Music Works Returns: Victoria’s Flagship Artist Grants Program Back for 2026-27
Music Victoria to partner with Creative Victoria to deliver funding to Victorian music artists and workers
After being cut from the Victorian Budget last year, the long running Music Works grants program is back for 2026-27, with Music Victoria confirmed as delivery partner alongside Creative Victoria.
Music Works has been the backbone of artist and project funding in Victoria for a decade, investing almost $13 million in more than 850 projects since 2015 and helping launch acts like Amyl and the Sniffers, The Teskey Brothers and Alex Lahey. Its removal from the 2025-26 State Budget saw contemporary music projects folded into a general creative fund alongside every other art form, prompting sustained advocacy from the sector.
That decision has now been reversed. The 2026-27 Victorian Budget includes $4.5 million for contemporary music, covering the reinstatement of Music Works alongside Songwriting in Schools, the Victorian Music Development Office and a new Victorian contemporary music strategy. The exact Music Works allocation is yet to be published, though the 2025 round delivered just over $940,000 across 81 grants, down from $1 million the year before and almost double that budget the precious year. This announcement puts a line under that decline.
Music Victoria will partner with Creative Victoria to deliver the funding directly to Victorian music artists and workers, extending the delivery model already used for the Victorian Gig Fund and Live Music Festivals Fund.
Music Victoria has also opened expressions of interest for a pool of paid industry assessors, with round dates and guidelines expected on Creative Victoria’s funding calendar soon.
The ALMBC welcomes the return of dedicated music funding, but notes Music Victoria’s own frank assessment that this is a stabilisation measure rather than structural support, with the commitment covering 2026-27 only. With a Victorian State Election due in November, the lesson for grassroots music businesses nationally is familiar: dedicated music programs are hard won, easily lost, kept alive by sustained advocacy and certainly lack any parity across the continent.
