Modern Music Industries

Modern music industries is a discipline that examines the contemporary music business from multiple angles, combining performance, production, and industry knowledge to prepare graduates for professional careers in an industry that is complex, rapidly changing, and genuinely global. The music industry today looks very different from how it operated even fifteen years ago: streaming has transformed how music reaches listeners and how artists earn money, social media has created new routes to audience and new forms of promotion, and the boundaries between performer, producer, and entrepreneur are increasingly fluid.

At the University of Sunderland, this part-time programme develops your performance skills alongside your understanding of music production and the music industry's commercial and cultural structures. The degree is built around hands-on practice, giving you opportunities to perform on stage, on screen, and in studio and professional settings, and to develop your skills as a well-rounded performer through workshops, production work, and industry exposure. The employability focus of the programme means that professional development runs alongside creative development throughout.

Graduates from modern music industries programmes work across the full breadth of the music sector. Performing, songwriting, music production, artist management, tour management, music marketing, event promotion, record label roles, publishing, and music journalism are all destinations that graduates have pursued. The combination of performance skills and industry understanding that the degree develops is particularly useful for those who want to build careers with both creative and commercial dimensions, whether as independent artists who understand their own business or as professionals working within the industry's infrastructure.

Postgraduate study in music business, music technology, or music performance is a further option for those seeking deeper specialisation.