Lottery Grants with CIRAA - C'mon, it's worth a try

Here's a post from our friends at Tribe house (an artist collective). Find out more about them here.

by Nico Boesten

There are a few things that almost every independent artist loves: money, winning the lottery & a good acronym. Like CIRAA.

How about having all of them though. Allow myself to explain myself...

I just found a killer new program that the CIRAA (Canadian Independent Recording Artists' Association) is offering to indie musicians on a lottery basis called the Groundbreaker Grant.

Here's how it works:

You play a gig.
You signup and become a member of CIRAA (free).
You type in a couple of quick details about your gig(s).
20 people will be given a $100 grant (yup, free money) per month.

You can get up to $1200 this way per year and it takes like 3 minutes to put your info in there. And it's free.

All mind-blowing details here.

SOCAN also has some cool ways for you to make extra money on gigs you've already played but this is a new thing that's being introduced. Last I checked, CIRAA has about 4000 members so your chances of winning are (insert math equation here) pretty good I think. If you win or apply, let us know.

PS: If you don't know who the CIRAA is, it's similar to the CIA except it has nothing to do with spies, guns, black suits, movies, or highly classified operations. But they are both non-profits that are tied in to the government...

(from their site)
CIRAA is Canada's only national non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to Canadian independent recording artists. They are totally into:

1. promoting progressive Canadian Content rules that will ensure more airplay for emerging Canadian artists; and
2. working to secure increased funding for unsigned artists from government, private radio broadcasters and other players within the music industry infrastructure.

They also have a super helpful podcast where they interview professionals in the music industry who pass on tips about grants, booking, publicity, marketing, and a ton of others here.

Hope you find this helpful. If not, click here for a totally off-topic Sexy Sax Man viral video of the week.