Help Musicians’ Business Accelerator

To apply you must: 

• Be an artist or a representative of a band or group
• Be based in the North East of England with an address in the following postcodes: DH, DL, NE, SR or TS 
• Be aged over 18
• Be in financial need without significant backing (i.e. not receiving significant financial backing from a label, publisher or private investor, and not having £16,000+ in savings). Ideally, applicants should be earlier in the fanbase-building process
• Have control over one or more aspects of your career (e.g. self-managing, self-releasing or self-producing)
• Already have an active career and be able to clearly demonstrate your work to date
• Have the right to live and work in the UK
• Currently be living in the UK
• Have a UK bank account
• You must be able to attend the in-person event in Sunderland and attend a minimum of 80% of the online and in-person sessions.
• Have music ready to record and/​or release or have a relevant music-based idea

If applying on behalf of a group:

• One representative of a group or band can attend Help Musicians’ Business Accelerator
• You must have been established and playing together regularly before submitting an application

Currently, this programme is only available to musicians residing in the North East of England. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you may benefit from our broader range of career development support.

Generally, our support isn’t available for full-time undergraduate students, however we may be able to make exceptions if you are able to demonstrate you are working alongside your studies and are earning a living through music-related activity. Due to level of demand, we do prioritise those who are working as a professional musician.

Yes, you are able to apply for the Help Musicians’ Business Accelerator in addition to any other Help Musicians support.

• Applications open on 22 May and close on 12 June at 5pm.
• After reading the programme information, applications can be made via the Pathways into Music application form 
• Video applications are accepted for accessibility reasons. If you are unable to complete the form and wish to submit a video, please email support@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk

Unfortunately, it is not possible to save the application and come back to it, so we suggest that you prepare the answers in advance, this is particularly important for your biography and 12-month plan. The application form should take approximately 7 minutes. 

We suggest writing these before starting your application because it is not possible to save your application as you go. You should write an approximately 250 word biography which describes your music, outlines your music activities to date and highlights any key achievements so far.

Your 12 month plan should list out what you aim to accomplish in the next year. This is something you can develop as part of your participation in the programme and will be used to measure your progress over time. We suggest that you write some goals for the next year and map out what steps you hope to take to achieve these goals. It’s important that your 12 month plan is realistic and personal to your own career and music project. Your 12 month plan should be approximately 250 words long.

If you require support to complete your application, please contact support@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk

• Most music proposals involve releasing music or activities associated with building a fanbase. You will work with an industry expert to discuss what to spend your financial support on in addition to developing your proposal and establishing measurable goals to work towards over the course of the programme.
• The financial support is often invested in areas such as content creation including photoshoots, marketing, software licenses and additional learning and development opportunities. Full guidelines will be provided by the programme’s delivery team upon receiving a successful application.

Participants will develop and deliver their plans during the final three months using their £500 budget, take part in evaluation activities and then on completion of their music-based activity will graduate from the programme.

Yes, we can offer bursaries to help with your travel costs if receipts are provided. Please discuss travel costs with the team delivering the programme.