Incubator Fund
National Foundation for Youth Music
The Youth Music Incubator Fund offers grants between £5,000 and £30,000 to businesses, collectives and not-for-profits working across the music industries. Sole traders can apply for a maximum of £15,000.
We launched the fund to enable organisations to create sustainable, meaningful career opportunities for young people aged 18-25, especially those who are currently underrepresented in the sector. We want to help creative employers support emerging talent and benefit from a more diverse workforce.
Crucially, projects must offer paid opportunities for 18-25s, and provide young people with the opportunity to develop their own projects. All participants should receive support from the organisation through incubation, training, mentoring, and networking. At least 50% of your project grant should go directly to 18-25s. We expect this portion of the funding to be spent on wages, fees, grants and/or access costs.
We prioritise applicants who: - Demonstrate the ability to provide impactful opportunities and pathways into the commercial music industries. - Demonstrate a clear commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. - Have a diverse leadership team/workforce. - Are unable to otherwise fund the programme themselves. - Could use Youth Music investment to seed-fund more permanent ways of supporting talent from diverse backgrounds. - Emerging companies or start ups who could benefit from investment. - Have a turnover of under £1Million.
Existing Youth Music grantholders are eligible to apply to this fund, but we ask that you contact us first to discuss your application.
Companies, collectives, sole traders and not-for-profits in the music industries across the UK are eligible to apply. We’re particularly interested in micro-businesses (between 1-9 employees) and small-scale enterprises (10-49 employees); or groups of these working together as partners (consortiums). We want to back dynamic and innovative businesses and not-for-profits who can offer genuine work opportunities. led by well-networked people who have a genuine desire to open access to the industries.