module specification

In this module, you will be given the opportunity to cultivate your professional skills and practice by considering the wider implications of your work in the parallel Final Project module MD6013. Therefore, by undertaking this module, you will work to develop the Final Project into a complete package, portfolio or installation, marketable for public presentation and release.

In doing so you will need to consider and evaluate the positioning of your work in the music marketplace, evaluating its appeal to either audiences, music creators or potential client bases. This will allow you to explore approaches surrounding the distribution, marketing, branding and promotion of your work.

By developing your final project into a professional package, you will examine competitors and research approaches to exhibiting and representing you work. In doing so you will have gained knowledge and experience vital to working within the music industries and begun taking the steps needed to gain employment and work following graduation.

On successful completion of the module, you will have created a website as a platform to promote your work, developed the branding and identity of your work, and identified and explored approaches to connecting with audiences for your work.

The aims of this module are:
• Position and identify your creative work as a marketable artefact within its relevant field.
• Develop creative portfolios, demonstrating competencies to secure work.
• Examine strategies for promoting the release of music as either EP’s, singles, or albums, including ways in which music producers use their original works to demonstrate skill.
• Further expand students’ employability and professional skills in networking and communicating with audiences and potential clients.
• Develop abilities to a graduate-level, fostering a deeper understanding of critical, commercial, technical, and creative processes in parallel to the Final Project.

• Social Media and Music marketing (LO1, 3, 4)
• Project management and organisation (LO1, 5)
• Market research and analysis (LO1, 2, 3, 4)
• Genre and artist profiles (LO1, 2, 3)
• Branding, websites, and identity (LO1, 2, 3, 4)
• Proficiency portfolios and assessing skills (LO1, 2, 3, 4)
• Networking and communicating with audiences (LO1, 2, 3, 4)
• Client research (LO1, 3)

The balance between independent study and scheduled teaching activities within this
module is 70% and 30% respectively. Scheduled learning & teaching covers the first 6 taught weeks of project specific content the student requires to achieve, subsequently followed by weekly one-to-one tutorials and seminars. The scheduled teaching is divided in Lectures, Workshops, and Seminars and they take place in the classroom and Computer Labs.

Independent study provides students with the opportunity to develop LO5 - Work independently to effectively present and promote your Final Project outcome to a graduate standard. For example, by developing their strategies for self-promotion, marketing and researching audiences.

Throughout the module, students have access to the entire Music Studios facilities via online booking system, and Library facilities at London Met. Blended Learning is maintained via Weblearn Course and Module pages with full documentation of the activities developed in class.

Opportunities for reflective learning/PDP are promoted through feedback and written reports, embedded in all assessments with emphasis on reflection of their work. Formative assessment and feedback is planned to address their learning development needs and to capture their learning achievements with a regular request of reflective commentaries in all written submissions.

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

LO1. Demonstrate the skills and understanding needed to plan, develop, and realise work in the parallel Final Project module..
LO2. Evaluate your work critically, recognising its position in the wider marketplace.
LO3. Identify and understand audiences for your work.
LO4. Develop a website and branding for your musical output, for use as a portfolio.
LO5. Work independently to effectively present and promote your Final Project outcome.

Formative Assessment 1 – Week 4
Students are asked to submit their project proposals (800-1000 words) in week 4. This proposal should establish the initial aims of their project, timelines, and key milestones.

Formative Assessment 2 – Week 12
Students are expected to present and discuss the initial stages of work on their projects in week 12 for peer review and feedback. The intention is to review the works in their current stage for the first Formative Feedback in December. It is expected that the works would be in their earliest stages, but it is very important that we make strategic assessments so that students can keep track and have a record of their works in progress.

Formative Assessment 3 – Week 20
The Second formative feedback on students in-progress projects. It is expected that the works would have passed their earliest stages here and students on placements will be able to provide a report on their progress. This assessment allows students to focus on the affective means of production in their projects entering the final part of the year.

Practical outcome and report/workbook – Week 30
Final submission due in week 30, will contain the final practical outcome of the projects, detailed report and reflective log.
(circa 4000 words or equivalent, including proposal, plan of works, project brief, description and analysis of project development in the form of a reflexive chronicle)

https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/E7AC0F5D-F170-87D1-11BE-144E1A7162AA.html?lang=en-GB&login=1

Core Reading:
• Bargfrede, A. (2017) Music law in the digital age: copyright essentials for today's music business. 2nd edition. Boston, MA: Berklee Press.
• Barrow, C., Barrow, P. and Brown, R. (2021) The business plan workbook: a step-by-step guide to creating and developing a successful business. Tenth edition. London, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Kogan Page.
• Borg, B. (2020) Music marketing for the DIY musician: creating and executing a plan of attack on a low budget. Second Edition. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Fitterman Radbill, C. (2017) Introduction to the music industry: an entrepreneurial approach. Second edition. New York, NY; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
• Harrison, A. (2021) Music: the business: the essential guide to the law and the deals.
• Hepworth-Sawyer, R. et al. (eds) (2020) Gender in music production. 1. New York: Routledge (Perspectives on music production).
• Media, M. (2021) Social Media Marketing 2021.
• Passman, D.S., Organ, C. and Glass, R. (2021) All you need to know about the music business.
• Stewart, P (2018) The live-streaming handbook: how to create great live video on your phone, for Facebook and Twitter. London: Routledge.
• Tschmuck, P. (2021) The economics of music. Second edition. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing (The economics of big business).
• WikstroÃàm, P. (2020) The music industry: music in the cloud. Third edition. Medford: Polity (Digital media and society series).