Music Industry

Film and Media Composition

The Box Hill Institute film and media composition stream is taught by screen media composers and sound design professionals. The units teach the theoretical and creative concepts required to work as a composer/sound designer in film, TV, games, animation and other media platforms. Skills will be developed through practical and collaborative creative exercises. Students will collaborate with filmmakers over the three-year program, developing an extensive portfolio of work.

Performance

Within the music performance stream, students will learn the important individual and collaborative ensemble skills needed to thrive in the music industry. Students will deepen their theoretical and aural music skills and apply these directly in a workshop environment, receiving feedback from industry experts.

Music Business

Music Business subjects take a broad and comprehensive approach. The subjects equip the student with the wide range of skills needed by a music industry professional. These skills include a strategic approach to streaming, touring, events, artist management, contemporary business practice, data analytics, marketing and social media. Students will also learn skills for the portfolio economy, licensing and publishing, and gain an understanding of how to start and run their own business.

The approach is from an industry perspective with hands on assessments and real-world projects to guide and equip students to thrive in the global music industry.

Business Innovation

The global music industry has changed hugely in the past few decades, mainly due to globalisation and the internet. It has seen changes in music consumption through streaming, social media and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. Music business innovation is a practical and sophisticated suite of four units including design thinking, data analytics, innovation and technology strategy, and a holistic look at the creative industry in terms of collaboration and leadership. These subjects are modelled on a MBA approach, using the most relevant aspects for the music industry professional.

Advanced Performance

Advanced performance subjects offer students high-level creative music performance opportunities in small ensembles. Students will work closely with mentors to realise creative projects such as live performance (on and off campus) and studio recordings. The performance advancement places are offered by audition.

Songwriting

The songwriting stream takes students on a journey of creative expression. Students develop traditional songwriting techniques of melody, lyric and form and are also challenged to write songs to a brief. They’re encouraged to take inspiration from different art forms such as poetry, visual art, and different contexts, such as social and political, to develop their own identity as a song writer.

Collaborative Songwriting

The collaborative songwriting stream allows students from all disciplines to take part in different song writing scenarios that involve more than a single songwriter in the song writing process. Scenarios include writing in the room, where songwriters work collaboratively to create music, specialising in different roles such as lyricist, beat maker, topline writer, etc, and writing in a studio/band scenario navigating the song writing process through “jamming”.

Audio Production

Audio production focuses on developing students recording, mixing, mastering and production skills in a large studio setting. Students work individually and collaboratively with a variety of bands and ensembles. These classes develop student's practical studio skills as well as critical listening and creativity. In the third year, students work on a major self-devised project that will form a major part of their portfolio.

Professional Sound

Professional sound teaches students advanced live sound and studio post-production skills. The live sound classes focus on advanced PA design, festival patching and mixing, wireless mic management, acoustics, and audio over networks protocols. The focus of the post-production classes is based on advanced sound design, as well as editing and mixing for film, TV, games, and immersive environments.

Creative Collaborations

In the third year, creative collaborations students will work together on various types of projects, such as ensembles, interactive artwork or cross collaboration. Students will be required to create new works, reinvent old works, lead ensembles and work in teams.

Game Audio

The game audio stream introduces students to the techniques required to create and implement sonic requirements for computer games. Students work with game engines such as unreal engine or WWise to not only design the sound, but to program these sonic elements in standard and VR formats. This is an important skill for audio and composition professionals wanting to work in the expanding computer game industries.

Beat Cypher (1+2)

The beat cypher electives will help students refine their compositional and production practices whilst refining their artistic voice and learning about working within an artist collective project. Students are tasked with creating original music projects each week, adhering to certain restrictions such as using a certain sample, tempo, instrument, progression, production technique or composition process. Through rapid development, students learn to apply efficient workflows for confident creative execution.

After submitting new songs each week, students listen to and give/receive feedback on everyone’s tracks. Through presentation, peer review and self-reflection, students will develop their critical analysis skills and associated vocabulary across topics such as the creative process, musical composition, and production techniques. Beyond their weekly submissions, students will work on published projects like mixtapes from their collective and EPs that capture their greatest works. Beat cypher is open to students interested in making music in any genre or style, looking to get a lot of practice, feedback and support as they refine their artistic voice.

Music Production

Music production centres on the creation of music with technology. By focusing on the production of their own music, students will begin by learning to understand and appreciate the role of technology, such as music creation software and hardware, in fulfilling the responsibilities of a music producer. These responsibilities include creating, recording and editing music using production software, as well as understanding the audiences for whom the music is intended. Music production includes practical DJing skills, developing individual musical aesthetics, and exploring methods for incorporating music technology into live performing.

There is also a focus on one of the most crucial skills for a music producer: collaboration. By working to produce songs for other writers and artists, students will learn how to develop and use knowledge of audiences and creative aesthetics to make decisions about the use of genre and style in collaborative works. Students will learn skills for leading industry based collaborative teams and helping groups of creatives to define and achieve success.

Finally, students will learn how to explore and express individual artistic vision as a music producer. This expression can take many forms and is an opportunity to create and share an artistic identity with the music industry.

Innovation in Music Creation

The music industry is an innovative and constantly evolving space. The way music is created and the technology used are driving factors in the development of new creative and industry output. In the Innovation in Music Creation stream, students will learn how to expand their thinking and practices to include the latest developments, and how they can identify new methods and technologies to spark innovative and novel musical ideas. 

In this stream, students will learn to apply these methods and technologies in a wide range of musical situations, including live performance, studio production and other artistic and creative musical settings, such as physical installations and digital/online media. Digital technology in its numerous forms is a dominant factor in the way that music is consumed and created. In this stream, students will gain a deeper appreciation for the way digital technology is currently expanding creative musical practices and learn ways to explore those new possibilities.

Creating Content for the Music Industry

This stream focuses on creating content for the music industry. It introduces students to a wide assortment of frequently used digital content pieces in the music industry, highlighting how these content pieces drive fan engagement and loyalty, and showing how creative content fits within a content marketing plan. Students will also develop the practical skills required to generate professional documents for music industry campaigns, learning tips and tricks on how to write effective newsletter copy, media releases, biographies, proposals, and online and social media copy.

Work Integrated Learning

Students taking this unit can develop their skills in a professional setting of their choosing. Students undertaking work placement will work with professionals, gaining an understanding of how organisations work and what will be expected of them in the industry.