Strategy
Launched in 2008 with a $1 million grant from DDCF, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's Jazz.NEXT program aims to serve as a laboratory for artists and organizations to test models for using technology in innovative ways to meet long-term challenges for the jazz field.
Grant Details
The Jazz.NEXT program will provide multi-year support for the planning and/or implementation of a limited number of projects incorporating technology in substantive and innovative approaches to audience development, communications, distribution, marketing and the building of support networks in the jazz field.
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation published guidelines for the program in April 2009. The program is open nationally to artists and organizations that are innovatively using technology as a component of their efforts to create, present, disseminate and/or distribute jazz. Applications will be reviewed by experts in the field of jazz and technology.
Participants will share experiences, ideas and lessons learned through annual meetings and electronic networking. Findings from the program will be made available to the broader jazz field through the distribution of case studies on model Jazz.NEXT projects.
Background & Rationale
Jazz artists have long relied on radio coverage and relationships with the recording industry to develop audiences, generate royalties and performance income, cultivate their reputations, and secure bookings for touring. These tools, however, are no longer as powerful for jazz artists: radio coverage of jazz has dramatically decreased, and the traditional recording and music distribution industries are largely in disarray.
While new technologies have appeared – such as podcasting, virtual concerts and artist-operated Web sites – they have yet to serve the bulk of the field. Electronic downloading of music has yet to produce significant income for many artists. Further, the shift in radio from local to satellite jazz coverage – the latter of which is often dominated by classic jazz musicians, and is unable to promote local jazz venues and concerts – is part of a complex set of factors eroding the touring network.
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation developed Jazz.NEXT to help tackle these challenges and find new ways to use technology to sustain a healthy future for jazz in the U.S.