The week in Creative Money (11 September, 2020)
Financial guidance for creative professionals
Creative Money aims to have an open conversation about finances in the creative industries.
It was founded in July, 2020 in an attempt to address a frustrating lack of sound financial guidance for creative workers and is written by me, Matt Parker, a music journalist and lecturer.
Have you tried to sort your financial life out before but not been able to stick it out? I’m a big believer in a technique that I once heard described as ‘velvet roping’.
On the surface, this sounds like a Lynch-ian sexual proclivity, but it’s actually the process of making it really easy to do a good or productive thing when you’re trying to build a habit.
Trying to get better at jogging? Set a reminder to dig your running stuff out the night before, get your trainers by the door, podcasts preloaded etc. Then make sure you get to bed on time, do it first thing and have a small reward already in place when you complete it.
If you consider yourself to be bad with money, you need to find ways to ‘velvet rope’ your finances. Most of know how important it is to watch expenses, to save, to invest for the future and so on. What’s harder is making ourselves do this. We need to make it not just tolerable, but *really easy*.
This is one of the reasons I like budgeting apps. They sweep my headache-inducing statements and, with a bit of cursory transaction tagging (usually in those times where I’ve picked up my phone but can’t remember why), allow me to get a quick overview of where-the-actual-hell my money is going every month.
This week I’ve written a piece on some things to think about when you’re picking an app and broken down the ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments on four of the top UK options. I’ve tried to take account of those features I feel are most relevant to creative workers.
However, if you have suggestions or alternatives that you’ve had success with, please give me a shout!
I hope you’ll find it useful.
Until next time,
Matt
Creative Money
On the site this week:
The best budgeting apps for UK creative workers
Untangle your personal finances with our guide
7 reasons to be cheerful: what’s working in the creative industries right now
Creative workers seeking silver linings, start here
What do you need to know this week?
As young people face a difficult job market, tackling unpaid internships will be more important than ever (The Sutton Trust)
The trend in "buy-now-pay-later" landing women in debt (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour)
The Song Trust Modern Guide To Music Publishing is free and has recently been updated
Do you really need to buy a property now? *spoiler alert* – probably not (Financial Times)
Grants and funding opportunities
Silent Uproar Writer's Support Plan for theatre writers
Silent Uproar has earmarked £20,000 to support writers who meet one or more of the following criteria: born, raised and/or live in the North of England; have already completed one full-length production (60+ mins) and/or one full-length commission; whose identity is currently under-represented in modern theatre. Deadline: 12 September, 2020
Help Musicians Do It Differently fund
Grants of £3,000 to music creators to fulfil their chosen project, as well as bespoke 1-on-1 business guidance with some of the UK music industry’s leading experts. Deadline: 14 September, 2020
Open call for diverse artists: The Tell Your Story Festival
Cherwell Theatre Company in Banbury are seeking diverse artists to collaborate on the first phase of our youth focussed 'Tell Your Story Festival', funded by The Ragdoll Foundation, Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire Community Foundation between October 2020-February 2021. £150 per day for workshops delivered (online or face to face). Deadline: 14 September, 2020
UK-Canada Immersive Exchange co-production fund
Call for UK and Canadian creatives and producers to become future leaders in immersive storytelling backed by funding support. Development grants of £2,000. Latter co-production funding of £25,000-£100,000. Deadline: 17 September, 2020
Manchester Fiction Prize
£10,000 prize for the best short story of up to 2,500 words. £18 entry fee (though reductions available for those in financial difficulty). Deadline: 18 September, 2020
Push 2021 HOME Artist Film Commissions
Looking for two artist filmmakers or collectives based in the North West of England to submit a proposal to create a new short moving image work (under 10 minutes in duration including credits). Commissions of £1,500 per artist. Deadline: 18 September, 2020
PRS Hitmaker fund
Hitmaker support offers songwriters, producers and music creators working behind the scenes in popular music with grants of up to £10,000 – need at least five credited works with PRS for Music. Deadline: 28 September, 2020
Society Of Authors' Audio Drama Imison Award
A prize of £3,000 for audio drama scripts by a writer new to the medium which were broadcast or made available online between 1 October 2019 and 31 October 2020. Deadline: 4 October, 2020
Camden People's Theatre: Starting Blocks 2021 seed funding
9 seed commissions to artists from marginalised backgrounds, to support the development of innovative new theatre projects. Successful candidates will receive £750, one week’s rehearsal space (or one week’s supported digital R&D), and the opportunity to perform as part of CPT's artistic programme. Deadline: 5 October, 2020
PRS Women Make Music fund
supports the development of outstanding women, trans and non binary songwriters and composers of all genres and backgrounds at different stages of their career. Deadline: 5 October, 2020
Unlimited launches new commission round for disabled artists
Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that enables new work by disabled artists to reach UK and international audiences. They will have £500,000 to commission work from disabled artists and companies in three strands: Main Commission awards, Research and Development awards and Emerging Artists awards. Applications don't open until October, but they're getting the word out nice and early. Deadline: 27 October, 2020
HelpMusicians Financial Hardship Funding Phase 2
Support for music professionals facing hardship due to COVID-19 and excluded from the government's furlough and SEISS schemes. Deadline: 31 October, 2020
Alfred Bradley Bursary Award
The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5,000 writing bursary to Northern writers new to radio and the chance of a Radio 4 drama commission. Deadline: 6 November, 2020
Hope Mill Theatre Through The Mill Playwrighting Prize
Opportunity for writers to have their work fully produced by and at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Winner will receive a monetary prize of £5,000 plus one-to-one mentoring with award winning writer Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing, Hushabye Mountain). Deadline: 27 November, 2020.
Royal Variety Charity Financial Assistance grants
The Royal Variety Charity is uniquely positioned to provide financial assistance to anyone who serves any facet of the Entertainment Industry. Deadline: ongoing
The White Pube Writers Grant funded by Creative Debuts
£500 given out monthly to a working class writer based in the UK. This grant has been set up to support writers of all ages who are early in their careers and would benefit from this no-strings attached financial support to help them in whatever they like. Deadline: ongoing
This week's to-do list:
The Creative Industries Federation wants to know what you think about the end of the Job Retention Scheme. They've set up a survey so you can tell them...
You might want to sign this petition from the Musician's Union calling on government to back a 'Musicians' Passport' for those working in the EU post-Brexit.