EXECUTIVE MA IN MUSIC BUSINESS

The first MA of its kind, the 1-year NHAM Executive MA in Music Business is designed to transform your professional music industry experience into powerful strategic capabilities industry can use. Immersive and real-world, the programme blends advanced interdisciplinary thinking with leading-edge practice, giving you the breadth, depth and skills you need to thrive in the modern music industry.

Over three semesters you will work alongside industry practitioners and academics from across the music industry on live briefs and real-world challenges, putting you at the heart of the dynamic, fast-paced and ever-changing music industry from day one. 

Learning happens through a mix of seminars with working industry experts, workshops, guest masterclasses, dialogue and critical discussion, one-to-one tutorials, self-directed research, and enquiry-led industry projects. 

Your lecturers are experienced academics as well as being experts in their fields, while your industry mentors come directly from business. As you study you are encouraged to connect with the people, resources and business spaces you have access to, growing your network and your industry awareness as you learn. 

The five MA modules build the advanced critical, analytical and research-led skills industry expects graduates to have. 

In semester 1 you’ll develop an interdisciplinary perspective on the industry through the Music Business Ecosystems module, while also looking at emotional intelligence and personality through the Professional Identity and Workplace Culture module. 

Semester 2 builds on these foundations with the Market Intelligence, Strategy and Insights module exploring how business decision-making in the music industry actually happens – and why. The Industry Consultancy Studio sees you working in small teams to tackle a live consultancy brief from one of our top industry partners. 

The final semester sees you undertake a self-defined research project or dissertation in partnership with industry in the Capstone Project module. 

Whether your specialism is marketing or business affairs, management or finance, HR or A&R, you will graduate as a self-aware professional able to navigate complex, multi-layered challenges, competing stakeholders and manage projects in the way industry needs.

SEMESTER 1
MUSIC BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS: DATA AND DECISION-MAKING

This module examines the global music economy as an interconnected ecosystem, tracing how value is created, how it moves, and who is paid in the process. You’ll develop the critical tools to analyse the business practices, policies, technologies and socio-cultural forces reshaping the music industry today.

Working alongside industry professionals from across the global music ecosystem, you’ll audit the industry using AI visualisation tools to critically evaluate how income flows, where barriers constrain growth, and how platform consolidation, private equity and AI are reshaping the value of music IP, and the new business models industry is developing. 

Learning happens through small-group industry seminars, AI-enabled data workshops and one-to-one tutorials with industry mentors. Indicative content includes:

1. Mapping the global music ecosystem. Industry structure today; streaming economics; rights and collection societies; global IP frameworks.
2. Rights, value and revenue flows. Royalty auditing; digital rights management; blockchain disruptors; regulation and data ethics.
3. Decision-making in complex systems. Systems thinking; AI mapping tools; investment and capital allocation inside complex ecosystems; music futures and creator-led rights.

This module aims to:

• Develop a critical understanding of the music industry as a global socio-technical ecosystem.
• Build the analytical and systems-thinking skills to diagnose tensions, opportunities and adversities across the industry.
• Strengthen evidence-based reasoning for industry audiences and policymakers.
• Build AI fluency and ethical data literacy for senior decision-makers.

SEMESTER 1
PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND WORKPLACE CULTURE

The music industry is all about people and relationships. Working within it requires a deep critical awareness of how cultural differences, diverse personalities and the often-unspoken workplace codes influence how work gets done. This module treats your professional identity as something emergent, to be examined, developed, understood and worked on, not just performed.

You’ll undertake a shadowing placement inside a working music business, observing workplace culture first-hand. Alongside it, you’ll use psychometric profiling tools, theories drawn from organisational psychology and reflexive journalling to interrogate how culture, habitus, neurodiversity, mental health and power shape professional behaviours and identities.

Learning combines seminars, one-to-one sessions with a trained coach, psychometric workshops and digital etiquette training. Indicative content includes:

1. Identity, culture and the workplace. Theories of organisational psychology; Bourdieu’s habitus; music industry cultures; leadership styles in the sector.
2. Self-authorship and reflexivity. Self-authorship frameworks; responding to developmental feedback; psychometric profiling and reflexive journalling.
3. Operating in complex environments. Neurodiversity and wellbeing; style-flexing and code-switching; digital etiquette; intercultural leadership theories and praxis.

This module aims to:

• Develop a critical understanding of how professional identity is constructed and performed in music industry workplaces.
• Equip you with reflexive and psychometric tools for adaptive leadership and self-awareness.
• Strengthen your ability to operate ethically across diverse cultures, teams and complex hybrid environments.
• Support sustainable practice through engagement with wellbeing and self-authored development practice.

SEMESTER 2
MARKET INTELLIGENCE, STRATEGY AND INSIGHTS

The music economy increasingly relies on behavioural data and market insights over intuition. The difference between strategy that works and strategy that fails often comes down to who interprets the market signals, the intelligence data and what they read into it. This module builds your understanding of market intelligence and the decision-making capabilities that come from it through enquiry-led audience data projects.

