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.’

New Music Single

• Single grants increase from $8,000 to $10,000 – which includes a $1,000 (10%) Artist Creation Fee. 
• Co-investment from the rights holder is not required.
• New Music Single grants cover the eligible costs of recording, video content creation and promotion for an individual song release.
• Applicants must be able to meet a minimum of 10 specified criteria from a list of 30 options to make an application.
• The online application site for Single funding is newmusicsingles.nzonair. govt.nz

New Music Project

• Project grants increase from $30,000 to up to $40,000 – which includes up to $4,000 (10%) as Artist Creation Fee. 
• The co-investment requirement from the rights holder is reduced from a minimum of 40% to a minimum 20%
• New Music Project grants cover the eligible costs of recording, video content creation and promotion for an multi-song release campaign (eg. album, EP or similar).
• Applicants must have the support of a NZ-based third party music company to oversee the project through to release and promotional campaign.
• More details on pre-application criteria for Project applicants can be found here.