On 29 May the Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern announced details of a Cultural Recovery Package which included $7.1million to NZ On Air over the next two years to ‘boost NZ On Air’s New Music programmes’.
Some details of how that additional funding is being allocated have now been published with changes to the two main New Music funding schemes – New Music Single and New Music Project. The changes will come into play with the next funding rounds – New Music Single closing on 25 June, and New Music Project closing on 6 August.
In 2020/21 NZ On Air will be doubling investment in these two schemes, committing $2 million to New Music Single funding and another $2 million to New Music Project funding. This will be used to increase the number of grants for music creation and promotion and also increase the amount of funding per grant. Also there will be a new Artist Creation Fee designed to remunerate the artist for some of the time and creative inspiration they have put into writing and recording their music. (For both funding schemes the Artist Creation Fee is optional. The artist or rights holder can decide to invest that fee into the overall single or project campaign if they wish.) Details of the changes are below.
‘We designed these changes with the impact of the Covid-19-related restrictions in mind, and also as a response to the findings in our 2019 research with Creative NZ – Profile of a Creative Professional – which revealed that musicians are amongst the worst remunerated practitioners in the arts. We note that the funding boost over the next two years and the enhancements to our funding schemes are for a finite two-year period – they are not permanent.’
