BA (Hons) Live Event and Festival Management

In this module, you’ll familiarise yourself with the music business environment and the key roles within the live industry. Exploring concepts used in categorising and analysing a range of music organisations, you’ll get to know the core structures and functions of today’s industry. You’ll discover the three main sectors – recorded music, live music and publishing – as you study the key operations of music copyright. You’ll also gain insight into the roles of collection societies, professionals and organisations, investigating revenue flow and the interrelationships between each area of the industry.

• Roles within the live music industry 
• Recorded music 
• Live music 
• Music publishing 
• Music copyright 
• The role of collection societies 
• Interrelationships between areas of the music industry 

Over this module, you’ll learn how to identify business opportunities within the music industry and implement and market them successfully. You’ll examine the core principles of entrepreneurship, the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur, and any barriers that can arise. You’ll learn techniques for recognising new business opportunities, plus skills for turning them into successful ventures using customer-driven marketing strategies. You’ll cover topics including the importance of brands to consumers, music artists and organisations, the difference between brands and products, and the power of brand equity. As a hands-on project, you’ll develop and present  a marketing campaign which illustrates your knowledge of marketing principles, branding and consumer behaviour.

• Entrepreneurship in music 
• How to develop a music industry marketing campaign 
• Identifying new business opportunities in music 
• Customer-driven marketing strategies 
• Brands and products in the music industry 
• Attributes of successful music brands 

There’s only one way to become fluent in the language of live production and that’s to embed yourself in the industry and gain real-world experience. In this exciting and highly practical module, you’ll learn the fundamentals of live production first-hand – by being onsite in a live performance space and interacting with industry professionals. Shadowing both behind-the-scenes and front-of-house tech crew, you’ll become competent at operating basic sound and lighting equipment, as you display the same professionalism and high production values you’ll take into your future career. You’ll also understand the functions of the interdependent roles involved in delivering a live show, and the live production terminology and subtle nuances required to make it happen.

• Live production industry terminology and jargon 
• Understanding stage management 
• Full professional performance set up 
• How to load in, run a soundcheck and focus stage lighting  
• Live production roles 
• How to get the best from your live production team 

The live music ecosystem has changed considerably in recent times, and you’ll explore the fundamentals of the new frontier in this pioneering and highly relevant module. During your studies, you’ll map the full spectrum of the live environment, acknowledging how interrelated roles depend on each other and connect with the recorded music sector – syncing with artists’ calendars, label release campaigns and other promotional activities. You’ll explore revenue generation and flow within the ecosystem, including the evolving non-profit sector and its dependence on subsidies. You’ll gain a global perspective as you explore non-Western approaches while keeping up-to-date with traditional and up-and-coming market leaders.

• The interconnection of the live music industry 
• Live music revenue generation 
• Not-for-profit enterprises and subsidies 
• In association with the Music Venue Trust 

In this module, you’ll uncover the essentials of running a live music venue – everything from revenue streams, staff wages, licensing and legal responsibilities, to artist and agent liaison, health and safety, community engagement and building maintenance. You’ll interact with grassroots venue professionals, including general managers, in-house bookers, fundraising managers, and members of the marketing and communication teams, to understand how these roles interrelate across both internal and external teams. You’ll explore concepts within hospitality including accessibility and environmental sustainability, as you learn to host inclusive events at both small and large capacity venues.

• Understanding live venue revenue streams 
• Live venue licensing 
• Contribution to the night time economy  
• Accessible live events for audiences with additional needs 
• Running zero-carbon live events 
• How to survive and thrive as a grassroots music venue 
• Liaising with local authorities 
• In association with Music Venue Trust 

In our continually evolving digital age, creativity has never been more vital. In this module, you’ll cover the principles of content creation and content marketing, as you learn practical and artistic techniques to help you stand out online across a range of digital media. You’ll discover why it’s essential for all music industry businesses to create a successful online presence to thrive, as you explore creative ways to get noticed digitally.  Using core content creation platforms and software, for image and video editing programmes, you’ll develop creative assets for real-world content and marketing strategies in a variety of formats.

