pre-release-context

The 2025 Pre-release context

• This year the context is the music recording, distribution, and live performance industries, and the businesses operating in this market

• To prepare for this year’s context, you should research:

  • Current trends in the consumption of recorded music

  • Different businesses in the UK music retail market: independents and multinationals

  • Business growth and objectives in the music retail and distribution sector

  • Global music recording and distribution businesses

  • The roles and qualities of entrepreneurs setting up music events

  • Live music events in the UK and the businesses operating in these

  • Managing resources at live music events

• You cannot take any of your research or investigation data carried out as part of the pre release into the examination

Using the pre-release context

Make the most of the pre-release themes

• The pre-release outlines key topics (such as consumption trends, festival organisation, and global music distribution)

• Although the source booklet you are given on the day of the exam will contain unseen extracts, they’ll connect to these broad themes

Gather broad knowledge

• Having some context about how retailers or festivals in the music industry operate lets you spot key issues quickly. Yet there’s no need to cram endless stats—your chief priority is using the brand-new data from the exam extracts

• Read about how record labels earn revenue or how large music events get sponsors

• Understanding the “why” behind numbers means you can interpret them more easily under exam conditions

• The exam might focus on a niche festival’s weather challenges or a global distributor’s shift to streaming

• A general sense of trends and problems in the music industry will help no matter which angle appears

Practice handling unseen extracts

• Paper 3 introduces brand-new extracts in the exam itself

• You must read them quickly and apply business principles on the spot

Strengthen your numeracy skills

• Paper 3 typically includes calculations or data interpretation (e.g. profits, capacity, or market shares). Many students lose marks by rushing or mixing up figures

• Make sure you’re comfortable with break-even, profit margins, ratio analysis, and so on

• After doing a quick calculation, practice adding a sentence about what that number really means for the business scenario

Plan for essay questions in context

• In the exam, your responses must be grounded in the music industry extracts. General discussion of business concepts alone isn’t enough

• Perfect your structure for each type of question (8-, 10-, 12-, and 20-mark)

• Your structure must provide opportunities to

  • State a clear point or define the concept

  • Apply to the scenario—quote facts or figures from the extract

  • Analyse with a chain of reasoning (causes, effects, potential outcomes)

  • Evaluate by balancing pros/cons or introducing “it depends” factors

• Show you can see both positives and negatives. For example, an independent record shop may benefit from vinyl’s popularity but be threatened by online competition

Be ready for the unexpected

• Although you know the general theme, the specific businesses or statistics in the unseen extracts might surprise you.