Jazz Services - A voice for jazz

The Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme (NTSS) is designed to promote musicians and small groups of merit not readily promoted by the commercial sector and other agencies and to maximise attendance at these events, covering the full range of jazz music, idioms and styles.  At the same time, it hopes to encourage promoters, help grow the audience for jazz, increase small-scale touring and provide useful data for the Jazz Services database.

The NTSS scheme has been revised and now offers awards up to a maximum of £2500, for a minimum of 6 dates within a four week period.  Additionally, Jazz Services provides a publicity service for the chosen bands.  Please read the form carefully to familiarise yourself with the criteria before applying.

Applications will be taken for the periods listed below, after which the Jazz Services Touring Committee meet, listen to the applicants' CDs, read their applications and decide whether they should receive funds, and, if so, how much.  Other conditions apply which are detailed in the application form and documentation.

Visit the Touring Support Press Releases page to download biographies and tour dates for all the latest touring bands.

Deadlines are as follows:

Application forms for the National Touring Support Scheme are available to download in MS Word and .PDF formats via the links below.

If you wish to apply you will be required to provide a completed application form along with an EPK (electronic press kit) containing the following:

• 3 MP3s of your music (each piece to be around 5 minutes, with the 3 files totalling approx. 15MB in size)
• Artist/Band biography as Word document (.doc/.docx) or PDF (.pdf)
• Individual biographies for each band member as single Word document or PDF
• Any press cuttings and reviews in a single Word document or PDF
• Hi-res photograph in .jpg format (300 dpi). (No PDFs please)
• Full contact details (email, phone number, etc.)

Please make sure all your files indicate the artist/band name in the title.  Failure to provide the required information and materials in the required format could result in your application being rejected.

Register your band by sending a .ZIP file of your EPK to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , clearly indicating the NTSS Touring period you are applying for.

If you also have a current CD, you are welcome to post it the Jazz Services offices as well.

** IMPORTANT ** It is likely that your email will be over the maximum size allowed by our server (10MB), so we advise you use an online file transfer service to send your EPK to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it rather than simply emailing your .ZIP file through.  We recommend either WeTransfer or YouSendIt for this purpose.  Ensure you state that you are applying for the National Touring Support Scheme and for which period.

How to create a .ZIP file:

On a PC: Place all of your MP3s, biographies, press cuttings, photo and completed application form into a folder with you or your band’s name.  Once you have placed all of the information into a folder right click on that folder and choose “Send to” and then “Compressed (zipped) folder”.  Send the resulting zipped folder to Jazz Services.

On a Mac: Right-click or hold "Ctrl" and click the file or folder of files you have selected.  Choose "Compress" from the pop-up menu.  The text in quotes following the word "Compress" shows the name of the file or folder of files you are about to compress.  You can also reach the Compress option by clicking "File" in the menu bar and choosing "Compress" from the drop-down menu.

PLEASE NOTE - large file sizes

Our email service cannot accept incoming emails totalling over 10MB in size, and it is likely that your application and EPK will be over this limit.  As such, we recommend using an online file transfer service such as WeTransfer to submit your application.  Other methods can include:

• Refer us to an online storage site where we can download the files (such as Dropbox).
• Provide URLs where the tracks are on a web site for us to download.
• Try and send each audio file in separate emails.

You may find the following links helpful:

www.pdfonline.com - converts Word docs to PDFs.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - free programme that converts music files to mp3s.

* Please note: music submitted to Jazz Services Ltd as part of an application will be distributed to the various selection and judging panels via a secure and private Soundcloud link.  By submitting your music as part of your application, you are giving Jazz Services Ltd permission to share your music in this way and confirming that you have all legal rights and permissions necessary to upload, publish and share this material on SoundCloud.

Visit the Touring Support Press Releases page to download biographies and tour dates for all the latest touring bands.