NextGen Round 10 Application Form

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Youth Music Logo

The Youth Music NextGen Fund offers young creatives grants of up to £2,500 to make their ideas happen.


The NextGen Fund will help emerging musicians and behind the scenes creatives take a step forward in participating and changing the music industries. 


Built for creatives with a stack of ideas but a lack of finance, the fund is open to 18–25-year-olds (and under-30s who identify as d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent). Successful applicants will use the money to launch a creative project, idea or business.


We want to support the future of the music industries. Singers, Rappers, Songwriters, Producers, DJs, A&Rs, Managers and Agents, right through to roles that have yet to be defined.


We would especially like to hear from people who have never applied for funding before. It is unlikely that we’ll prioritise your application if you’ve already received significant financial support for your work (for example through an Arts Council or a PRS Foundation grant).

We have 3 rounds of funding a year, so if you aren't ready yet, there will be opportunities to apply in the future. You can engage in our workshops and support without applying to this round. 



Applicant Guidance

It is essential that you download and read the applicant guidance notes from our website before making your application.


Application Form


We strongly recommend saving your form now and regularly throughout your application so you don't lose work. To save please check the box at the top that says 'Save my progress and resume later'. You will be asked to set a password and confirm your email address. You will then be emailed a link to your form so you can resume it later. 


Application Deadlines


The application deadline for Round 10 is 17:00 on Friday 15 November 2024. Application deadlines are fixed. If your application is submitted after the deadline then it will be considered ineligible. You will be notified of the outcome of your application in late-February 2025. 


There will be future application rounds so if you aren’t ready to apply yet, or are trying to rush through your application to meet the deadline, it would be better to wait and give this your best shot. There will be more rounds in 2025.


Technical issues


If you experience any technical problems with the form please get in touch by email at creatives@youthmusic.org.uk or phone us on 020 7902 1060.





Youth Music's NextGen Fund has been made possible thanks to our principal partners the Players of People’s Postcode Lottery, and support from PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited).



Hidden Values






Eligibility Check

In this section, we are checking to see if you're eligible to apply for the grant. You will only be able to move forward with the application once you have met the criteria.

Questions











About You

Contact Details 








If you would like to apply for a personal access budget please ensure you select the "I am aged 18-30 and I identify as d/Deaf or Disabled or Neurodivergent" option above.

To be eligible you must be aged 18 to 25 at the point of the application deadline. If you identify as d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent you can be aged 18 to 30.

To be eligible you must be aged 18 to 25 at the point of the application deadline. If you identify as d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent you can be aged 18 to 30.

Please tell us your term-time address below:





This where you are based within the UK. All applicants based in London should select Greater London from the list.

Please tell us your home (permanent) address below:





This where you are based within the UK. All applicants based in London should select Greater London from the list.




Your Work


Please also share your social media account that best showcases your work:



Please don't include the @



You can upload *.doc, *.docx, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.ppt, *pptx, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png, *.bmp, *.tif, *.gif, and *.pdf.

You can upload *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png, *.bmp, *.tif, and *.gif.

Funding



This does not include COVID Relief Funding

What you're doing now


About You and Your Project 

In this section, we want to learn more about you, your journey in music so far, and how you hope this funding will benefit you in your career goals. We recognise that people might want to communicate their ideas in different ways, so you can submit your answers using your preferred method out of the options below.

Overview



Please provide a rough estimate of when you plan to start your project. It should be between 24 March and 31 May 2025. 

This should be no longer than 12 months after the start date.

We recognise that it isn’t one-size-fits-all when it comes to genre, and it’s an imperfect system that can be restrictive. But to give us a greater understanding of your impact within the music industries, we want to learn what genre/s you will be creating in and working with. 


Please note the below is not an exhaustive list and there is also an open text box option included if you want to provide your own description.




Presentation and/or visual documents must not exceed 8 slides or 2 A4 pages and be within 1000 words. Video applications must not exceed 6 mins in total.
If you are uploading a Word document, Powerpoint or PDF to answer these questions, please click 'Choose file' below:
Please note the combined max size of all uploaded files on this form must be under 20MB
You can upload *.doc, *.docx, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.ppt, *pptx, and *.pdf.

Please use 'unlisted' rather than private YouTube links, and avoid using sites where download links will expire such as WeTransfer.

1. Tell us about the last year or two of your progression as an artist/professional (Max. 250 words)

Please include:

  • What you do and where you are in your career now. 
  • Why is now the right time for you to receive funding.
  • What you've already been doing to work towards your goal(s). We're most interested in what you've already made happen on your own.
  • Any challenges you're facing in your journey in music.

2. What you're going to do, and how you're going to do it. (Max. 500 words)

Please include:
  • A detailed plan of your project including timescales. Be specific and break it down - we want to know how you are going to deliver your project. You can upload a one page timeline or project plan to support this below.
  • We want to fund people who can deliver strong projects that are:
    - Interesting, innovative, or original (for you or your audience).
    - Realistic and deliverable within a year
    - Well planned, timelined and clearly budgeted


You can upload *.doc, *.docx, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.ppt, *pptx, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png, *.bmp, *.tif, *.gif, and *.pdf.

3. Tell us what you’d like to achieve over the next year through your project, and how the funding will make a difference (Max. 250 words) 


Please include a list of up to 4 main goals you would like to achieve with this project.



The hard part's over now! Now we just need your budget, referee and some monitoring information.
Budget

Please detail what you’ll spend on your project. 

  • There is space for you to add each area or item of expenditure, as well as a description on each cost and any additional notes. Please see examples below.

  • Try and include as much detail as possible at this stage of your planning. Consider your network and reaching out to individuals that could support you in planning these costs. 

