Company Envelope: Top-Tier

• Portal application form
• Business plan responses in the portal form
• Financial statements for the past 3 fiscal years
• Policy on gender equality, diversity, and inclusion
• Agreements confirming control of Canadian rights for planned investments

Who is eligible?

• Canadian record labels
• Canadian music publishers
• Canadian artist managers
• Canadian companies that undertake concert production activities and are responsible, artistically and financially, for all aspects related to the live activities of their artists under contract

Who is not eligible

• Companies whose majority of investments relate to French-language artists should apply to Musicaction.
• Companies streamlined to FACTOR’s Company Envelope: Top-Tier are not eligible for FACTOR’s Support for Eligible Music Companies, juried, and standalone Video programs.
• Companies streamlined to FACTOR’s Company Envelope: Top-Tier are ineligible for FACTOR’s Promoter Program.

Eligible expenses

• Salaries and benefits and professional fees (contracted services) for eligible activities.
• Artist, musician, backing vocals and technician fees.
• Studio and production costs (e.g., studio charges, producer fees, mastering, arrangers, artistic director, executive producer/associate producer, equipment rental, manufacturing).
• Touring/showcasing costs (e.g., equipment rentals, production expenses, promotion expenses).
• Publishing costs (e.g., music placement/song plugging, coordination/subcontracted coordination fees).
• Artist management costs (including management salaries/fees).
• Artist development and promotional costs (e.g., advertising and press, promotional materials, press photos, posters/graphic design, release expenses, music video production, promotional tour, translation fees).
• Digital/platform and software/tool costs when directly related to developing Canadian artists, promotion and audience development (e.g., metadata purchasing/processing, social media tools; data/asset management tools).
• Business travel directly tied to eligible activities (transportation, accommodation and meals), as per the Government of Canada’s Travel Directive.
• Business development costs (including travel) within program limits (e.g., finding new artists/new contracts; market development expenses).
• Administrative costs within program limits (e.g., business website and e-commerce website; subscriptions/databases; subcontractor; conferences and training; business representation; management/administration of musical works).
• Capital expenditures directly related to eligible activities (up to 10% of the contribution), within program limits.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Content or activities deemed offensive or illegal (e.g. hate propaganda, obscenity/child pornography, pornography without an educational purpose, gratuitous violence, content that denigrates an identifiable group).
• Merchandising, grant writing/administration services, and hospitality expenses (food, alcohol, etc.).
• Concert “presentation” expenses (e.g. festival production, programming series) and touring activities not related to the career development of an artist (e.g. musicals, tribute shows, corporate/charity shows).
• Capital expenditures not directly related to eligible activities (e.g. purchase of buildings, vehicles, computers; including depreciation), as well as the acquisition of catalogues.
• Dividends, premiums/bonuses and other extraordinary compensation for shareholders/owners; as well as exchange of services/in-kind costs and recoverable taxes.

Eligible geographic areas

• Canada (company headquarters based in Canada).

• The company’s ability to reach audiences, assessed based on recent revenues and recent investments.
• The company’s efforts to develop the careers of Canadian artists, promote their music, and develop their audiences, based on the business plan, planned investments across CMF priority areas, and the feasibility of the investment strategy.
• Business Plan/Planned investments are weighted at 60% of the total budget and are ranked based on applicability to Individual Initiatives objectives, relevance and scope, feasibility, and expected results.
• Revenues and recent investments are each weighted at 20% of the total budget.

• Step 1: Create or update FACTOR Applicant Profile
  • Create an Applicant Profile in the FACTOR system if you are new to FACTOR, prior to the program deadline.
  • Provide the information requested in your FACTOR Applicant Profile to verify eligibility.
  • If applying for the first time, contact the Company Envelope program team to be assessed for eligibility.
  • If you believe you qualify but do not have the required rating to access the application, request a profile review via envelopefunding@factor.ca.
• Step 2: Prepare required application materials (portal form, business plan, disclosures)
  • Complete the Portal Application Form in FACTOR’s portal (an Excel version is available for reference, but the submission must be made through the portal form to be eligible for review).
  • If applying as an affiliated group, declare all affiliated companies and report revenues and investments on a single application form (submitted under one Applicant Profile).
  • Prepare the Business Plan responses within the portal application form, including: company history; short and medium-term company strategy; AI disclosure; and artist strategy and tactics per artist and eligible investment category.
  • Submit your policy on gender equality, diversity, and inclusion for management positions and/or Board of Directors, including representation of various equity-deserving groups in leadership positions.
• Step 3: Upload financial statements (past 3 fiscal years)
  • Upload financial statements for the past three fiscal years (PDFs) to the Gross Revenue section of the Applicant Profile.
  • Ensure the financial statements are prepared by a Chartered Accountant (audited financial statements, review engagement reports, or compilation engagement reports are accepted).
• Step 4: Submit the application in the FACTOR portal (before the deadline)
  • Sign in and submit the completed application through FACTOR’s portal: https://portal.factor.ca/signin.
  • Submit by January 22, 2026 at 5:00pm Eastern Time (for activities taking place April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027).
• Step 5: Arrange direct deposit information (for payments if approved)
  • Provide banking information for direct deposit to receive FACTOR funding.
• Step 6: Complete required reporting after approval (mid-year and completion)
  • Submit the Mid-Year report by October 31 (reporting actual spending to September 30 and forecasted spending to the end of the program year), by email to envelopefunding@factor.ca.
  • Submit the Completion report by May 31 through FACTOR’s portal.

• FACTOR reviews applications competitively among eligible applicants, depending on the available budget.
• Applications are assessed based on the company’s ability to reach audiences (recent revenues and recent investments) and the business plan/planned investments for Canadian artists.
• Applicants are notified of their results in May.
• If approved and the funding offer is accepted, FACTOR issues payments in installments, starting with an advance, followed by payments after mid-year reporting and completion reporting are received and accepted.
• Recipients must submit a Mid-Year report (due October 31) and a Completion report (due May 31); payments may be withheld if required documentation/reporting is delinquent.

• Applicants will be notified of their results in May.
• Recipients must report their investments on a cash (not accrual) basis.
• Recipients must retain invoices, receipts, and proofs of payment for seven years for FACTOR and Revenue Canada taxation purposes.
• FACTOR reserves the right to audit recipient accounts and records to ensure compliance with the funding agreement, and recipients may be required to provide documentation during periodic program evaluations.