NZ On Air has unveiled a new list of criteria for their bi-monthly New Music Single funding applications, which will come into effect from the opening of the next New Music Single round on Tuesday 2 June.

Noting that they haven’t made major changes to the criteria list since the launch of the previous MakingTracks funding scheme in 2010, the agency acknowledged that some updates were well overdue. Among the revisions are expanded criteria options from 22 up to 30. If you can tick at least 10 out of the 30 criteria benchmarks then your song and application can be submitted to be assessed by the funding panels. 

New Music Single application criteria are put in place to ensure that artists applying for this public funding have first made some positive inroads into audience engagement, and gained a genuine interest in and following for their music.

‘For NZ On Air to invest public funding into an artist Single, we want to be assured that you have achieved various early music career benchmarks off your own bat. This updated list of Criteria is designed to reflect a broad selection of those benchmarks across the areas of Online audience, Broadcast track record, Other platform/editorial features, Live performance track record, Business credentials, and Awards and other recognition.’ 

NZ On Air’s mandate is to support a range of quality NZ music to be made available and discoverable across multiple online and broadcast platforms where a variety of NZ audiences listen to, discover and enjoy music. Artists’ online following, streams, radio play, views and other broadcast engagement are core focuses for the music that is supported.’

You can read through the full list of new criteria options here.