PPCA Sound Recording Partnership

Who can apply

• This opportunity is available for individuals working solo or as part of group. If you are part of a group, you must nominate a member to apply.
• The applicant must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident and a practicing artist or industry professional.
• We encourage applicants to also register with the PPCA.

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.

What can be applied for?

The applicant can apply for any costs associated with the creation of a sound recording, including marketing and promotion costs.

Your proposal will be considered by the Australia Council in consultation with Industry Advisors and a PPCA representative.

In your application, you must address the three assessment criteria listed below. Under each criterion there are bullet points indicating what the advisors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point.

1. Quality

The advisors will consider the artist quality of your proposal.

They may consider:

• the significance and quality of the work
• the potential sector impact and timeliness of the project
• the quality of previous work
• the potential impact and timeliness of the project on the artist(s) career
• responses to previous work from artistic or cultural peers, or the public.

2. Diversity

The advisors will consider the potential of the recording within the diversity of music creation in Australia.

They may consider:

• the diversity and quality of the people and partners involved
• the potential of the proposed activity to engage diverse audiences.

3. Viability

The advisors will consider 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 partners, including confirmation of involvement.

You may 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:

1. Artistic support material

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic 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).

2. Biographies, CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project. Bios and CVs should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.

3. 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 this 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