The Audio Artist Pathway will take place over approximately one year, starting in September 2026 and ending in September 2027. 

During the first half you will have masterclasses with audio artists both in-person and online. 

From the second half onwards, you will be actively working on developing your idea with monthly one-to-one sessions with a dedicated mentor. 

You will have access to peer support with your cohort, in the form of monthly group mentoring sessions, both in person and online. 

There will be several opportunities over the year to meet in person with the rest of the cohort, as well as members of the Multitrack and In The Dark teams, and other special guests. 

The programme will conclude at the 2027 XMTR Audio Arts Festival in St Leonard’s-on-sea, where each member of the cohort will have the opportunity to present work at the festival. This could be a finished piece, a work in progress or another relevant activity such a panel discussion.

Participants should expect to commit around 25 days across the year, although outside of the contact time, it will be up to you to decide how much time you want to spend working on your ideas during the Pathway. 

The contact time will include:

• 25th-27th September 2026 - attendance of XMTR Festival, St Leonard’s/Hastings 

• A half-day session each month this includes masterclasses and group mentoring

• Five in-person meet-ups across the UK  (these are included in the monthly sessions, not additional to them) 

• From month 6-12 of the scheme - additional monthly hour long one-to-one mentoring sessions

Most scheduled sessions will take place on Saturdays to help participants take part alongside other work or caring commitments. There may be the requirement to travel or stay over in order to attend the sessions at XMTR Festival and the other in-person meet-ups. 

Each person chosen to take part will receive a £3,000 stipend which will be paid in three instalments throughout the project. This is to help cover the time you will put into the programme over the year. You can use this money to pay for your general living costs, and you can also use it to pay for equipment or software that would help you develop your artistic practice, or to attend events, exhibitions, etc. 

When you are required to travel for elements of the programme, you will not have to pay for this out of your £3,000 - we have a separate budget for that.

The Audio Artist Pathway is open to mid-career (5+ years experience) audio professionals from specific groups that are underrepresented within the audio industry.

Applicants can be based anywhere in the UK, and we would like to particularly encourage applications from people who are based outside of London and/or in areas underserved by the arts. 

To apply for this programme, you must also meet one or more of the following criteria around socioeconomic background, race or ethnicity, and disability. 

Socioeconomic background

The Audio Artist Pathway is open to people who are from a low socioeconomic background. 

Here’s how we define that: 

• If you qualified for free school meals.

• If, when you were age 14, your highest earning parent or guardian was not self-employed or in senior management, and was employed in one of the following categories:

  • Technical and craft occupations such as: motor mechanic, fitter, inspector, plumber, printer, tool maker, electrician, gardener, train driver

  • Semi-routine manual and service occupations such as: postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, receptionist, sales assistant

  • Routine manual and service occupations such as: HGV driver, van driver, cleaner, porter, packer, sewing machinist, messenger, labourer, waiter/waitress, bar staff

• If, when you were age 14, your parent or guardian was long term unemployed

Note: these are broad categories that may not exactly fit your family situation – e.g. if you’re a carer or if a family divorce changed your financial position. Please use your judgment when self-identifying.

Race or ethnicity

The Audio Artist Pathway is open to people who are:

• Asian/British Asian

• Black/African/Caribbean/Black British

• Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups

• From another minority ethnic group

Disability

The Audio Artist Pathway is open to people who are disabled, neurodivergent or have a long term health condition (defined as a condition lasting or expected to last 12 months or more). 

You can self-identify this and you won’t need to show a diagnosis. 

We want to hear from those working professionally in radio, podcast or audiobook production, or other creative audio roles such as;

• Radio producers

• Podcast producers

• Audiobook producers

• Sound designers for e.g. radio docs, podcasts, theatre, film, TV

• Score composers for e.g. radio, podcasts, theatre, film, TV

• Mix engineers for e.g. radio docs, podcasts, theatre, film, TV

• Studio engineers e.g. radio docs, podcasts, theatre, film, TV

This opportunity is not designed for people whose main profession is; 

• Musicians

• Music producers

The music industry is distinct from the audio industry as we’ve defined it above. 

The reason for this is that the Audio Artist Pathway is specifically aimed at retaining those already working within the traditional broadcast audio industries in some capacity, whilst giving them a creative outlet and ability to diversify their skillset.

