For anyone that hasn’t been living underground for the past decade, it’s hardly news that it’s tougher than ever to secure enough funds to bankroll your creative endeavours, let alone make a living off of them.
Right at the forefront of the struggle are musicians, who are constantly on the lookout for new revenue streams that, far from allowing them to buy mansions and sports cars, are simply looking to do things like tour and record an album.
One option that has come into larger prominence in the last few years is the music grant. But securing a grant can often be a tough, competitive, complicated, and even confusing process, with many potential pitfalls that could see a deserving band miss out on much-needed funds.
In order to help bands and artists better understand the process behind music grants and how they can prepare the best possible grant application themselves, we recruited three experts in the subject to share their invaluable tips.
Nick Lynagh With over six years of music industry experience under his belt, Nick is the head of Habit Music Company, an artist management, PR, and strategic digital marketing firm, as well as the manager of up-and-coming Adelaide rockers BAD//DREEMS. His positions at a number of music media outlets organisations like Triple J Magazine has given Nick an expert knowledge of the music media landscape and allowed him to build an extensive network of key media and industry contacts nationwide.
Andy Rantzen Andy works as Program Manager in the Music section at the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory agency. The Music section provides grants to Australian bands, artists, and organisations that help them embark on tours, record, promote their bands, and employ skill development across all styles of music via a competitive grants process involving assessment by peers drawn from all areas of Australian music.
Andrew Fuller A Melbourne-based lawyer specialising in commercial, arts and entertainment, media, and intellectual property law, Andrew advises start-ups and businesses looking to create, protect and commercialise their intellectual property rights. Andrew is also the Chair of the Music Victoria Management Committee and a member of the panel of arts and entertainment lawyers for the Arts Law Centre of Australia, regularly presenting at seminars on arts and entertainment law and grant writing.
Give Yourself Plenty Of Time
Andy: “Don’t leave things to the last minute. Begin gathering your materials and planning your project as early as possible. Start writing your application when the guidelines and application form become available, and at least two weeks before the advertised closing date. If you are applying online, save your work regularly and keep an offline copy as well.”
Nick: “Start work on your application early. At least a month out from the deadline you should have read the application and made a list of all the items you need to get done. This will usually mean getting travel quotes, hire quotes, accommodation quotes etc. You will most likely need supporting documents from industry people who are either involved in the project, or acting as a reference. Either way you need to get on to these early because these people are busy and may need time to get you want you want.”
Andrew: “It takes time to prepare a competitive application; it can take four to six weeks to get all of the essential supporting materials together for your application. For an international showcasing grant, essential supporting materials might be the notice from the festival confirming your band has been accepted to showcase. For a recording grant it might be confirmations from the studio, producer, musicians and mastering house.
Make your own deadline a week before the actual deadline to give you time to review and reflect on what you have written. This help rectify distractions like grammatical and spelling problems and to ensure the application is clear in articulating your project. This will also give you some time to upload materials to the arts agency website – there’s nothing more stressful than the grant website crashing in the last few hours before an application is due.
Get someone to proofread your application to make sure it makes sense to someone else and to identify typos you can miss when you’re too close to the document.”
Identify Sources Of Funding
Andrew: “The APRA|AMCOS and Music Victoria websites have a good collation of available grants to assist you to identify funding and other support you may need for your project. Local councils and businesses also provide grants so think more broadly than just the Australia Council and your state arts agency. You might be able to find some smaller grants from your local council to assist with the travel and accommodation expenses you’ll require to successfully complete your project.”
Do Your Research
Andrew: “Find out what other projects were funded for the same grant stream – usually there will be a list of grants that were previously successful, including the name of the applicant, a brief description of the project, and the size of the grant. This will guide you to calibrate your expectations to what other people have received previously and what kinds of activity are supported by the funding body. It will also reinforce the competitiveness of the grant process, especially when you see established bands awarded funding for recording or overseas touring projects.
Speak to the project officer responsible for the grant. Their email address and direct line are usually published online with the grant information so they expect to be called as part of their function. Get all of your questions together and ask them in one hit. Ringing up in a piecemeal fashion will not assist your cause and you may tagged as a serial pest. Don’t be that person.”
Nick: “Before you dedicate a week of your life to writing the application be sure to contact the funding body to discuss your project. Naturally they are a wealth of knowledge and will quickly be able to guide you in the right direction.
Further to that, establish an ongoing relationship with the Arts funding representative. Go to their info sessions, keep them abreast of your progress, and aim to build a long-term positive relationship.”
Provide Your Best Artistic Support Material
Andy: “The artist support material you supply should be strong and relevant to your application. If you are providing URLs, they should lead directly to your music or videos. Don’t force the assessment panellists to search for your music on a website – every link should lead straight to artistic material.”
