Music Australia

Music Australia is being established within Creative Australia to support and promote the Australian contemporary music industry to increase discoverability and develop markets and audiences. It will invest to stimulate a vibrant and sustainable music industry ecosystem in which artists can thrive.

Music Australia is an exciting new initiative to:

• grow the market for contemporary Australian music
• increase development of original music through investment in artistic creation
• deliver song writing and recording initiatives in schools
• develop new strategic partnerships within and beyond the music sector, including to undertake research and data collection around key issues, including festivals and venues
• provide ongoing support for Sounds Australia – Australia’s export music market development initiative
• support industry professionals to learn business and management skills
• provide central coordination around access to live music venues for bands and solo artists
• develop new co-investment agreements with states, territories and industry to deliver national sector-wide priorities, and
• create Community Music Hubs in high density living areas.

Music Australia Council

The Australian Government’s Minister for the Arts announced the inaugural members of the Music Australia Council on Wednesday 23 August 2023, with their positions to take effect from Thursday 24 August 2023. 

The members of the Council are: 

• Adrian Collette AM, Chairperson
• Sophie Payten (Gordi)
• Michael Chugg
• Nathan McLay
• Fred Alale AM
• Lisa Baker
• Fred Leone
• Danielle Caruana
• Petrina Convey

The Music Australia Council is accountable to the governing Board for Creative Australia, which will continue to be known as the Australia Council Board. 

We anticipate that the Music Australia Council will hold its first meeting by the end of September 2023. 

Latest news

The Music Australia Council held its first meeting on Wednesday 20 September 2023.

Getting straight down to business the Council discussed the issues affecting Australian contemporary music artists and industry.

Major themes were:

• training and skills development for artists and artist managers
• supporting emerging artists to develop career pathways and build support networks
• extending the careers of Australian artists
• preservation of traditional songlines that are the foundation for contemporary Indigenous music
• increasing support for export of Australian music and the opportunity to maximise audience development opportunities and artist collaborations both overseas and back in Australia, noting the rising costs associated with international exporting
• opportunities to work with state, territory and local governments to build local talent, audiences, and support networks
• discoverability and working with digital service providers and radio networks to support Australian contemporary music
• exploring existing models and initiatives that address artist and audience development to look at what is working well and could be rolled out more broadly (including partnership opportunities).

The Council also raised the need for ongoing engagement with artists, industry, and stakeholders in the contemporary music sector.

Out of these robust and constructive discussions the Council tasked the Creative Australia team to provide options that they can explore at their next meeting, which includes:

• developing a stakeholder map of Australian contemporary music organisations and map public sector investments in Australian contemporary music to inform the Council’s ongoing engagement strategy and needs analysis
• providing options for increasing the success rate of contemporary music artists that apply for grants through Creative Australia’s existing programs
• developing options for a contemporary music fellowship program
• providing options for a matched funding program to support international export
• scoping potential delivery partnerships for skills, education, and training.

The Council is excited to meet again before the end of the year to work through the draft options and work with the new Director of Music Australia, with the recruitment process now underway.

If you would like to put forward any ideas that might inform the development of these options, please contact us at music@creative.gov.au.