Sound Roots Talent Development
Talent Development is at the heart of everything we do at Sound Roots. We exist to support music creators and artists to develop and sustain professional careers.
We design our projects to support artists at different career stages, which we define as:
Emerging
- Beginning to build a local profile
- Having some live performance experience
- May have released original music (single or EP)
- Unlikely to have a team
- Will have some online presence
Developing
- Performing locally and nationally on a regular basis
- Having a ‘project’ (e.g. an album or EP)
- May have a team in place
- Considering funding opportunities for their music
- Has a comprehensive, multi-platform online presence
Professional
- Primary income is derived from music
- Likely to have a team
- Has released at least one album
- Has a strategy for entering new markets
Our talent development work is supported by PRS Foundation over a three-year period, enabling us to deliver projects that impact artists differently depending on their career stage:
EMERGING
We run regular online learning and networking sessions to help artists start building their careers. Specifically, we run projects around English Folk Expo in March:
Emerging Stage at Manchester Folk Festival - For artists beginning their journey of building a team and developing a live strategy. Artists benefit from short mentoring sessions before and after the festival to plan their progression.
Artist Training Day - Participants attend the English Folk Expo trade fair and a full day of panels focusing on building a career in music.
Our team is happy to connect for introductory meetings to support and signpost emerging artists.
Macharia performing on the Emerging Stage at
Manchester Folk Festival 2025, photo by Mike Ainscoe
DEVELOPING
Our Artist Mentoring Pathway takes on four artists per year to develop learning and networks. Now in its seventh year, the pathway matches artists with mentors to work on specific areas of development and supports artists to attend key industry events, festivals and showcases.
The Sound Roots Artist Mentoring Pathway 2020/21 at Manchester Folk Festival 2021
PROFESSIONAL
Our core project at Sound Roots is delivering English Folk Expo, an impactful showcase event that brings over sixty artists together with two hundred industry professionals to create and facilitate new business. The event takes place during the Manchester Folk Festival, with international partnerships, networking opportunities and a trade fair providing increasing returns for artists based in or from England.
Our international exchange programme takes place annually in partnership with Music PEI (Prince Edward Island, Canada). One England-based artist is selected to collaborate and showcase at Music PEI in September, which is reciprocated at English Folk Expo in March. Participating artists gain creative support as well as inroads into international territories for live touring.
We also produce Folk Album of the Year and the Official Folk Albums Chart to further support artists at all stages of their careers.
Lizzy Hardingham and Joce Reyome performing at Manchester Folk
Festival 2023 as part of the international exchange programme with
Music PEI, photo by Mike Ainscoe.