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The competition, supported by PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, is free to enter and welcomes artists from all musical genres. A panel of 30 esteemed music writers will curate a list of 90 acts from the submissions. This list will be further refined to a shortlist of eight artists by judges, including festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis. The finalists will then compete in live performances in Pilton to determine the overall winner.

The victorious act will secure a performance slot at this year’s Glastonbury Festival and receive a £5,000 Talent Development prize from PRS Foundation to advance their songwriting and performance skills. Two runners-up will each be awarded £2,500 for their development.

Reflecting on the competition’s significance, Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis stated, “We know how hard it is for new acts to take their first steps towards a career in music, particularly with the challenges facing small venues in this country, so the Emerging Talent Competition is a hugely important part of Glastonbury’s annual calendar. I can’t wait to hear the entries from across all the musical genres. And it’s free to enter, so you’ve nothing to lose!”

In 2024, the ETC was won by Cambridge-born, Jamaican-Irish rapper and singer JayaHadADream. Her victory led to a performance on one of Glastonbury’s main stages and a £5,000 Talent Development prize. Since then, she has performed at other major festivals, including Reading, Leeds, and Boomtown, and her work has been featured across national TV, radio, and media.

 Declan McKenna also won the ETC in 2015 at the age of 16. Following his win, McKenna released his debut single ‘Brazil’, a protest song critiquing FIFA and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Initially released in 2015, the track experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2022, largely due to its virality on TikTok. This renewed interest propelled the song onto the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 56 in June 2022 and remained on the chart for 18 weeks.

For more information and to enter the competition, visit Glastonbury Festival’s official website.

PRS acts as an intermediary between the companies that play the music, such as radio stations and live events, and the people who create the music. The companies sign licences and then PRS distributes royalties to the songwriters.

This group of songwriters has paired up with PACE Rights Management, who are an organisation that offers artists direct licencing of their live public performance rights. PACE was founded by artist managers who are critical of PRS’s system. The group are pushing for songwriters and publishers’ right to efficiently directly license their live public performance rights, so they don’t have to go through the PRS.

Direct licensing would mean that artists get royalty payments faster, have fewer deductions from their payments and better transparency.

In a joint statement by the group of songwriters they have said that “Regretfully, after years of PRS refusing to discuss or constructively engage with these issues – including the withdrawal of Live Performance rights, the lack of transparency around international deductions, and the operation of the Major Live Concert Service – we have been left with no option but to seek redress through the courts.

“The ball is now firmly in PRS’s court. Either they constructively engage with much needed reforms to empower and benefit writers and publishers, or they continue to resist these necessary changes, and attempt to defend the indefensible by spending yet more of the members’ money on legal costs supporting policies that make the members less money.”

In a statement to the Guardian the PRS responded saying: “Our policies and rules follow a thorough and extensive approval and review process by the Board and the Members’ Council, which is comprised of members and independent non-executive directors appointed by the membership,” it continues saying that “The rules which govern the process for live rights withdrawals were approved by members at the PRS AGM.”

The PRS has what it calls Major Live Concert Service (MLCS) which handles royalty administration for arena- and stadium-level acts which has deals with major songwriters to take an “administrative charge” of £125 per gig from their royalties. However, for other acts PRS takes a 23% cut from the royalties before paying the songwriters. This is capped at £1250.

Pace alleges that the songwriters that are not on the MLCS are being charged 115 times more than the artists who are.

This follows separate action taken by Blur’s Dave Rowntree against PRS in April, where Rowntree alleged that the PRS is in violation of UK and EU competition rules over how it deals with “black box” which is money that cannot be paid through for various reasons.

Other festivals who are committed to this goal include the Marsden Jazz Festival and True North Music’s Americana, Country and Roots festival. Some of the headlining artists this year include Anne-Marie, Self Esteem and Annie Mac. They’ve got all-female/non-binary line-ups for Friday and Sunday concerts in their Cowshead and Laundry Meadows venues, which is a first for Standon Calling.

KEYCHANGE CONGRATS
We would like to show some love again to our signatories for continuing to proactively championing women and gender minorities. @MarsdenJazz, @TrueNorthGigs and @StandonCalling have all recently met their gender balance pledge targets! pic.twitter.com/vu7BrMjlVb

— Keychange (@KeychangeEU) March 17, 2022

Some of the other acts involved include India Jordan, Logic1000 and Elkka. Among the men playing at the festival are eighties ska-band Madness (who are the opening act on the first night) and UK hip-hop artist Loyle Carner. Scottish rock band Primal Scream will also be taking centre stage at some point.

Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed either. Keychange Project Manager Francine Gorman had this to say: “Standon Calling are setting a great example to the global festival community …. By demonstrating that gender representative line ups can be achieved, and by giving under-represented artists their rightful space on a prominent festival stage, we hope that others will be encouraged to follow suit and to take positive action towards achieving gender equality throughout the music industry.”

The festival’s founder, Alex Trenchard, noted that “Our lineups are stronger and more diverse than ever. We’re delighted to be leading the way amongst the industry, showing that gender balance in festivals in 2022 is both possible and a key component of curating an exciting line up.”

In for its 16^th year, Standon Calling seems stronger than ever. Despite starting out as a birthday barbecue for Trenchard, it’s come a long way since those humble beginnings. Happening in Hertfordshire by the village of Standon, it will take place on the weekend of July 21st – 24th. Attendees can look forward to a whole plethora of interesting activities, ranging from a swimming pool/hot-tub to a ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’ fancy-dress parade, as well as a dog show, so there should be something for everyone whilst you’re there. Tickets are available here and include Thursday Day and Weekend Camping options.