The Sound of Everything UK are thrilled to announce that Unsigned & Gifted, originally launched as a popular live events series pre-pandemic, is to be fully relaunched in January 2023, as an artist development programme, with support from the Arts Council of England and The National Lottery UK. 

This time it will be a bigger and more ambitious project that builds on the 2019 concept of the Unsigned & Gifted monthly live showcase and will NOW be a yearly programme consisting of three principal phases:

- A series of live events promoting unsigned talent.

- A series of educational workshops to help aspiring artists, songwriters, and producer-writers prepare for protecting their intellectual property, whilst navigating the current music industry and media.

- A licensing platform, focusing on microsync deals, offering artists, producers and writers the opportunity to put their music forward for use in micro sync placements, but also gaming soundtracks and other Web2 and Web3 placements.

The applications for the first cohort opened on Friday 18 November 2022 at 4pm and closed on Wednesday 11 January 2023 at 5pm.

We wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the Arts Council of England and The National Lottery UK for their support and for enabling us to pursue the ambitious and exciting vision we have for Unsigned & Gifted.

We would also like to thank the Institute of Contemporary Music Perfomarnce for giving us free access to their facilities for our workshops and PRS for Music for their continuous support with our workshops.

Eligible applicants are artists and/or songwriters and/or grassroots musicians  who satisfy all the criteria below:

1. Are based in the UK.

2. Are over 18 years old.

3. Are unsigned and unpublished.

4. Are in the early stages of their development.

5. Are able to perform live on stage with a band or solo AND/OR are able to record/produce music good enough to be licensed for synchronisation with small-scale audiovisual projects (e.g. vlogs, NFTs, promotional videos for microbrands and microbusinesses, independent low budget documentaries, films, games).

6. Are earning less than £1,000 per year from music-related revenue streams.

7. Are able to attend in person workshops and live shows taking place in London from January 2023 till December 2023 (this does NOT imply a commitment to attend all events, but a willingness and capacity to attend some events based on availability).