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Funding

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Young people playing violins
From Soft Touch Arts, Leicester

Youth Music is a charitable funder. This means that we give grants to other organisations - small charities, arts venues, music businesses, youth clubs, music education hubs, housing associations, nurseries and more - to run music making projects or create career progression opportunities in music.

Youth Music funding is made available through a grants applications process, with several funding rounds each year.

Youth Music is supported by the National Lottery via Arts Council England. This enables us to invest in projects all over England. Thanks to additional funding from players of People's Postcode Lottery, we've been able to launch our Incubator Fund to support young people and music businesses, and extend our funding to include Wales and Scotland.

Information about upcoming funding rounds (Updated October 2023)

The Youth Music NextGen Fund for 18-25 year olds will continue to run, with three funding rounds throughout the year.

The deadline for our last ever Incubator Fund took place in March. We’re currently seeking industry partners to launch a new and improved version, building on what we’ve learned so far.

Our funds

Youth Music Trailblazer Fund

Grants of between £2,000 and £30,000 for organisations that want to support children and young people facing barriers to make, learn and earn in music, through innovative projects that test, trial, or break the status quo. 

Learn more about the Trailblazer Fund.

Youth Music Catalyser Fund

Grants of between £30,001 and £300,000 for established organisations that want to support children and young people facing barriers to make, learn and earn in music through sustaining or scaling up their work or changing sector practice. 

Learn more about the Catalyser Fund.

Youth Music Energiser Fund

Grants of up to £120k for organisations experienced working with early years children. The Energiser Fund aims to celebrate and energise creative practice with 2-4-year-olds. Centring children’s voices, views and lived experience, the fund will explore co-design and participation in creative projects for early years.

Learn more about the Energiser Fund.

Youth Music NextGen Fund 

The Youth Music NextGen Fund offers young creatives grants of up to £2,500 to make their ideas happen. We’ve launched the NextGen Fund to help emerging musicians and behind the scenes creatives take a step forward in participating and changing the music industries. 

Learn more about the NextGen Fund. 

Access Fund - Support with making your application

If you identify as Disabled and need further support to make an application to Youth Music, you can apply to our Access Fund. This provides funding to cover any additional access costs that might be required for you to make an application to one of Youth Music’s main grant funds. 

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest information on our funds and application deadlines, or visit the Youth Music Network.

Latest Funding Round Deadlines

Trailblazer Round 6
Deadline: 12 January 2024
Notification: 26 April 2024
For projects starting between: May and July 2024

Catalyser Fund Round 4
Expression of Interest Deadline: 10 May 2024
Notification: 28 June 2024
Full Application Deadline: 09 August 2024 
Notification: 08 November 2024
For programmes starting between: December 2024 and February 2025 

NextGen Fund Round 7
Deadline: September 2023
Notification: December 2023

Group of people making music on tablets wearing Drake Music t-shirts
From Drake Music Scotland. Photo by Sandy Butler.

Partner funding

Talent Development Partners fund

Youth Music is a co-funder in 2020-21 of PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Partner network. This brings together 49 organisations supporting thousands of exciting, diverse music creators across all genres and regions of the UK. Youth Music co-funds 12 of these organisations to expand their offers specifically focusing on young music creators aged 18 to 25 and breaking down barriers to access and progression.

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Closed funds

Youth Music Recharge Fund

The Youth Music Recharge Fund offers grants of up to £90k (max £30k per year) to boost organisations in their post-Covid recovery. Learn more about the Recharge Fund. Learn more about the Recharge Fund.

Emergency Fund 

The Emergency Fund offered grants available of up to £10,000 for music-making organisations who were in immediate need due to the Coronavirus pandemic. You can find out more about our findings as a result of running this fund in this article written by Research and Evaluation Officer Remi Fairweather Stride

Fund C

Fund C awarded larger grants of up to £160,000 per year for projects with a dual role of delivery and strategic work; expanding and embedding high quality, inclusive music-making. The programme will run to March 2021, we won't be launching another Fund C programme after this date - read more in our latest grant changes blog.