INCUBATOR FUND

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*.

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 help creative employers support emerging talent and benefit from a more diverse workforce.

Crucially, businesses must offer paid opportunities for 18-25s, and provide young people with the opportunity to work autonomously. All participants should receive support from the organisation through incubation, training, mentoring, and networking.

Over the first three rounds of the Incubator Fund, we’ve supported around 100 music industry businesses to create more than 800 paid work opportunities. That’s £1.3 million paid directly to young creatives

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 4 employees) and small-scale enterprises (10-49 employees); or groups of these working together as partners (consortiums). See Section 4 for more information on eligibility.

So far, 82% of our Incubator Funded partners are creative micro-businesses employing less than five full time staff and two thirds have a turnover of less than £100k.

We 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.

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 £1 million. We invest around 80% of our funding outside of London. Existing Youth Music funded partners are eligible to apply to this fund, but we ask that you contact us first to discuss your application.