• How to develop an online presence 
• Content creation techniques 
• Digital marketing  
• How to use image and photo editing software 
• Video editing techniques 
• Social media content and formats 

In this module, you’ll gain a strong logistical understanding of the processes and functions involved in hosting a performing arts event. You’ll explore every facet of the touring and festival environment – from creating touring Itineraries, organising visas, contributing to safety advisory groups (SAG), and following health and safety requirements, to managing sites and stages, understanding how contracting works, and being on top of entertainment licensing. The module offers many opportunities to gain hands-on experience with ICMP’s UK-based festival partners, shadowing industry professionals and collaborating with teams to plan or run a range of events. You’ll also explore festival sustainability, working on both carbon-neutral and leave-no-trace approaches.

• The practical logistics of festivals and touring 
• International touring 
• Visas, visa tiers and sponsorships 
• Non-Western approaches to touring 
• Festival health and safety 
• Festival licensing 
• How to run a carbon-neutral festival 
• Implementing a ‘leave no trace’ festival ethos 

The sky’s the limit in this module! You’ll be encouraged to use your imagination and creativity to conceive and curate a live performing arts event or festival like no other. Your expert tutors will guide you through the process of identifying projects, as you work with local authorities, seek appropriate funding, creatively engage audiences and build event attendance. Thinking beyond music and curating ideas around installations, theatre and public art, you’ll gain comprehensive knowledge of the infinite possibilities of live entertainment in today’s industry. Explore and expand your creativity as you blend art forms and challenge norms to conceive the most innovative immersive event possible.

• Learn the art of performing arts curation 
• Think creatively about space, place and content 
• Engagement and inclusion in live event curation 
• Building audience engagement  
• Working with local authorities 
• Pitching for live events funding 
• How to use SketchUp CAD software 

This module will evolve with the ever-changing environment of live streaming and entertainment event technologies. As you investigate the tools available to deliver immersive events, such as virtual reality and interactive technologies, you’ll gain insights from a host of industry specialists – including those working for both major broadcast platforms and grassroot music venues. You’ll cover the different components, technologies and platforms available, plus paywalls and the financial implications of your chosen methods. Armed with a greater understanding of the infinite potential of these technologies, you’ll also map out the future of the sector.

• Live streaming tools and platforms 
• Entertainment technologies 
• Immersive events 
• Interactive technology use in live streaming 
• Virtual reality for events 
• Live streaming paywall options 
• The future of live streaming 

Covering the essentials of live industry finance, in this module you’ll learn how to identify and bid for money to ensure both you and/or your business are financially sustainable throughout your professional live events career. You’ll become fluent in financial processes, including tax, PAYE, liquidity, cash flow and more. Looking at governance structures, you’ll determine the advantages of various entities across both the profit and non-profit sectors. Importantly, you’ll discover how to plan, develop and submit a funding application to an arts body. If successful, this submission may provide funding for your ambitious and exciting final-year Live Project.

• Financial planning techniques 
• Project gross and net profit and loss  
• Financial sustainability for live events 
• Arts fundraising avenues 
• Submitting funding applications  
• How to apply to bodies like national arts councils 
• Governance structures 

Live events are firmly at the heart of the UK music industry, bringing joy to millions each year. In this exciting and highly practical module, you’ll be in the driving seat as you explore the key principles of live events management and apply them to design and open an event for the general public along with your classmates. In the process, you’ll address live event topics including health and safety, legislation and regulations, facilities management, personnel management, project management, risk assessment and more. Collaborating in groups, with students responsible for key live event components covering curating, ticketing, marketing, promoting and staffing, you’ll push your branding, concepting, technological and technical ideas to the limit.

• Core principals of live events management 
• Marketing, promotion and branding of live events 
• Booking contracts 
• New income streams, including live streaming and crowdfunding 
• Budgeting, planning and staffing events 
• Event project structure 
• Live event evaluation and review 

In this module, you’ll explore the tools needed to successfully market your own events and festivals. You’ll examine audience patterns and attendance as you evaluate case studies and analyse industry data. You’ll discuss tactics to grow and retain your customer base, like the motivation and beliefs of audiences. When investigating factors that impact audience attendance, you’ll look at different promotion and engagement methodologies, contemplating how individuals and organisations can best use the tools available to them. Interaction with ICMP’s music industry marketing partners is especially encouraged in this module, so you’ll learn the promotional practices of ticketing agencies, in-house marketing teams and events marketing agencies first hand.

