About the opportunity
The APRA AMCOS Digital Futures Initiative is a partnership between APRA AMCOS and the Australia Council.
The funding will support Australian individuals, groups and organisations to increase audiences, establish a critical base of knowledge and develop new ideas within distribution platforms. It aims to encourage creators of new technology to use Australian music.
Not-for-profit entities are a priority for funding.
One grant of $20,000 is available. Applicants can apply to deliver a project in one of two areas:
- A professional development project that increases the capacity and knowledge of new platforms and channels which will be shared with the sector, or
- An artistic project that demonstrates a way that Australian musicians, composers and industry can engage with new technology or platforms.
If you are an applicant with disability, or are working with artists with disability, you may include access costs associated with the use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, career, or support worker assistance.
If you need advice about applying, or have specific access requirements, contact Artists Services.
About APRA AMCOS
APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) is a music rights management organisation that pays royalties to music creators when their music is played or copied, both locally and overseas.
Over 108,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers appoint APRA AMCOS to look after certain rights on their behalf. This means organisations don’t have to contact individual music creators to legally use their music. Learn more about how music copyright works.
2022 recipients
Congratulations to the inaugural recipients, musician Sally Coleman and RMIT’s Ian Rogers.
Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.
Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts
All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.
Commonwealth Child Safe Framework
All successful applicants are required to comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children, including working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will additionally be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Who can apply
- This opportunity is available for individuals, groups and organisations.
- Individuals must be Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents.
Who can’t apply
You can’t apply for this opportunity if:
- you have an overdue grant report
- you owe money to the Australia Council.
What can be applied for
You can apply for any costs relevant to the delivery of your project, including, but not limited to:
- commissions and fees
- research
- presentation
- design
- software
- workshop and seminar delivery
- projects that focus on music in gaming and Virtual Reality (VR)
- projects that support the Australian industry to better integrate music into new platforms
- not-for-profit entities
- access.
Access costs are legitimate expenses and may be included in your application budget. We encourage applicants to ensure that their work is accessible to everyone. Therefore, budgets may also include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats).
Your proposal will be reviewed by Industry Advisors against the assessment criteria.
In your application, you must address the assessment criteria listed below. Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what the advisors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point.
Applications should be aligned with the Australia Council’s commitment to inclusion, empowerment, access and equity as outlined in the Cultural Engagement Framework.
- Quality
Industry Advisors will assess the quality of your proposal.
They may consider:
- significance and quality of the project
- the quality of your previous work
- responses to previous work.
- Impact
Industry Advisors will assess the impact of your project on the use of original Australian music in the digital or online environment.
They may consider:
- alignment of your project with the priority areas as listed above
- professional development that increases capacity in and knowledge of new platforms and channels
- artistic projects that demonstrate new ways to engage with new technology or platforms
- Council’s Cultural Engagement Framework
- demonstrated evidence of need for this project and of the outcomes.
- Viability
Industry Advisors will assess the viability of your proposal.
They may consider:
- skills and ability of artists, industry professionals, collaborators or partners involved, and their relevance to the proposed activity
- demonstration of realistic and achievable planning
- demonstration of proposed marketing and audience engagement strategies
- the role of any confirmed or unconfirmed partners.
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.
What you should provide
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.
There are three types of support material you may submit:
- Artistic support material
This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.
Types of support material we accept
Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).
You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material.
These URLs can include a total of:
- 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording
- 10 images
- 10 pages of written material.
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.
If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:
- video (MP4 and Windows Media)
- audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
- images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
- written material (Word and PDF).
- Biographies, CVs and business plans
You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project. If relevant, you may also provide a business plan of no more than four A4 pagesBios and CVs should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.
- Letters of support
Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project will support the aims of the Digital Futures Initiative. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.
If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.
You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.