Funding Directory
Grants, royalty advances, emergency funds and fan funding, filtered by type and region. Every entry was checked against the organisation's own site and says in one sentence what it costs you. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements.
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Four kinds of money
- Grants11 listed
- Money you don't pay back, awarded on an application. Competitive, slow, and usually tied to a project and a report.
- Advances3 listed
- Cash now against royalties later. You keep your masters, but the money is recouped from your own future income before you see any of it.
- Loans0 listed
- Borrowed money with interest and a repayment schedule. For a cash-flow crisis, not for a recording budget.
- Emergency funds3 listed
- Crisis assistance for working musicians — usually medical, housing or disaster. Not project funding, and they will ask for documentation.
- Fan funding3 listed
- Your own audience, paying up front. You keep control of everything and give up nothing but a platform fee — if the audience is already there.
Narrow it down
20 options
- GrantsUS — for travel abroad
USArtists International (Mid Atlantic Arts)
Up to $11,000, with a one-to-one cost match
- Who it's for
- US-based performing artists and ensembles from any state or territory, all performing arts disciplines, invited to a festival, arts market or other eligible engagement outside the US.
- The catch
- You need the invitation first, and the one-to-one match means you are funding half of it yourself.
- Deadline
- February 25, 2026
This programme has historically run more than one deadline a year; confirm the current round.
- GrantsWashington State
Artist Trust — Arts Innovator Award
$25,000 (2 awards)
- Who it's for
- Washington State artists across all disciplines whose work demonstrates innovation.
- The catch
- Two awards a year for the whole state, and "innovative" is doing a lot of work in the criteria — read past recipients before you spend a weekend on the application.
- Deadline
- March 16, 2026
- GrantsWashington State
Artist Trust — Grants for Artist Projects (GAP)
$2,500 (65 awards)
- Who it's for
- Practising artists resident in Washington State, all disciplines — literary, media, performing and visual. Musicians qualify.
- The catch
- Project funding at a real-world scale: $2,500 across 65 awards for an entire state's artists, so treat it as seed money and expect competition.
- Deadline
- June 22, 2026
- GrantsPortland, OR
MusicOregon Echo Fund
$1,000–$5,000
- Who it's for
- Working musicians who physically reside within Portland city limits and earn money creating or delivering music. Not open to engineers, venues or event producers who don't make music themselves.
- The catch
- Funds creative, non-performance projects only — tours, concerts and living expenses are explicitly excluded, and past recipients sit out a cycle.
- Deadline
- September 8, 2026
- GrantsOregon
Oregon Arts Commission — Career Opportunity Grant
Varies — see current guidelines
- Who it's for
- Oregon artists, all artistic disciplines including music.
- The catch
- For a concrete, time-limited career opportunity, and it is a state programme — an Oregon address is the first filter.
- Deadline
- September 23, 2026
- GrantsOregon
Oregon Arts Commission — Individual Artist Fellowship
Varies — see current guidelines
- Who it's for
- Oregon artists, all artistic disciplines including music.
- The catch
- Merit-based on a body of existing work rather than a proposal, so it rewards a catalogue you have already built.
- Deadline
- October 14, 2026
- GrantsPortland, OR
RACC Portland Arts Project Grant
Varies — see current guidelines
- Who it's for
- Portland-based artists, supporting the making and sharing of artistic work. All disciplines.
- The catch
- Project-scoped and Portland-only, so it funds a specific piece of work on a stated timeline rather than your year.
- Deadline
- October 28, 2026
Award size isn't stated on the grants index — check the programme page before applying.
- GrantsWashington State
Artist Trust — Fellowship Awards
$10,000 (15 awards)
- Who it's for
- Practising professional artists in Washington State, all disciplines. Unrestricted — no project required.
- The catch
- Unrestricted money is the rarest kind, so the odds are the catch: fifteen awards, statewide, judged on the work you have already made.
- Deadline
- November 2, 2026
- AdvancesInternationalRepaid from your income
Amuse Fast Forward
From around $10 up to tens of thousands
- Who it's for
- Amuse-distributed artists, with the offer calculated automatically from your streaming data — up to roughly six months of royalties up front.
