The UK’s Featured Artists Coalition has teamed up with Amazon Music again for the second year of its Step Up Fund. It will offer grants of up to £8k ($10k) to unsigned artists in the UK to support their music-related projects.
“Content creation opportunities” with Amazon Music are also part of the deal, along with a subscription to the service itself and an Echo smart speaker.
The first fund was announced in November 2021, as the latest example of a streaming service providing funding for artists outside the traditional labels system.
“We felt there was a specific challenge facing those who had demonstrated huge potential and a level of success, but required further support to take the next step in their career journey as they strive to build an audience and develop their art,” said FAC CEO David Martin.
Applications for this year’s fund close on 26 May, and are open to UK-based artists who’ve released at least three tracks in the last year, either with at least 15k streams per song, or 45k streams for one of them. Artists signed to majors or “large independent” labels can’t apply however.
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