FACTOR’s $2,000 Artist Development grant recommendations

Written by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment

Krafty Entertainment is a music business development coaching company dedicated to providing guidance to musicians (and their teams) on how best to nurture supporters and profit from doing so. Krafty Entertainment’s founder Kyle Kraft has over 20 years experience in assisting both developing and established artists in substantially growing their net income from their music. Interested in working with us? Let’s talk!

Please note from Kyle: I only offer my grant writing services to artists I’ve worked together with on the career assessment & business development planning program I offer, and even then I don’t put together FACTOR Artist Development applications as they don’t need the assistance of a grant writer. They are simple and anyone competent with administration who gets started early enough can do a good job of one. I do offer to review support materials for upcoming FACTOR Artist Development applications for artists I’ve worked together with in a consulting capacity, so if that’s you please email me what you think are completed support materials well in advance of the deadline and I’ll get back to you with feedback to help you ensure your application is as strong as is possible. With that being said, here’s some info on FACTOR Artist Development applications.

BACKGROUND:

FACTOR (The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Recordings) offers a $2,000 Artist Development grant program (http://factor.ca/programs/artist-development/) that is not only a great way for developing musicians who are Canadian citizens (or people who have Canadian permanent resident status) to potentially get some funding to invest in their career development, but also to be able to call themselves a FACTOR-funded artist which is an accomplishment that can potentially be highlighted and leveraged to create additional support and opportunities. If approved the $2,000 FACTOR Artist Development can be used towards recording, production of videos, marketing and promotion, touring, and/ or performing showcases at music conferences. Having said that there are also stand-alone FACTOR showcase grants that any artist who has submitted their FACTOR profiles is eligible for, so using Artist Development funding towards showcasing isn’t the best use of funding.

Unless you already have so much more funding in place for the development of your career that you feel that potentially getting $2,000 isn’t worth a few hours of your time, the FACTOR Artist Development grant program is well worth applying for. The worst result that can happen from applying for the Artist Development grant program is that you spend some time on the application and don’t get approved, but can then get some constructive criticism on your music and support materials helping you understand both why you didn’t get approved and likely also areas you need to improve on in your career development in general.

Less than 40% of the highest scoring Artist Development grant applications receive funding each deadline, with scores being collectively decided on by a volunteer “peer jury” which is always made up of no less than 7 industry people including artists, producers, engineers, DJs, journalists, radio show hosts, promoters, managers, booking agents, label and distribution company staff, etc. People interested in being jurors must have at least 5 years of experience in the industry, and indicate to FACTOR that they are suited to be a juror in the genre(s) of music they are volunteering to adjudicate. Applications that receive an average score of roughly 85 points out of 100 and above are normally approved in the Artist Development grant program.

The Artist Development program is only a $2,000 grant and as such the application isn’t complicated, so is something that anyone who is competent with administration should be able to do themselves without hiring a professional grant writer. Furthermore, 75% of the scoring jurors give each Artist Development grant application is based solely on their perception of the unreleased track that must be attached to the application. That 75% scoring is broken down as follows:

25% - Songs (Writing, Arrangement, Composition, etc)

25% - Vocals/ Lyrics (style, range, etc)

25% - Musicality (performance, skill, technique, etc)

Since the Artist Development grant program is so competitive you would be wise to submit a track that is as finished as is possible, as long as it hasn’t been released. That way jurors don’t have try to imagine what the finished track will be like based on your explanation of what changes are going to be made to it. Though demos are eligible to be submitted, you’re better off providing a track with the highest sonic quality possible.

Keeping in mind that while you can specify the genre focus of the jury you want your application to be adjudicated by, you can’t predict who the 7+ people are who are going to end up being on the peer jury that adjudicates your application. For that reason you would be wise to submit a song that is likely to be as accessible as possible to a wide range of people who are knowledgeable in your genre. Think carefully about using songs that are overly polarizing in their subject matter, or that otherwise may only be appreciated by a niche/ sub-genre audience. Guest appearances from established artists on the track may help sway the jury, but are by no means necessary.

