Bachelor of Music

After successful completion of a degree programme in music in a college, university, or conservatory, a student may be eligible to receive an academic degree known as a Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus). It is a professional degree in the United States, and the bulk of the work consists of mandated music courses and studies in applied music, which often requires ability in an instrument, voice, or directing. The Bachelor of Music degree is often regarded as an undergraduate degree in Canada. In general, programmes continue for anywhere between three and four and a half years.

The degree may be granted in the areas of performance, music education, composition, music theory, musicology / music history (degrees in musicology may be a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) rather than a Bachelor of Music), music technology, music therapy, sacred music, music business / music industry, entertainment, music production, or jazz studies. [Note: musicology degrees may be a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) rather than a Bachelor of Music] Some educational institutions in the 2010s began providing students with the opportunity to earn degrees in Music Composition with Technology. These degrees combine traditional music theory and musicology classes with modern sound recording and composition classes that make use of digital technologies.

In the United Kingdom, the Bachelor of Music is typically a first degree that lasts three to four years and covers a broad range of subject areas (normally including performance, composition, music theory, and musicology/music history). However, at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Bachelor of Music was a one-year postgraduate degree that could only be taken by students who had previously graduated with honours in music from those universities; the undergraduate course was known as the Bachelor of Arts.