Irish Music Organisations Join with Spotify to Create Fund for Musicians

Irish Music Organisations Join with Spotify to Create Fund for Musicians

Irish musicians, songwriters, composers and arrangers can avail of a one-time payment of €750.

A new music industry relief fund has been set up to help musicians in Ireland in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Irish Music Industry COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund was announced yesterday (16 April) by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), and First Music Contact (FMC), who will administer the fund, and is aimed at providing support for musicians in Ireland who have lost income due to the pandemic. Successful applicants will receive a one-time payment of €750. 

In addition to the financial contributions to the fund by IMRO and IRMA, Spotify is also making a donation, via its new Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project. The project was set up by the music streaming company to provide financial aid to several music organisations worldwide including MusiCares, PRS Foundation and Help Musicians. Members of the public can donate to the Irish fund too, and Spotify will match all donations up to a total of $10 million for all selected organisations. 

Eleanor McEvoy, chair of IMRO, said: 

We hope that this fund can help to ease some of their worries and fears. We are also appealing to anyone who is passionate about Irish music to donate to the fund to ensure we can help as many people as possible. It is essential that the Irish music industry survives this crisis, not just for the benefit of music creators, but for the benefit of our country.

The fund is open to songwriters, composers, performers, session musicians and arrangers who are experiencing financial hardship due to lost work caused by the pandemic. They must not be in receipt of any similar music industry relief fund in another jurisdiction.

Applications will be processed by a committee of music industry professionals, and each submission will be reviewed by three members of the committee. 

Angela Dorgan, chief executive of FMC, said: 

We could see from our surveys the amount of people affected immediately and although this fund won’t go anywhere near entirely bridging those gaps, we hope it will help sustain the most vulnerable in our sector during the crisis, the makers, the artists.

For more information on the fund and how to apply, visit www.firstmusiccontact.com/covid19-relief-fund-intro
To donate, visit covid19musicrelief.byspotify.com/en-us

Published on 16 April 2020

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