The Open Fund for Music Creators supports the development of outstanding music creators of all genres and backgrounds at different stages of their career. The fund can support projects by music creators who are writing their own music or commissioning others.

Music Creators’ projects must fulfil all three of our funding priorities:

• To support the creation, performance and promotion of outstanding new music in any genre

We are particularly interested in the quality of the music

• To enable the UK’s most talented music creators to realise their potential

We are interested in how your project will develop the music creators involved. You will need to tell us why this particular activity is so crucial to your creative and/or professional development.

• To reach audiences

You will be asked to outline who you are reaching and how. This includes audiences at a local, regional, national or international level

If you are a solo performer or small performance group commissioning others, you will need to explain why your project is so important to the music creator you are working with.

The following are considered by PRS Foundation to be Music Creators:

• Songwriters
• Composers
• Artists
• Bands
• Producers who are involved in the composition/writing process
• Performers who are involved in the composition/writing process

We are committed to supporting UK based music creators of all backgrounds.

If you answer YES to the questions below you may qualify for the Open Fund for Music Creators and should consider applying.

• be based in the UK, applications can be made on behalf of UK based music creators by their representatives such as a manager, record label, publisher etc.
• Aged 18 or over, unless represented by an adult with a valid DBS check
• Applicants must have a track record of over 18 months
• Music Creators can not be previous recipients of The PPL Momentum Fund, The Writer Producer Fund, Hitmaker or The Composers Fund
• Music Creators not signed to major record label
• Music Creators cannot be in full-time education, unless an exception is made by the Grants Team
• Music Creators must either be a member of PRS or in a position to join.

Please note: PRS Foundation has full eligibility criteria that apply across our funding schemes which you can read on our Applicant Guidance and FAQs page.

The Open Fund for Music Creators offers grants of up to £5,000. Please note that we cannot support 100% of the project costs and expect to see income from other sources as part of your application.

Through The Open Fund, we support high quality new music projects which have tangible musical outcomes and a clearly defined start and end date. Our funding includes support of:

• Creation of new music
• Music Creator fees (to cover your time and work)
• Touring and live performances
• Recording and release
• Creative residency costs
• Fees to creative collaborators
• Promotion and marketing (when there is also an element of creation and/or performance)
• Equipment (not exceeding 20% of the total project budget)

• projects that contain no element of live performance or creation. Although we can support marketing and promotional costs, we require there to be elements of creation and/or performance
• bursaries, tuition/education costs, or scholarships
• activity that falls before our decision date (the decision date is stated on the application form when you are applying)
• retrospective activity (i.e. projects that have already taken place)
• the purchase of vans and cars
• bursaries, tuition/education costs, or scholarships
• capital projects (e.g. building work)
• any project raising funds for another charity
• building a studio
• international tours/international activity unless part of a majority-UK based project
• start-up companies or record labels
• a roster of artists on a record label or management company

The Open Fund for Music Creators has 3 deadlines a year. Check the deadlines page for the next deadline here and please note applicants can only apply to the Open Fund for Music Creators once per calendar year. Applications must be submitted by 6pm on the day of the deadline.

All decisions for the Open Fund for Music Creators are made by a revolving panel of independent advisors. We aim to communicate back to all applicants with a decision within 10 weeks of a deadline passing.

Please contact info@prsfoundation.com should you require any further information.

Written vs Video Applications

Applicants can choose to submit via a written or video application. Both written and video submissions have their pros and cons, video applications can enable applicants who are less confident in writing applications to answer the questions in the application form and vice versa, we will work with our Grants Team and advisors to mitigate unconscious bias through video submissions however, we would recommend those who are worried about this specifically to submit a written application. Please speak to a member of the Grants Team should you wish to discuss this further.

We recognise that for disabled music creators with access requirements, some proposed activity which supports music creator development (e.g. live performance, touring, access to studios) incurs additional costs, meaning that applicants may require grant support of more than £5,000.

Music creators with access requirements are advised that:

• Applicants should submit Total Project Budget and Request Amounts that do not consider additional access costs.
• An additional budget question allows applicants to detail additional access requirement needs which will be considered by PRS Foundation’s management team and will therefore not be seen or considered by external advisors unless mentioned in main Funding Priority responses by the applicant.

Funding decisions will not be affected by additional accessibility support requests and if selected, an appropriate offer amount will be pledged.

If you have read all the guidance and checked the deadlines page

Apply Here