Working with first-party data, platform dashboards, social listening tools, predictive analytics and AI systems, you’ll learn how to recognise patterns and spot weak signals in the data as you explore digital fandoms, audience behaviours and artist’s brand-worlds. These skills will help you anticipate emerging trends, predict market pivots and find commercial opportunities within the music economy.  

Learning takes place through data and analytics clinics, AI analysis sessions and industry project-based briefings and case studies, and access to live platform data environments. Indicative content includes:

1. The music-data ecosystem. Audiences, streaming, live and social metrics; chart-trajectory modelling; CRM and fan communities, cultural data and analysis tools.
2. Research methods and market intelligence. Netnographic and online digital ethnographic methods; modern market segmentation and audience behaviour forecasting; horizon scanning; professional intelligence data sources and reports (IFPI, MIDiA, PRS, MINTEL, PwC, Deloitte).
3. From insight to strategy. Data storytelling and visualisation; scenario planning; AI in qualitative and quantitative analysis; data ethics and bias.

This module aims to:

• Develop advanced capabilities in analysing audience data, market intelligence and trends.
• Build fluency in contemporary research methods including netnography and dashboard analysis.
• Strengthen your ability to translate complex data into persuasive strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Develop critical awareness of the ethical and cultural implications of data-driven decision-making and data gathering.

SEMESTER 2
INDUSTRY CONSULTANCY STUDIO

Consultancy is where theory and practice are tested against client briefs, deadlines, data and expectations. This module places you inside a small consultancy team working directly with one of NHAM’s industry partners to deliver a project of genuine strategic relevance and commercial value to a client organisation.

Guided by a practising music industry consultant, and supported by trained researchers, you’ll scope the brief, define the business challenge, design the research instruments, gather and interrogate the data and develop recommendations the client can act on. The work is collaborative and you will be accountable as a team for the report you present to the client.

Learning combines scoping workshops, subject-specific consultancy masterclasses, research workshops and mentoring from practising consultants. Indicative content includes:

1. Consultancy in practice. Project scoping and negotiation; stakeholder management; professional ethics; setting KPIs and impact assessment.
2. Research and analysis for industry. Interdisciplinary research methods; systems thinking and problem solving; AI tools for consultancy and knowledge management.
3. Delivery and reflexivity. Leadership and team dynamics; preparing and presenting professional consultancy reports; reflexive evaluation of individual role and contribution, and team dynamics.

This module aims to:

• Develop your professional consultancy capabilities through live industry briefs.
• Build advanced research, teamwork, negotiation and critical judgement skills.
• Strengthen your ability to deliver industry-grade reports and measurable impact.
• Develop reflexive awareness of your role and leadership within consultancy teams.

SEMESTER 3
CAPSTONE PROJECT (PROPOSAL + REALISATION)

The Capstone Project is where everything you’ve studied on the  programme comes together. Building on the theory, methods, experience and networks you have developed, the Capstone Project is your opportunity to design and deliver a substantial independent piece of work that addresses a real industry challenge, an innovative business idea or a project based in your own practice and career goals.

Designed to be flexible and self-directed, you’ll choose between two pathways: an Industry-Embedded Brief where you will work directly with one of our partner businesses on a live project challenge, or an Independent Brief aligned with your professional research interests and career ambitions. 

Outputs are negotiated with the academic team and may take the form of: a research dissertation, an industry portfolio with exegesis, a commissioned industry enquiry, a public engagement event, or an entrepreneurial investment pitch to industry. You decide.

You’ll be supported through the process with one-to-one academic supervision and industry mentoring, advanced research methodology seminars and peer dialogue. Indicative content includes:

1. Designing your project. Ideation, scoping and feasibility; literature review; research design, methodology, methods, outputs, ethics and risk management.
2. Doing research. Researching in commercial contexts; practice research; AI-enabled research methods and data management tools; analysis techniques and project management.
3. Delivering and disseminating your output. Exegesis and reflexive commentary; communicating findings to academic and professional audiences; pitching and dissemination of your findings and recommendations.

This module aims to:

• Enable you to design and deliver a substantial independent or industry-embedded master’s-level research project.
• Develop advanced research practice, ethical awareness and methodological rigour.
• Build capacity to translate research into outputs that contribute to professional practice and knowledge-in-the-field.
• Strengthen reflexive awareness of how the project shapes your continuing development and professional identity.

How do I apply or find out more?

Register your interest in The NHAM Executive MA in Music Business, register on the NHAM website and a member of the MA admissions team will be in touch. We run regular Open Days at Sony Music UK’s King’s Cross HQ where you can meet the MA team, tour the campus and ask about the course content and student experience.

What is the Executive MA in Music Business?

