MODULAR TRAINING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

The Make It Happen module is a hands-on immersion into the music business. All participants embark on the conception and execution of real music projects from day one, generating a direct impact on the local music sector, and preparing themselves to face the music business at a global level. This is undoubtedly the most distinctive module of IMB School and the one that offers the most direct learning experience.

The students will be responsible for the IMB Artist Talent Programme, aimed at detecting and promoting emerging artistic talent. Once this talent has been detected, their job will be to manage it and connect it to music and creative industries professionals that are key for the project development.

Knowledge is acquired through sessions, workshops and mentoring to enable students to meet the objectives required in the IMB Artist Talent Programme which will be explained in the following sections. The work involved in the IMB Artist Talent Programme will take place mostly outside the classroom and in teams.

The IMB Artist Talent Programme is made up of four blocks:

• IMB Artist Talent Contest: Open contest for up-and-coming artists. The winners will then work with the students from the Make It Happen module during the academic year.
• IMB Artist Talent Incubator: 5-stage project that focuses on the development and management of the winning artists, from the recording of a single to the design of its live format.
• IMB Festival: Event that gives visibility to all the work done and materialises the connection of its participants to the music sector.
  
• IMB Label: Project focused on the management and production of the compilation of all the singles launched in the programme, as well as the dissemination of the knowledge and tools acquired among new managers.

During the academic year, students will become the managers of IMB Artist Talent Incubator, IMB Festival and IMB Label. These three projects are designed to be carried out under pressure and within a tight time frame, allowing students to live a fulfilling learning experience and make decisions that have a real impact outside the classroom. The performance required throughout the whole IMB Artist Talent Programme demands a great effort in teamwork coordination, as well as spreading a series of attitudes and skills regarding budget management, problem solving, anticipation, responsibility and commitment to the projects. In addition, students must work on their empathy and develop the capacity for transmitting important information in order to reach a consensus with the artist.

The experience is combined with specialised hands-on sessions and mentoring sessions as support tools in all parts of the process. Similarly, student performance will be regularly assessed every time they hand in assignments and deliver presentations within the Make it Happen module.

The completion of this module has an exceptional impact on each individual student’s training, as well as on the detection, development and visibility of new artistic talent for the music sector. The greater the success of the projects managed, the greater the recognition of the student’s work and their artist management skills.

In order to enhance the learning experience and to provide students with the necessary tools to undertake the different tasks planned in the IMB Artist Talent Programme, a set of practical sessions in three different formats will be scheduled in the Make It Happen module:

• Workshop: Intensive workshops provided by specialists on various topics related to the IMB Artist Talent Programme’s activities. In some cases, the artists will be invited to participate in the workshops to facilitate the development of the activities.
  
• Step by Step: The module coordinator and a group of selected specialists will deliver these sessions where the step-by-step process associated with all stages of the IMB Artist Talent Programme will be analysed in detail.
• Collective Mentoring: Doubt resolution, follow-up and feedback sessions with the module coordinator covering the different aspects of the programme.
  

In addition to the compulsory teaching sessions, students will have at their disposal individual 30-minute mentoring sessions outside the lective hours with the module coordinator to address specific doubts.

Similarly, during the development of both the IMB Festival and IMB Label, students will have extra group mentoring sessions available with the module coordinator to have constant follow-up and feedback during the process.

• To acquire a holistic vision of all aspects related to the design and execution of music projects.
• To develop the necessary skills to manage music projects.
• To expand the network of professional relationships through interaction with professionals from the music and creative industries.
• To identify the main criteria and parameters that should determine decision making.
• To analyse the impact of the actions carried out during the development of the projects.
• To efficiently manage budgets in order to achieve strategic objectives.
• To recognise through practice the roles that best match personal goals and strengths.
• To understand the dynamics of working relationships between people involved in creative projects aimed at the market.

The IMB Artist Talent Contest is open to all up-and-coming music artists based in Barcelona or Madrid. It is fully promoted and managed by IMB School and it is the starting point of the IMB Artist Talent Programme.

The contest is aimed at any solo artist or music group willing to boost their projects and careers. The prize consists of:

Artist Talent Contest Prize

Thanks to this contest, students have a database of talent available to them which they will have to choose from depending on which artist proposal they feel they connect with the most. Later they will have to defend this proposal in front of their peers and commit to its development. This becomes a key moment in the learning experience in the Make it Happen module.

Objective(s)

To sign artistic talent to be developed during a year.

Budget allocated

€0 / project

Each student needs to select one artist that has entered the IMB Artist Talent Contest* and together with this artist prepare some presentation material to defend their artistic proposal. This material will be shared with the rest of the students through IMB School’s LMS.

