Music Production (online) MA
About this course
This online postgraduate degree is delivered in partnership with Tileyard Education, London.
This innovative online course is designed for accomplished music producers working across an extensive range of genres, whether your passion lies in mainstream, experimental, alternative or traditional styles. Taught in partnership with Tileyard, the world’s largest professional music community, the Music Production Masters degree challenges you to push creative boundaries, combining traditional and emerging practices to craft innovative solutions in sound design, recording, and production. You’ll engage with cutting-edge technologies and industry methods, applying them in ways that reflect their cultural and societal relevance.
Throughout the course, you’ll conduct in-depth research within your chosen specialism, exploring new possibilities and expanding your creative horizons. At the same time, you’ll build a personalised career development plan, honing the skills, attributes, and professional practices essential for success in the dynamic music production landscape.
The programme is focused on equipping you to navigate and excel in the rapidly evolving music industry, providing a solid foundation for future opportunities.
You’ll be paired with an industry mentor, matched to your project and/or specialism. They’ll work with you throughout your studies, acting as an external source of advice, support, contacts, and possibly employment opportunities
NTU’s virtual resources provide a comprehensive education from the comfort of your home while fostering collaboration across the NTU x Tileyard community. By combining on-demand services with regular virtual one-to-one sessions and workshops, you’ll stay fully connected and supported throughout your studies.
Student Spotlight: Aaron's Online Learning Experience
Discover how Aaron, a recent graduate of the NTU x Tileyard online MA, benefited from the flexibility and industry connections offered through online study. In this video, Aaron shares his insights on balancing studies with personal commitments and how the industry mentorship scheme helped him advance his music production career.
What you’ll study
About the Tileyard community: Tileyard is home to 200+ creative businesses, and their studios are regularly used by A-listers like Dua Lipa and Noel Gallagher.
Tileyard’s global network extends online, connecting you with their vibrant community of artists, producers, and music professionals.
Benefits of the NTU x Tileyard partnership: Enjoy the best of both worlds — NTU’s outstanding online resources, plus exclusive access to Tileyard’s range of experts and events
- Access to songwriting camps and workshops
- Personalised mentorship from current leading industry professionals
- Weekly live industry briefs
- Exclusive access to Tileyard’s Discord Server for feedback, networking and collaboration
- Remote access to networking events with industry-active professionals
- Monthly A&R surgeries with expert feedback
- High-profile speakers and masterclasses
- Collaboration with an online songwriting community
- Mentorship and funding opportunities through NTU’s Denizen record label
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.
We regularly review and update our course content based on student and employer feedback, ensuring that all of our courses remain current and relevant. This may result in changes to module content or module availability in future years.
How you're taught
Studying an online course with the Nottingham School of Art & Design means having full flexibility when it comes to your environment. The main delivery platforms you will be using are Microsoft Teams, Bebop and our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) NOW.
Our online study community is very close-knit and we recommend that students who live in similar geographical areas organise meet ups regularly in order to support collaboration.
Careers and employability
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
YouFirst – working with our Employability Team
Studying at a popular university has many benefits, none more so than having access to a large employability team.
Our friendly, experienced careers consultants will work closely with you at every stage of your career planning, providing personal support and advice you won't find in a book or on the internet. You can benefit from this at any time during your studies and up to three years after completing your course.
Campus and facilities
If you have chosen the online pathway, certain facilities and resources available on our physical campus may not be accessible to you due to the nature of remote learning.
As part of our degree, you'll be working in the studio, collaborating with musicians, engineers and producers. And you're in for a treat, with world-class facilities...
We’ve worked closely with industry partner and leader, SSL, on creating a bespoke-built console. TriniTy is the first-of-its-kind system, delivering SSL’s SuperAnalogue sound, digital production power, and seamless integration.
Check out SSL’s announcement on their website.
You’ll find SSL ORIGIN consoles in all edit suites as standard. The studio mixing console has a traditional analogue studio workflow at its heart whilst providing the perfect partner for a modern DAW-driven ‘hybrid’ production studio.
Audio monitoring throughout the music facilities is provided by PMC and Focusrite Rednet interfaces throughout, allowing for audio recording to be captured remotely.
