Promotional assistance for music and entertainment companies

• The financial assistance is provided as a grant and can reach up to $400,000 per year per recipient.
• The calculation is based on the average of eligible expenses over the last two completed financial years, including 100% of promotion and marketing expenses, plus 20% each of eligible production, management, and music publishing expenses.
• Adjustments are applied according to regional factors, sliding expenditure scales, evaluation results, and available program budget.
• 100% of the granted amount is paid upon signing the financial assistance agreement, subject to fund availability and required approvals.

• The applicant must be a legally constituted company (corporation or cooperative) engaged in the production and commercialization of music or entertainment shows and have been active for at least the past 24 months.
• The company must have its head office and main establishment in Quebec and be majority-owned and controlled by Canadian citizens or permanent residents with their tax residence in Quebec.
• The company must have adopted recognized standards for the description of cultural content in the digital environment (mandatory starting fiscal year 2027-2028).
• For enterprises, a minimum level of autonomous revenue (excluding subsidies) and investment in promotion must have been achieved in the most recent fiscal period, with different thresholds for specialized companies and artist-entrepreneurs.
• Applications must be submitted through the secure SOD@ccès online portal with all required and compliant documentation.

Who is eligible?

• Legally constituted companies (corporations or cooperatives) producing and commercializing music or entertainment content
• Companies active in the Quebec music or entertainment show sector
• Artist-entrepreneurs in music who act as producers of their own works
• Specialized companies, including those controlled by members of ethnocultural communities, Indigenous Peoples, or operating in niche markets with limited commercial reach

Who is not eligible

• Sole proprietorships (individual businesses).
• Companies already supported under the program for music management and music publishing assistance.

Eligible expenses

• Costs related to commercialization, promotion, press relations, advertising, and discoverability on the Quebec market and digital platforms (e.g., creation of promotional content such as photos, graphics, press releases, videos, teasers, website creation/hosting/updates).
• Expenses for commercialization efforts including radio and platform tracking.
• Marketing costs (advertising, display, media placements, social media campaigns, online content publishing, promotional tours, digital discoverability such as web page indexing optimization and metadata structuring).
• Materials for artist branding (e.g., branded merchandise).
• Expenditures related to placement activities for Quebec works (e.g., synchronization activities).
• Costs for launch activities (other than show launches).
• Subscription fees for industry/music data analytics applications.
• Salaries and benefits tied to commercialization, marketing, and promotional activities (e.g., publicists, graphic designers, social media/content managers, marketing strategists, communications directors, metadata specialists).
• Professional fees and external costs associated with commercialization, marketing, and promotional efforts (similar roles and functions as above).
• Direct expenses related to sound recordings from pre-production to manufacturing, if applicable.
• Production costs for original sound or audiovisual content that is commercialized and intended for the public (e.g., music or comedy performance podcasts, original web productions).
• Administrative expenses for management and strategic support of Quebec music or comedy artists, including salaries/honoraria, audio demo production costs, professional event registration fees, management representation expenses, and internal costs for music publishing rights management.

Eligible geographic areas

• Quebec

• Financial health of the company and actual financial need.
• Relative effectiveness index of promotional investment (ratio of autonomous revenues to eligible promotional expenses averaged over two years).
• Adoption of recognized standards for describing cultural content in the digital environment (will become a formal eligibility criterion in 2027-2028).
• Commitment to sustainable development (will become a formal eligibility criterion in 2027-2028).
• For applicants with less than three grants from this or previous related programs, as well as those requiring further review: company and entrepreneur achievements, professionalism (quality of contractual/business partners and human resource management), quality of main promotional strategies (tools, target audiences, and digital presence), and quality of the projects.

• All applications must be submitted through the secure SOD@ccès portal using the program number 30-58-00.
• Only complete and compliant applications will be reviewed; incomplete submissions at the deadline are deemed ineligible and must be resubmitted.
• 100% of the grant is paid upon the signing of the financial assistance agreement, subject to appropriations and approvals by the National Assembly.
• SODEC reserves the right to request any financial statements it deems relevant, including consolidated statements for groups of related companies.