New partnership with PledgeMusic on the Emerging Artists Fund announced!
A new partnership is to be launched today by PledgeMusic and PRS Foundation who are working together on the Emerging Artists Fund. This important talent development fund offers financial support to artists who are positioned to take advantage of new business models in the music space, looking to build on their existing achievements and fast-track to the next level.
The Emerging Artists Fund offers artists and bands an innovative financing model to accelerate careers through:
- support from PledgeMusic to generate initial funding
- grant support of up to £2,500 from PRS Foundation
From day one, PledgeMusic has worked with and empowered new and developing artists to enhance and build their music careers and fan-bases. At present, PledgeMusic launches around 1,200 projects per annum with many of these being developing artists. PRS Foundation is the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development across all genres and has a long and well-respected track record of innovative, impactful and cost effective funding programmes; including the Momentum Music Fund, International Showcase Fund, The Open Fund, Flash Funding and Women Make Music.
This new Emerging Artists Fund will particularly appeal to artists focussing on recordings, releases and/or touring, and more specifically artists that can demonstrate;
- development to a point at which their musical output is already significant, and that funding will help create outstanding new music, as judged by an external advisor network** (See ‘notes to editors’).
- that there is a growing fan-base (both live and online) and can provide a credible narrative as to how they would benefit from the PledgeMusic direct-to-fan process.
- an understanding of the DIY ethos and have a realistic and practical plan/strategy of what they need to do next to move their careers forward.
- at least 2 commercially viable ‘releases’ (singles, EPs and/or an album) and achieved a level of interest around those releases, as evidenced by local media coverage and at least one national radio broadcast.
Applicants will be asked to outline project costs and budgets at application stage, projecting the level of grant support needed from PRS Foundation as well as indicating a PledgeMusic Crowdfunding target. Artists selected for support will consult with PledgeMusic to agree a realistic fundraising target. Selected artists will work closely with PledgeMusic and will use best endeavours to achieve that target. Once the fundraising target is reached, PRS Foundation’s grant of £2,500 will be triggered (with 80% paid up-front, and the balance amount paid upon completion of the artist’s project and upon receipt of satisfactory project evaluation). A typical fundraising target of £2,500 would mean the Emerging Artists Fund has enabled £5,000 of project support.
The first round of the Emerging Artists Fund launches today, with the deadline for submitting applications being 21st May. The second round is scheduled to open in August and close at the end of September. Applications can be made in the first instance through the Emerging Artists Fund link to be found on the homepage of the PledgeMusic website. A total of 10 acts will be selected per deadline.
PledgeMusic UK Managing Director Paul Barton speaking of the new initiative says,
“PledgeMusic is delighted to be continuing its long association with the PRS Foundation in this new Emerging Artists Fund initiative. New and emerging artists are very much the life-blood of the industry and have always been central to the PledgeMusic model. The PledgeMusic team very much look forward to working with the PRS Foundation on this project”.
PRS Foundation Chief Executive Vanessa Reed said,
“At PRS Foundation we are always looking to create impactful and innovative ways to reach and support the UK’s most talented music creators. We are excited to be working on this fund with PledgeMusic because it presents new opportunities to artists interested in diversifying their income and testing new ways of working. I look forward to seeing who applies and measuring the impact this combination of grant and direct-to-fan fundraising has on the next steps in their career.”
