The Music Performance Trust Fund , established 75 years ago and still one of the industry’s best-kept secrets, has announced its funding support allocation for the upcoming fiscal year.
The numbers from the fund’s current fiscal year, ending April 30, are impressive; across North America, it helped pay for 1,200 concerts in parks and public spaces, 400 music events at schools, over 1,000 performances at senior centers and over 1,300 live virtual music events. These 3,500-plus performances, covering all genres, drew over 1 million people in total across in-person and virtual events, according to the fund.
“A lot of times it’s the municipal government or the Parks Department, or an Arts Council in the local city” that co-sponsor events, says Beck, who has been with the fund for 10 years. Beck was president of V2 Records North America before the turn of the century and also spent over two decades with Epic Records prior to that, rising to senior vp of sales and marketing, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Beck is bullish about this year’s prospects. In addition to musical performances, the organization aims to fund over 500 music education programs in 2023-24 through partnerships with national and local organizations such as Save the Music and Young Audiences Arts for Learning. As part of its educational efforts, it will fund a minimum of $150,000 to be awarded to students in the fall of 2023 through its two scholarship programs, Music Family Scholarship and Music’s Future Scholarship.
While things are looking good going forward, Beck says that MPTF faced major challenges when the pandemic hit — though Beck notes that it also created new opportunities for the fund, with livestreamed performances via Facebook coming to the rescue. “It didn’t matter what type of music someone played, we were able to crank up the livestream thing,” he says. “We have a small staff [of five], I was stunned that we could actually do it.
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