STOP PRESS: Due to technical problems with BritishBlackMusic.com website and emailing system, the Award for young, budding music entrepreneurs extended to July 27 2010, and the application fee reduced to £1.
 
The closing date of the New Music Entrepreneur Grant/10X6 Challenge (NMEGC) offered by Akoben Awards as part of the Black Music Congress’ British Black Music Month 2010 initiative, has been extended to July 27 2010.
 
The Challenge offers successful entrants the opportunity to test run a music business idea between one day and six months using a maximum grant of £1000.
 
Applicants, who must be  Greater London residents of African descent aged 18 to 25 years as of July 8 2010, must provide a business proposal of no more than 4 pages. The business music be in line with Akoben Awards’ ethos, which aims to highlight and empower artists from the African British community whose creativity is focused on creating positive and empowering songs devoid of racist, misogynistic, self-hate and offensive language and imagery (i.e. non-Parental Advisory), and to highlight or facilitate opportunities for such artists and their potential audience/consumers and businesses of similar ethos to interact.

Entrants can download all the forms from here.

What: The £10k New Music Entrepreneur Grant 10X6 Challenge. Akoben Awards, which is focused on promoting conscious music by artists of African descent, is looking to set a challenge for budding music entrepreneurs! Entrants must independently or with the help of our mentors deliver a viable project, business or significant target milestones by Oct. 10 2010.

Who: Aged 18-25 of African descent? Focused, determined and a go-getter, natural born sales-person or blagger? Can you think out of the box and create a successful music business or project or achieve a significant target milestone with just £1k? If so, why not enter the 10X6 Challenge?

When: Opens June 1 and closes July 8. Application fee is £10 (reduced to £1 for all applications). Deadline for entering your 2-4 page max plan is July 8, 8pm. Winning entrants informed on Saturday July 10. Remember: This is a grant, not a loan! You can improve your business planning skills by entering the Learn How To Create & Deliver Your Music Industry Business Plan Workshop on Saturday July 3, 10.30am-4.30pm, which is open to anyone whether or not you’ve entered the Challenge.

To apply:  For more information: akobenawards@gmail.com