'Creating The Successful Artists Of The Future': UNIFIED Launches New Ground Floor Accelerator Program

One year on from the launch of Community Music, and the hits keep on coming.

That's the story being told over at the artist services ecosystem, which officially arrived on the Aussie music scene back in October thanks to UNIFIED Music Group and their desire to see "creative control back in the hands of Australia’s music community."

Since its debut close to one year ago, more and more achievements have taken place. Just last week, Community Music announced a groundbreaking A&R partnership with iconic indie label Pieater, and back in April, the launch of its Publishing And Sync arm saw Rachel Kelly named General Manager of the new division.

Now, on September 2nd, UNIFIED has detailed its latest undertaking, Ground Floor, a new accelerator program powered by the Community Music ecosystem and focused on empowering independent Australian artists who are "ready to take the next step in their careers." 

Utilising Community Music's myriad resources, Ground Floor seeks to provide a six months of hands-on support, mentorship and release guidance for rising acts. With a number of of Community Music's team members offering vital skills through educational workshops, the end goal is for these emerging names to be release-ready, with a live performance opportunity also waiting for them.

As UNIFIED Music Group’s Founder and CEO Jaddan Comerford explains, the launch of Ground Floor is entirely focusing on creating pathways for artists.

"There's a lot of discussion in the industry around whether it's difficult to break into industry, or however people want to frame the challenge," Comerford explains. "No doubt it's challenging, and I can't remember a time when it was ever easy. 

"But in order to create a pipeline with more opportunities, we thought we would just go to the earliest stage we possibly could and create a program that could essentially start to onboard more and more artists into our ecosystem. 

"Hopefully, we can be giving opportunities to the next Ocean Alley and the next Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers," he adds.

While countless artists would undeniably agree that despite so many options designed to make their journey easier, cutting through the noise remains as difficult as ever. 

It was here where UNIFIED saw an opportunity to provide these pathways for artists. Inspired by the longstanding UNIFIED Grant, the decision was made to shine the spotlight on rising artists alongside the innovative creatives in the industry.

"One thing about the UNIFIED Grant was that it was specifically not for artists, it was specifically for entrepreneurs," Comerford explained. "As we continued to think more and more about the challenges that the industry was facing, so much of it led back to us. 

"So while we don't want to turn our back on entrepreneurs – that's who we are – we just thought, 'We've got this amazing group of companies in The Annex, Lonely Lands Agency, Bush Music Fund, Sound Story, Community Music, and UNIFIED Artist Management, why don't we put that high energy into the artists to bring them into the ecosystem.'

"So that was kind of the motivation really, and it just sort of snowballed from there," he adds. "And next thing we know, we're ready to launch Ground Floor."

As the name suggests, the idea is for these artists to come in at the ground floor and utilise the resources offered within the Community Music ecosystem in order to help elevate their skills and talents and make them match-fit for the wider industry.

While other traditional development models do exist within the industry, the biggest point of difference at play for Ground Floor is the vast array of resources on offer for those involved.

"I think that there's so many great opportunities out there for artists, but clearly there's not enough to meet everyone's needs and everyone's demands," Comerford says.

"But Ground Floor is our offering to the next generation of artists and how we think we can help by uniquely giving access to our entire ecosystem of companies."

More than a dozen mentors from the UNIFIED and Community Music family are on hand to offer their knowledge and insight for artists involved in the Ground Floor program. These include UNIFIED Artist Management Senior Artist Managers Steve de Wilde and Caleb Williams; Bush Music Fund Founders Coco Eke and Jack Parsons; Lonely Lands Agency General Manager Harry Moore; The Annex's Director Of Marketing Francesca Caldara, and many more.

With this fertile community (no pun intended) of learned individuals on hand to offer invaluable insights from their combined decades of experience, the motivation behind Ground Floor is very much reliant on the notion of how it takes a village to raise a child. Or in this case, it takes a community to help foster an artist.

"I think it's sometimes underestimated just how important it is to have that support to have someone to ask questions to," Comerford offers. "There's a lot of things I think we take for granted in life, but particularly in the industry, it's giving people time and not just doing a one-time thing.

"In this case, it's actually having a program where we can check on progress, they can build familiarity with the team. There will be a project manager that's assigned to be with the artist the whole way through. So it's not just a 'you're in, you're out; catch you later' situation.

"The goal of this is to find the next artist that we work with for the long term," he adds. "That's really like a big motivator for us. We want to make sure that we are really giving people that mentorship because it's not easy to do this stuff, and expert advice can often be very helpful."

Indeed, many artists would agree that while there are countless programs that exist with the intent of aiding rising musicians reach their goals, it's the severe lack of real-world, learned and lived experiences on offer where these others fall down.

With Ground Floor, that's exactly what they want to change, providing a more even playing field for indie artists by giving them all the information necessary to ready them for the wider world of releasing music.

"It's not even something I can speak to with a lot of authority 'cause I'm not an indie artist,, but we are in the business of working with independent artists," Comerford notes. "So our goal is to create opportunities for them to move their career along in a way that maybe they wouldn't be able to do if they were just doing it on their own."

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For artists interested in being involved in the Ground Floor program, the intake procedure is an easy one. Eligible artists are any Australian residents over the age of 16 who are currently unsigned and fully independent, and have at least three original songs or demos, and an EP, LP or multiple singles planned in the next 12 months.

Ground Floor is described as an always-on program, meaning that applications can be made at any time, with the idea being to work around the artists' own release schedule and creative process rather than limiting it with fixed deadlines.

A review committee – comprising UNIFIED representatives – will regularly assess applications based on the criteria of "skill, creativity, potential, and artistic distinctiveness," with a minimum of four successful acts being selected across the year. 

These successful acts will be announced throughout the year, receiving a strategic mentorship and education over the ensuing six months, with both a live performance slot at a UNIFIED or Community Live event in front of peers and industry and priority marketing and DSP pitching via Community Music and The Annex being offered for their next release.

As Comerford reiterates, the idea is to ensure these acts are – regardless of what stage of their career they find themselves in – ready for what the music has in store for them. "Ultimately we want to get them match fit to be releasing music, being out on tour, and performing live," he says.

While applications for the first intake of the Ground Floor program are on offer now, the result is an initiative which will hopefully be uncovering the next big names in the world of local music.

"At the end of the day it's pretty straightforward what we're doing," Comerford admits. "But we are equally very proud of the fact that we want to give people an opportunity right at the beginning of their career to interface with these really talented people, to bring them into our ecosystem, and to hopefully be creating the successful artists of the future."

Full information about Ground Floor, the application process, eligibility criteria, and the individuals involved in the mentorship program are available now via the Community Music website.