I’m a Bone-Fide Music Blogger! BIMM Manchester graduation 2024.

A slightly different post today, celebrating my recent graduation from BIMM Manchester with a (first class, no less!) degree in Music Marketing, Media, and Communications. That’s professional music yap to the untrained eye.

The fabulous ceremony took place at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, a very fitting venue for the verification of countless creative minds. After a few hours of continuous clapping, regular gown re-adjustment and battling the balancing of a mortar board (which, until a day previous, I believed to be the act of face-planting a cleavage), it was time to wave farewell to my 22 years in the comfort blanket of our education system. By far the most expensive blanket I shall ever find myself snuggled, unless this blogging thing really takes off…

Not that I feel the need to validate my venturing into publishing my views (get me a Gen Z-er that doesn’t), but my degree taught me so much about the industry that I’m entering and the untold dos and don’ts of a music journo’… Ok, well, they tried to teach me, I guess whether I take their polite deterring on board is up to me now.

Do be prepared to work the hard graft for next to no pay at all!

Don’t take this, no doubt, turbulent journey for granted!

Do be ready to sell your soul to rock and roll and get absolutely nothing in return!

Don’t ever expect to work sociable hours for a respectable salary!

Do count your blessings that your parents never pushed you towards politics, encouraged your pursuit of engineering, or demanded you dedicate your life to growing profits for other people!

Don’t put all your eggs in this creative freelance basket (maybe wrap a few in kitchen roll first)!

Whilst the leap from full-time student to partly employed dog mum is a great one, it is one that I am proud to have taken. The reinstatement of GOB has gotten me giddy about my future in the world of words and musical madness. This prospect would never have been plausible without my truly inspiring and deliriously dedicated lecturers, all of whom I hope to remain in touch with and (hopefully) wow in years to come with my proficient creative career.

Finally, a thank you to BIMM for spurring on so many creative souls. These flouncy industries so often get overlooked, with the career prospects that they hold disregarded. Creative universities such as BIMM help to nurture and curate some of the most creative minds and bodies, many of which may have become accountants or analysts without such support.

Although it may have been in hate that we greeted (cheers Covid!), it is most definitely in love that we part. Goodbye BIMM, hello financial and career insecurity!