The final list of winning projects will be the result of a voting system that will give priority to student preferences over IMB School’s Artistic Committee. Students who have defended the proposal of any of the winning artists will have to sign an agreement between three parties (student, artist and IMB School). This agreement will establish the terms and conditions of their participation in the IMB Artist Talent Contest, IMB Label and IMB Festival.

*It is possible to select an artist who does not appear in the initial database, as long as the artist enters the contest within the deadlines indicated by IMB School.

Objective(s)

To produce the final master of a single.

Budget allocated

€700€/project

Together with the artist, the team must identify a single from the artist’s repertoire (or from any given songwriter’s unpublished repertoire) and then proceed to hire the best suitable services for the recording, mixing and mastering of the single. It may also be necessary to manage the hiring of an artistic producer, studio musicians and featuring artists.

Objective(s)

To increase the booking opportunities of the live show. 

Budget allocated

€200€/project

The team will define different live show formats and establish the corresponding artist fees. At this stage, it is necessary to identify the HR and production needs, to develop the technical rider, the hospitality rider and the portfolio, and finally to develop a successful presentation for booking agents and promoters, as well as offering legal advice which is vital for the live performance billing. During this same stage, a marketing strategy should be developed for the artist to sell more shows. 

Budget: €8,500 budget shared with the IMB Festival.

IMB Label is the record label managed by the IMB School students. The label’s mission is to boost the visibility of up-and-coming talent to key players in the music industry.

In order to achieve this, it carries out different actions, among which the following stand out: the edition of the annual compilation of singles by the artists of the IMB Artist Talent Incubator (in vinyl and digital format) and the promotion of the IMB Artist Talent Portfolio, which collects all the work done by the students, artists and creators during each stage of the year and provides content to the IMB Festival through different actions.

The timing, format and content of the actions are determined by the students. In order to do that, students will have to do an in-depth analysis of the context and identify how they can bring value to all those involved in the project.

The team of students involved in IMB Label will be distributed in the following departments:

• A&R Department
• Product Department
• Communication and Marketing Department
• Administration and Finance Department

Budget: €8,500 (shared with IMB Label)

The IMB Festival is the annual event organised by IMB School’s students as the closing event of the IMB Artist Talent programme. It is the first festival dedicated to the interaction between up-and-coming artistic talent, new music business professionals and creative industries professionals who want to develop their careers within the music sector.

At the same time, the IMB Festival is used as a launching platform for the artists involved in the IMB Artist Talent Programme and has the mission of making their talent visible to a specialised audience.

The date, format (either in person, blended or online) and contents of the IMB Festival will be defined by the students throughout the academic year, so that the event can effectively respond to the needs that the music sector and the artistic community have on the IMB Festival’s date of celebration (given the preventive health measures of the local government).

The team of students involved in the IMB Festival will be distributed among the following departments:

• Production Department
• Sponsors and Partners Department
• Communication and Marketing Department
• Administration and Finance Department

The Challenges module responds to the music sector’s need for professionals who, in addition to understanding how the business works, have the ability to question current practices and propose alternative solutions to present and future situations and problems. 

This module focuses on the resolution of real innovation challenges that companies of the music sector face. To achieve that goal, students receive initial training on innovation methodologies in order to address the resolution of cases that they will later apply to each specific case in their team assignments. On top of that, this module offers expert presentations on the topic of each challenge, access to databases and mentoring sessions. The final presentation of the resolution will be delivered in front of the company management team that posed the challenge, which will offer a professional prize/opportunity to the winning team (i.e. involvement in the implementation of the proposal).

Whatever the nature and scope of the challenges, they all require a strategic and innovative consultant’s approach for their resolution.

At the same time, each student will undertake an individual research project focused on one of the innovation methodologies in the context of the music sector.

This module promotes a healthy competitive environment between teams and allows students to showcase their talent in front of the management team of leading companies that came up with the challenge. This module allows for face-to-face conversations between students and top management roles in the music sector.

• To develop a professional capacity for analysis and resolution of innovation challenges.
• To design creative and innovative solutions to improve the music sector’s value propositions and to suggest implementation plans.
• To gain expertise on how to pitch proposals to the management teams of major companies in the music sector.
• To learn how to apply innovation methodologies in the context of the music business.
• To visualise the impact of new technologies and learn how to leverage their effects and potential.
• To learn to make decisions backed by data and facts.

This is how the module works:

CONFIDENTIALITY CONTRACT

To take part in the Challenges module, all students need to sign a very strict confidentiality agreement prior to the start of the module. This is due to the type of information that companies will share with students.

