Canadian Musician - January/February 2019 | Page 10

INDIE
INSIDER
GET
FACTOR FUNDED
Practical advice to keep in mind for your artist profile & project application
BY MICHAEL RAINE
there is one source of grants that most
Canadian musicians know, or have at
least heard of, it’s the Foundation As-
sisting Canadian Talent on Recordings,
better known as FACTOR. Receiving its
funding from the federal government
via the Canada Music Fund, as well as the
country’s private radio broadcasters, the non-
profit grants funding to commercially-viable
recordings via artists and music companies
to maintain the health of, and spur growth in, Canada’s music
industry.
There are a number of FACTOR programs and components
aimed at artists and companies depending on their histories and
planned projects and goals, but the two programs most relevant
to the majority of emerging and independent art-
ists are the Artist Development and Juried Sound
Recording programs.
On its website, www.factor.ca, FACTOR provides
detailed step-by-step guides and video tutorials. In
this article, we’re offering some practical insight and
advice to keep in mind when creating an Artist Pro-
file and Project Application to both save artists time
and maximize their chances of success.
ARTIST PROFILES
Before submitting a Project Application for the
Artist Development and Juried Sound Recording
programs, musicians must first create an Artist Pro-
file on FACTOR’s website. It’s quite straightforward,
simply telling FACTOR who you or your band are.
“We ask for a bio, and you can be a brand-new art-
ist, too, so it doesn’t really matter if you’ve done
almost nothing or if you have a long history. We ask
for what genre of music you play and, if you’re in a
band, the names of the other members,” says Karina
Moldovan, communications and stakeholder rela-
tions officer at FACTOR. “Honestly, that’s it.”
10 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
Based on their Artist Profile, FACTOR will assign a rating, with the
vast majority of musicians receiving a General Artist designation.
Those who have had considerable commercial success may receive
an Artist 2 or Artist 3 rating, which grants access to more funding
and additional programs.
In the Artist Profile, there is a section for Additional Information,
which FACTOR reviews twice annually to determine if an artist’s rat-
ing should be upgraded (i.e., from General Artist to Artist 2, or Artist
2 to Artist 3). This additional information includes things like sales
figures, streaming figures, tour revenue, social media metrics, radio
chart performance, etc. On its website, ahead of the twice-annual
reviews, FACTOR provides ballpark figures for each Additional Infor-
mation section on what will qualify for an Artist 2 or 3 rating.
“[Artists] can go there and say, ‘OK, I do have these similar
streaming numbers and I do have this many sync licences and