The UNIFIED Music Group has announced this year’s return of The UNIFIED Grant, an initiative that seeks to drive innovation and investing in creative projects that can benefit Australia’s music industry and beyond.
The UNIFIED Grant will award $5000 in funding to five creative projects of individuals or groups that can potentially influence positive, meaningful, and sustainable change for the Australian music industry.
The grant is open to anyone from photographers, designers and documentary filmmakers to developers and journalists whose ideas can benefit the local music industry while providing them the opportunity to propel their projects forward.
“We are committed to investing in an ecosystem that allows creative talent to thrive. The UNIFIED Grant provides an opportunity to help inspirational founders who are already doing the work and creating change for Australian artists and the wider industry,” Luke O’Connor, UNIFIED’s Senior Partnership Manager, said. “Over the past few years we’ve been excited to be able to support so many talented people working on ideas that contribute to a better and more sustainable future for us all.”
Since launching in 2016, The UNIFIED Grant has awarded a host of creatives, providing them the opportunity to showcase their creativity.
“For the past eight years we’ve run a Band Program for young women and gender-diverse teens to empower them to pursue careers in music,” Sarah Rafferty, CEO of YoWo, one of last year’s The UNIFIED Grant’s recipients, shared. “UNIFIED’s support, not just financially but also the ability to tap into the team’s industry expertise, has been instrumental in helping us establish our own record label, YoWo Records. With the help of the grant, we have introduced a recording aspect to our band program. The teens in our program now have the chance to write, record and digitally release an original song with their band which will help build their confidence and assist with kickstarting their careers.”
Fellow previous winner, Warren Mason, of Tin Camp Studios, a mobile music venue for festivals across the globe, said that he was “very privileged” to access the grant which gave him the opportunity to dream of what is next for his business, with the funding giving him the sense that “anything is possible when people believe in your business”.
The UNIFIED Impact Committee, made up of UNIFIED Music Group and Partner staff for the purpose of coordinating meaningful initiatives, will review all submissions that meet the criteria to create a shortlist of finalists. Final winners will be decided through a voting system with all UNIFIED Music Group staff contributing.
The deadline for the submission of nominations is on 1 November. Recipients of the grant will be notified in early November.