The Audio Artist Pathway aims to help established audio professionals from underrepresented backgrounds to expand their skillset, develop their creative practice, and access new avenues for working in sound. You might be a podcast or radio documentary producer, a music radio producer, a live radio producer, a producer for a radio or podcast based news programme, a sound designer for audio or other mediums such as theatre, a studio manager, a mix engineer, etc. 

To apply for the Audio Artist Pathway, you should have a minimum of five years experience working in the audio industry. 

• This could be five years experience spread over a longer period (for example, if you’ve been working part time in audio and part time in another field)

• The five years can also be spread across different fields within audio e.g. sound post-production, theatre or TV sound recording or design, station sound production, radio documentary, podcast production, music radio, etc. 

• By 5+ years, we mean 5 or more years of experience

Alongside supporting the creative development of audio producers, one of the main goals of the Audio Artist Pathway is to support the long-term retention of workers within the industry, in particular those from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the audio industry. 

We want to help established audio makers to continue to build their careers, and attain longevity within the industry by diversifying what they can do.

The Audio Artist Pathway is not aimed at training new audio producers in the fundamental skills of audio production (e.g. use of recording equipment, use of a DAW, editorial skills, etc.), but developing the skillset of experienced makers so that they can access new opportunities to work, as well as to express themselves creatively in new ways. 

In order to get the most from the Audio Artist Pathway, it’s important that members of the cohort are already have professional level proficiency at recording audio, editing using a digital audio workstation (DAW), etc.

By this we mean that you are being paid for your audio expertise by an employer/organisation that is most likely a media outlet, studio, venue or production house of some kind.

Audio is your main profession, rather than a hobby or side-hustle.

Broadly speaking, yes. This programme is intended to be able to slot in among your existing work and other commitments. See the FAQ about time commitment for more detail. 

Masterclasses, one-to-ones and other events will take place on Saturdays, with the goal of making it possible to take part in the pathway without giving up other work. 

We understand that not all jobs are limited to Mon-Fri, and that people often have other responsibilities outside of work, such as caring responsibilities. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that this programme will fit around your other commitments, and we ask you to consider carefully whether you are able to commit to the programme as outlined, before you apply.

Please contact us if you’d like to discuss this further before you apply.

No, the Audio Artists Pathway is for people already working in sound who would like to expand their craft into the audio arts. You will need to demonstrate a professional level of knowledge in audio recording, production and editing to apply.

If you are already a practicing audio artist with regular work/funding, this opportunity is probably not for you. However if you have done, or are doing, some artistic work but do not have a professional artistic practice, you can apply.

Make it clear in your application how this opportunity will help you develop your practice, and why it might be difficult for you to pursue this otherwise.

No. Sorry - this opportunity is limited to UK residents only.

Yes, provided that you meet all the criteria around experience level and technical skills.

Applications for the Audio Artist Pathway are submitted via a Google Form 

The link to apply is here.

There are 13 questions in total. There are two main written questions that ask about your motivation for applying, and how you would use Pathway to develop your practice. 

You can view question by question guidance and what we’re looking for here.

You will be asked to upload a recent CV in either a Word Doc or PDF format. 

You will also be asked to provide a link to examples of your professional audio work, and any of your more artistic work (if available). 

Please be sure to link directly to any work you want judges to experience. You can link to a website or file. Private SoundCloud links or Google Drive links are fine.

Please don’t use any link that might expire (such as WeTransfer), or might require a judge to sign up or have a particular account in order to access it (like Dropbox). If you’re using Google Drive links, please ensure the sharing settings are ‘anyone with the link can access’.

Yes, you can save/edit your application up until the deadline (midnight on 31st May) However, it is a bit fiddly and you can only upload any documents/audio once.

We would recommend drafting your application in a separate document and then copying and pasting into the Google Form when you’re ready to apply. That said, if you really need to save/change an application, here’s how:

In order to save an application, you’ll have to get all the way to the end of the form and press Submit. (You may have to enter dummy responses into the ‘required questions’ fields to be able to do this.)

When you submit the application you will receive a copy of it via email, and there will be a link that says ‘Edit your response’. 

If you click through it’ll return you to your application. Save a copy of the link that appears in your navigation bar if you want to complete your application in a few sittings.   