The other 25% of the score is based on the details you provide in the artist development plan that you have to fill out as part of the application, outlining your plans for the next year in the areas of recording, marketing, video production, touring, and showcasing at music industry conferences. Presentation of additional support materials that you include like the required song lyrics, the required bio, publicity photos, photos of you performing live with large crowds, cd package artwork, photos or mock-ups of your merch, a cover letter, letters of support (or at the very least quotes), list of past performance highlights, a document with links to your music videos, screen captures of any blog or other media coverage, college radio charts, and other press kit materials may also improve that 25% of your score. Though you only have to include an mp3 of an unreleased track, the lyrics for the track, your bio, and the filled out artist development plan with your application, including more than the bare minimum (as long as what else you're including is going to help convince the jurors they should support you) is a wise idea and a good way to help give yourself an edge over some of the other applications being submitted at the same time.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Any Canadian artist - regardless of their FACTOR artist rating - who has been releasing music for less than 3 years (and has not yet gotten more than $10,000 from FACTOR) is eligible for FACTOR’s Artist Development grant program, but be aware that you need to have created, submitted, and received a rating for both your FACTOR artist profile AND applicant profile before you can even create a FACTOR grant application to fill out. It takes up to a week for those profile profiles to be reviewed and rated by a FACTOR staff member after they have been submitted, so you need to insure you are get BOTH profiles submitted as soon as possible (see below for more info on that) and no later than a week prior to an application deadline.

You need to attach an unreleased track to the application for the jurors to base the majority of their decision on. You must ensure the track you are submitting is unreleased at the time the application is submitted, otherwise the application will likely be rejected by FACTOR before a jury even gets to consider it.

HOW ARTIST DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS ARE CONSIDERED FOR APPROVAL:

FACTOR’s Artist Development grant program is one of 2 (the other being their more extensive Juried Sound Recording grant program) that are adjudicated by a peer jury, which is made up of no less than 7 people who have indicated to FACTOR that they are interested in and knowledgeable in your genre of music. Peer jurors can include people like artists, producers, engineers, DJs, radio show hosts, writers, promoters, managers, agents, label and distribution staff, and others.

In order for FACTOR to consider someone to be qualified to be a juror they must have at least 5 years of experience (though that doesn't need to be full time) in some capacity of the music industry. If you have been working in the industry for at least 5 years you would be wise to sign up to volunteer to be a juror yourself, as it's an excellent means of learning more both about how to make grant applications as strong as is possible as well as what some other artists are doing right to develop their careers in general.

Peer juries are actually the most unpredictable and subjective part of FACTOR. Sometimes you get jurors who are too focused on their own personal tastes, or who don't have the best business sense. Despite having gotten over $5,000,000 in grants for artists I’ve worked with I've had peer juries give low scores to solid applications I've put together for artists who have been multiple JUNO Award nominees, only to submit almost the same application the following deadline and have it score much better to the point that it was approved for funding. The peer jury system isn't perfect, but FACTOR staff do their best to try to ensure it is as strong as possible despite its variable nature.

If you have an application not be scored high enough to be approved your FACTOR coordinator will let you know the average scores your application received in each category, and you can also request to receive comments from the jurors to get a better understanding of why they gave you the scores that they did. Though you might not necessarily like all of the comments you receive if that is the case, you should end up with some good constructive criticism for you to take into consideration to help you improve subsequent applications and in general what you are doing to further your career.

If you don’t already have a substantial audience and are still in the first 3 years of releasing your music commercially you would be wise to hold off on applying for the Juried Sound Recording grant until you have been approved for the Artist Development grant. Once you have been approved for an Artist Development grant, you will be able to say in your Juried Sound Recording grant application that you have already been approved for FACTOR funding which should help you convince the jurors of the logic of support in your application. People are a lot more likely to support someone who is already getting similar support, so that helps your cause.

You can only apply for either the Artist Development grant program or the Juried Sound Recording grant at once. Given that the artist development grant program is a much simpler application and that it is easier to get approved it could make sense to submit for it first.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

You should get started on the application WELL in advance of the week of the deadline, and keep working on improving the support materials you are including in every way possible right up until the day of the deadline. Submitting early does not help the application’s chances or approval in any way, and arguably hinders it since that gives you less time to work on improving the application. 

