Wavelength is pleased to be partnering with FACTOR (the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings) as one of our sponsors of the Final ALL CAPS! Island Festival. FACTOR may be one of the most misunderstood of musically oriented funding agencies, and FACTOR's Siobhan Ozege is here with a guest post to tell you a bit about how FACTOR has helped artists that Wavelength has also championed - and how they might be able to help you too.

It’s hard to believe that this weekend will be the final instalment of the ALL CAPS! Island Festival. FACTOR is proud to not only be sponsoring this event, but to have contributed to the success of many of the artists on this year’s bill. It should go without saying that we are committed to assisting in the development of Canadian talent, and to promoting and sponsoring events like ALL CAPS!

Receiving FACTOR funding doesn’t come in one single form, and it doesn’t subscribe to any specific genre of music, nor region of Canada. In fact, we’ve been making a lot of changes to our programs over the last year to help make the organization more adaptable to the changing needs of the music industry and to help support grassroots artists and events. We’ve been working on ways to make the application process easier for applicants, and to assign everyone a Project Coordinator who is available to help them through the steps of applying for FACTOR funding. We call it: FACTOR 2.0.

ALL CAPS! Sunday night headliner Rich Aucoin is one of those artists. In 2006 he received a demo grant, and our support for his career has only continue to grow since then. In 2010, we funded his most recent album, We’re All Dying to Live. As part of our commitment to assisting artists in not only creating sound recordings but also in their commercialization, Rich received funds to assist with the marketing and promotion of this record. This included the video Brian Wilson Is A.L.I.V.E., which won the inaugural Prism Prize for Best Canadian Music Video in 2012, and a European and Canadian tour in support of the recording.

The total investment in this record is over $40,000, and it’s only one example of the hundreds of artists we fund. Last year alone, we funded over 1900 projects, totalling over $16 million from our various streams. If you want to see a breakdown of all of our programs, we just released our annual report.

Funding from FACTOR isn’t strictly limited to artists – in fact, the $40,000 figure doesn’t include the funding we provided to Rich’s label management company Sonic – they receive Business Development funds from us annually to help grow and sustain their activity in the music industry. We also help fund artists to play showcases and festivals both in Canada, and around the world.  

Rich Aucoin is currently one of Canada’s most visible touring musicians working in his genre and developing a worldwide following – our investment has been part of that. Support for grassroots artists and events remain crucial to the health and success of the Canadian music scene. A FACTOR grant can play a huge role in that success.

As the music industry changes, so do we. We’ve got some exciting projects coming down the pipeline that we can’t wait to share. If you’re thinking about applying for FACTOR funding, we encourage you to apply. We’re pretty friendly, and are happy to help.