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Touring and Professional Development Programs Re-open February 13
Important News About Our Funding Programs – April 2025
Artist Development Funding Program Refresh: November 2024 Update
Touring and Professional Development Programs Re-open February 13
MusicNL’s Touring and Professional Development programs will reopen on Friday, February 13, 2026.
Application intake will resume on a monthly basis. The next deadline is Saturday, February 28 at 11:59 PM NST. The evaluation and jurying begins immediately after the monthly intake deadline. Results will be distributed 4 weeks after the deadline for the applicable submission round.
Retroactive Applications – APPLICABLE for February 28 intake only
Exceptionally, for the February 28, 2026 intake, we will be accepting applications for projects that took place while these programs were closed (October 17, 2025 to February 13, 2026). Please note that retroactive projects must still adhere to the general eligibility requirements of each program to be considered.
February 28, 2026 is the final deadline to submit applications for projects that occurred during this period. After this date, projects that took place while the funding program was closed will no longer be eligible for support.
Important: Approved funding amounts will be determined based on program demand and available budget. Not all applications will be approved, and approved projects may receive partial funding.
Additional Funding Resources
Given that MusicNL funding cannot be relied upon to cover 100% of project costs, we encourage all applicants to apply for additional funding through agencies such as FACTOR, SOCAN, ArtsNL, and the Canada Council for the Arts. These resources can help maximize support for your projects. For a list of showcase funding resources, and more tips about accessing funding, visit our Online Learning Library.
For complete program guidelines visit the funding section of our website and to submit your application, please visit musicnl.grantplatform.com.
Important News About Our Funding Programs – April 2025
In recent years, MusicNL has benefited from additional provincial funding through Come Home Year and Year of the Arts. These amounts helped support increases to our regular funding programs and some special initiatives. The additional provincial allocations have come to an end for the 2025-26 fiscal year. In order to foster our industry and continue supporting as many projects as possible, MusicNL has made some changes to funding programs for 2025-26.
Starting April 1, 2025, the following changes to funding programs will be in effect:
- Professional Development: project funding will be to a maximum of 75% of the total eligible costs or total request, whichever is lower.
- Touring Programs: funding will remain the same, without the additional allocation.
- Artist Development: funding will remain the same, without the additional allocation.
- Community Presenters Program: this program has now ended. MusicNL will not be accepting any further applications for 2025-26.
- Small Business Micro Grant: this program has now ended. MusicNL will not be accepting any further applications for 2025-26.
Artist Development Funding Program Refresh: November 2024 Update
The MusicNL Program Refresh process took place over a 3 year period and was led by the MusicNL Program Manager, along with a board-appointed committee created in 2021. The refresh process was a response to the industry changes as a result of the pandemic. The staff and the committee led a full hands-on research process, focusing on the program criteria based juxtaposed against the applications received in all the programs. The process revealed that the current open tier system didn’t provide a fair chance to all applicants. The Program Manager regularly faced the challenge of convincing emerging artists to apply for the more attainable tiers, and juries expressed concerns about evaluating applications that were not in the appropriate tier.
Before the Program Refresh, there was no firm criteria to guide members into the appropriate funding tier. This created a cycle of frustration among unsuccessful applicants, who would often re-submit viable projects, but at a funding tier that did not align with their career level. This dynamic also used valuable organizational energy in evaluating applications that were not aligned to the corresponding funding tier.
The purpose of the Program Refresh is to create the conditions that allow a greater proportion of successful applicants to receive the support they need at various stages in the evolution of their careers.
MusicNL understands that the music ecosystem is evolving at a rate that is often faster than program funding can keep pace with. We remain open to hearing feedback about any gaps as the new program guidelines roll out. Please feel free to send any feedback to: programs@musicnl.ca
Artist Development Funding Program Refresh: December 2023 Draft Criteria
If you would like to see the full draft of the program criteria, please download the document below.