London Music Fund and YouTube Music are offering funding to organisations and projects which provide young Londoners between the ages of 11 and 21 ways of overcoming barriers to music.
The fund works in collaboration with the London-based music education charity Sound Connections to help organisations develop music education projects, as well as helping these groups establish connections with the music and technology industries.
Launched in February this 2020, the first round of Amplify London gave grants of up to £6000 to five organisations:
- Ambition Aspire Achieve: Arc Music, a Newham youth club that used the funding to open a music studio for vulnerable young people
- Collage Voices: Voice Against Hate, a North London project celebrating difference, championing respect and combatting hate in schools through a bespoke songwriting programme
- Girls Rock London: Summer Camp, which enable young women and trans youth from Hackney to learn how to play and instrument and form a band
- Ruff Sqwad Arts Foundation: YCHTB 2020, a six-week project to train MCs, producers and sound engineers culminating in a recorded live performance in Tower Hamlets
- School Ground Sounds: Windrush Amplified, a partnership with Brixton Wings Youth Club which gave a summer songwriting camp to vulnerable, local youth between 11 and 16 years exploring the them of Windrush
Another five projects will be chosen for 2021. The money is focussed on grass-roots projects and organisations running specific local programmes and the deadline for applications is at 5pm on 26 February 2021. The winning bids will be announced in April and the projects must be completed by the end of the year.
As the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, ‘I’m delighted that the London Music Fund and YouTube Music are providing opportunities for young people across the capital. Music has the power to transform lives and these grants will inspire the next generation of musicians and support our vital grassroots organisations at a time when they need it the most.’