INNOVATION METHODOLOGY

The module starts with a month of training in solving challenges through innovation. Once this month of training is completed, the student must pass a final test to ensure that they are ready to solve real challenges.

It is important to note that if the student does not pass this test, they will have to abandon the module. In this case, IMB School will refund the student the amount of the registration fee proportional to the part of the module that cannot be completed.

SOLVING CHALLENGES IN TEAMS

All eligible students will go on to solve the challenges in teams. Students have almost 5 weeks to solve each challenge, and there will be a total of 6 challenges to solve from different leading companies in the sector.

The way in which the resolution of each challenge will work is as follows:

A few days before the opening session of each challenge, you and your team will receive a detailed description of the challenge so you can prepare the questions you would like to ask the company and make sure you fully understand.

In the same week following the opening session, you will receive additional keynotes by experts from the company related to the topic of the challenge. At this point, the goal is to get more insights for a deeper understanding of its scope and implications before diving into its resolution.

Each team will have approximately 1 month to solve that challenge. At least 2 days a week, there are going to be scheduled mandatory meetings with your peers in the official IMB School virtual rooms. In some of these meetings an expert consultant mentor might join to supervise, check and help if required. However, your team will be in touch with the Academic Board throughout the whole process.

Additionally, half way through the resolution you and your peers will have another livestream Q&A session with the company representatives to ask any further questions that might have come up while working on the challenge during these two weeks.

The final proposal to each challenge will be presented in a livestream session to the company representatives, who will provide some general feedback and choose a winning proposal. All members of the winning team will get a prize from the company as an acknowledgment of the professional quality of their work.

DEEP DIVE RESEARCH

Simultaneously to all the team work, all Challenges students will have to undertake an individual endeavour. This will be an individual research project focused on one of the innovation methodologies in the context of the music sector.

Mostly everybody who has a job, dedicates one third of their time to their professional life. It is an essential activity for the economic sustainability of every individual (including family and personal projects), as well as being an essential aspect of self-fulfilment in life.

However, the labour market is increasingly changing in an environment where technology and global challenges are evolving faster than humans’ own processing capacity.

For this reason, now more than ever, it is essential to carry out personal self-analysis and reflection in order to identify our place in the world, to think about what it is that we really want to do, and to set objectives in order to be able to design a strategy that will allow us to achieve them.

This module is designed to help students in their personal process of self-knowledge, the design of their professional strategies and the acquisition of professional skills that are key in any work environment.

• To get to know oneself better and also understand more clearly professional life motivations (finding one’s own “Ikigai”).
• To understand the current challenges of the labour market and future trends.
• To develop a professional strategy aligned to one’s own goals.
• To identify the distinctive assets for building a consistent personal brand.
• To communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
• To improve the ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts.
• To strengthen resilience and to adopt an agile mindset to cope with constant change.

These are some of the contents that will be covered in this module

Self-knowledge

• Self-analysis – Knowing yourself
• Professional strategy
• Personal branding

Keys of a good professional

• Effective communication (oral and written)
• Productivity
• Teamwork
• Negotiation
• Adaptation to change
• Management of emotions
• Constant learning

Strategies for job search

• Future of work – Analysis of trends
• Networking
• What companies are looking for
• Recruitment processes
• Understanding a job offer
• Corporate values and cultures
• CV creation + LinkedIn profile
• Cover letter creation
• Pitching
• Preparing for a job interview

During 2 months, the student will have to follow a roadmap of individual assignments guided by a mentor. The contents will be learnt online autonomously and all the assignments will be reviewed by a mentor who will provide qualitative feedback so that the student can improve. During the course, the student will have 3 live online meetings with the mentor.

For anyone that met the requirements, doing Internships is optional. This means that the student can decide whether to do an internship or not. However, not all students who want to do an internship find an organisation that will take them, currently the ratio of students who manage to find an organisation that will take them on an internship is 64%. The reasons behind are the following:

• Each organisation has its own recruitment process and it is up to the student to pass the corresponding recruitment processes.
• There are students who only want to do internships in highly competitive and sought-after positions. This means that if 10 students apply for the same internship, 1 will make it and 9 will be left out. And in some cases those who are left out, decide not to apply elsewhere.

The maximum number of internship hours a student can do is the same as the workload of the big modules included in their programme. That is to say:

• Make It Happen – 45 ECTS – 1,125h
• Challenges – 30 ECTS – 750h
• Know-How – 15 ECTS – 375h

If the student has more than one of these modules in their programme, the total number of hours would be added together. For example, the Master’s Plus in Music Business Management, which includes, among others, the Make It Happen and the Know-How, would allow the student to do up to a maximum of 1,500 hours.