- The catch
- Your distribution rights are locked until the advance and its fee are recouped, so you cannot move the catalogue elsewhere in the middle of it.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- Fan fundingInternational
Bandcamp
Direct sales and subscriptions, priced by you
- Who it's for
- Anyone with music to sell.
- The catch
- 15% on digital (dropping to 10% once you have passed $5,000 in sales in the last 12 months) and 10% on physical, plus payment processing of roughly 4–6% — and none of it moves without an audience that already knows where to find you.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- AdvancesUS & InternationalRepaid from your income
beatBread
$1,000 to $10 million and up
- Who it's for
- Artists with existing streaming income. You pick the recoupment rate, the estimated deal length, how much income flows through to you meanwhile, and whether new music is included.
- The catch
- Recouped out of your own future royalties — a bigger cheque means a larger share of your income withheld for longer, and the deal length is an estimate that moves if streams fall.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- GrantsUS
Creative Capital Award
Up to $50,000
- Who it's for
- Artists proposing new work across all disciplines, performing arts and music included.
- The catch
- Built around an ambitious proposal for work that does not exist yet, and the field is thousands of applications deep.
- Deadline
- See site — application windows vary by cycle
The award page doesn't state the current application window — confirm dates before planning around it.
- AdvancesUS & International
Duetti
Varies — negotiated per catalogue
- Who it's for
- Independent artists with an earning catalogue. You choose how much of it to include; payment lands within about 30 days.
- The catch
- This is a sale, not an advance — there is no recoupment because you are not getting the songs back. Whatever you sell stops being yours, however well it does later.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- GrantsUS
Foundation for Contemporary Arts — Emergency Grants
$500–$3,000 (average around $2,200)
- Who it's for
- Visual and performing artists and poets living and working anywhere in the US. Projects outside the US are eligible if you are US-based.
- The catch
- Only covers a sudden, unanticipated opportunity or an unbudgeted cost on a nearly-finished project with a confirmed date — it is not general support, and a vague application fails on that alone.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- Emergency fundsUS
Jazz Foundation of America — Musicians' Emergency Fund
Varies by need
- Who it's for
- Musicians who have made a living playing blues, jazz and roots music. Covers housing, utilities, pro bono medical and legal help, and disaster relief.
- The catch
- Genre-scoped by design — it exists for the blues, jazz and roots community, and applies that as a real filter.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- Fan fundingInternational
Kickstarter
Whatever you can raise — you set the goal
- Who it's for
- Anyone with a project, a deadline and a set of rewards. Funding is all-or-nothing.
- The catch
- Miss the goal and you get nothing at all; hit it and you owe 5% to Kickstarter plus 3% + $0.30 per pledge in processing — and every backer their reward, on time, at your own cost.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- Emergency fundsUS & Puerto Rico
MusiCares
Varies by need — paid to your providers, not to you
- Who it's for
- Five years' employment in the music industry (non-consecutive and part-time both count), or credits on at least six commercially released recordings or videos.
- The catch
- Crisis assistance only, paid direct to the landlord or the utility rather than into your account, and the work-history bar rules out anyone early in a career.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- Fan fundingInternational
Patreon
Recurring, at the price you set
- Who it's for
- Anyone with an audience willing to pay monthly.
- The catch
- 10% of what you earn, plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees — and it only holds up if you keep delivering something every month, which is a second job on top of the first two.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
- GrantsPortland, OR
RACC Professional Development Grants
Varies — a recent round awarded $116,000 across 74 artists
- Who it's for
- Artists and arts administrators, to offset the cost of a specific opportunity — a residency, a conference, a showcase, equipment for a defined purpose.
- The catch
- Tied to one named opportunity you can document, not general support, so you need the opportunity before you need the grant.
- Deadline
- See site — runs in cycles through the year
- Emergency fundsUS
Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
Varies by need
- Who it's for
- Career musicians and music industry workers facing a serious medical or mental health condition, disability, or age-related hardship, earning at least 50% of their income from music. The medical requirement is waived for musicians 65 and over.
- The catch
- Needs documentation — a medical diagnosis or bills, tax returns or bank statements, and a lease or mortgage for housing help.
- Deadline
- Rolling — apply any time
Mailing list
New tools, and the occasional song
A few times a year, when there is something here worth your twenty minutes. It is the same list as the music — you can have both or ignore half of it.