Artist Development
The Artist Development Program offers a $2,000 subsidy toward one year of artist development activities including sound recording, touring & showcasing, video production, marketing and promotion. These activities must be detailed in an artist development plan, which is incorporated into the application on the portal.
With your application, you must submit:
- An MP3 of a recent demo along with lyrics, known as the assessment track
- A current artist biography (uploaded to your artist profile)
- An artist development plan, which sets out all the intended artist development activities to be undertaken if the project is approved for funding
At the end of the Artist Development year, successful applicants are required to deliver to FACTOR one new, previously unreleased, professional quality sound recording, called the Delivery Track.
Components in this program
This program consists of the Artist Development component.
Program Components
Deadlines
May 16, 2019
October 17, 2019
*NEW* The following rules will apply starting 2019-2020:
- Applicants can only apply to one of the two juried programs (either AD or JSR), and only at one of the two deadlines (May 16 or Oct 17).
- Applicants will not be able to apply to two deadlines in a row. If an applicant applies to the May 16 deadline, they cannot apply to either program at the October 17 deadline. Applicants will have to wait for their next eligible deadline (in this example, May 2020) to apply again. Think of it as “every other deadline”.
- There is one exception to the “every other deadline” rule. For each program, the top 20 applications that do not receive funding will be eligible to make improvements to their applications and reapply for the next deadline without waiting a full 12 months. Clients will be notified when the jury results are communicated if they are eligible for this exception.
- Prior to each deadline there will be a three-month window during which applications to AD and JSR can be created, edited and submitted. FACTOR will delete all incomplete applications after the window closes. Late applications will be rejected and not held until the next deadline. This will go into effect following the May 16, 2019 deadline. Applications for the October 17, 2019 deadline will be accepted starting July 17, 2019.
Note: Applicants who applied to either juried program at the January 31, 2019 deadline will be allowed to apply to the May 16, 2019 deadline.
All FACTOR deadlines are for 11:59pm PT on deadline day. Any technical issues with FACTOR’s online system must be reported to FACTOR prior to 5pm ET on deadline day.
Read FACTOR’s Glossary of Standard Terms and Business Policies
Funding & Payments
FACTOR will reimburse 75% of the eligible costs up to $2,000. To receive the full grant, applicants must complete the activities set out in an artist development plan, and be able to prove that they incurred at least $2667 worth of eligible expenses (including Donated Services) during the Artist Development year.
FACTOR will allow a claim for Artist’s Donated Services of up to $500 for this program. Beyond that, FACTOR will only recognize costs actually paid to third parties. Artists who do not intend to spend money on third-party costs are not eligible for this program.
Assessment Process
Assessment materials, including the mandatory artist development plan, are reviewed and scored by a jury comprised of music industry professionals. The top-scoring applications are then reviewed by FACTOR staff, who assess the eligibility of the projects and make a recommendation to the Board of Directors for their approval. Assessment time is up to 16 weeks from the deadline.
Ready to apply?
- Read the Program Guidelines:
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