Our History

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In stark contrast to the long-standing conservatoires serving musicians of Classical and Jazz backgrounds, education in the 1990s provided little option for those wanting to pursue careers within contemporary popular music genres.

Having felt the impact of these limited options on his own career development, Surrey musician Phil Brookes set about creating a new kind of school to address the problem and thus, The Academy of Contemporary Music was born.

Starting out by teaching guitar from his parent’s garage, later investment from The Prince’s Trust and local entrepreneur Pete Anderton (founder of Anderton’s Music Co.) saw ACM take premises at Haydon Place, Guildford (now the site of Waitrose), before moving to its current site at the Grade II listed Rodboro Buildings in 1999. The building was the subject of a very contemporary architectural fit-out that still serves us today, and from the premises, ACM ran a variety of Further and Higher Education courses, as well as a Part-Time school for younger learners, covering subjects of Music Performance, Production and latterly, Music Business Management.

ACM bought Global House as an additional teaching building in 2004, when it also took a step further towards its ambitions of connecting students to industry, by launching its Business Development Centre (which went on to become Industry Link) and a variety of in-house businesses run by its students, for its students. Those ventures included Bridge Street Artist Management Company, the One Records metal label, Spin Out (a dance label specialising in 12” vinyl releases), Worst Case Scenario Records (a tastemaking label), Platinum Sound Publishing (that went on to secure sync and licensing opportunities for many ACM students) and SPILL Magazine (that achieved a 40,000 copy per month distribution through Virgin Megastore and latterly, FOPP).

Our Guildford campus continues to evolve, with the Rodboro Building undergoing a significant revamp throughout 2024 and 2025, with further enhancements still in progress. As our main hub, Rodboro combines modern, industry-standard facilities with a rich heritage originally a car factory; its history is still visible today through archival images displayed in the reception area. Alongside this, The Billings Building, a listed building with its own unique character, has been thoughtfully repurposed from a former printing works into a dynamic creative space, now home to professional studios, MIT classrooms, and an impressive live room located in the basement.

The opening of ACM London in 2016 and ACM Birmingham in 2017 saw ACM become a multi-campus organisation, which is still growing and prospering, today. In 2019, with over 2,100 full-time students, ACM officially welcomed Metropolis Studios into its corporate structure, heralding the beginning of an exciting new chapter for both organisations.