The Artist Development program (AD) offers 75% of eligible expenses up to a maximum of $5,000 towards a year of artist development activities including sound recording, touring, showcasing, video content production, and marketing.
This program is intended to provide support towards the professionalization and integration of early career artists into the music industry. Artists with an established track record and ongoing market momentum should review the Juried Sound Recording: Album or Juried Sound Recording: Single/EP programs.
In order to fill out an Artist Development application in the FACTOR online system, you will first need a rated Artist Profile and Applicant Profile.
With your Artist Development application, you must submit:
- An MP3 of a recent demo along with lyrics, known as the assessment track;
- A current artist biography;
- An artist development plan, which sets out all the intended artist development activities to be undertaken if the project is approved for funding. The artist development plan questions are incorporated into the application on the portal.
This program is intended to provide development support to emerging artists. Artists must have previously released a minimum of one track commercially but no music more than three years prior to applying. See more eligibility criteria in the program guidelines.
FACTOR will reimburse 75% of the eligible costs up to $5,000. To receive the full funding support, applicants must complete the activities set out in an artist development plan, and be able to prove that they incurred at least $6,667 worth of eligible expenses during the Artist Development year.
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 12 weeks from the deadline and may be affected by number of submissions and juror availability.
