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PRS Foundation Announces The Music Creators & Future Industry Professionals From The Liverpool City Region Supported Through The PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund
Five Liverpool artists and five ‘Future Industry Professionals’ receive targeted support to develop their talents and careers
PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development, together with Culture Liverpool, the Liverpool City Region Music Board and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, announce the music creators and industry professionals based in the Liverpool City Region receiving PPL Momentum Accelerator support.
The five music creators receiving support are:
Pixey – Recording and touring.
Trout – Touring.
Tokky Horror – Two EP releases.
Degie – Recording and marketing singles releases and touring.
nil00 – Live EP showcase.
The five future industry professionals being supported are:
Ni Maxine – Sustainable live event to promote local jazz/ soul talent.
Holly Tulloch – Women-run festival, tackling gender equality issues in events on a local level.
James Gillaspy – Sustainable merchandising for local artists.
Jennifer Kickhefer – Mentoring.
Natasha Evans – Developing a community for underrepresented groups in the electronic music industry.
PPL Momentum Accelerator funding supports exciting artists with a growing fanbase and who are working to establish a music industry team. For this Liverpool strand of the initiative, those in the local music scene with potential to be industry professionals of the future were also eligible for support. Each artist receives up to £5,000 as well as mentoring from regional and national experts. The five future industry professionals will each be receiving up to £1,000 worth of support as combinations of small grants, mentoring or other holistic support.
'This is a really exciting opportunity for local musicians to showcase their talent, establish their career and help us to provide that the Liverpool City Region is the undisputed home of British music.' - Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
PPL Momentum Accelerator supported artist, Trout, said: 'The PPL Momentum Accelerator fund will assist in progressing our careers, by allowing us to branch out from our hometown into national territories, which we are currently at the tipping point of doing. With this fund we will be able to accept opportunities that we couldn't before, as we have the financial backing to do so.'
PPL Momentum Accelerator supported industry professional James Gillaspy, said: 'The PPL Momentum Accelerator fund is enabling me to financially invest in a way that would not have normally been possible, which has significantly empowered my ability to realise and deliver what are some fairly ambitious plans. I am extremely grateful for this support and am sure that this foundational investment will be profoundly important for what I hope is a successful career in the music industry.'
Westley Holdsworth, Grants & Programmes Manager at PRS Foundation, said: 'Congratulations to the five music creators and five industry professionals receiving our PPL Momentum Accelerator support in this latest round. This targeted support will provide funds directly to Liverpool City Region-based music creators and industry professionals, enabling each artist to develop towards that next career level tipping point and support those active and impactful individuals in the local music industry, championing the scenes.'
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: 'Our area is already leading the way as a global Music City - we have a proven track record of doing the sector proud – and we want to support the next generation of artists to continue that legacy. This is a really exciting opportunity for local musicians to showcase their talent, establish their career and help us to provide that the Liverpool City Region is the undisputed home of British music.'
Kevin McManus, Head of UNESCO City of Music, said: 'The Music Board are delighted to be able to continue to work with PRS Foundation and PPL on these programmes which have a great track record of supporting artists and future professionals to further their careers.'
Sarah Wall, Senior Events and Marketing Manager at PPL, said: 'We know just how important local musical ecosystems are - a thriving scene can have a huge impact on an artist’s career and help propel them to the next level. That’s why we are delighted that these nine music creators and industry professionals will receive the valuable support of the PPL Momentum Accelerator programme at this crucial stage in their careers. The Liverpool City Region has an extraordinary musical heritage and is already home to an array of fantastic artists and professionals. Projects like the Accelerator programme are helping to deliver the next generation of talent for Liverpool.'
The full PPL Momentum Music Fund offers grants of up to £15,000 and is for artists with a team already in place and at a tipping point, ready to take the next step in their careers. Past Liverpool-based recipients of the PPL Momentum Music Fund support include Låpsley, All We Are, Jalen N’Gonda, Trudy & the Romance, Dialect and SPINN.
Managed by PRS Foundation, the PPL Momentum Music Fund initiative awards grants of £5,000-£15,000 using funds from PRS Foundation, PPL, Creative Wales and Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Spotify, the official digital partner on the fund, contributes additional funding and a reward package containing exciting promotional opportunities and a close working relationship between Momentum artists and the Spotify team.
Since 2013, Momentum has supported 526 artists and invested over £5.2m in grants into new music. Based on the 10 Years of PPL Momentum Music Fund (2013-22), this means Momentum has supported:
More than 275 albums
Over 300 UK Tours and over 1,400 live dates
And helped to generate over £22m for the UK music industry and UK economy.
PRS Foundation and Arts Council England initiated The Momentum Music Fund in 2013. Arts Council England originally established the need for this specific fund and supported the programme from 2013-18.
For a full rundown of all the artists supported so far see the Momentum Artists on the PRS website.
