Komposisjon og produksjon av musikk (Composition and Music Production)

This scheme pays the artistic costs of making new music in Norway — the fees, in other words, rather than the studio bill. It covers composition and creative production in every genre: score-based or performer-based writing, work made in a studio or on digital platforms, composers and musicians writing together, and staged concert productions including music-theatre and cross-artform pieces. It also covers contributions from artists in other fields who genuinely shape the creative work — video and visual artists, scenographers, photographers, writers, performance artists, artistic producers.

There are two routes in. Commissioners such as orchestras, promoters or soloists can apply to commission a piece, in which case the entire grant must go to the artists to cover their costs. Creating artists can apply for their own compositions and productions. Individuals, private and public institutions, organisations and companies are all eligible; composers still in education normally are not.

Recording costs — studio, premises, mastering, pressing — are excluded, as is running a concert, meaning lighting, staff, ticketing, marketing, administration and audience work, and touring. Kulturrådet points you to a different scheme for each.

Applications close at 13:00 on the deadline through the online portal. The committee weighs artistic content and feasibility, and looks specifically for a credible plan to get the music performed and for scope to reuse the work afterwards. Paying contributors at recommended rates counts in your favour. Composition fees can be fully funded; nothing else can.