UPCOMING EVENTS June 27th- "The College Circuit: Cashing in On Campus"- Music Industry Boot Camp @ Tambaleo, 6:30 p.m. | 12.09.04 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUSTIN MUSIC FOUNDATION'S INCUBATOR PROGRAM TO LAUNCH 2ND TERM Continuing Cain Foundation Support Turns Austin Musicians into Entrepreneurs ( Austin , TX ) - Today the Austin Music Foundation (AMF) announces the launch of the second term of its 18 month-long program, the Austin Music Incubator. This exciting announcement is possible due to the generous continuing support of Wofford Denius and the Cain Foundation, who brought the Incubator to life with funding in 2003. This ambitious and comprehensive signature program of the AMF is renowned across the country as a unique and innovative model for independent artist development. "The Incubator is a new model for independent artist development helping talented, ambitious Austin-based musicians become educated business people capable of sustaining their careers, filling an essential need in our community." said Nikki Rowling, Executive Director of the Austin Music Foundation. "We're very grateful to Wofford and the Cain Foundation for renewing their faith in the program. Their continued financial support enables AMF to help 3 more artists learn how to develop sustainable careers in what is a very tough industry. The Cain Foundation's support just means the world to the Austin music community and to us and allows AMF to continue a critical component of the cultural vibrancy of our city." Wofford Denius, Director of The Cain Foundation and a music attorney in Los Angeles , was the first to visualize the potential benefit of the Incubator model for Austin musicians in 2003. "As an active member of the Austin music community, I work closely with many local artists. I am as enthusiastic in my support of the Austin music community today as I was when we first launched AMF's Incubator in 2003." Denius facilitated the Cain Foundation's donation of seed funding, originally launching the Incubator and carrying it through its pilot year. Today, he continues his support of the Incubator with a new donation to launch a second term of the Incubator. With this funding the AMF may again offer three artists a slot for the Incubator 2005-2006 term, with up to $15,000 allocated for each artist. The pioneering Incubator program addresses both the process of creating new musical works and building business skills. Over the year-and-a-half long term, the AMF's Advisory Board and staff offer the Awardees mentoring, professional training and financial support in the amount of $15,000 to complete and market a new record and teach them about how to market and promote that record to build a sustainable career as an artist. In the Incubator's next term, AMF is also proud to announce an expansion of the program by adding financial awards for 2 artists who qualify as Finalists per genre but are not selected as Awardees. Each of those artists will receive up to $1,000 to help facilitate the creation of new musical works. The Austin Music Foundation will begin accepting artist applications for the Incubator on December 15th , 2004 , and the final deadline for submission is January 13 th, 2005 . Applications will be available online at http://www.austinmusicfoundation.org/ or in some area locations to be listed on the AMF website beginning December 15th , 2004 . The Incubator gained local and national recognition and motivated hundreds of local artists to put pen to paper for essay questions and thought-provoking answers as well as their best music. Incubator Awardees for each category are selected by AMF's Advisory Board, which is a high-caliber group of industry experts from Austin and around the country. The genres are as organized as follows: Category I: Blues/Jazz, Hip-Hop/Urban, Latin/Tejano, R&B, and Reggae, Category II: Alt-Country, Americana , Bluegrass , Country, Folk, and Singer-Songwriter and Category III: Alternative, Heavy/Metal, Indie, Pop, Punk, and Rock . All of the Finalists will perform at a showcase on March 5th , 2005 where one finalist from each genre will be chosen as the Austin Music Incubator Awardees for 2005-2006. Final selection of the Awardees will be announced during this year's SXSW Music Conference. |