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Music Business: HND

Three students wearing Electric Honey t-shirts standing in front of a white wall, holding a framed classroom photo from 2008.
Qualification Qualifications Explained
HND
Study Mode
Full Time
Duration

2 Years - 2.5 Days p/w
Start date
Aug 2026
Campus
Springburn
Apply now

Course overview

Turn your love of music into a professional career behind the scenes.

The HND Music Business at Glasgow Kelvin College is an award-winning programme that prepares you to work in one of the world’s most exciting creative sectors. You’ll gain the business insight, creative confidence, and practical experience needed to thrive in artist management, live events, A&R, publishing, promotion, and record label operations.

Delivered by industry professionals with years of experience, the course combines academic knowledge with hands-on practice. You’ll work on live projects, collaborate with Sound Production and Music Performance students, and explore how the global music industry connects creativity with commerce.

A highlight of your studies is joining Electric Honey Records, the College’s renowned student-run record label — responsible for helping launch several successful artists including Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro.

You’ll take part in everything from discovering and signing acts to producing, marketing, and distributing releases, as well as promoting live events. It’s real experience in real industry conditions, preparing you to step confidently into your own music business career.

This course is perfect for:

  • Music enthusiasts who want to work in management, marketing, events, or label operations.
  • Creatives who enjoy collaboration, communication and planning.
  • Aspiring entrepreneurs who want to understand how the industry works from the inside out.

What you will learn

You’ll explore the business, culture, and creativity of the modern music industry, learning how to turn ideas into professional opportunities.

Across two years, you’ll:

  • Gain a practical understanding of music management, law, marketing and live event production, building strong business and organisational skills.
  • Learn how to budget, plan releases and manage artists, while understanding royalties, contracts and rights management.
  • Develop expertise in digital distribution, promotion, visual branding and tour management, keeping up with new industry technologies and trends.
  • Work collaboratively through Electric Honey, discovering and signing real artists, coordinating live events, and producing market-ready releases.
  • Study the history and evolution of the music industry, exploring genres, cultural change and the digital transformation shaping the future.

By the end of the course, you’ll have both the creative and professional skills to launch your own career or progress to degree-level study in music business or creative enterprise.

Caitlyn Sharp, a student on the Music Business course at Glasgow Kelvin College, speaks into a microphone in a recording studio, seated in front of a mixing desk.

🎧 Study Music Business at Kelvin | Behind the Scenes 🎶

Step into the world of the music industry with our Music Business course at Glasgow Kelvin College.

From artist management and marketing to live events and promotion, students gain hands-on experience and industry insight to prepare for a career in music.

If you’re passionate about music and want to work behind the scenes, this is where it starts.

Industry knowledge. Real experience. Creative careers.

View on YouTube

Entry requirements

We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds and experiences. You should have:

✅ At least one SQA Higher (Grade C or above) in a relevant subject such as Business, English or Modern Studies.

✅ OR a National Qualification (NQ) or NC award at Level 6 in a related field.

✅ Applicants with relevant industry or business experience but no formal qualifications will also be considered on merit.

✅ Mature learners are encouraged to apply — motivation and passion for the music industry are key.

✅ A good level of English and communication skills is required for all applicants.

✅ Your personal statement should clearly show your interest in music business

Direct entry to Year 2 is available for those who have successfully completed at least 15 credits from Year 1 of an HND Music Business programme elsewhere.

ℹ️ Due to Health & Safety, Awarding Bodies stipulations or Legislation set by Governing Bodies - you must be 16 years old at the start of this course.

ℹ️ For this course, if English is not your first language

  • you need to have SQA ESOL Higher (or equivalent, click here to see equivalent qualifications)
  • If you do not have a formal ESOL qualification but your language skills meet this level, you should apply for your course and then contact our Admissions team to organise an internal language assessment  here at the College.

Career Opportunities

Graduates can progress to roles across the music and creative industries, including:

🎧 Artist Management

🎤 A&R (Talent Discovery)

💼 Music Marketing or Promotion

🎟️ Live Event or Tour Management

💽 Record Label Operations

📰 Music Publishing or PR

🎬 Digital Distribution or Content Management

Many of our alumni have gone on to manage artists, coordinate festivals, and work for leading record labels and media companies.

Future prospects

After completing the HND, you can progress to:

  • BA or Degree study (typically 2nd or 3rd year entry) at universities such as UHI, UWS or Westminster.
  • Guaranteed progression to UHI Perth Campus through our articulation agreement.
  • Employment across multiple branches of the music, creative and entertainment industries.

Did you know?

That we had an article in The Scotsman? As part of Electric Honey Music's 30th anniversary celebrations, former student and Electric Honey artist, Declan McKay of the Young Aviators performed a stripped back, outdoor version of their hit; Love.

With artists like Young Aviators, Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, and Biffy Clyro coming through the ranks here at Electric Honey; it’s no wonder Uncut Magazine described it as “The world’s most successful student-run record label”.

See the article HERE.

Three Electric Honey students wearing white shirts with a red and yellow logo, seated in front of Glasgow Kelvin College posters and a computer screen, during a video interview.

Inside Electric Honey 🐝🎶

We caught up with our Electric Honey students to hear about the exciting projects happening this year, their experience on the course, and the bands they’re currently managing.

From discovering new talent to developing real industry skills, Electric Honey gives students hands-on experience at the heart of the music business.

Real artists. Real responsibility. Real industry experience.

View on YouTube

Other Courses You Might Consider

Find out about our Music Business Department

Read What Our Student Said

Video Transcript – Caitlin: HND Music Business

Hi there, my name's Caitlin Sharp and I'm a part of the Music Business course at Glasgow Kelvin College. 

In our day-to-day, a lot of exciting things that we do. We have a lot of guest speakers that come in. We've had some people from BBC introducing recently. We also had 23rd Precinct come in as well and we got offered to go to Resonate.

So we all went to a music conference, made some connections. We recently put on a gig at the Flying Duck. It was called Loving the Hive.

We organised the gig and chose our own little roles. Mine personally was artist liaison, so I was speaking to the artist and then speaking to my lecturer, going back and forth, and we managed to put on a really good gig. 

You're into the sort of marketing side of things for music business. We also really delve into that.

My personal favourite right now is graphic design. So you start off in the course doing photos and you sort of learn about colour theory. We're now going into the music video side of things. It's really, really great. You get to go and film your own video, edit it all, do all the planning beforehand. 

The main part of your course is your graded unit. So your graded unit is something that you can sort of personalise. I've personally done a blog. I want to go into a bit of journalism. Everyone chooses their sort of own niche. We've got people in the class that do tour management, promotion. So any sort of side of music business you can sort of really get into and show your efforts.

Video Transcript – Vaughn, Jamie & Ruaridh: HND Music Business

Vaughn: I'm Vaughn, I manage StarTech. I'm looking forward to attending Resonate this year.

Jamie: I think when it comes to why I started on the course, all I was to do with DIY culture in music, and I think that if you're struggling to get gigs or find ways to get into the scene, you're better off just creating one yourself.

I saw this course was quite a good impliment just to help out with that.

Ruaridh: I'm Ruaridh, and I've always been interested in music in general, but joining this course really helped me hone in what it is I actually like.

I started with music journalism, making documentaries for bands, and now I'm on to promotions with Jamie. It's a great course for actually meeting people and actually going out and doing what you want to do.

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