Are you a South Asian musician, artist, songwriter or record producer looking to build a career in the music industry?
Do you want to develop your music skills, receive specialist training and be awarded a bursary to fund your professional development?

The Emerge 2  Programme could be for you

Emerge 2 is a legacy programme and follows the success of our first talent development pilot project, Breaking Barriers. Emerge 2 is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Network Partner supported by PPL.

What is Breaking Barriers?

Breaking Barriers is a project supporting South Asian musicians to develop their work and music. It offers new music commissions and provides training and development support for artists and musicians.

The pilot project provided opportunities for over 40 South Asian musicians, enabling them to create, perform and distribute new work. It resulted in new recording contracts and new opportunities for several young musicians.

Why You Should Take Part
The pilot programme offered training and development opportunities to ten developing artists. Jay Singh was one of the applicants who participated in the pilot programme and his involvement enabled him to expand his expertise and increase his knowledge and understanding of the industry. Since completing the programme Jay is now thriving in his career and releasing new music. Check out Jay’s music on Spotify here.

What we’re offering
The programme will offer training and development opportunities for up to ten emerging to mid-career musicians, artists, record producers, artist managers, particularly those who have limited information about how the industry works. Each successful participant on the programme will receive a £500 monetary bursary award to fund his/her participation in the programme.

The programme will also include the following opportunities to help develop your music journey:

• Welcome and introduction session to the programme.
• Mapping sessions throughout the programme to go through your goals and performance opportunities.
• Music industry-related webinar and training sessions.
• Mentoring opportunities from music industry-related professionals.
• Final sharing session, which could feature a tour and demonstration of an industry level music studio.

Timeline and Bursary
The programme will run between April to June 2025.  Each participant will receive a £500 monetary bursary award to cover the costs of taking part, plus additional access support where needed (if applicable).

Who is this Programme for?
The opportunity is open to South Asian musicians of all types, traditional and contemporary, based in England.  We want to maintain a strong focus on gender balance; and to strive to reach and encourage disabled artists and artists from disadvantaged backgrounds including deaf artists.

How to Apply?
Each applicant must complete an online application form.  Applications should be accompanied (where relevant) by an example of the artist’s work (this could be via YouTube or a video link). Please email your proposal, along with the monitoring form and video link (if relevant) as mentioned in the full brief.

Download full brief here

Download the application pack here

Closing date for application: Friday 25 April 2025, 5pm
If you feel you have any barriers in applying, require additional support to apply, or/and have any questions relating to the project, please email us as mentioned in the full brief.

Notification of decisions:
All applicants will be notified whether they have been successful or not shortly after the closing date for applications (date to be confirmed) and will be notified by email.
We are sorry that we cannot offer individual feedback.

Learn more about the Pilot Programme and why you should apply! 

Find out more about our funders PRS Foundation here and PPL here.