At Glasgow Kelvin College, the Music Business department offers a practical introduction to the inner workings of the music industry. Covering topics like artist management, promotion, live events, and record label operations, students build a broad understanding of how the industry functions today.
A key part of the department is Electric Honey, the college’s student-run record label. Established in 1993, it has supported early releases from artists including Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, and Biffy Clyro.
Through real-world projects like releasing music and organising gigs, we offer valuable industry insight and the chance to work as part of a professional team. Whether you're aiming to work with artists, start your own label, or move into event production, we will provide a solid foundation to take the next step.
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”.
Take a look behind the scenes with our Music Business students as they dive into the industry – from live events and artist promotion to real-world collaborations and creative projects.
Hear directly from learners about their experiences and ambitions in this exciting, fast-moving sector.
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.
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.
