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‘Music Production’ vs ‘Creative Music Technology’?

I’m looking to go into music industry as a producer/artist after uni and planned on getting a music production degree to support that. However I came across a degree called ‘creative music technology’ that some unis do which contains music production studies but also contains many other aspects for a wider skill set. From what I’ve read, music prod is a much more scoped focus degree just for production, whereas creative music tech will be a broader focus on many different skills. Does anyone have any info/opinions on the 2 degrees?
Reply 1
Music production is very creative. Though some courses will concentrate on the engineering side, other will focus on creativity. I'd recommend looking at the modules in the course to make a determination. I am third year at UAL BA Music Production and we have concentrated more on the creative side of music production: Composition, and Creative Mixing Techniques, for example. Production in itself doesn't mean just getting music produced. It also includes getting the best performance out of your artists, aesthetics, and things like sound design, and even mixing as a creative choice. We can even do modules on songwriting. So it's very creative. Not that Creative Music Technology wouldn't be creative. It will just have a different focus and likely include electronics and code. If you are after a way to combine performance with tech, then I'd go down the Creative Music Technology route. If you want to be an artist/producer, go down the MP route (but check the modules or have a talk/email with the course lead to see how balanced it is in terms of being creative vs technical).
Reply 2
Original post by TimShep
Music production is very creative. Though some courses will concentrate on the engineering side, other will focus on creativity. I'd recommend looking at the modules in the course to make a determination. I am third year at UAL BA Music Production and we have concentrated more on the creative side of music production: Composition, and Creative Mixing Techniques, for example. Production in itself doesn't mean just getting music produced. It also includes getting the best performance out of your artists, aesthetics, and things like sound design, and even mixing as a creative choice. We can even do modules on songwriting. So it's very creative. Not that Creative Music Technology wouldn't be creative. It will just have a different focus and likely include electronics and code. If you are after a way to combine performance with tech, then I'd go down the Creative Music Technology route. If you want to be an artist/producer, go down the MP route (but check the modules or have a talk/email with the course lead to see how balanced it is in terms of being creative vs technical).

Thanks so much for your response that was all really helpful. The CMT course I’m looking at is by Salford and I’m yet to hear back from them to answer my questions.

From their website they say year 1 focuses on “learning about composition, arranging and performance, as well as developing practical musical technology experience along the way” and then year 2 and 3 studying “Studio Recording and Production, Audio for Media and Studio Composition.” Not sure how similar this is to your MP course at UAL?

My choices are quite narrowed as I don’t want to go to uni in London (as I live here) and there aren’t many good MP courses outside London, but the course Salford offers looks very similar to some MP courses and looks like a really cool uni. I definitely want to do a course as creative as possible so I’m hoping the ‘creative’ in CMT isn’t lying…
Reply 3
Original post by ok.equivalent
Thanks so much for your response that was all really helpful. The CMT course I’m looking at is by Salford and I’m yet to hear back from them to answer my questions.
From their website they say year 1 focuses on “learning about composition, arranging and performance, as well as developing practical musical technology experience along the way” and then year 2 and 3 studying “Studio Recording and Production, Audio for Media and Studio Composition.” Not sure how similar this is to your MP course at UAL?
My choices are quite narrowed as I don’t want to go to uni in London (as I live here) and there aren’t many good MP courses outside London, but the course Salford offers looks very similar to some MP courses and looks like a really cool uni. I definitely want to do a course as creative as possible so I’m hoping the ‘creative’ in CMT isn’t lying…

We did studio recording and Creative mixing techniques in first year. Then composition for media and songwriting in year two. We don’t have a specific performance subject, but I’m sure that it would be creative. The structure of your course sounds solid. I think you’ll have a great time.
Reply 4
Original post by ok.equivalent
I’m looking to go into music industry as a producer/artist after uni and planned on getting a music production degree to support that. However I came across a degree called ‘creative music technology’ that some unis do which contains music production studies but also contains many other aspects for a wider skill set. From what I’ve read, music prod is a much more scoped focus degree just for production, whereas creative music tech will be a broader focus on many different skills. Does anyone have any info/opinions on the 2 degrees?

