techniques for attracting your target audience, managing your reputation, working with influencers, and analysing your online performance through data.

We’ll also touch on wider principles of general marketing, teaching you about its role in building relationships with customers, and explain how to understand — and satisfy — those customers’ needs. You’ll discover the power of customer insights, and learn how market research can help you to plan a more effective and targeted strategy. And towards the end, we’ll show you how to apply all that knowledge to a digital context, using product, service, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies to attract attention and drive action. 

Your online presence, and the content you create, are intertwined; in the digital world, making and posting content shows you’re active and helps you to connect with your audience.

In ‘Content Creation & Social Media’, we’ll teach you how to create assets and content that fit your goals and suit your audiences. You’ll consider why a compelling online presence is now such an important part of any business’s marketing plan and explore the various social and digital platforms, considering how content should be tailored to fit

You’ll also learn about the technical side of social — management tools, analytics, social listening, outreach, and more — and learn how SEO (search engine optimisation) and digital and social advertising can help your content to reach a bigger, and more specific, audience. Finally, you’ll touch on social media governance and reputation management, and look at creative ways to stand out and get noticed online. In the end, you’ll have the tools and understanding you need to attract the attention of your audience and tell them what to do next. And to expand your practical content marketing skills in your second year, there’s the ‘Digital Storytelling’ module, too.

Social media, blockchain, 3D printing: behind every brilliant invention and unique idea, there’s an entrepreneur — someone who stepped off the beaten path and created something of their own. It’s not just technology billionaires or maverick inventors; every self-employed person is an entrepreneur, too.

Here, we’ll explore what it means to be an entrepreneur, considering how new ideas are formed; the process of turning those ideas into reality; and what makes some people better entrepreneurs than others. We’ll look at where entrepreneurs fit into commercial, non-commercial, start-up and established organisations, and teach you about the challenges of entrepreneurship at individual, organisational, and societal levels. We can all learn from the creativity, determination, conduct, and commercial acumen of people who run their own businesses. When you finish the module, you’ll have a better idea of entrepreneurship, from taking risks to managing money, problem-solving and creative thinking.

The best digital marketing plans are rooted in thorough and thoughtful research. With the right insights, you’ll know where to find your audience, and what to say to them; which customers are worth pursuing; and what they think about your brand, product, or service. Without them? Your content might not get results.

That’s why market research is so important. In this module, we’ll teach you about the steps of market research, including problem formulation, research design, data collection instruments, data analysis methods, and how to present your findings. You’ll learn how to design quantitative and qualitative research, and explore different data collection and analysis techniques. And most importantly, we’ll look at how to use all the insights you collect as the foundation for your marketing plan, turning all the data into information that informs your strategy.

Making music is one thing, but successfully releasing and marketing that music is another altogether — and there’s more than one way to do it. This module is designed to help you get releases right, providing practical knowledge of music marketing, release strategies, and digital distribution.

We’ll look at the different ways to promote a release online, comparing DIY campaigns to the professional, big-budget approaches of big record labels and established artists. We’ll teach you how to use the direct to fan model to build up to a commercial DIY release; how to grow a fan base online; and how to attract the attention of industry gatekeepers. Once you’ve completed the module you’ll have a really thorough understanding of different promotion strategies, giving you an excellent starting point for your next release.