How Decisions Are Made

Applications are reviewed by the Music PEI Program Officer to ensure they are complete and meet the eligibility criteria. All applicants are encouraged to meet with the Program Officer prior to submitting applications.

The Program Officer selects a jury of experienced music industry professionals from a pool of jurors Music PEI has been recruiting since the investing programs began. To qualify, jurors must have a working knowledge of the business side of industry. Past jurors have included artists, recording engineers, broadcasters, producers, and promoters from PEI and Atlantic Canada. The Program Officer is responsible for directing the jury in their duties but does not cast a vote in the process.

Music PEI Board of Directors and staff are excluded from being a juror on the Music PEI Investing Juries. The Board of Directors have no control over the decisions of the jury nor do they have prior knowledge of who the jurors are. The Board (which is volunteer) is in place to ensure that correct procedures are followed and to oversee the overall investing and operation of the Association.

Music PEI policy does not discourage or discriminate against any Island resident, especially those with strong backgrounds in the music industry, from seeking an opportunity to serve on the board. As members of the Board of Directors are excluded from the jury process, they are eligible to submit grant applications, a policy that is consistent with other provincial music industry associations as well as with FACTOR.

Music PEI is an industry association and not an arts council, and all investing decisions made by the jury are therefore based on the business quality of the applications and not necessarily on the artistic merit of the product. The jury is solely responsible for these decisions and each application is graded separately on its own merit. The jury is instructed to evaluate each applicant’s understanding of the music business and how the assistance of a grant will help to grow the applicant’s career in the music industry.

As per the guidelines, the jury scores each application out of a possible 100%, with various aspects accounting for different portions of the total score (these vary depending on the fund level of funding). The final aggregated scores of all jurors are used to determine whether or not investing is granted to each applicant, as well as the amount granted. As Music PEI has limited investing funds available, it is not always possible to invest in all applications. Also, some applicants may receive only partial investing.

All eligibility criteria, guidelines, and applications are outlined in Investment Applications. Music PEI has made great efforts to ensure that our programs are designed to assist our industry in key areas that will help to develop the artists and infrastructure in our province. To guide our decisions, we have studied and subsequently adapted appropriate examples from many of the already established music industry associations from across the country.