The New Music Creator Fund offers grants to individual music creators working in any genre who need support to get to the next stage of their creative practice.
Donor Name: New Music USA
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/14/2023
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The program supports costs that relate to collaboration with other artists and practitioners. The aim is to enable music creators to take the lead in the development of new and existing ideas and projects. They support and represent a broad range of individuals across the country and musical spectrum.
Priorities
The aim to support and represent a broad range of individuals across the country and musical spectrum. They expect the applicant pool to be very diverse in terms of genres and music styles. The commitment to an equitable ecosystem for new music means that they are particularly interested in receiving proposals from BIPOC and other under-represented artists, and in accordance with definition of new music, “anyone who is influencing the future of music creation and sound.” Given the large volume of applications, process will prioritize the following in making determinations:
- Artistic quality, ability, and skill in creating or performing music
- Projects that display originality of sound, music, and artistry, shaping the future of music creation and sound.
- Music creators who have evidence of experience making music professionally and are engaged in music on a professional level. Generally they do not support students.
- Projects that involve artistic growth or stretch, creativity, and innovation
- Projects with the most potential to have a significant impact on creative practice. They are interested in hearing how this project will help provide a breakthrough or help you advance in your career.
- Projects involving new collaborations, which are in progress and will be developed in roughly the next year
- Projects that do not already have funding or have limited funding. They are interested in hearing why funding for the project is needed now, and the urgency for support.
The Program does support
If awarded, the funds could be used in many ways. They envision that costs incurred through your collaborative work may include:
- Support for the time you need to create new material and initiate new collaborations with your proposed artist(s)
- Creation fees for a work in progress that does not have additional support
- Performer or other collaborator fees
- Project specific equipment
- Recording costs
- PR/marketing
- Technical assistance/skills building
- Support for digital presentation/creation of music videos
- Workshopping
- Joint R&D (research and development) into new project ideas
- Other costs you consider to be essential e.g. childcare for yourself or a collaborating artist
Funding Information
- The plan is to make a total of 50 to 60 awards of up to $5,000 each with funding from New Music USA’s endowment and annual funders.
- Creator Fund New York: This strand is open to artists who live in New York state only. Approximately 40 to 45% of their funding for individual creators will be allotted and they anticipate awarding roughly 24 to 25 artists in this strand.
- Creator Fund National: This strand is open to artists living outside of New York state including US territories. Approximately 55 to 60% of their funding for individual creators will be allotted and they anticipate awarding roughly 33 to 36 artists in this strand.
Eligibility Criteria
- The lead applicant must be a US/territories-based music creator
- This is for individuals only; organizations cannot apply
- Each lead applicant may only submit one request
- If the lead applicant appears on another application as a collaborator, only one project containing the applicant may be selected for an award
- If a collaborator appears on more than one application, only one project containing the collaborator may be selected for an award
- Lead applicants may not have been funded in the previous round of the New Music Creator Fund (December 2022 deadline, announced in May 2023).
- The applicant must be pursuing music on a professional level – they do not support creators who are completing their studies
For more information, visit New Music USA.
