Different countries across the globe follow different strategies of World Fund Music that has provided most music artists as well as several music companies with the means for the fulfilment of their dreams and business goals. Enough said! It is time to look into the matter more seriously and intensively to know why it matters and how it has affected the music industry on the whole.
It is felt that the support of a taxpayer can do a lot for a musician as well as the music industry just as it can for any other industry. There are several instances in the past that show how efforts of the governments have helped different musicians in different ways.
- It helped a singer from one part of the world could travel across it to another country to perform, courtesy the support from the Council for the Arts of the government.
- It also allowed musicians to receive new grants that are state-sponsored to help them record their debut album.
- When it came time to the promotion of music the government money also helped them to finance their programs for showcasing their skills and talent through different tours of different countries.
All these efforts have helped several new artists, songwriters and music producers to feature in the international charts, grace the year-end list of the music critics and even win a Grammy Award.
Recently, in the Trump regime, it is seen that efforts are being made in the US to abolish federal arts funding. While on the other hand it is noticed that in other parts of the globe such as Iceland and Australia there is a complex shifting landscape in the music industry when it comes to funding.
Under President Trump, the comparatively modest US budget for arts spending is now on the chopping block. The National Endowment for the Arts was of $148 million in the 2016 budget but out of it a meagre $8 million was dedicated for programs for music including opera.
Concept of using public funds
Several rich countries across the globe have successfully used the concept of using public funds as their effort to prioritize and fund traditional fine arts such as painting and even opera. On the other hand, the contemporary music world seems to have been neglected ever since and therefore had to rely and resort to drawing funds from different public and private partnerships at high interest rates.
Over the years, there has been a change in the policy and now regional as well as municipal governments have also started to contribute in this segment too with an intention to foster musical talent of the home country.
However, it is not easy to get through the web of such financial assistance for music. There are several reasons for it such as:
- The lending policies are complicated and are unique from one country to the other.
- Moreover, the general impression of such funding landscape is that it is increasingly driven by the market forces just as much as it is dependent on the cultural factors.
- Apart from that, there is a constant threat of curbing the budget and allocation of funds for these purposes which is an inevitable effort made by every government ahead of an election.
Such complexities in funding have resulted in rise of several nonprofits through the years that have played a significant role in spreading music and its word with it across the globe. More events are now organized with the help of such public and private funds.
However, these nonprofits and private funding sources seem to have added to the complexity with the more accessible public, private, federal as well as state creating a hodgepodge. The reason for saying so is that nothing is done as a charity and every single resource have its significant business goal to achieve, whether it is in the form of profits or as an advertisement. It is for this reason that the Federal Trade Commission has also focused on championing music and its exports rights alongside all other natural resources such as coal, uranium, and any other.
Need for early fiscal shots
Those who receive these early financial shots in their arm in the form of government grants help them in many ways just as those debt relief programs provided through different reliable resources such as Nationaldebtrelief.com and others.
Since music is related to creation, musician can be now more creative and focus more on their work not having to worry about who is going to fund their project. Apart from providing them with creative independence while they start their journey into the world of music, such funds have also helped them in the following ways:
- It has taken away the worries of impressing others for the required labelling and publishing advances
- It has helped them to avoid taking some big sponsorship from big companies to fund their tour and pay a hefty percentage of their hard-earned income as interest on their investments and
- It has provided them with a more natural and practical way of nurturing their dreams and fulfil their goal of artistic growth.
Without the government grants, it would have been impossible for one too many musicians to get a proper breakthrough to fulfil their dreams. It would have reduced their enthusiasm and confidence in them and their skill preventing them to succeed and forcing them to give up their dreams and take up any other profession reluctantly to earn a living. This would have been a huge loss for the music industry on the whole.
Judging the value Several researchers and economists are however still apprehensive about such funding programs. They are worried about more and more musicians and producers taking the advantage of these funds and fulfil their dreams but might not create any cultural or musical value on the whole, in domestic or in foreign lands. This has therefore felt by them that there is a lot to investigate regarding these funding programs pertaining to the value creation of the musicabroad.
