Fighting for funds

Posted: 6 August 2019

Discover the organisations that want to support your career.

Read time: 3 mins

For many emerging artists, finding the money to support their career can be a source of anxiety. You might have enough income to cover household bills and guitar maintenance but what about that tour you want to go on? Or the studio time you desperately need to pay for? What happens when your budget just doesn’t stretch as far as it needs to? Luckily in the UK, there’s a variety of funding streams available to give your career the kickstart it needs.

PRS

PRS Foundation is one of the biggest music funding organisations in the UK, with a variety of different grants available for people at various stages of their careers.

PRS also has a range of smaller awards for new artists, some of which include monetary prizes and others that offer mentoring and development programmes. And don’t worry if your role is behind the scenes, PRS also has options available for songwriters, composers and producers.

Help Musicians

Help Musicians is a charity that provides support for musicians from all genres and walks of life. Although a lot of their work revolves around wellbeing support and music education, they also provide funding and educational opportunities for emerging artists.

If your musical journey is taking you down a non-performance route, then you might be interested in  the Help Musicians funds for collaborative projects or higher education.

Arts Council England

Funds from the Arts Council are supported by the National Lottery so they’re able to support requests of over £15,000. However, it’s worth noting that this scheme is available for a wide range of arts not just music, so the application process is competitive. This fund is worth exploring if you’re not eligible for the other funding above or if you’re looking to do something unconventional with your music.

Other Options

If you don’t feel like you meet the criteria for these particular schemes, then you can always try fundraising on your own. Thanks to websites like Kickstarter, it’s easier than ever to create your own campaign. You can set you funding goal and deadline to fit your needs and promote the campaign on social media. Some people offer rewards to those that have pledged but it’s probably best to stick to digital gifts that won’t cost you anything to produce. Remember though that most of these sites run on an all-or-nothing system so you need to set realistic goals.