For Indian independent artists in the early stages of their career, access to funding “remains one of the biggest challenges”, found Indian music distribution, publishing and marketing company Madverse Music Group.
To this end, it launched its Empower Fund in 2023 to help finance releases. The third edition, applications for which are now open, will see three indie acts each receive a grant of Rs50,000 in cash and an equivalent amount in “promotional and industry benefits, to help bring their next release to life”.
Those benefits include a free artist pass to the upcoming All About Music conference in Mumbai, a post on online music magazine Sooka, and promotion through Madverse’s own marketing channels such as its social media pages, newsletter and playlists.
“The Empower Fund was created to support artists at a stage where even modest financial backing and the right exposure can make a meaningful difference,” says the company’s founder and CEO Rohan Jain.
Previous winners include rock band Nawazishein and singer-songwriters Amrapali Shindhe, Gregory Ford Nongrum, and Niranjan Menon.
The Empower Fund 3.0 is open to Madverse subscribers based in India who are planning to put out an unreleased single, EP or album—which can be in any genre or language—through the platform in 2026.
Applications close on 31 July, and the winners are set to be announced on 7 August. They will be selected by a jury comprising Jain; Prayag Mehta, who is one-half of the electronic music duo Lost Stories and the co-founder of the music production and DJ school Lost Stories Academy; and — disclaimer alert — this writer: music journalist and Music Ally South Asia editor Amit Gurbaxani.
