Winners of the 2017 UNIFIED Grant have been announced

The winners for UNIFIED Music Group’s $25, 000 grant have been announced this morning. Established by UNIFIED’s founder and CEO, Jaddan Comerford, the idea is founded on the prospect that everyone starts somewhere and awards funds to those working on behind the scenes endeavors within the industry.

“The calibre of applications this year was very high and with over 200 applications it was difficult to pick only five which is a huge credit to the future of our industry. As a company, we are very proud to be in a position to be able to support the future leaders of our business.” said Comerford who has been essential in the career growth of artists like Amy Shark, The Amity Affliction, and Violent Soho.

Check out the details of each creative endeavor below:

Jessica Hope – Don’t Fret Club: Don’t Fret Club is a podcast and positive mental health initiative helping music fans to talk about mental health. Don’t Fret Club work with a range of like-minded organisations to facilitate conversation around mental illness. Each podcast features interviews with artists about anxiety, depression and addiction in the hope of breaking the stigma and encouraging positive and empowering conversation.

Brenton Tuohey – www.mediaaccreditation.com.au: The Media Accreditation platform is an automated list management system for publicists/managers, publications and their contributors. Created with the goal of simplifying the current application process, publicists/management can upload their artists’ tour dates into the platform and media can apply directly with all the information required: publication and social stats, as well as examples of previous work to ensure the best media outlets cover the event.

James Morris – Baked Goods: Baked Goods is a media company bringing audiences the best of Australian music. Baked Goods strives to provide quality content as well as a media platform for working Australian artists to promote their work. Initially starting with interviews and live performances, the company has now expanded to all media forms in order to help artists further push their work.

Pixie Weyland – FEED MUSIC: FEED MUSIC is a not-for-profit project that enables touring artists and bands to use their location to pinpoint cafés and restaurants where they can eat and drink at for free, promoting better mental wellbeing. The idea was born when Weyland opened a small café in Brisbane and used it as a platform to support touring musicians by providing free food to make their lives on the road a little bit easier.

Andrew Brassington – Boys Don’t Cry: Boys Don’t Cry a Newcastle-based, all ages music collective. Run by Brassington, who is just 17 years old, the collective regularly puts on alcohol-free, all ages events, proving music to young people while also giving local bands the opportunity to play on a real stage. Boys Don’t Cry also has a management arm and a record label, releasing music for the bands within the collective.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.