Company Envelope: Top-Tier

• The applicant must be a Canadian-owned and controlled music company with its headquarters in Canada.
• The company must have at least three years of continuous operations as a Canadian music company.
• The company must operate in eligible music-business activities for Canadian artists (record label, music publishing, artist management, and/or concert production where the company is artistically and financially responsible under contract).
• The company must meet the program’s minimum eligible annual gross revenues of $250,000 (before royalties and fees, excluding public funding) in its most recent fiscal year from eligible activities related to music by Canadian artists.
• The company must be able to clearly demonstrate eligibility and control of the Canadian rights related to its planned investments (e.g., through artist agreements and financial documentation).

Who is eligible?

• Canadian record labels
• Canadian music publishers
• Canadian artist management companies (artist managers)
• Canadian concert production companies (where the company is artistically and financially responsible for the artists’ live activities under contract)

Who is not eligible

• Non-Canadian-owned and/or non-Canadian-controlled companies (including companies not headquartered in Canada).
• Canadian music businesses that are not record labels, music publishers, or artist managers (and concert production companies that cannot demonstrate they are artistically and financially responsible for all aspects of their artists’ live activities under contract).
• Companies whose main investments relate to French-language artists (these applicants should apply to Musicaction instead of FACTOR).
• Companies already streamlined into FACTOR’s Company Envelope: Top-Tier that want to apply to FACTOR’s project-based programs instead (not eligible to return/opt back into project-based programs).
• Companies that are delinquent on required documentation/reporting or otherwise not in good standing with FACTOR (payments will not be issued until the delinquency is cleared).

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.

Eligible geographic areas

• Canada (company headquarters based in Canada).

• Ability to reach audiences (assessed based on the applicant’s recent revenues and recent investments).
• Efforts to develop Canadian artists’ careers and to promote/develop audiences (assessed based on the business plan, including planned investments and the feasibility of the investment strategy).
• Revenue assessment (20% of the overall envelope budget allocation for this assessment step).
• Recent investments assessment (20% of the overall envelope budget allocation for this assessment step).
• Business plan / planned investments assessment (60% of the overall envelope budget allocation for this assessment step), including: alignment with CMF Individual Initiatives objectives (e.g., investments in new artists, CMF priority groups, and international investments), relevance/scope, feasibility, and expected results.

• 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.