New Music USA Expands New Music Inc Program to Los Angeles
Incubator program will provide funding, mentorship, and cohort learning for small, artist-led music organizations based in LA
Applications will open in late June 2025
New Music USA announces today the launch of New Music Inc in Los Angeles, CA (NMI LA). NMI LA is an incubator program designed to help small, artist-led music organizations in Los Angeles generate new ideas, strategies, and collaborations. The program, made possible by the Music Man Foundation and Perenchio Foundation, will be open to Los Angeles-based music organizations — including performance groups, ensembles, collectives, record labels, festivals, presenters, and venues — with an operating budget of less than $500,000. Applications will open in late June 2025, with program activities beginning in September.
New Music Inc emerged from community conversations that New Music USA organized in 17 US cities, including Los Angeles, beginning in 2020. In these conversations, members of local music communities were invited to speak about their current opportunities and challenges and how national resources like New Music USA can best serve regional music ecosystems. The discussions revealed that while many key US music cities boast an abundance of small, artist-led music organizations that are presenting excellent work, these organizations lack the financial resources and the capacity to pursue strategic collaborations and mentorship that will help ensure their long-term sustainability.
To address these gaps, New Music USA developed a regional capacity building initiative that combines financial support with skill building in a cohort setting intended to foster new collaborative relationships. With the support of the New York Community Trust, an initial cohort was launched in New York City in 2021, called the New Music Capacity Building Program. Building on this initial cohort’s success, New Music USA launched New Music Inc in Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City in 2023. The expansion of the program to Los Angeles extends the program’s impact to four US cities, and plans are underway to expand the program to additional cities across the US.
New Music Inc aims to directly address the needs of small, artist-led music organizations by providing them with financial support coupled with hands-on skill building in a cohort environment intended to foster collective learning and collaboration. Each participating organization will receive $10,000 to support their participation in the program, plus cohort learning sessions, a dedicated mentor, and opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange over the course of 18 months. The overarching goal of the program is to create a supportive space through which a cohort of artist-led organizations can learn together, sharing the unique challenges and opportunities they face.
The decision to open New Music Inc in Los Angeles reflects the city’s long-held distinction for being at the forefront of musical development. This reputation, which positions LA as an epicenter for new music and experimentation in the US, has grown over the past five years. What’s more, the LA music community is in unique need of direct support following the devastating wildfires of January 2025.
“Through the expansion of New Music Inc to Los Angeles, we are proud to extend multi-faceted support to the LA new music community” says Scott Winship, Interim Co-Executive Director and Director of Grantmaking Programs at New Music USA. “We are grateful to our funders, the Music Man Foundation and Perenchio Foundation, for enabling us to launch this targeted program in Los Angeles that will help participating organizations learn from one another and plan their future activities with the goal of ensuring the long-term sustainability of their work.”
A member of the inaugural New Music Inc cohort in Chicago highlights the program’s significant impact, sharing:
“New Music Inc did an amazing job of catering to an extremely wide range of experience amongst the cohort members – no easy task. The one-on-one consulting was critical to the many successes we experienced over the past year. The level of insight and professional development provided have never been offered by another funder, making this program extremely unique and valuable.”
New Music USA will share more details about the application submission process and program guidelines when the application portal opens in late June.
Funders and donors interested in exploring how to support a New Music Inc program in their city are invited to contact Marc Giosi, Director of Development at New Music USA: [email protected].
About New Music USA
New Music USA is a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing new music in all its forms. Our mission is to nurture a vibrant and inclusive community for artists and listeners by supporting the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music throughout the United States. Through responsive grant-making; skill-building; mentorship and convenings for creators from all backgrounds; and platforms designed to connect music-makers with organizations and their audiences, New Music USA works to ensure a thriving, connected, and equitable ecosystem for the music of our time. newmusicusa.org