We won’t begin assessing applications until after the closing date, on May 31st. 

Applications will not be editable past the official closing date/time. 

We strongly recommend you prep your application ahead of time and copy and paste your answers in, just in case of a tech failure!

All applications will be scored by multiple shortlisters/judges, who work in teams of 3 or more to moderate their scores. Working as a team, shortlisters will discuss and select the candidates who will pass to the next stage - judging. 

Judges will review and score all the remaining applications and as a team select who to invite to interview 

Both shortlisters and judges will work on the same mark scheme. They will score the candidates using the following criteria:

ELIGIBILITY

Considerations for scoring

• The candidate is a mid-career audio professional with 5+ years of relevant experience

• The candidate evidences a level of technical proficiency and skill expected of a mid-career audio professional 

• The candidate meets the underrepresentation eligibility criteria(in terms of barriers to access as a result of disability, low socio-economic background, ethnicity, etc.)

Responses that should evidence this

• Candidate’s CV

• Example of professional work submitted (we’re not grading this for creativity/interest, just as evidence of the person's skill level/flavour of their normal paid work) 

MOTIVATION & SELF DIRECTION 

• The candidate evidences self-direction and commitment - they have a clear direction of travel or destination in mind (in terms of their practice, career and/or skillset) 

• It is clear why this opportunity, specifically, will be beneficial to the candidate (ie; it’s not a generic punt for some funding - there’s a sense this opportunity will fit into their life in the way others might not.) 

• The candidate demonstrates that they have considered how they would use the time, space and resources that this opportunity will provide 

• There's a sense that this is a type of candidate that would stay the course

Responses that should evidence this

• Candidates' response to ‘What is motivating you to apply for this opportunity?’

• Relevant information may also be disclosed in Q10 & 11

PASSION FOR SONIC ART/ ARTISTIC VISION

• The candidate’s creative work/ideas show a clear artistic vision

• The candidate demonstrates knowledge of/interest in the sonic arts 

• The candidate clearly identifies ways in which they wish to develop and expand their creative practice and knowledge of the audio arts

• The candidate shows evidence that they have attempted to create audio art or allied experimental/creative work  

Responses that should evidence this

• What would you like to explore during the Audio Artist’s Pathway? 

• We’d like to see an example of creative / artistic work you’ve made in the past, which uses audio as part of the medium.

Relevant information may also be disclosed in Q9 (motivation) 

EXCITEMENT/POTENTIAL

• The candidate demonstrates fresh and exciting ideas and perspectives- even if they’re nascent

• The candidate has attempted to create audio art of some kind and the results are interesting (even if they are imperfect or not fully realised) 

• The candidate seems genuinely excited by the opportunity and is clear about how they will get the most out of it

• Reading this application makes the person scoring feel genuinely excited about the prospect of what this candidate might achieve, given the chance 

• The person scoring feels strongly that this person should go through to the next round 

Responses that should evidence this = Q9- 11

Unfortunately not - though it's not our preference. Ultimately we could not find an affordable and reliable application platform that would support this (and we tried a lot of things!). Given that people need to upload CVs and example audio they’ve made, it’s impossible for us to guarantee anonymity - there’s always a chance a shortlister may recognise the work or the individual. 

We have tried to compensate for any potential unconscious bias that might occur during scoring by ensuring that all applications are scored by at least 3 people during each stage of the judging process, and that all scores are moderated by teams of shortlisters and judges. 

All individuals involved in scoring are briefed to declare any potential conflict of interest during scoring to their team mates. Also, shortlisters are asked not to view responses to personal or demographic information - and will not see anything in or past the ‘Your Information’ section of the application 

Applications open on 1st May and close at Midnight on 31st May

We anticipate notifying candidates selected for interview on (or around) 26th June, with interviews hopefully taking place on Mon 6th & Tues 7th July. 

We are a very small and largely a voluntary team, so unfortunately we are not able to provide feedback to the majority of applicants. 

Those who are selected for an interview but are not selected for a place on the Audio Artist Pathway will be able to request feedback from the panel.

Elements of the programme - including masterclasses and a resource pack - will be made publicly available to ensure broader access to learning and development opportunities. Follow our social media/YouTube channel for more information