Metronome London is a purpose-built multi-discipline events and production space with the versatility built-in to function as a 600-capacity live venue, or a virtual production studio complete with LED volume.
Similar to our Nottingham venue, Metronome it's here where you'll gain valuable work experience and access world-class facilities.
Entry requirements
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 compositions.
- 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 Performance, Music Production, Audio Production, Commercial Production, Composing for Media.
- If you don’t hold a suitable degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions made with and state your role in their writing and production. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the songs 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.
Getting in touch
If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form
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 compositions.
- 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 Performance, Music Production, Audio Production, Commercial Production, Composing for Media.
- If you don’t hold a suitable degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions made with and state your role in their writing and production. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the songs 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.
Personal statement
You should include in your personal statement why you want to study this course and what career in the music business you are aiming for. Please also include:
- Evidence of knowledge of the music industry
- Any experience of management (of people or projects)
- Any details of organisational skills (for example in modules or in your work)
- Any experience of marketing skills (in your course or in your work)
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.
Fees and funding
| Mode of study | Home tuition fee |
|---|---|
| Online | £7,500 |
Postgraduate fees and living costs
Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there is no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding page will answer your questions.
We are pleased to offer a 20% alumni discount for graduates of Nottingham Trent University. Terms and conditions apply.
Postgraduate loans
The government introduced a new postgraduate loan scheme for Master degrees. The loan will be a contribution towards the costs of study and it will be at the student's discretion to use the loan towards fees, maintenance costs or other costs. Find out more on our postgraduate loans page.
Scholarships
We award scholarships to those students who can demonstrate excellent achievement, passion and dedication to their studies. To find out more visit our Postgraduate Scholarships web page.
| Mode of study | International tuition fee |
|---|---|
| Online | £7,500 |
Postgraduate fees and living costs
Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there is no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding page will answer your questions.
Scholarships
We offer scholarships of up to 50% of your tuition fee. You can apply for your scholarship when you have an offer to study at NTU.
Paying fees
Find out about advanced payments, instalment plan options and how to make payments securely to the University:
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.
How to apply
Applications for this course can be made via the NTU Applicant Portal - click on the Apply button at the top of the page to be taken straight through to the Portal.
Your application will include a personal statement, and you’ll need to provide a reference.
For a step-by-step guide to making an application through our Applicant Portal, please visit our postgraduate application pages.
Writing your application
Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. Make sure you include as much information as possible, including uploading evidence of results already achieved, as well as a personal statement.
Advice for non-standard applicants
We welcome applications from applicants without prior qualifications. However, in this instance, you must have proven experience in industry, which demonstrates appropriate knowledge and skills at honours degree (undergraduate) standard.
If you are applying without prior qualifications, you will need to submit comprehensive details of your achievements with evidence to substantiate your claim (any documentation can be uploaded to the My Documents section of the Applicant Portal). This type of application will be considered with respect to the University’s provision for ‘accreditation for prior experiential learning’. Decisions regarding the accreditation of prior learning are a matter of academic judgement.
Keeping up to date
After you’ve applied, we’ll be sending you important emails throughout the application process - so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
Getting in touch
For admissions-related enquiries please contact us:
Applications for this course can be made via the NTU Applicant Portal - click on the Apply button at the top of the page to be taken straight through to the Portal.
Your application will include a personal statement, and you’ll need to provide a reference.
For a step-by-step guide to making an application through our Applicant Portal, please visit our postgraduate application pages.
Writing your application
Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. Make sure you include as much information as possible, including uploading evidence of results already achieved, as well as a personal statement.
Advice for non-standard applicants
We welcome applications from applicants without prior qualifications. However, in this instance, you must have proven experience in industry, which demonstrates appropriate knowledge and skills at honours degree (undergraduate) standard.
If you are applying without prior qualifications, you will need to submit comprehensive details of your achievements with evidence to substantiate your claim (any documentation can be uploaded to the My Documents section of the Applicant Portal). This type of application will be considered with respect to the University’s provision for ‘accreditation for prior experiential learning’. Decisions regarding the accreditation of prior learning are a matter of academic judgement.
Keeping up to date
After you’ve applied, we’ll be sending you important emails throughout the application process - so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
Getting in touch
For admissions-related enquiries please contact us:
