Don't let your skills go unrecorded
Year of entry: 2024 (September)
Join us online or in person to find out more about postgraduate study at York.
Upcoming eventsWhether you are a self-taught artist-producer who wants to make better recordings, or a trained recording engineer who wants to learn advanced techniques, this course will provide you with the critical thinking, listening and practical skills to realise your goals.
The MA Music Production & Audio Cultures programme aims to teach critical listening and studio practices for musical recordings based on creative uses of technologies ranging from various digital audio workstations through to tape machines, analogue console desks, and 3D audio systems. Informed by research from multidisciplinary perspectives (acoustics, cognitive psychology, cultural anthropology and sociology, engineering, feminist and queer theories, and musicology of production), this programme is designed both to convey the scientific principles behind sound reproduction and engage the new generation of music producers and sound engineers in a critical dialogue on audio cultures and the pressing needs to de-gender and decolonise the field. In this way, the evolution of aesthetics and genres are presented through economic, historical, and political lenses, empowering students to follow their artistic vision and to find their own voice in the global music industry.
The programme offers a balance of theoretical lectures, listening seminars, and guided studio workshops taught by industry professionals and scholars. Students complete their productions in the well-equipped performance and recording facilities of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Moreover, they have opportunities to contribute to group projects with non-academic partners to gain experiential knowledge in real-life settings and to expand their professional network. Our research-enriched pedagogy enables our graduates to apply a wide range of specialist practical skills, detailed knowledge, and informed judgement to studio-based tasks and other associated music production activities such as live engineering. The interdisciplinary approach of the programme also opens doors for them to pursue a career in education, business and management, and research and development.
The course covers a range of theoretical and practical sessions, which allowed hands-on practice with a balanced analytical input. Recording opportunities are always available ranging from Classical, Jazz, and Experimental. This was really useful for increasing the sound palette and to engage in different collaborations.Lynette, MA Music Production
Course staff have a wealth of industrial experience as well as being active researchers
From choral to orchestral, jazz and folk to improvised electronica, gospel to gamelan, almost every kind of music is performed by the School's many ensembles, offering a wealth of opportunities for recording projects.
You'll study a series of core modules and complete an extended research project.
You'll cover both aesthetic and scientific approaches to music production, explore the history and context of a variety of genres and develop the practical skills needed to capture and edit musical recordings.
You will also study one option module. In previous years, options have covered topics such as:
The options available to you will be confirmed later in the year. For further information, please get in touch.
Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff.
In the final stages of your course you'll complete a large-scale research project. This can take several different forms: you could produce a set of productions with accompanying commentaries, demonstrating either new practices and techniques or mimicking existing productions as a form of analysis; a dissertation analysing existing productions or developing and testing theories about aspects of production; or a combination of the two.
Previous research project titles include:
Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.
The freedom to do what I wanted, mixed with amazing equipment and staff who genuinely care about your development really helped set me up on the path I'm on now.Dan Watts, MA Music ProductionProducing and performing as DanAleX
| Study mode | UK (home) | International and EU |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time (1 year) | £12,480 | £29,400 |
| Part-time (2 years) | £6,240 | £14,700 |
Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.
For courses which are longer than one year, the tuition fees quoted are for the first year of study.
UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.
Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.
Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.
We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2024/25 throughout the year.
If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.
You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.
You’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities, and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace.
Teaching is delivered via lectures, listening seminars (held in our renowned Rymer auditorium) and practical workshops. Lectures will usually take place over a series of weeks, with the weeks following focussing more on practical assessment work. You will also participate in weekly practical workshops, as well as weekly listening seminars.
Our School is home to the Music Research Centre, containing a large-scale neutral listening and performing space built to extremely low noise specifications (PNC15); a linked studio suite containing a dedicated performance space with configurable acoustics; and two mix down/control rooms (one with an SSL Duality console).
The Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall has a dedicated studio control room along with a suite of editing and programming rooms. You'll have access to a wide range of microphones and recording hardware/software and extensive computing facilities for practical work and research. We also have multiple sets of 5.1 monitoring and a full periphonic (ie with height) 16 loudspeaker ambisonic system for use with surround sound work.
You will be based in the School of Arts & Creative Technologies on Campus West. Almost all of your teaching will take place within the School.
Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.
You'll largely be assessed through production portfolios, supported by commentaries where applicable, as well as essays and your own choice of format in the extended research project.
What I loved about York was that I was able to take learning into my own hands. I chose to do an international record production project, which took me on a crowdfunded album project to Colombia. While on this trip I learned what it was to truly manage and produce artists on my own project, and I discovered a new type of self-confidence in being able to produce my own truly unique vision.Matt, MA Music ProductionFounder, Music Alignment
This course will provide you with a versatile skill-set which will be of value for both entrepreneurs or for those seeking professional appointments, be it with a small independent production house or a broadcaster with global reach. You will graduate with a set of robust skills which will transfer to many different scenarios along with a breadth and depth of understanding of Music Production which will allow you to create meaningful and significant audio content, as well as critically analyse the work of other producers.
| Typical offer | |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate degree | 2:1 or equivalent in Music or another relevant discipline. We will also consider unrelated first degrees provided you can demonstrate a good grasp of music theory and some practical ability in music making. |
| Other international qualifications | Equivalent qualifications from your country |
Provide a statement (maximum 750 words) describing your musicianship, previous experience with audio technologies, and specific topics that you would like to research during your studies. You may also want to enclose an academic paper that you have written for your previous degree.
Following your application, you will be contacted to submit a short portfolio of 2 music tracks (no longer than 10 minutes in total) that you recorded/produced, edited, and mixed, with a written commentary (maximum 500 words) including the tracks' credits and describing your workflow.
We expect the tracks to be non-compressed (.wav format). If you do not have access to an Internet connection that enables you to upload non-compressed files, you can submit mp3 (320kb/s) files.
If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:
| Minimum requirement | |
|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic and Indicator) | 6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component |
| Cambridge CEFR | B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component |
| Oxford ELLT | 7, minimum of 6 in each component |
| Duolingo | 120, minimum 105 in all other components |
| LanguageCert SELT | B2 with 33/50 in each component |
| LanguageCert Academic | 70 with a minimum of 65 in each component |
| KITE | 459-494, with 426-458 in all other components |
| Skills for English | B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component |
| PTE Academic | 61, minimum 55 in each component |
| TOEFL | 87, minimum of 21 in each component |
| Trinity ISE III | Merit in all requirements |
For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.
You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.
The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.
After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.
Get in touch if you have any questions
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