Talent Development Partners 2023/24

We are delighted to announce our 44 Talent Development Partners for 2023/24

These organisations are working at the frontline of talent development in the UK, supporting a broad range of individual music creators across different music genres and UK regions.

The 44 organisations around the country to receive support to be PRS Foundation Talent Development Partners for 2023/24 are:

The network – which includes festivals, venues, studios and other talent development expert organisations – reaches over 4,000 diverse and exciting songwriters, composers, artists, bands, ensembles and producers each year.

Organisations are selected because of the quality and range of opportunities on offer for music creators in their specialist field or region, the impact of their work, and because of what they bring to the network.

Talent Development Partners receive a grant from the Foundation for their year-round activity. They also work closely together and with PRS Foundation to address talent pipeline gaps through joint work and signposting. Hundreds of creators are already benefitting from the strategic partnership opportunities which have resulted from working together.

Funded activities include composer and songwriter development workshops, residencies, recording and release support, commissioning new music, advice and mentoring. Creators that have benefitted from support by Talent Development Partners include Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross, Daniel Casmir, Abel Selaocoe, Lemonade Shoelace, Nik Nak, Black Country New Road, Sanity, Jasdeep Singh Degun, Nwando Ebizie.

PRS Foundation’s approach to diversity, inclusion, equity and justice includes co-founding impactful initiatives such as Women Make Music, Keychange and more recently POWER UP. The team is applying learnings across all its programmes and the Talent Development Partner network presents an opportunity to share great practice on the ground in the UK and across all music creator career levels. As well as asking the Talent Development organisations to report on the backgrounds of the creators they support, they are asked to report on the diversity of their management teams, Board members and those delivering programmes. The sector has a long way to go in terms of the talent development workforce reflecting the diverse backgrounds of music creators, and Talent Development Partners are playing a key role in shaping a more inclusive, fairer and equitable sector, with several diverse-led organisations already in the network and an increasing focus on authentic representation in decision-making, delivery and programming.

Additionally, health and wellbeing strands feature in a number of the Talent Development Partner programmes, recognising a growing need for this type of support for those entering or working in the industry.

During the Talent Development Conference in January 2021, PRS Foundation announced that music licensing company PPL would be supporting the Talent Development Partner network.  This partnership builds on the close relationship forged between PPL and PRS Foundation through the PPL Momentum Music Fund and the International Showcase Fund and provides match funding for the Foundation’s donation from PRS for Music.

Find out more about our Talent Development Partner network