Fund offers musicians advances of up to £50,000

A new fund has been launched to support artists working in the independent music sector.

As part of Music Gateway's Ignite fund, eligible artists will be offered advances of up to £50,000 to help them cover recording costs and promote new releases in a variety of ways, including merchandise production, playlist promotion, radio and press campaigns, digital marketing strategies and sync optimisation and representation.

The fund is designed for artists and rights-holders who have an existing portfolio of released songs and a proven track record of income across a period of more than six months. 

Artists participating in the Ignite programme will work with the in-house team at Music Gateway on release strategies, royalty registrations and representation for sync licensing. 

They are not obligated to use the company’s promotional services during the Ignite term – which lasts a minimum of 12 months – but digital distribution and publishing admin has to go through Music Gateway.

The company will be responsible for registering and distributing music, running campaigns and pitching for sync. It will recoup the advance through royalty earnings. Artists will retain 100% of their rights.

“Our team have been fortunate enough to develop and support some incredible talent over the years,” said Sophie Small, CEO of Music Gateway. 

“This fund is designed for us to continue to do this in a way that increases the level of support we can provide outside of services for specific representation or campaigns and bring it all together in a way that still keeps the artists in control of their ownership, which is at the heart of what we do.”