• Event marketing roles and responsibilities 
• Marketing your event to an audience 
• Analysing audience patterns and attendance 
• How to grow and retain your customer base 
• Audience retention and early bird marketing techniques for festivals 
• Live event marketing and promotional tools 
• Interact with experienced marketing practitioners 

In this module, you’ll explore the steps involved in launching your own professional brand. You’ll discover what it means to be an entrepreneur in the live sector as you learn how to set up and run your own business or non-profit organisation. Across your studies, you’ll become proficient at identifying opportunities, managing projects, building teams and being an effective leader – all vital skills for your final-year Live Project. You’ll examine a range of project management frameworks as you determine ways you could use them effectively across your career. You’ll also put an assortment of transferable soft skills, such as problem solving and lateral thinking, into practice within a real-world working environment.

• Live events business development skills 
• Identifying new business opportunities 
• Brand development 
• Portfolio career entrepreneurship 
• Charities and Community Interest Companies (CICs) 
• Social investment funding 
• Managing non-profit brands 
• Profit vs subsidy-reliant models 

Put into practice everything you’ve learned in this engaging and exciting module. Collaborating in groups with your fellow students, but with large amounts of independent responsibility, you’ll work to create an exceptional fully funded and artistically curated live project. In deciding on your event, you could choose to team up with our industry partners or set up a new entity especially for the project. The event must adhere to all legal requirements and have its own creative engagement programme. You’ll be expected to take complete ownership of your portion of the project, and you’ll be assessed on your contribution to the event and critical reflection of the process.

• Launch your own fully funded live event or festival
• Artistic curation and creative engagement 
• Group collaboration 
• Liaising with course partners 
• How to report back to funding bodies 
• Delegate team specialists across each live events area 
• In association with Music Venue Trust and other industry partners 

In this module, you’ll consolidate your understanding of the concepts of contract law and intellectual property law and their application in the music and entertainment industries. You’ll develop a comprehensive understanding of copyright and intellectual property (IP) rights, as well as the challenges around areas including artistic works, image rights, data protection, moral rights, advertising, music sampling and restraint of trade. Your improved understanding will help you negotiate more favourable music recording, publishing and artist management agreements, and better-quality contracts for sponsorships, endorsements, merchandising, multiple rights, and film and television sync deals.

• The fundamentals of music and entertainment law 
• Contract law 
• Music copyright 
• Live performance rights 
• Negotiating live engagement contracts 
• Securing sponsorship and endorsement deals 
• Exploring evolving business models 

In this module, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategic demands of planning and managing a festival. Every facet is vital to the success of the event, from logistics to marketing. We’ll deep dive into site management covering everything from planning, safety, licensing, vendor relations, through to crowd control. As the environmental and social footprints of large gatherings has become evident, sustainability at festivals has gained an increasing prominence. Many event goers are now actively seeking environmentally conscientious events, the module will cover key considerations and challenge you to envision even more sustainable features and solutions. 

• Festival Site Selection  
• Permitting and legal considerations 
• Festival Marketing Strategies 
• Festival Security and Crowd Management 
• Sustainable Event Planning 
• Community Involvement and partnerships 
• Volunteer Recruitment and Management 

Talent Management Strategies provides you with a well-rounded understanding of talent management at an advanced level, combining theoretical concepts with practical applications and ensuring students are well-prepared for strategic roles in management and organisational leadership.

The module focuses on building careers and professional relationships directly with artists and their representatives. You'll learn how various roles within the Live Music Industry interact with Talent from multiple perspectives. For example, how an agent plots the career arc of an artist from a new inexperienced artist to one filling stadiums and headlining festivals internationally. How Promoters maintain long-term relationships with acts and their teams and how Festival Programmers create and maintain a bespoke identity for their event via the talent that they book.

You'll gain insight and guidance directly from industry professionals, helping you build your own network and creating a sustainable role for yourself in this diverse and competitive industry.

• Talent Acquisition & Development
• Strategic Alignment
• Performance Management
• Succession Planning
• Global Talent Management
• Emerging Trends in Talent Management
• Case Studies and Practical Applications

Enhance your academic learning with a period of work experience in the live music and festival industries with this optional module. You’ll gain a host of practical skills working within a professional environment relevant to your area of interest, and will develop your employability and transferable skills through the practical application of theoretical knowledge learned during your studies. You’ll receive CV, interview and careers support from ICMP’s The Hub in the researching and preparation of your work placement application, but will be expected to identify, apply for and secure the work placement independently, and evaluate your experience in a report. 

• Preparing for employment within the live industry 
• Tailored careers advice and support 
• How to write your CV 
• Applying for a work placement 
• Job interview techniques 
• Work experience in the creative industries, that may lead to a permanent position