  • We encourage you to seek value for money and suggest you don't over-budget in areas such as mixing and mastering. A reasonable quote might be around £100 per track. We also like to see people being creative with their marketing plans rather than spending high amounts on PR agencies. The more of the project you can deliver yourself, even if it's something you are doing for the first time, the stronger your application will be and the more you will learn.

  • You can add a maximum of 10 budget lines. We expect you to have multiple lines so don't spend all your budget on one thing, e.g. all of your budget going towards studio time.

  • Your total budget must be between £1000 - £2500 and there are some limits on how much you can spend on certain items. This is because we’d like you to focus the majority of your grant spend on your creative project and making something happen rather than only using it to buy things. 

    • Equipment - max £500 

    • Marketing - max £500

    • Training courses - max £200

    • Travel - max £200

    • Other - any costs associated with delivering your project that aren't covered by the above categories. For example, recording costs, studio time or paying session musicians.

  • Time to Create. This is to support your work as a creative. We think it's important to be able to pay yourself during your project. We have therefore already included at least £500 as a wage towards your own time to create, you can add more if needed in the rows below.
  • When entering your budget, please round up to the nearest pound. Don't use pence or any decimal places in your costs.

Category 
Time to Create                    
Item and Description 
This is to support your work as a creative.
We think it's important to be able to pay yourself during your project.
We have therefore already included at least £500 as a wage towards your own time to create, you can add more if needed in the rows below.
Cost
£500               



£
Hidden subtotals




Hidden Amounts: Budget Categories
/*Admin instructions:*/
  1. Prefill the maximum allowances for each of the budget categories into the left hand column below.
  2. The validation will add up the total amount requested for each of the categories and enter this into the middle (total) field.
  3. If the amount requested is greater than the amount allowed for *any* of the categories, the validation will be triggered, the error message at the bottom of the page will be displayed and the form cannot be submitted. 









Please note:


Some category costs have limits, these are displayed below. Please adjust your costs before you can submit the application


Equipment - Cost should be below £500

Marketing - Cost should be below £500

Training - Costs should be below £200

Travel - Costs should be below £200

Hidden Amounts - Total Budget
/*Admin Instructions*/

Prefill the smallest and largest possible grant amounts into the boxes below. If the total amount requested falls outside this range, then the error message below will display and the form cannot be submitted. 

Your application must be for between £1000 and £2500.
Personal Access Budget for d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent Applicants
If you identify as d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent and need additional personal access costs to run your project these can be included on top of the £2,500 maximum project budget. This might include costs for British Sign Language interpreters, personal assistants, support workers or other access costs.

Item & Description Cost

Referee details

Please provide contact details for your referee. This should be a separate professional connection who knows you and your work as a creative. For example, someone you’ve worked with on a previous project or a Music Leader from a course or programme you’ve participated in. 


Please make sure that this is someone who does not stand to benefit financially from this project. For example, please don't choose a producer who you plan to hire to produce your EP.


We will only contact them if your application is successful, but make sure to choose someone reliable who will be available to provide a reference on your behalf. This usually happens 8-12 weeks after the application deadline. 






This must be your referee's email address not your own.

Declaration

By selecting the box below, you confirm that:


  1. You (the main contact named in this application form) have read the eligibility criteria and can confirm that you are eligible to apply to this Youth Music fund.
  2. You understand that if you make any seriously misleading statements (whether deliberate or accidental) at any stage during the application process, or knowingly withhold any information, this could make your application invalid and you could be liable to repay any funds to Youth Music.
  3. You commit to delivering the project described in the application form.
  4. You understand and accept Youth Music's obligations under the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts as set out in our policy and procedures: network.youthmusic.org.uk/Funding/policy-and-procedures.
  5. You will take all necessary and reasonable steps to provide a safe and secure place for anyone who takes part in your project.
  6. You confirm that the activities detailed in your budget are not already paid for by another funder.
  7. You are aware that Youth Music will use your personal information provided in this application to consider the application and, if successful, administer and monitor the grant, and in accordance with its ‘Grantholder and Applicant Privacy Notice’ which can be found here: network.youthmusic.org.uk/grantholder-applicant-privacy-notice.


We're interested in finding out if you have been involved in any of our work before applying to this fund. Your answers will not affect the outcome of your application.

Youth Music Funded Projects



Pre-application Support




Please note the outcome of your application won't be affected by any support that you have or haven't received. 
Stay in touch with Youth Music
Youth Music would like to share with you more creative opportunities that are available for young people across the country. Opportunities can be accessed via our Opportunities board or from receiving our fortnightly NextGen newsletter.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

You can read our full privacy policy here: https://youthmusic.org.uk/privacy-notice

Equal Opportunities

The following equal opportunities monitoring questions are voluntary. We ask them across our application processes as a charity, including for jobs in our team, for Next Gen opportunities and for trustee recruitment. We do so because it's important that we understand who we're reaching, who is within the group that applies for funding and who is eventually funded. This helps us to make sure we consciously work to be equitable and representative in our approach and our funding decisions.

Gender



Sexual Orientation


Age

Background
As part of our monitoring we ask about people’s social class background. We have based this question on some existing research about social class in the creative industries.  

Ethnicity


Religion and Beliefs


Disability
The Equality Act 2010 defines a person as disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment, which has substantial and long term (i.e. has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months) negative effect on their ability to carry out normal daily activities. 


Caring Responsibilities

Submit Application Form 

Thank you for your time completing this application. 


Once you press Submit below you will not be able to edit your form. Please check that you are happy with your answers and Save your application before pressing submit.


We'll be in touch in around three months (depending on the volume of applications we receive) to let you know the outcome of your application. For Round 10 this is likely to be in late-February 2025.   


PLEASE NOTE: If you are experiencing technical problems submitting this form please email creatives@youthmusic.org.uk 

  

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