Ideally once you have your support documents as finished as you think they can be you should run them by someone else to proof read them, and to see if they can suggest any other changes. Be sure to check spelling, grammar, and punctuation on everything before doing so! Professionalism is extremely important when applying for grants, as the funding available is substantially less than the demand for it so presentation can be the difference between getting approved or not. Once you have checked the professional presentation of your support materials you would also be wise to show them to people you know who have had past success with grant applications, the staff of your provincial music industry association (who are there to help their members and are knowledgeable on grant applications!), your FACTOR coordinator, etc for any input they may be willing to provide.

Though FACTOR allows the submission of unfinished demos for this program, the reality is that the program is so competitive that submitting anything other than a track that is as finished and sonically strong as is possible is reducing the likelihood of getting approved. 

If you are trying to decide which track to include with the application from among multiple unreleased tracks that you have ready, you can poll your mailing list or use a service like ReverbNation Crowd Review or Tunecore Fan Reviews to get objective feedback for the songs you are considering to help you decide which makes the most sense to include.

CREATING AN APPLICATION:

In order to create a FACTOR application, log in to the FACTOR website using your user name (if you don't have a user name created yet get one created right away, see the instructions on how to do so on their website). From there assuming you have created and submitted both an artist profile AND an applicant profile (if not, get those filled out and submitted ASAP) and both profiles have received a rating from a FACTOR staff member you will be ready to start an application.

You can start a new FACTOR application by clicking on the "projects" item on the main menu when you are logged into their website. Once you are on the projects page click on the yellow "create new project" link. As long as both your artist AND applicant profiles have been submitted and rated by a FACTOR staff member you should be good to go to create an application.

More info: 

http://www.factor.ca/application-details/application-process/

HOW THE GRANT WORKS:

Eligible costs for FACTOR’s Artist Development grant can include paying third parties that are Canadian citizens or Canadian-owned companies for studio time, engineering, production, playing instruments, background or guest vocals (a maximum of $300 per person per track), mixing, mastering, equipment rentals (but not purchases), artwork, photography, graphic design, or video production. No foreigners can be paid for contributions towards recording or video production using FACTOR funds. Marketing/ promotion, touring, and showcasing expenses may also be used, and foreign expenses are allowed for those types of expenses where the initiative takes place outside of Canada.

You do not need to provide a budget when you are applying for the Artist Development grant, but you do need to do so along with proof of each expense (see below for more details) after you complete the project in order to remain in good standing with FACTOR.

FACTOR’s Artist Development grant is only supposed to represent 75% of the total budget of all the expenses you are planning to claim the grant is going to cover. This means that for every dollar of grant money you plan to spend, you need to be able to show FACTOR a paper trail of $1.33 being spent. This means if you are trying to get the full $2,000 grant you will need to show proof of $2,667 changing hands. Only expenses that are incurred after the application is submitted are eligible for funding. 

Be aware that in order for expenses to be eligible for this grant you MUST pay for expenses you're looking to include in your grant budget USING FORMS OF PAYMENT THAT PROVIDE A PAPER TRAIL  like credit cards, debit cards, cheques, bank drafts, online money transfers, or wire transfers AND NOT WITH CASH. For each and every expense that you want to claim as part of the grant you will need to be prepared to provide proof of the payment transaction occurring (which you can't do if you pay with cash, so don't!) AS WELL AS an invoice or receipt for the expense (so that means 2 documents for each expense) as part of the completion report process that is necessary for each grant in order to remain in good standing with FACTOR. All of the above is applicable whether you are paying for expenses yourself or whether someone else (like a producer or manager) is paying for them on your behalf. 

For more info visit:

http://factor.ca/programs/artist-development/ 

This information was compiled by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment. Whether you are an artist who is in the early stages of building your career and have next to no money to invest into it looking for the best paths to generating income, are an artist that has established a following and are interested in getting assistance with securing tens of thousands of dollars in funding to further your career, or are an artist or collective with an extensive fan base that would like assistance with increasing the efficiency of your business development, we can help you.

 Want to read more articles written by Kyle? You can do so here.