Local Songwriters Can Apply for Grants

• Author: Monica Jackson
• Posted: 2024-03-16

You may not hear a lot about it on the news, with everything that's going on in America today, but some of the hardest hit groups in America amid the Covid-19 pandemic were self-employed artists, such as painters, sculptors and musicians. There's a reason that the name "starving artist" has stuck so well colloquially for these people. They have no guaranteed income, no retirement savings, and generally no insurance for either life of health. These are people, just like everyone else, yet their economic opportunities are only present when the economy's doing well enough that people are willing to spend money on what these artists provide. That's why it's a good thing that songwriters can apply for grants of $25,000 in Rhode Island.

Announced on Wednesday September 9, the Rhode Island Foundation will be awarding grant money to three different composers. Sure, this isn't a lot of money being given out, but for three lucky songwriters in the area, this is a life-changing amount of money. The money and the idea for the grants comes from the Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund, and they're on the hunt for local talent

There are a lot of songwriters and music composers in the Long Island area, though this is an area that's been hit a lot harder by Covid-19 than you may realize. It's getting harder and harder for these artists to really push their music to the next level. For most of them, if they have to go on assistance, they're not eligible to earn anything from a state level so are only given what the federal government has allotted. Rhode Island is unfortunately one of the more expensive states to live in, and federal unemployment doesn't scale up based on the cost of living expenses. Suffice to say, many songwriters and other artists in the area were really starving, not just metaphorically speaking.

While only three songwriters will end up receiving these grants, it's important to understand just how large a sum $25,000 is for a grant. To put this in context, some sports organizations in states like California do not even give 25K to an entire business when they hand out grants. Many grants that were given to restaurants and small businesses throughout many states were for a sum of around $10,000, rarely exceeding that number. $25,000 is more than a lot of these artists will make in a year, so it's a huge amount of money being given by the foundation. And they're certainly the largest rewards a songwriter can apply for in the entire nation.

The real aim here is to free up songwriters who have true talent and are on the cusp of making a big break. The thinking is that if you can ensure that their rent, food and other expenses are taken care of, they will use that excess funding to really push their music to an audience that will listen. Sometimes, especially for songwriters, it really does come down to the money. If you can't afford that extra $1,000 for a professional demo, or the few hundred dollars it takes to market your song to some executive somewhere, then you simply remain unknown. You may be incredibly talented, but it takes money to swim in the waters with today's music industry.

The Sad Facts of the Music Industry

One of the most tragic aspects of the music industry this century is that everything is churned out in electronic three-minute soundbites so the studios make money and the songs get a lot of plays and shares on social media. The days of Bob Dylan or Townes Van Zandt sitting down to a captivated audience and playing their guitar and singing heartfelt music are gone. Nowadays, it's an electronic snap every downbeat and derivative lyrics meant to get stuck in your head. No more soul, and seemingly very little talent. Everyone realizes that this is what "music" is today, so everyone with a computer or some beats app is competing, so it's exceedingly harder for a songwriter to have their song noticed than ever before.

It takes money. Cold, hard cash. It shouldn't be like this in the music industry, but it is. You need professional demos and marketing teams and to produce in bulk in hopes that one of your songs is picked up. With any luck, this $25,000 will help three lucky songwriters in Rhode Island finally get noticed for their work.