A one-year, full-time postgraduate degree awarded by Arts University Bournemouth* and delivered by NHAM. The course is worth 180 credits at Level 7.

* Subject to validation

Where is the MA taught?

The first master’s degree taught and assessed inside a major record label, teaching takes place at Relentless Records inside Sony Music UK’s headquarters in King’s Cross.

What are the entry requirements?

Standard entry is an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above in any subject, and we equally welcome applicants without degrees who have professional experience in the music or creative industries. All applicants complete an interview and a short task. There are no UCAS points or application required as this is a postgraduate qualification. Application and acceptance onto the course is through NHAM.

I’m a career changer. Is this MA for me?

Yes! The MA is explicitly designed for career changers from other industries and sectors (tech, marketing, finance, law, journalism, the arts) looking for a structured route into the music business. You’ll be in a cohort with industry professionals, recent graduates and first-generation scholars. Entry is based on merit and ambition, not just qualifications.

I’m already working in the music industry. Why do I need an MA?

A master’s qualification formalises and deepens what you already know, exposes you to leading-edge thinking, theory and methods of enquiry to build your critical, analytical and leadership capabilities, adding a distinctive and valuable MA qualification to your CV. The course is structured to work alongside an active professional life. Talk to the admissions team about your situation.

How is the course structured?

You will take five modules spread over three semesters and the course lasts one year. Four taught modules of 30 credits each are taught across semesters 1 and 2, with a 60-credit Capstone Project in semester 3. Total Level 7 credits: 180.

What does “delivered inside industry” really mean?

Teaching takes place at the Relentless Records offices at Sony Music’s King’s Cross HQ. Workshops are co-delivered with industry professionals and academics. Assessments are live briefs set by partner organisations, not hypothetical exercises and you will also take on a four-week industry shadowing opportunity in industry. The Capstone Project can also be embedded within industry, building your network and your skills through the work you do.

Who are the industry partners?

Relentless Records, [part of Sony Music UK] is the lead industry patron. NHAM’s wider partner network covers labels, publishers, management companies, live music operators, music tech businesses and rights organisations across the UK and global music sectors.

Who teaches on the course?

Teaching is shared between experienced academics and music industry executives, consultants, analysts and practitioners. Every student is paired with both an academic dialogue partner and an industry mentor to help them grow as scholars and in business.

What’s the class size?

Small. Deliberately so. Postgraduate cohorts at NHAM are limited so that mentoring, placements and consultancy work can be supported fully. Numbers are capped, due to the nature of the course, but ask the admissions team for details on application.

What about AI. How am I expected to use it?

Deep AI literacy is a core, embedded capability on this MA, not a side topic or an optional module. You’ll design and use your own ringfenced research AI for systems mapping, knowledge management and analysis. You’ll become highly ethical in your AI use, and skilled in AI innovation and prompting. The course is mapped to Skills England’s AI Skills for the UK Workforce (2025), the QAA Quality Code on Digital Assessment (2024) and the UK Government AI Regulation White Paper (2023).

WHAT ARE THE FEES AND CAN I GET FUNDING?

Postgraduate MA fees for 2026 are £10,250. Eligible UK students can apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan via https://www.gov.uk/masters-loan/apply. Self-funded and employer-sponsored routes are also welcomed.

As with all postgraduate loans, the fees are covered but maintenance loans are not available. Small bursaries and limited financial support may be available for qualifying candidates. Contact masters@nham.uk for details.

Is there an interview?

Yes. Every applicant has a conversation with the MA course leader and completes a short research task as part of the admissions process*. We are looking for evidence that you can think at master’s level with a clear sense of why this MA matches your professional direction of travel, not a polished pitch. * Details on application

Can international students apply?

No. Currently, the course is not open to international applicants

Is the course full-time?

Yes. The Executive MA in Music Business is a full-time course delivered over one calendar year, with weeks structured around one day on-site inside Sony Music UK’s King’s Cross HQ, plus placements, independent study time and one-to-one and group tutorials arranged around your timetable.

What equipment will I need?

A laptop capable of running a modern web browser and AI tools, productivity and digital collaboration software and data analysis and visualisation tools.

Is there support for wellbeing and mental health issues?

Postgraduate study can be demanding, and the music industry is a high-pressure working environment. Student support comes from the NHAM’s team of experts. Whatever your support needs, speak to us and we’ll be able to help and advise.

What kind of careers does the MA lead to?

MA graduates are well-prepared for roles in labels, product management roles, A&R, publishing, rights management, music technology, artist management, live music, music marketing, consultancy, policy work, and music industry analysis, alongside founder and entrepreneurial roles. The MA is explicitly designed to produce future innovators and leaders, not just talented hires.

When are the Open Days?

NHAM runs Open Days regularly at Sony Music UK’s King’s Cross HQ. You’ll meet the teaching team, visit the campus and have time with current students. Email the team at masters@nham.uk for dates and details.