LONDON (CelebrityAccess) – The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has introduced the ten recipients of the 2024 Step Up Fund in collaboration with Amazon Music. Launched in 2022 to sort out the monetary struggles confronted by rising impartial artists within the UK, the Step Up Fund has already helped to help 31 artists by grants and mentorships. This yr’s awardees will obtain a grant of as much as $10,141, together with mentoring, a one-year PRO membership to the FAC, a one-year subscription to Amazon Music, and alternatives for content material creation.
The 2024 awardees, chosen by a panel of trade professionals, span a various vary of genres, together with pop, steel, hip-hop, and R&B. The recipients are Azekel, BEKA, Blair Davie, Soiled Good, Hana Lili, Lime Backyard, Olive Jones, ShaSimone, SOFY, and unpeople. These artists, drawn from throughout the UK, will use the funding to cowl important prices like recording and mastering, video manufacturing, PR and advertising campaigns, and showcasing and touring.
Lime Backyard, an indie-rock band from Brighton, shared their ideas on the help offered by the fund. “Awards like Step Up present important help for brand spanking new artists to develop sustainable careers within the music trade. For us, the prices related to taking part in summer season pageant reveals round Europe and our first US headline tour this Autumn are large monetary commitments. Having the funding help from Amazon Music and the trade help from the Featured Artists Coalition makes touring potential,” they informed NME.
Eligibility for the Step Up Fund is open to artists aged 18 and above who’ve launched a minimum of three songs inside the final yr, with every music garnering a minimal of 15,000 streams or one music with 45,000 streams on a chart-eligible UK streaming service. Artists should not have an ongoing settlement with a serious or massive impartial document label.
David Martin, CEO of the FAC, highlighted the significance of focused funding for impartial artists. “The UK clearly has no scarcity of expertise, and there’s evidently an actual want for extra of this sort of focused funding that may assist impartial artists understand their potential and construct sustainable careers. Because of the generosity of Amazon Music, the FAC Step Up Fund is taking part in an actual half in serving to deal with that problem. I’I’mncredibly happy with what wewe’vechieved collectively in such a brief period of time, and sit up for seeing how 202024’swardees progress over the subsequent 12 months.”
Laura Lukanz, Head of Music UK, Australia and New Zealand at Amazon Music, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership, “Teaming up with the FAC to help the Step Up Fund for a 3rd yr continues to be a spotlight of the yr for the crew and me. The excellent caliber of functions we obtain yearly serves as a robust reminder of the immense pool of proficient artists now we have within the UK. Making our alternatives is at all times a difficult course of. I can’t wait to see what’s subsequent for the ten artists receiving a grant this yr.”
The fund goals to offer these rising artists with the assets and help essential to navigate the music trade and obtain long-term success.