Hey! I have a slightly different angle in comparison to the above poster! I actually have a degree in composition mixed with creative music technology so I feel like I can really explain what that is quite well.

Creative Music Technology (or CMT as the above poster has helpfully put it as) in my view is much more experimental than that of Music Production. In my studies it included things such as field recording through to instrument recording to producing songs to studying spectromorphology. In many ways, I feel like CMT is incredibly in depth into how things sound and learning to experiment with software. In my opinion, it teaches you to ignore all the 'rules' of electronics and technology and do your own thing. There were some people whilst I was there that were making music that tracked gestures and then made sound - insanely cool sort of stuff! I made my final project with graphic scoring which detailed the electronics to some live instrumentalists that played alongside it.

In my opinion, Music Production is more streamlined and about producing for the current musical market. It's less experimental but it really will teach you how to produce a good record as well as teaching you how to work with the musicians/creatives appropriately. I think it's also important to mention that in the room of a high-end professional recording studio the music producer is often a different person to the sound engineer. The music producer is often the person making decisions whilst the engineer does the actual mixing - of course, a course somewhere is probably going to teach you both of those roles.

Ultimately, I think it depends on what you want. Do you want to be a commercial or indie music producer working with artists to make their music? Do you want to make your own music?

OR do you want to experiment and push the boundaries of what technology can do? And use those skills to make music?

Neither is the right answer! Whatever suits you, suits you! I hope this helps!
Reply 5
Original post by yep:)
Hey! I have a slightly different angle in comparison to the above poster! I actually have a degree in composition mixed with creative music technology so I feel like I can really explain what that is quite well.
Creative Music Technology (or CMT as the above poster has helpfully put it as) in my view is much more experimental than that of Music Production. In my studies it included things such as field recording through to instrument recording to producing songs to studying spectromorphology. In many ways, I feel like CMT is incredibly in depth into how things sound and learning to experiment with software. In my opinion, it teaches you to ignore all the 'rules' of electronics and technology and do your own thing. There were some people whilst I was there that were making music that tracked gestures and then made sound - insanely cool sort of stuff! I made my final project with graphic scoring which detailed the electronics to some live instrumentalists that played alongside it.
In my opinion, Music Production is more streamlined and about producing for the current musical market. It's less experimental but it really will teach you how to produce a good record as well as teaching you how to work with the musicians/creatives appropriately. I think it's also important to mention that in the room of a high-end professional recording studio the music producer is often a different person to the sound engineer. The music producer is often the person making decisions whilst the engineer does the actual mixing - of course, a course somewhere is probably going to teach you both of those roles.
Ultimately, I think it depends on what you want. Do you want to be a commercial or indie music producer working with artists to make their music? Do you want to make your own music?
OR do you want to experiment and push the boundaries of what technology can do? And use those skills to make music?
Neither is the right answer! Whatever suits you, suits you! I hope this helps!

Hey there that was really helpful, thanks for the reply! Loving the sound of the course and it's making more sense now because some of the uni websites are very vague with the structure. My main passion is specifically production but I feel like learning anything around that will be just as valuable, so I think the CMT course would be perfect.

My UCAS choices consist of Production, CMT and Tech courses (with CMT at Salford being my top choice). I think it'll come down to where I get offers because they all teach production in some way, which is what I want as a bare minimum.

Thanks again!
Reply 6
Original post by ok.equivalent
Hey there that was really helpful, thanks for the reply! Loving the sound of the course and it's making more sense now because some of the uni websites are very vague with the structure. My main passion is specifically production but I feel like learning anything around that will be just as valuable, so I think the CMT course would be perfect.
My UCAS choices consist of Production, CMT and Tech courses (with CMT at Salford being my top choice). I think it'll come down to where I get offers because they all teach production in some way, which is what I want as a bare minimum.
Thanks again!

I’m glad this helped! 🙂

Good luck for your applications!

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