Apply for Music Australia Export Development Fund

The program has been developed to support emerging, breakthrough and established acts and is made available to Australian citizens or permanent residents who are current practicing music professionals. This includes solo artists, instrumentalists, bands, ensembles, DJ producers and electronic artists, producers, songwriters and composers.

Funding Information

• A minimum of $5,000, up to a maximum of $25,000, whereby the recipient must demonstrate an investment of an equal or greater amount to the funding request.
• The International Performance and Touring fund (Category 1) is designed to support activity that includes:
  • Headline tour, support tour, opening slot (or combination of all three)
  • Festival or Biennale appearances.
  • Commissioned performances.
  • Official showcase performance.
  • Artist and creative worker fees.
  • Flights, accommodation, per diems, ground transport costs
  • Travel insurance.
  • Visas.
  • Freight or baggage costs.
  • Childcare, career and access costs.
  • Tickets and or registration costs to attend events.
  • Costs associated with reducing the environmental impact of your activity.
• Access costs are legitimate expenses and may be included in your application. They encourage applicants to ensure that their work is accessible to everyone. Budgets may include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan, translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats).
• If you are a d/Deaf applicant, an applicant with disability, or are working with d/Deaf artists or artists with disability, you may apply for access costs associated with the use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, career or support worker assistance. Please contact Artists Services to discuss your specific needs.

Eligible Cost

• Eligible costs include but are not limited to:
  • Artist and creative worker fees.
  • Flights, accommodation, per diems, ground transport costs
  • Travel insurance.
  • Visas.
  • Freight or baggage costs.
  • Childcare, career and access costs.
  • Tickets and or registration costs to attend events.
  • Costs associated with reducing the environmental impact of your activity.

Eligible Criteria

• To guide initial investments, the Music Australia Council endorsed the following definition of ‘contemporary music’, which you must meet to be eligible.
• Your activity must meet the following definition of contemporary music: “Australian contemporary music is any genre or subgenre of music currently composed, written, produced by Australians and licensed, recorded, presented, and distributed through commercial and non-commercial activity. For the purposes of Music Australia’s initial investments, the focus will be on musical works that are new, original and relevant to contemporary Australia.”
• Open to Australian artists, composers, creators individually or in groups.
• Organizations and music businesses may apply on behalf of their artists.
• If you have been successful in a previous round of the Export Development. Fund, you are eligible to apply again, however funding priority may be given to first time recipients.

Ineligibility Criteria 

• You cannot apply for this grant if:
  • You have already submitted an application to this category.
  • You have an overdue grant report.
  • You owe money to Creative Australia.
  • You have applied to their Arts Project grant rounds for the same activity.

For more information, visit Creative Australia.