Duration:
1 year full-time

Location:
Confetti London

On this Music Production master’s degree you will be challenged to innovate across a range of disciplines, exploring a variety of creative processes, technological approaches and interaction with current industry methods. You’ll also consider each of these elements in their societal and cultural contexts, conducting research within your chosen area and exploring new avenues at the forefront of the discipline.

Alongside these experiences, you will develop a personalised pathway to your career development, examining the attributes, skills and working practices that are likely to lead you to success in your chosen industry.

This course is suitable for accomplished music producers working in a wide range of popular music disciplines, from pop to country and from hip-hop to metal.

The focus is on preparing you for the reality and opportunities of this exciting and rapidly developing industry.

Take advantage of our in-house record label, Denizen, where you can gain access to industry mentors and grants, to help you progress in your music career.

This course is for you if:

  • you are a popular music producer, engaged in any genre within the field and you have a thirst to be engaged with the industry and surrounding cultures
  • you enjoy being open to new musical experiences
  • you are excited by developing a clear and focused career path and creative identity

This programme is open to graduates with a degree from any discipline and does not require music production study to be completed at undergraduate level, but you need previous related experience and a passion for putting together high quality productions.

Entry & admission criteria:

  • A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or an appropriate equivalent, i.e. a professional qualification, from a recognised British or overseas institution, in a related subject, such as Music Technology, Music Production, Audio Production, Sound Design, Commercial Production, Sound Engineering, Audio Engineering, Game Audio, Audio for Media, Audio for Post Production, Audio for Visual Media, Composing for Media.
  • If you don’t hold a suitable degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions made with technology and state your role in recording and producing them. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the recordings that illustrate your suitability for the course along with any industry related experience.
  • Non-standard applicants with at least three years’ industry experience are also welcome to apply.
  • Applicants who do not fully satisfy the general criteria will be considered if they are able to demonstrate that they are capable of successfully undertaking and completing the programme at the required standard. Eligibility may be determined by means of an interview for some applicants.
  • Applicants who have been taught and assessed in languages other than English should have an English language equivalent to IELTS 6.5.

  • A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or an appropriate equivalent, i.e. a professional qualification, from a recognised British or overseas institution, in a related subject, such as Music Technology, Music Production, Audio Production, Sound Design, Commercial Production, Sound Engineering, Audio Engineering, Game Audio, Audio for Media, Audio for Post Production, Audio for Visual Media, Composing for Media.
  • If you don’t hold a suitable degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions made with technology and state your role in recording and producing them. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the recordings that illustrate your suitability for the course along with any industry related experience.

Personal statement

You should include in your personal statement why you want to study this course and a summary of  your knowledge of music production including what instruments, hardware, software, consoles and outboard you use regularly.

International qualifications

We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:

English language entry requirements

You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

To apply for this course, you will need to complete an application through NTU’s Applicant Portal.

Your application will include a personal statement, and you’ll need to provide a reference.

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

We offer a 20% discount to most current Confetti and Nottingham Trent University students, and recent alumni.

As a Music Production student you can also apply to our Steve Lillywhite scholarship.

Creative Entrepreneurial Approaches (Music Production) (60 credit points)

This module is designed to reflect the entrepreneurial nature of practices in the music and audio sector. Through appropriate negotiated research avenues, you will critically examine current ways of working most applicable to your own journey as a music industry professional, whether that’s as an employee, a business owner, or a freelancer with one or more audio/music related activities.

You’ll look for your place in the sector and work towards finding a home there during and after your studies by developing your subject and employability skills along with a relevant outward facing portfolio that considers you as a brand.

You’ll critically examine the work landscape to identify relevant professional opportunities during and after your studies to support your development, and, importantly, explore ways to monetise your talents. You’ll work on specific self-sourced or supplied industry facing projects and these will provide you with the opportunity to examine the skills needed in relevant key music sectors to help you thrive and survive.

In your ‘Practice’ module, you’ll explore and experiment with multiple related skills, and the relevant results of which can be finessed here and included in your work-facing portfolio, too. To give you the best chance to have long-term success you’ll have an assigned mentor from industry to give you a vital insiders perspective.

Ultimately you’ll form an output plan and will pitch for a ‘Confetti Employability Grant’ to help you with your next steps.

Music Production Practice (60 credit points)

This is your Music Production playground! We all have our specialisms, but have you ever thought how you can apply those skills in related fields? The key to your development is going through the ‘doing’ process in a number of scenarios and examining how you can use what you learned in your own practice.

Through a series of workshops and projects you’ll explore and enhance your processes and skills in these related areas. You’ll experiment and see how related competencies can be developed to increase your employability across the music production sector: You might experiment mapping your studio production skills to live band MD-ing, or your electronic music productions as an artist to write music for media: you’ll work to personalise and apply these techniques to your own practice to enhance what makes you, you!

The key in this module is in the process and reflection, but assets related to your intended employability journey can be honed to completion for use in your ‘Creative Entrepreneurial Approaches’ module to show you at your very best.

Research Project (60 credit points)

In an ever-shifting and more complex creative industry, the need to source, analyse and process knowledge has never been more important. Research is an essential skill in the toolbox for any creative practitioner wanting to have an extensive and rewarding career in a brave new world of opportunity and challenge.

The Research Project module enables you to collaborate with other creative cohorts and formulate life-long robust research practices. You will learn the essential skills necessary to investigate and synthesise information in order to develop informed conclusions and new and exciting practices. The module will enable you to take a deep dive into your own specialist areas of interest to deliver a large research project.

The project can be delivered in media that most closely align with your creativity, with outputs that could include a whole range of audio, visual or webspace artefacts.

Do It For Real

Industry Week

Studying at Confetti you’ll take part in Industry Week where you’ll be able to meet a range of professionals within your field of interest as well as other areas of the creative industries. 

Past guests include Fumez The Engineer, Frasier T Smith, Susan Rogers, Sylvia Massy, Tony Visconti, Andrew Schepps, Steve Albini and Steve Lillywhite.

Student experiences

Our Music Production students benefit from our industry links with Tileyard, as well as our strong ties to the Nottingham music industry. You will have access to our mentorship scheme, as well as being offered the opportunity to get involved with A&R surgeries, and develop knowledge from industry speakers.

You’ll learn in our very own live music and events venue, Metronome.

With its unrivalled reputation for the quality of its sound and visuals, Metronome hosts a successful commercial programme of live events throughout the year – and it’s here where you’ll learn from the best and gain real work experience. You’ll have access to:

  • SSL Duality console
  • Dolby Atmos control room
  • High spec microphones
  • Preamps, synths, samplers, FX processors.  

Plus a combination of standard DAWs such as Pro Tools/Logic Pro and specialist composition/sound creation tools such as Max MSP. 

What roles do our graduates go on to?

  • Studio owner
  • Recording engineer
  • Producer
  • Songwriter
  • Mixing engineer
  • Mastering engineer
  • Music for media composer
  • Artist, working for a record label/publisher

NTU Employability support

Our support doesn’t end when you graduate. As a Confetti and NTU student you will be entitled to dedicated graduate employability support for up to three years after you complete your studies. You’ll have access to exclusive events, initiatives and work experience opportunities to support you in the early stages of your graduate career.

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Saturday 30 November
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Saturday 18 January
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