Canadian Musician - January/February 2019 | Page 11

whatever else. Then they can decide, ‘OK, it’s worth it for me to put
in the effort to update my Artist Profile to try to get that Artist 2
rating next time,’” says Moldovan. For artists whose numbers aren’t
near those ballpark figures, then it’s likely not worth the time and
effort to add that additional information to their Artist Profile since
it won’t be considered during the Project Application phase in the
juried programs.
PROJECT APPLICATIONS
As the name implies, a Project Application is what determines if
an artist receives funding and how much. The Artist Development
program provides a $2,000 subsidy toward artist development
activities, including recording, touring and showcasing, video pro-
duction, and marketing. The larger Juried Sound Recording pro-
gram provides up to a maximum of $47,500 to record an album and
for related costs like touring and showcasing, marketing, etc. FACTOR’s
program guidelines break down how much of that can be spent on
certain components.
In creating a Project Application, Moldovan advises “keeping in
mind that the jurors only have so much time to look at an applica-
tion. So, providing too much information, as much as people think,
‘Look at all this stuff I have!’, [jurors] don’t necessarily have time to
read it all or go through it all, so then it ends up that you sort of
wasted your time and they didn’t even get to it, meaning it didn’t
affect your score.”
The point is, be concise and clear. “Just getting all of the most
crucial information at the forefront is good. If you want to add ad-
ditional stuff at the end, by all means and if they get to it, great, but
understand that there’s a chance they won’t. So, I think that’s im-
portant,” says Moldovan. “We do provide a marketing plan template
on our website for Juried Sound Recordings and that is a guide to
help you along so you know what you should be including in a
marketing plan. Anything extraneous to that is going to be extra,
so maybe don’t bother.”
Included in the application are questions about what the project
is about and its objectives and goals. “Make sure that you have goals
that are really, really specific and that make sense for you. I think
that it shows that you’re aware of the scope of your project and the
industry and market and that you’re working within. I think it’s really
important to not have these overly grandiose plans and ideas that
don’t really make sense for you as an artist and where you are at the
time. Keeping it realistic and achievable is going to show and prove
that you know what you’re doing and that this money will be used
in the best way possible,” Moldovan explains. “[Artists] can get sort
of carried away and write a lot of information about big plans, but I
think it’s better to keep it shorter and really specific.”
In applications for the Juried Sound Recording program,
something that is not mandatory but can help an applicant’s
chances, especially for newer artists, is letters of support. For ex-
ample, if the artist plans to work with a specific, well-established
recording engineer, the engineer can provide a letter saying, es-
sentially, “I think this band has a lot of potential and I would love
to work with them.”
For more information and advice,
watch Canadian Musician’s
FACTOR 101 webinar with
Karina Moldovan by scanning
this code, or going to
www.nwcwebinars.com.
As well, applications for the Artists Development and Juried
Sound Recording programs must include assessment tracks. Obvi-
ously, they’re just demos, but they still need to be recorded well
enough that jurors can hear and understand the songs’ potential
and the artist’s style, musical ability, etc. “At the end of the day,
the way that the scoring is broken down, your music does have
to speak for itself a little bit and then your marketing plan, those
are the two major components,” says Moldovan. “For your assess-
ment tracks, submit a song that could be the most radio friendly.
It doesn’t matter if it’s ever going to get on radio; that’s not many
people’s goal and nor should it be, but, you know, don’t submit
your weirdest and most experimental song off of the album to
listen to because that may not be a great representation.”
Also related to the music itself, choose your genre wisely. An
applicant can choose a different genre for their Project Application
than they indicated in their Artist Profile. This is important because if,
for example, a Project Application is labeled as punk, that application
will only be seen by jurors who say their expertise is in punk music.
“Think of that specific project and that specific song and the music
you submitted and pick the genre based on which industry experts
you want listening to it. That makes a really big difference.”
This gets at another of Moldovan’s points, which is to understand
that FACTOR is not an arts council. For FACTOR, commercial viability is
part of the criteria, not just artistic merit (though that’s also important).
But maybe Moldovan’s top advice is to begin compiling the
application early, especially for first-time applicants, and leave
some time for questions, clarifications, and advice. Related to that,
stay in frequent contact with the assigned project coordinator.
Every artist with a profile in FACTOR’s system is assigned to a project
coordinator to be their go-to contact for everything. “They’re there
to help you through the process before you’re applying, while you’re
applying, and after you’re applying all the way to the payments and
everything in between. When you call us, you’re not just calling a
front desk and talking to whoever picks up; you have somebody
who knows the history of your project and has worked with you be-
fore and has some context as to what you’re doing,” says Moldovan.
Lastly, after the application has been reviewed, and regardless
of whether or not it was successful, ask for the jurors’ feedback. All
jurors are encouraged to leave constructive criticism, which can be
shared by the artist’s project coordinator. The reality is that FACTOR
only has so much money to give out, and most applications do not
get funding. But it is not uncommon for denied applicants to find
success on their future attempts, especially if they’re mindful the
jurors’ feedback from previous applications.
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor of Canadian Musician
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