20 MusicWeek 20.09.13 VIEWPOINT MOMENTUM MUSIC FUND
BUILDING MOMENTUM B
PRS For Music Foundation’s executive director Vanessa Reed on how £500k of Arts Council funding can have a big impact on new artists
FUNDING BY VANESSA REED, EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR, PRS FOR MUSIC FOUNDATION
arely three months since launching the Momentum Music Fund at Brighton’s Great Escape, I was delighted that at the end of
August we were able to unveil the first ten artists and bands to benefit from this unique initiative. Momentum was set up in response to a gap in funding that was widely acknowledged and that we were able to discuss with Arts Council England, other funding bodies and representatives from across the music industry. From experience, it’s not until a fund is up and running, when grants are awarded and projects set in motion, that its aims and aspirations become truly tangible. The number and content of the hundreds of applications we’ve now received confirm the need for this fund and the potential for it to have a huge impact. A broad range of talented artists, reflecting the
originality and quality of music released in this country make up the first wave of Momentum beneficiaries. Competition was incredibly fierce for this first deadline but I hope the list of acts that made it through will inspire even more artists and bands to come forward to one of the six funding rounds between now and January 2015. By that stage, Momentum will have helped up to 75 acts deliver on their promise - funding a whole range of creative activities whose outcomes will impact positively upon the wider music business. So what did we learn from this first round of
applications? Most of the proposals we received were a sharp reminder of how tough it is these days for artists to build and maintain a career; for all the countless opportunities opened up when it comes to distributing and marketing music online or building an audience over social media, there have been some challenging side effects - not least the increasing pressures on artists to make themselves market ready, self release, fund touring or manage their communications. However, the response to Momentum also demonstrates how these changes can be hugely empowering and how a small amount of funding could make a real difference. All of those who were selected for Momentum funding are clear about their aims to take their careers to another level within the next two years whilst realising creative ambitions that they may not have been able to address without our support. The activities they want to undertake to achieve their goals vary hugely - some artists want to focus on increasing the quality of their recordings or ramping up the production values of their live show, others want to collaborate with an established producer or develop their arrangement and orchestration techniques. And, the so-called “tipping point” for each of these artists – the number of albums, the social media exposure and revenue it takes to break through - is coming at different stages in their careers. The only
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ABOVE Funding the future:
[Clockwise from top left] Dutch Uncles, Brolin, Esco Williams and Hannah Peel are just four of the acts who will benefit from the Momentum cash
“We’ll need additional resources to ensure the fund develops and reaches its goals. Our vision is for the long-term and with increased support this Momentum can grow and grow” VANESSA REED, PRS FOR MUSIC
common thread was that nearly everyone needed extra support for marketing and PR. The assessment process wasn’t easy - the quality of the 500 applications that our independent advisors had to whittle down to ten was astonishingly high; indicative of the huge pool of UK talent currently making great music. For this reason, we’ve taken our responsibility as gatekeepers of such a popular fund very seriously. We’ve ensured that an independent assessment process sits at the heart of every decision made. Panels of music industry experts decide on who gets support, we’re completely transparent about who these people are and we’re making sure that our panels rotate so that Momentum stimulates a growing
network of advisors. I hope that anyone looking at our first list of Momentum-funded artists will see that this process has worked. There’s no theme, no box-ticking and no compromise. Just a great line-up of distinctive artists selected for the quality of their music and a clear plan for how they can make their next album or tour a breakthrough moment in their career. And what about the remaining 490+ artists and bands who applied to our first round and are still out there looking for funding? Not all of those acts were ready for Momentum support, but a large number were - so I believe that we’ll need additional resources to ensure the fund develops accordingly and reaches its goals. Deezer, which has come on board as Momentums’ first industry backer, will help us with this challenge, enabling us to give money to more artists and add value in other ways. Could this inspire others to help us with this fund which gives more artists the chance to realise their potential? I certainly hope so. Our vision is for the long-term and with increased support this Momentum could grow and grow.
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