Jun 26 • Jo Cox-Brown

Top Trends in Music-Related Grants for 2025

I’ve loved music and dance for as long as I can remember.

I began playing the piano and flute, learning scales and melodies in the traditional way. But everything changed in my late teens when I discovered electronic music. Suddenly, the world cracked open. I found a sense of freedom, belonging, and connection that I hadn’t felt before. By the late 90s, I was deeply immersed in the underground rave scene, helping to organise events in fields, warehouses, and old buildings filled with strobe lights and possibilities.

That early passion led me here. Over the years, I’ve built a career supporting musicians, festival organisers, venues, and creative communities across the UK and beyond. Alongside my brilliant team, I’ve helped secure over £80 million in funding for music, culture, and the night-time economy. That figure isn’t just impressive, it’s essential. It means projects were realised, dreams supported, and creative futures protected.

Now, in 2025, the funding landscape is shifting again. There are new opportunities, new expectations, and more need than ever to align your project with what funders care about. 

Here is what we're seeing:

1. Diversity and inclusion are being taken seriously.

  • This isn’t a buzzword anymore. It’s a core part of what funders are actively investing in. They’re backing work that doesn’t just include underrepresented voices, but puts them at the centre.
  • The PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music programme continues to support women, trans and non-binary creators. 
  • Power Up is backing Black music creatives and professionals. 
  • The Beatport Diversity & Parity Fund is enabling inclusive events and campaigns in the electronic music scene. And organisations like Black Lives in Music are leading the way with powerful advocacy and training.
  • If your work actively shifts the status quo, challenges exclusion, or opens doors for others, this is the moment to speak about it clearly and proudly.

2. Music education and youth access are front and centre.

  • It’s hard to overstate the value of early access to music. Whether it’s a first instrument, a local choir, or a music teacher who sees something in you, those early experiences shape everything. Funders know this.
  • The Music Matters Challenge in the US awarded hundreds of thousands in 2025, including a £300,000 grant to fund a full-time music teacher. In the UK and Ireland, we’re seeing practical, direct support through Restore the Music UK, Music for All, and the Universal Sound Foundation. Ireland’s Music Education Bursary also continues to invest in grassroots providers.
  • Prominent voices, such as UK Music and the Ed Sheeran Foundation, are calling for deeper systemic investment in teachers, rehearsal spaces, and youth programmes. And rightly so. This is how we protect the future of music.

3. Tech and innovation are leading the way.

  • Once seen as a fringe idea, music-tech is now firmly in the spotlight. Projects involving AI, immersive sound, data platforms, and digital audience engagement are being actively encouraged.
  • Innovate UK’s Creative Catalyst programme has backed music projects using AI to compose and perform. Horizon Europe is funding platforms that help artists track and monetise their work in new ways. And initiatives like MusicAIRE are investing in pilot projects that explore what the music industry of the future could look like.
  • If your idea blends music with technology, this is a space to watch and step into.

4. Cultural heritage and community soundscapes are being honoured

  • There’s growing appreciation for the sounds and traditions that root us. Funders are backing projects that preserve oral traditions, amplify local heritage, and protect community memory.
  • This includes everything from folk choirs and diaspora music archives to jazz mentorship programmes and intergenerational storytelling. The Radcliffe Trust, the Latin GRAMMY Foundation, Villa Albertine’s Jazz & New Music fund, and European Heritage Days all offer support. The British Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project is digitising over 500,000 recordings from across the UK.
  • This work matters. It connects the past to the present and ensures that stories are not lost.

What else?

5. Cross-artform collaboration is gaining ground.

  • Some of the most compelling projects we’ve seen recently are those that don’t fit neatly into one category. Music that lives alongside dance, theatre, film or visual arts is being actively encouraged and funded.
  • Programmes like the Genesis Foundation’s Kickstart Fund, the British Council’s Connections Through Culture grants, and the Amarte Fund in the Netherlands are all supporting this kind of creative hybridity.
  • So if your project is messy, interdisciplinary, or difficult to categorise, that might not be a weakness. It might be what makes it fundable.

6. International work is back on the agenda and being supported.

  • Despite the challenges around international movement, there are still strong opportunities for music organisations and artists to collaborate across borders.
  • Music Moves Europe, Culture Moves Europe, and British Council International Collaboration Grants are all active. Whether it’s artist residencies, touring work, or co-commissions, these funds are helping to maintain creative exchange at a time when it’s more needed than ever.
  • If your project connects cultures, this is a space full of possibility.

7. Wellbeing is no longer being sidelined.

  • This shift feels particularly important to me. For too long, the emotional and mental toll of working in music was ignored or downplayed. But we’re starting to see change.
  • The Music Industry Mental Health Fund is supporting artists with access to care and counselling. Help Musicians UK continues to offer practical support for those facing a crisis or in recovery. The Musicians’ Union is running Mental Health Month programming in collaboration with BAPAM, Tonic Rider, and other support services.
  • Well-being is becoming an integral part of how we design and deliver work. It’s being resourced. And it deserves to be.

8. Infrastructure funding is back on the table.

  • If you’re managing a venue, studio, rehearsal space, or mobile music infrastructure, this is an important moment. Arts Council England’s Creative Foundations Fund is offering between £100,000 and £10 million to support business-critical building works, equipment upgrades, and retrofits.
  • This is capital funding with a long-term impact. It’s about building resilient futures, not just keeping the lights on.
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Final thoughts

I know applying for funding can feel overwhelming. The forms, the language, the pressure to perform, it’s a lot. But what I’ve learned over the years is that when you bring clarity, honesty, and care to your proposal, the right funders respond.

At Night Time Economy Solutions, we’re proud of the £80 million we’ve helped bring into the sector. But more than that, we’re proud of the people and projects behind those numbers. Artists who dared to try. Collectives who stood for something. Spaces that welcomed everyone.

If you’ve got a project, a dream, or even a scribbled-down idea, we’d love to hear about it. Book a free discovery call by emailing fundraising@nighttimeeconomy.com. Let’s see what we can build together.