PRS Foundation – The Open Fund for Music Creators (Round: September 2026 deadline)

PRS Foundation's broadest fund for music creators, open to any genre and any career stage. The fund page states grants of up to 5,000 pounds, which is worth checking against the current guidance before you build a budget. Previous recipients include Young Fathers, Afrodeutsche, Jasdeep Singh and Ruth Lyon.

To be eligible your project must satisfy all three of the Foundation's funding priorities, not just one. First, it must support the creation, performance and promotion of outstanding new music; the Foundation says plainly that it is interested in the quality of the music itself. Second, it must develop the music creators involved — you have to explain why this particular activity is crucial to your creative or professional development, and if you are a small performance group commissioning others, why the project matters to the writers you are working with. Support goes to UK-based songwriters and composers of all backgrounds. Third, it must reach audiences, and you will be asked who you are reaching at local, regional, national or international level and how that benefits the creators in your application.

Two Open Fund rounds run in 2026. The autumn round opened on 17 August and closes on 7 September at 6pm. Guidance, FAQs and separate support for applicants with access requirements are all published.