About the program
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in partnership with the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) and the Australia Council for the Arts will deliver a grant partnership, the ARIA-PPCA-Australia Council First Nations Sound Recording Partnership.
This partnership will support five First Nations Australian artists or groups to create new sound recordings. The initiative is designed to provide an opportunity for First Nations artists to create sound recordings, and access advice and managerial support to grow their audience.
There are five grants of $18,500 (ex GST) each available. This is a once-off initiative offered in 2020.
As part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Audience and Market Development activities, the final five successful applicants will be invited to apply for up to $10,000 towards promotion and marketing of the recording. Details will be provided to successful applicants.
This funding has been provided through the Australian Government’s Indigenous Contemporary Music Program aimed at increasing development opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians and bands. It is one of five programs under the $30.9 million Australian Music Industry Package announced in the 2019-20 Commonwealth Budget.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a national industry association proactively representing the interests of its members, which range from small ‘boutique’ labels typically run by 1-5 people, to medium size organisations and very large companies with international affiliates. ARIA compiles and publishes numerous weekly ARIA Charts and stages the highly prestigious annual ARIA Awards.
The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) represents thousands of Australian recording artists when their music is used in public. In 2019 PPCA distributed almost $50 million to its registered artists and record labels. It is free for Australian artists to register with PPCA.
The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) will also support the grant scheme by providing the recipients with guidance and assistance on registering with PPCA, in order to maximise their opportunities to access public performance and broadcast income from the recordings created.
Need help with your application?
Contact Artists Services:
- with any questions about this program
- to submit an application in a different format like video, or in a language other than English
- to speak to a First Nations member of staff
- if you have any other access or support needs.
Who can apply
This opportunity is available for individuals, groups and organisations. Please note these grants are for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and groups, or groups with a minimum of one Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in them.
Individuals must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident and a practicing artist or arts professional.
If you are part of a group, one of your members can apply on behalf of the group.
Organisations (for example, record labels, community businesses that are for / not for profit) can apply on behalf of First Nations artists or groups or administer a grant on behalf of an individual.
Who can’t apply
You can’t apply for this opportunity if:
- you received a grant, or administered a grant, from the Australia Council in the past and that grant has not been satisfactorily acquitted
- you owe money to the Australia Council
- there are no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artists or groups involved in the project.
What can you apply for
Individuals can apply for any costs associated with the creation of a sound recording, including marketing and promotion costs.
Your proposal will be reviewed by First Nations industry Advisors against the assessment criteria. Additional advisors may be included at the discretion of ARIA and PPCA. The Australia Council will make a recommendation to ARIA and PPCA, who will make the final decision.
You must address three assessment criteria in this category. Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what the advisors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to response to every bullet point listed.
1. Artistic Merit
Industry Advisors will assess the artistic merit of your proposal. They may consider:
- significance of the work
- quality of previous work
- responses to previous work from artistic or cultural peers, or the public.
2. Career Impact
Industry Advisors will assess the potential of your proposal to have a broader impact on the artist(s) career(s). They may consider:
- the potential impact and timeliness of the project on the artist(s)career
- the potential impact on a relevant label or community
- the extent to which the project may help build professional and creative capacity within the relevant artistic community.
3. Viability
Industry Advisors will assess the viability of your proposal. They may consider:
- relevance of the proposed activity
- skills and ability of artists, arts professionals, collaborators or partners involved, and relevance to activity
- realistic and achievable planning
- the proposed marketing and audience engagement strategies
- role of any partners, including confirmation of involvement.
We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact Artists Services.
Please note you will not be able to upload files to your application. You must provide your support material via URLs (weblinks). You can provide up to four URLs that link to content relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images or written material.
What you should provide
You should submit support material with your application. The Industry Advisors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.
1. Artistic support material:
Please submit up to three URLs providing audio or audiovisual examples of your recent work. The Industry Advisors may review up to 10 mins of video or audio recording.
Please note: Our Industry Advisors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.
If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.
2. Letters of confirmation:
Individuals, groups or organisations can write letters of confirmation in support of the project. The letter should confirm that the person, group or organisation will be involved in your project, and set out in detail how they will be involved.
You can submit up to five letters of confirmation, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page. Please combine these letters into a single document and provide them via a URL.
