Commercial Songwriting (Cert HE)

This module encourages you to reflect on your own songwriting and its development by giving you a professional grounding in the key elements of songwriting. Working independently, with others and also with a brief, as you might with a label, you will explore the way in which you can be inspired and influenced by techniques and musical elements from a range of different genres.

In this module you’ll develop your digital production (DAW) skills, but also your project planning, collaboration, influence, communication and leadership skills.

An indicative lecture programme relating to the module might include:

• Songwriter/artist and Songwriting/producer
• Song structure and arrangement
• Melody, riff and hook
• Harmonic structure, bassline and cohesion
• The DAW and production techniques for songwriters: creating, editing and layering tracks
• The DAW and production techniques for EDM/beat-based songwriting
• Song structures and arranging 1
• Song structures and arranging 2
• Mix techniques: Creative EQ/Dynamics and FX
• Creating and exporting the final mix
• Remixing techniques (extended and creative edits, versioning, introducing samples)
• Manipulating parts and stems and collaborating with others

From sheet music to streaming this module will give you the knowledge and understanding of the modern music industry by helping you understand its past and also the evolution of its current structure.

This will help contextualise your learning and also understand your place within the industry as a creator, artist, songwriter and entrepreneur.

An indicative lecture programme for this module will include:

• The early music industry: the roots of A&R, and the history of songwriting
• The Digital Revolution: Napster, iTunes, Spotify and the rise of the DAW and DIY artist
• Music publishing – The majors and Disrupters
• The Record Label – the Majors & Indies, label services and DIY
• The Live industry
• Discovery & Development – getting signed and career opportunities
• The Role of the Manager & Agent
• Going social: Direct to Fan & Fan to Fan. Sustaining your own career
• Marketing and Promotion
• The future of the industry: trends, data and analysis

Studied alongside Songwriting, this module will develop your songwriting portfolio and experience more widely. In this module, you’ll be concentrating on deliberately building your repertoire of songwriting skills independently as well as collaboratively.

You will learn to adjust your creative vision to support that of those you are working with, and showcase your skills in making the work of another songwriter or artist industry-ready and commercially viable.

An indicative lecture program might include:

• Starting a project: inspiration and planning
• Song structure and arrangement
• Topline and melody building
• Writing to a track
• Writing to a brief
• Lyrics and rhyme
• Harmony and chord progressions 1
• Harmony and chord progressions 2
• Analysing genres 1
• Analysing genres 2
• Songwriting for bands/ensembles 1
• Songwriting for bands/ensembles 2

Releasing a final creative work needs the effort and vision of the producer. An understanding of song structure and the way in which the musical and technical elements of the track combine will elevate your track.

This module will introduce you to a range of techniques that bring together the musical with technical audio techniques, ensuring your creative vision is realised in the studio.

An indicative lecture programme relating to the module could include:

• The role of the artist/songwriter/producer
• Refining song structure and arrangement
• Defining styles: Making Disco/Techno/House/Trance
• Defining styles: Making Hip Hop/Rap
• Defining styles: Making UK Urban Beats
• Defining styles: Making commercial R&B, Pop
• Writing for the screen (film, TV, advertising)
• The overall sound – matching technique to genre
• Your music’s journey, from studio to release
• Pitching to the professionals, positioning yourself and your career
• Commercial contexts and diversifying your skills

Through this unit, you will explore different career opportunities, apply for music industry The role of the songwriter/artist is part songwriter, part engineer, part influencer, part artist and part business entrepreneur.

This module will help you understand the different revenue streams available to you and the ways in which you can not only create and release music yourself, but also how to work with larger music industry businesses (artists, managers, labels, publishers and collection societies) to maximise your influence within the industry and develop your career.

An indicative lecture programme relating to the module will comprise:

• Thinking like a business: maximising your potential and the role of the songwriter/collaborator/artist
• Music business landscape 1: The label, A&R, producer/artist, collaboration
• Music business landscape 2: copyright and collections societies
• Music business landscape 3: Publishing and points
• Collaboration: legal, IP and protecting your investment
• Success stories: key producer/artists
• The business plan: monetising your music
• The business model: start-up structure and keeping it lean
• Media, marketing and promotion
• Business finance for non-finance experts
• Pitching to others
• Key responsibilities as a business owner: reporting, key dates, tax and finance

The history of Popular Music is rich and multicultural. Popular music is increasingly bound in the technology that creates it, with songwriters and artists able to use technology to create, distribute, promote and sell their own music and brand.

This module focusses on those aspects of creative and critical theory that are intertwined with the industry and songwriting such as subculture, style and genre and the history of music technology. It will also explore trends and taste from a consumer perspective and look at the global industry.

An indicative lecture programme relating to the module will comprise:

• A brief history of Pop from Tin Pan Alley to AI
• Cultures and subcultures
• Styles, genres and their evolution
• Commercialism and Commerce
• Studying the consumer, audiences, the history of trends and defining taste
• Creative digital perspectives
• The digital creator: machine and producer as artist
• Integrating critical perspectives creatively
• Sounds from history: the origins of what we hear now
• Equity and diversity in music
• The global music industry, different territories, genres and perspectives.

This course comprises 6 Assessments totalling 120 credits.

You will complete around 320 hours of indicative scheduled learning and teaching activities and 880 hours of independent learning on projects, productions, placements or self-directed study.

Assessment will be through: Coursework, presentations, assessed tutorials and portfolios.