The maximum number of hours does not have to be used, nor should they necessarily be done in the same organisation. For example, a student could do:

• Organisation 1 – 250h
• Organisation 2 – 450h
• Organisation 3 – 500h
• Total: 1,200h

In case the student wishes to do an internship in an organisation, the following steps should be followed:

1.  First of all, the student must ensure that:
   
   • The organisation has an agreement with IMB School or that the desired organisation by the student meets the minimum quality requirements defined by IMB School.
   • In case the student does not live in the country where they wish to carry out the internships. The student must ensure that they comply with all the legal requirements of the country where the organisation is located in order to travel, stay, reside and carry out the placement (this implies having the financial means, visas, insurance and any other requirements that the country in question may require).
2. If the student meets the requirements, they must proactively apply for an internship in that organisation, applying the knowledge acquired in Professional Development. In cases where the organisation already has an agreement with IMB School, some internship offers might be published on our LMS. However, students who go ahead and proactively apply to companies without waiting for offers have a better chance of success.
3. If the company decides to take the student on an internship, IMB School will arrange the academic agreement (in English or Spanish) with the company and the student.

The schedule of the internships should be compatible with the academic obligations that the student may have with other modules of the programme they are studying.

The student must write a final report on what they have learnt during the internship.

In order to acquire a real understanding of the music business it is necessary to assimilate the terminology that allows us to understand the roles of the different existing figures and how they interrelate with one another. This initial familiarisation with the main business models then allows us to understand the function of the music industry and the music sector as a whole, to finally visualise the potential of interactions with other sectors within an expanding music universe.

It is the theoretical basis on which the rest of the IMB School modules are built, and therefore the first step for any recommended programme.

Designed by the IMB School Academic Board and a selection of experts specialised in the music sector.

• To acquire a global vision of the entire business that is generated around music: content, music brands and music experiences.
• To understand all the roles performed by the different figures involved in the music sector.
• To make sense of the map of relationships and value exchanges in the music sector.

Many of the existing problems and tensions between the main players in the music business arise as a result of the lack of knowledge and information that at least one of the parties has concerning the rules of the game. These rules, which may differ from one country to another, are defined by the set of laws, rights and usual practices contained in contracts that, most of the time, are not signed with the proper terms because they have not been understood and analysed with due care. Access to this information is critical in order to design a legal strategy that remains consistent with the objectives of any music project or organisation, especially at a time when there is an increasing number of options when it comes to the exploitation of music content and brands within (and beyond) the music sector.

The Legal Aspects module is the legal theoretical basis on which the rest of the IMB School modules are built, and is key to understanding the professional relationships between the different players that make up the music business.

This module explains the rules of the game in the music business and identifies those critical aspects that are often the source of tensions between all parties involved and that all too often hinder the harmonious and profitable development of music projects.

Designed by the IMB School Academic Board and a selection of lawyers specialised in the music sector.

• To understand the impact of laws and rights regarding anything related to the music business, from a global framework perspective to the regional particularities of the most relevant countries in terms of turnover.

• To identify the essential aspects of all contracts necessary for the creation, the production and the distribution of any music content or music brand in the music business.

This module is structured in capsules. Each capsule will contain a combination of theory, external videos and exercises. At the end of each capsule there will be a test to pass. The student has as many attempts to pass a test as needed, and only once they pass the test will they be able to advance to the next capsule. Until all the capsules are completed.

Both historical processes and technological innovation have shaped music and the industry that surrounds it. From the invention of the printing press, which allowed the massive distribution of sheet music, to the music tours hosted on video game platforms. The music industry has been able to adapt to the opportunities and challenges throughout history, which lately are growing exponentially.

The Historical Analysis module aims to analyse these processes, which are key to understanding the dynamics of the music industry and thus shed light on how to face the unprecedented challenges it currently faces.

Designed by the IMB School Academic Board and a selected group of journalists and historians specialised in the music sector, this module provides a vision over time that allows us to understand the function of the music industry, analysing the changes that are taking shape and providing the student with tools for critical thinking that will allow them to take advantage of current technological innovations.

• To develop a mental framework that allows the establishment of relationships between technological progress, the evolution of music business models and the emergence of music genres within a socioeconomic context.
• To obtain a critical view of the decisions made by the music sector throughout history.
• To understand the reasons for the current functioning of the music business.

The student will have access to the module for 1 year as soon as payment is made. 

In any of the recommended programmes that include this module the student will be able to access the contents of this module before the start of the programme, as long as the registration fee is paid in full.

By default, there are no set deadlines or timetables for the completion of this module.

However, if this module is studied within a recommended programme, deadlines must be met in each case.