I'm currently applying for an Arts Grant through my local council to fund an EP recording and I've noticed that they are placing importance on gaining something in return. I want to convince them that I, an unknown musician, can gain a fan base rapidly and sell my finished product. Any promotional materials generated from the council funding is required to have their logo on it so more sales means more exposure for the council.

A little about me. My background is rock. I sing, play guitar and program everything else from bass, drums, orchestral instruments to sound designing in soft synths. I've recorded an EP before, which I consider to be of a high standard: Dawn awaits EP. However, this project fell apart before the band (two people) began any form of marketing and performing and as a result we generated hardly any fans. My current project will go under the same name even though I'll be a soloist but the music will be much more cinematic and electronic, like 30 Seconds To Mars or Bring Me The Horizon.

Back to the point of the thread: Do you guys have any marketing ideas that I could document in my grant application in order to give the council hope that my project will generate an audience and an income?

I have one idea: to live stream an hour from each day of the recording process (20 days in total) on YouTube, Facebook etc. using something like Wirecast. I believe this could be a good way to allow the council to keep track of the progress of the project as well give me somewhere to place their logo.

What I'm unsure about is how do I get people to watch these streams in the first place? I need to direct traffic to my social media pages or website prior to my first stream.

 

Ever got payed for playing live?

You can always offer to suck dick, works wonders in the music industry!

 

Benefactors of the bureaucratic type probably want "metrics" – from Facebook, YouTube, et al., in the form of "likes" and followers. That's what record labels and promotional companies consider, now, before signing a musician/band. Have you inquired with the arts council as to what their criteria for such might be?

I don't know what country you're in, but I would surmise that it's not America, where there is precious-little funding for the arts as in Europe; funding for music-artists is usually in form of a "completion grant," with music being secondary to the dance performance or film for which it's to be used. In America, organizations investing in artists usually want to accrue a roster of potential celebrities to put on the organization's résumé, to be able to say, "Look - we gave these luminaries their start," when soliciting further funding for the organization. Non-profit organizations are ultimately self-serving; though they may vaunt what or whom they "benefit," they have to comport themselves in a manner deserving largesse - so, it's no surprise that they ask "their" artists to do likewise.

There's an organization in my town which tries to position itself as being among the cognoscenti (the cultural elite), granting money to musicians comporting themselves publicly and musically as career-oriented and commercially-viable - not because their music advances the artform and explores uncharted musical territory; not because a composer or songwriter is a genius who needs reward for being so. The "artists" (whores) they engage and promote are intended to reflect well upon the organization, so that celebrities might show-up at the organization's events; so that the movers-and-shakers will contribute to the organization so that they can feel they're "doing their part" for the "local music scene."

There's this old expression, "He who pays the piper calls the tune." Do you really want to end-up letting someone tell you what to play and how to play it?

 

I'm in Australia and it seems our Arts Funding is absolutely nothing like America's. Perhaps the difference is that we have small council divisions and each is given funding that it to be used to support arts workers in that particular division (electorate). It's not a scam and their financial support has absolutely no bearing over the art form itself.

So now we have that out of the way... Ideas?