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Read The Guidelines Carefully And Follow Them
Andy: “Make sure you have read and understood the advertised guidelines carefully. They will tell you whether you’re eligible to apply, what you may apply for, and what materials to submit. Never depart from the guidelines by supplying unrequested material. If in doubt, contact the grants staff.”
Andrew: “Make sure (1) your application directly addresses the grant program guidelines, (2) you’ve noted all essential supporting material necessary and that (3) your application fits within any dates set out in the grant.
Imagine getting halfway through your application to discover that your intended activity doesn’t fit the grant guidelines There’s nothing worse that planning your tour and then being reminded as you’re about to lodge your application that your planned tour start date is a month before the grant date. Pretty frustrating stuff!
It’s harder to do these days with online applications, but this is a sure way for your application to automatically end up on the “No” pile – with all of your effort for naught.”
Keep It Clear And Simple
Andy: “Write in clear, short sentences that set out the structure and detail of your project. Avoid puffery and promotional flourishes. Use the limited space available to provide the details that will allow the panel to feel confident that you have an achievable and well-coordinated plan.”
Andrew: “Have a clear idea of what activity fits within your own plan and align that with the grant you need. Before you even start to look for funding, make sure that you have a strong idea of the type of project you want to do and why it’s important for the next step in your career. There’s little point applying for a grant to assist with regional touring if you already planned to be spending that particular portion of the year writing and recording new songs.
Write in Plain English so you’re confident that your project will be clear to anyone and avoid hyperbole when writing your application. You are not writing a press release, so the panellist is not interested in your “seminal” band “hailing from Melbourne” with “staggering” success to-date. Your application should be factual and clearly set out within the word limits of the application: (1) who you are, (2) what are you going to do, and (3) how you’re going to do it.
Structure your submission so that it is easy to follow by using headings. Remember, it’s a competitive process so think how to express your project in a way which will distinguish it from the other 500 applications.
Check out the “Dollars and Sense – music grants information seminar” on the Music Victoria YouTube channel for more information.”
Think Carefully About Your Application From The Point of View Of A Panellist
Andy: “If your application is confusing, unclear, verbose, ambiguous, lacking in detail, or supported by large quantities of unnecessary supporting material, the panel is going to find it hard to assess. Think about what an assessment panellist requires to ascertain the quality of your plan, and give them no more than those materials. Remember, assessors usually work through a large number of applications alongside yours, and forcing them search through large quantities of irrelevant material to find what they need will undermine their confidence in the quality of your application. Be concise, relevant and to the point at all times, and you will have made their job easier.”
Always Address The Selection Criteria
Andy: “Your application will be rated against the selection criteria published in the guidelines for the grant. Everything in your application should be relevant to at least one of those criteria. If something in your application does not relate to the criteria, remove it.”
Be Reasonable About The Budget
Nick: “Get written quotes on everything to support your budget. If you are not sure what is acceptable here ask the Arts rep. But don’t cut corners, don’t just average costs out, and just make the effort to get quotes on everything. Again this comes down to being prepared early.
You application is one of 100’s and the assessment panel is looking for a reason to rule you out. Dodgy estimates or unexplained figures will see you ruled out very quickly.
When deciding how much you want to apply for the tendency is to ask for the maximum amount. I mean the governments paying so why the heck not right? Wrong. As a general rule do not ask for anything more then 30% of the total income. The rest needs to come from somewhere else such as band contribution, project income, in-kind support or other grants.”
Andrew: “Grants are assessed by peers – people who know the music business – and include record label owners, managers, publicists, booking agents and lawyers. These people have a good sense of what things costs and what is achievable.
The peers will check to see if the budget can achieve what the application proposes.
With that in mind, when preparing your budget, make sure it is accurate and realistic, includes all costs (eg WorkCover, insurances, visas, etc) and acknowledges your own contribution to the project, both financial and ‘in-kind’. If you do include in-kind items in your budget (like, say, foregoing a performance fee on a tour), make sure that item is noted as INCOME and EXPENSES in the budget and how you arrived at that figure – and make it easy for the assessment panel to identify by calling it “IN KIND – JOE BLOGGS PERFORMANCE FEE (6 x $300)”.
TIP: If you’re registered for GST you mustn’t include GST in your budget – by doing so, your application is likely to be automatically rejected.”
Contact The Grants Staff With Your Questions
Andy: “Don’t hesitate to contact the grants staff as often as you need to in order to clarify any confusions or issues you may have. You may find it useful to write down any questions you have as you work through your application, then get in touch with the grants staff and work through them.”
If You’re Not Successful, Don’t Take It To Heart
Andy: “Very few artists receive funding every time they apply. Most grants have low success rates, and you need to have a thick skin. Get used to the rhythm of applying for grants, and always have a back-up plan for when you aren’t successful. If the grants agency offers feedback, take that opportunity. And remember, even if your application isn’t successful, you will have walked away from the process with a project plan and a budget: that in itself will be useful.”
