Album Funding - Overview
Objective
To fund albums that will provide a source of new radio hits and, by supplementing a record company’s budget, help create an album with higher production values and provide a better marketing budget for the album. We will contribute 50% of the actual and eligible costs of recording and marketing the album, up to a maximum of $50,000 per project. Funding will be provided as a partial reimbursement of costs incurred.
Criteria
To qualify for album funding, the group or individual must have:
• A track record on radio (meaning, at least two recent Radioscope Top 40 NZ Airplay songs, where “recent” means “within the last two years” in the case of debut albums or “off the last album” in the case of second or subsequent albums).
• The potential to deliver at least four more radio hits (include demos of these four songs with the application).
• A convincing marketing plan (including a release deal in place).
• At least matching funding from a record company or other parties involved in the project.
Album funding must be repaid from domestic sales of the album on the basis of one dollar per CD album sold and/or 80 cents per digital album sold and/or 08 cents per digital single sold from a funded album.
Description
NZ On Air offers funding for record companies towards the costs of recording and releasing albums by New Zealand groups/artists with proven radio airplay credentials.
We have made some changes to the eligibility criteria from the 2010-2011 year.
We will spread album funding across the five funding rounds for the year to avoid the ’first come first served’ problem where we run out of budget too early in the year. Around six projects per round will be supported, depending on quality of the application and the business plan.
We will use new prioritising criteria. In each round, we will take each artist's two highest airplay charting songs and add those songs’ peaks together to give each artist a score. The best score an artist can get is "2" (which is two #1 NZ Airplay Chart songs) and the worst is an "80" (which is two #40 NZ Airplay Chart songs). The artists with the lowest scores will be the priorities for funding in that round.
What this means is that from now on two recent radio hits is not enough. An artist will still need two radio hits (two RadioScope NZ Airplay Chart Top 40 songs) to be eligible to apply but it will be the quality of the radio hits (meaning, how high they charted) that will determine which projects we will fund.
We are also making changes to the album budget guidelines and the album funding contract that will apply to all projects from 01 July 2010 onwards. This is to ensure that applicants are treated fairly and eligible expenditure is properly defined and accounted for. We have –
• Introduced a new budget and cost-reporting template that will define “eligible costs” and will allow for an improved assessment by NZ On Air of budgets and actual costs.
• Confirmed that our contract partner’s contribution to costs must be mainly in cash and supported by third-party invoices.
• At the sole discretion of NZ On Air, some non-third-party costs (both cash and non-cash) may be counted as eligible costs –
a) Studio costs (costs per hour or day must be reasonable and no more than the cost of hiring an outside studio of comparable standing)
b) Producer costs (costs per hour or day must be reasonable and no more than the cost of hiring an outside producer of comparable standing)
c) Engineer costs (costs per hour or day must be reasonable and no more than the cost of hiring an outside engineer of comparable standing)
d) Mixing & mastering costs (costs per hour or day must be reasonable and no more than the cost of contracting to do the mixing and mastering externally).
Whether the service is paid in cash or not, we require a legitimate invoice in every case. This is because the provider delivering the service is receiving taxable income.
• Changed the current drawdown provisions in the contract. Instead of paying in four equal installments at specified milestone marks over the life of the project, we will reimburse 50% of actual and eligible costs, supported by copies of invoices from suppliers.
Application
There is no online application for album funding.
Contact NZ On Air for a copy of the new Album Funding Application Form and new Album Budget Template.
Send the application to NZ On Air by one of the five annual closing dates.
Contact
Brendan Smyth on 04 382 9524 or
Deadlines
APPLICATION DEADLINES
All applications to NZ On Air music funding must reach NZ On Air's Wellington office by 5pm on the relevant closing date.
June 2010 Funding Round
5pm, Friday 23 April - application deadline
5pm, Thursday 03 June - funding results available
August 2010 Funding Round
5pm, Friday 25 June - application deadline
5pm, Thursday 05 August - funding results available
October 2010 Funding Round
5pm, Friday 27 August - application deadline
5pm, Thursday 07 October - funding results available
December 2010 Funding Round
5pm, Friday 29 October - application deadline
5pm, Thursday 09 December - funding results available
