New Music Creator Fund Grant

The New Music Creator Fund provides financial support to individual music creators across all genres, helping them advance their creative practice. This initiative covers costs associated with developing new work and collaborative projects. Applicants must be at least 21 years old and have three years of professional music experience. The fund aims to empower diverse music creators in the U.S. by facilitating the development of innovative musical ideas and fostering artistic collaboration.

The New Music Creator Fund offers grants to individual music creators working in any genre who need support to reach the next stage of their creative practice. Individual performers may also apply if their collaborator is a music creator.
Our Definition of Music Creator
For us, the term ‘music creator’ refers to any individual composer or artist who creates original music. Some music creators may also be performers; some may only create music for other people to perform. All these individuals are eligible to submit applications to this fund.
Our Definition of New Music
At New Music USA we support and champion new music in all its forms; every sound is welcome. Anyone who is influencing the future of music creation and sound is creating new music!
The New Music Creator Fund offers grants to individual music creators working in any genre who need support to reach the next stage of their creative practice. The program supports costs related to the creation of new work and new projects developed in collaboration with other artists and practitioners. Examples of costs supported through the fund include (but are not limited to) performer/collaborator fees, project-specific equipment, joint R&D and workshopping of new project ideas, and other essential costs such as childcare for yourself or a collaborating artist. Our aim is to enable music creators to take the lead in the development of new and existing ideas and projects. We believe in supporting new music in all its forms across the US, and our Creator Fund grantees represent geographic diversity and a broad range of musical styles.

Eligibility

We have made changes to our eligibility criteria to improve our assessment process. Applicants must complete an eligibility quiz before accessing the application.Other Eligibility Criteria: Age/Career Stage  Applicants must be at least 21 years of age. Applicants must have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a professional musician. Geography For this year’s cycle, the applicant must be a music creator based in New York State or one of the Western or Southern states/territories listed above.New York State awardees/applicants can only apply to the Creator Fund every 2 years to maintain alignment with the regional application cycles. In other words, if you apply to the Creator Fund in November 2024, you cannot apply again until November 2026, regardless of whether you received a grant or not. If you are a New York applicant and wait until November 2025 to apply, you would be eligible to apply again in November 2027.

Ineligibility

The Creator Fund Does Not Support:

• Benefits or fundraisers
• Competition fees
• Projects that are already 100% funded
• Projects that have already been completed
• Funds for international collaborators

Individuals who are enrolled in a degree-granting program. Applicants who are PhD/DMA candidates and have completed coursework and considered ABD (All But Dissertation) are eligible to apply.