'The Music Board are delighted to be able to continue to work with PRS Foundation and PPL on these programmes which have a great track record of supporting artists and future professionals to further their careers.' - Kevin McManus, Head of UNESCO City of Music.
The PRS Foundation is the UK's leading charitable funder of new music and talent development. Since 2000 PRS Foundation has given more than £44 million to over 8,500 new music initiatives. 9 out of 12 Mercury Prize 2022 nominees had received PRS Foundation support (including the winner Little Simz) and the charity has supported BRITS, RPS, AIM and Ivors Award-winners.
PRS Foundation supports outstanding talent from all backgrounds, covering the whole of the UK and all genres, with grantee success stories including Little Simz, Wolf Alice, Dave, Sam Fender, Years & Years, AJ Tracey, Anna Meredith, Yola, Glass Animals, Ezra Collective, Jade Bird, Ghetts, Shiva Feshareki, Sarathy Korwar, Floating Points, Nadine Shah, The Fanatix, Imogen Heap, IDLES, Kae Tempest, Kojey Radical and Emily Burns.
Widely respected as an inclusive, collaborative and proactive funding body, PRS Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity through direct grants to music creators and through support for pioneering organisations, including venues, festivals, promoters and other talent development organisations. PRS Foundation founded the Women Make Music fund, co-founded global gender equality initiative, Keychange and most recently launched the POWER UP initiative to tackle anti-Black racism in music.
Founded in 1934, PPL is the UK music industry’s collective management organisation (CMO) for performers and recording rightsholders. They license recorded music in the UK when it is played in public (bars, nightclubs, shops, offices etc.) or broadcast (BBC, commercial radio, commercial TV etc.) and work to ensure that revenue flows back to our members. These include both independent and major record companies, together with performers ranging from emerging grassroots artists through to established session musicians and globally renowned artists.
PPL’s public performance licensing is carried out on PPL’s behalf by PPL PRS Ltd, a joint venture between PPL and PRS for Music.
Through a network of agreements with other CMOs around the world, they also collect performance rights internationally when music is played overseas in public and used on TV, radio, and some online streaming services, as well as for private copying. International royalties are an increasingly important revenue stream for performers and recording rightsholders.
In 2022, they collected £272.6 million across all of our revenue streams, marking the highest level of revenue in our company’s 89-year history, and distributed money to more than 165,000 performers and recording rightsholders.
The Liverpool City Region Music Board was set up in December 2018 as an independent, sector-led Board, appointed by the LCR Combined Authority Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, and supported by Liverpool City Council.
The LCR Music Board is responsible for creating and overseeing a strategy to grow and support the music sector and its economic and social impact on the City Region, and is one of the first such Boards created in the UK. Its strategy and action plan has been endorsed and funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Strategic Investment Fund. You can find full biographies of each Board member on the LCR Music Board website.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Strategic Investment Fund is crucial for the success of Liverpudlians across the City Region. The Strategic Investment Fund is the key funding tool for promoting economic growth for the Liverpool City Region. It supports the delivery of the City Region’s strategic priorities as well as unlocking economic potential and accelerating inclusive growth.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has awarded SIF funding to support the Liverpool City Region Music Industry Sector Development Project, to deliver a programme of business growth, skills and talent development and associated work to strengthen the LCR music ecosystem. For more information visit: the Liverpool City Region Strategic Investment Fund.
Culture Liverpool is the Liverpool City Council department which aims to grow the City’s reputation as a cultural and sporting destination, positioning Liverpool as the most exciting place in the UK in which to live, visit, work, study and invest. Through the production and delivery of events, and championing creativity via funded projects across Liverpool City Region, Culture Liverpool pushes boundaries and inspires audiences, ensuring everyone has access to arts and culture.
Creative Wales is an internal agency of the Welsh Government. Our mission is to drive growth across the creative industries, build on existing success and develop new talent and skills –positioning Wales as one of the best places for creative businesses to thrive.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead funding and development agency for the Arts. Our funding enables artists and arts organisations to increase access to the arts across society and deliver great art that is within everyone’s reach. National Lottery-funded arts programmes are bringing communities closer together, tackling prejudice, racism, isolation and mental health and improving emotional wellbeing.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland Lottery Fund distributes a share of the money raised by The National Lottery for good causes.
Over £30m is raised for good causes every week
More than 500,000 projects have been funded
Over £36bn has been raised since the Lottery started
As the regional business development agency, Invest Norther Ireland's role is to grow the local economy. They do this by helping new and existing businesses to compete internationally, and by attracting new investment to Northern Ireland. They are part of the Department for the Economy and provide strong government support for business by effectively delivering the Government’s economic development strategies.
Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in Sweden in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 50m songs for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, Spotify Connect and ad-free listening. Listen to the latest PPL Momentum supported artists on the Spotify Momentum playlist.
Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming subscription service with a community of 248m users, including 113m subscribers, across 79 markets. They are the largest driver of revenue to the music business today.