About

Solent Music seeks and supports music, music media and other music-related work experiences at Solent University, Southampton and in and around Southampton. It aims to celebrate and promote student talent at the University, and to foster the local music economy.

In 2011 Solent Music was established by Dr Chris Anderton (Former Course Leader of BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Music Management).

Solent Music has facilitated and supported over 1500 work experiences since its creation. This includes:

  • promoting and developing artists;
  • technical, creative and media support work at live music venues and festivals;
  • promoting and event managing gigs, events, club nights and arts nights;
  • writing for and creating magazines and websites on a range of topics;
  • providing performance and production opportunities
  • social media content creation
  • …. and much more.

Solent Music began as part of the annual SMILEfest at the University; a student-led music and music media industry festival. SMILEfest had its 10th anniversary in 2018.

Solent University’s SMILEfest team is now working on SO: Music City – a new collaboration with the University of Southampton and the music venues and artists of Southampton. SO: Music City is an ongoing campaign to highlight how much music goes on in Southampton – across all genres – and to support the growth of a sustainable music industry for the city.

For more information on our courses please visit Solent University’s official course page.


Contact Us

Solent Music is an ongoing project and are always looking for people to help with creating content, photographer, videography etc, for the website. If you have a gig or event in or around Southampton, we’d love to hear your stories. Contact us here if you are interested.