Music PEI Funding Program- How the decisions are made
The Music PEI Grant Funding Program has two deadlines per year. One in the spring and one in the fall. There are 3 levels of funding:
1.Targeted Demo Program up to $1,000 per applicant
2.Emerging Music Program up to $4000 per applicant
3.Export Development Program. $21,000 three year program
Applications are reviewed by the Music PEI Program Officer to insure they are complete and meet the eligibility criteria. All applicants are encouraged to meet with the Program Officer prior to submitting applications. Only PEI residents are eligible for funding.
The Program Officer selects a jury of experienced music industry professionals from a pool of jurors Music PEI has been recruiting since the funding programs began. To qualify for the jury they must have a working knowledge of the business side of industry. The Program Officer is responsible for directing the jury in their duties but does not cast a vote is the process. In the past jurors have included artists, recording engineers, broadcasters, producers and promoters from PEI and Atlantic Canada.
Music PEI Board of Directors and staff are excluded from being a juror on the Music PEI Funding Juries. The Board of Directors have no control over the decisions of the jury nor have prior knowledge of who the jurors are. Directors are eligible to submit grant applications, a policy which is consistent with other Provincial music industry associations as well as with FACTOR. This policy does not discourage or discriminate against any Island resident, especially those with strong backgrounds in the music industry, from seeking an opportunity to serve on the board. Because of the arms length nature of the jury process, conflict of interest issues as in the case of board member grant applications, are avoided. In turn, the Board (which is volunteer) is in place to insure that correct procedures are followed and to oversee the overall funding and operation of the Association.
As Music PEI is an industry association and not an arts council, all funding decisions made by the jury are based on the business quality of the applications and not necessarily on the artistic merit of the product. The jury is solely responsible for these decisions. Each application is graded separately on its own merit. The jury is instructed to evaluate the applicants understanding of the music business and how the assistance of a grant will help to grow the applicant’s career in the music industry.
As per the guidelines, the jury scores each application out of a possible 100% with various aspects accounting for different portions of the total score. The final aggregated scores of all the jurors are used to determine whether or not funding is granted to each applicant and the amount. As Music PEI has limited funding, it is not always possible to provide grants for all applications. As a result, sometimes applicants receive partial funding and/or lower scores receive no funding.
All eligibility criteria, guidelines and applications are outlined on the Music PEI website on the Grants & Funding page. Music PEI has made great efforts to insure that our programs are designed to assist our industry in key areas that will help to develop our artists and infrastructure in our province. We have studied and subsequenly adapted appropriate examples from many of the already established music industry associations from across the country as examples to guide our decisions.
