Australia is getting a new music export program: Exclusive

When it comes to exporting emerging acts overseas, there’s no denying Australia’s geographical handicap and declining investment in emerging talent. To help emerging acts connect directly to audiences around the world is new export program Crossover Music, TIO can exclusively reveal.

Founded by artist manager James Adair, specialty radio promoter Tyler Treves and licence reform consultant Joe Hay – who have been working together since a chance meeting at Bigsound in 2016 – Crossover Music already has offices established in Los Angeles, New York and Australia.

The program uses the trio’s network of industry specialists to deliver campaigns tailored individually to artists and expose them to international labels, promoters, booking agents and publishers.

Set to launch officially at Bigsound next Friday (September 7) on the Mucho Bravado Balcony, Crossover Music will launch with the goal to: “help artists become more competitive by capturing the buzz they generate in Australia and deliver targeted international audience and industry exposure.”

“Building a career in music is hard enough let alone in a geographically isolated country,” says co-founder Joe Hay. “The advent of social media and streaming services may have shrunk the earth and made it easier for artists to produce and self-manage, though it’s also increased the competition. Artists still need support delivering the kinds of campaigns needed to cut through and be competitive.” 

Find out more about Crossover Music via the Q&A with James Adair, Tyler Treves and Joe Hay below:

What is Crossover Music and how did it come about?

Joe: Crossover Music is an exciting new export program that will deliver individually tailored campaigns to help emerging artists connect directly to audiences overseas.

Tyler: With a stronger audience exposure Crossover Music will promote acts to international record labels, publishers, booking agents and promoters.

James: Tyler Treves, Joe Hay and I have been working together since a chance meeting at Bigsound in 2016. The encounter lead to longer conversation about the need to support emerging artists by linking them directly with larger audiences overseas.

Tyler:  I had been working with US labels and independent acts from Australia providing radio promotion services and Joe had been driving the policy reforms in South Australia that saw massive change in the way the government views and support music and the broader creative industries. Joe was also a driver in that state’s planning, liquor licensing and late-night economy reforms.

Around the same time, I’d been having similar conversations with James, a then Melbourne based (now living and working in New York) artist manager. 

James: I had known Tyler for years, and was telling him about an act I was managing that had a label offer on the table from a big a US label, which fell over at the 11th hour due to a change in their distributors. The label said they could revisit the deal down the track if we could raise that acts profile higher internationally.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the finances to be able thoroughly invest in extensive international touring, publicity, radio promotions etc. We ended up just having to very be selective of where to invest our money to raise their profile, and hope it was the right course of action… Luckily it ended up working as we found that act a good home to release their music.

Tyler: James’s situation really resonated with me, as I just finished a radio campaign with a Brooklyn band. When I first started working with them, it was the classic starving artists scenario, great music but broke and living out of their rehearsal space.

However, the work we did together lead to them crushing it on US Radio at Alternative Specialty, the publicity they had on board, touring extensively and good management resulted them getting a deal from Hollywood Records. They are now selling out shows all across the US.

Joe: We quickly worked out that we were on the same page, and each had the background and insight and networks that could be used to help emerging artists and great music cut through to access larger audiences overseas without the budget constraints.

Why is there a need for Crossover Music?

Tyler: From the start we had talked about the decline in investment in emerging artists and the support that is actually needed to break a band overseas. 

Joe: Sweden overcame a similar set of hurdles to Australia to become one of the world’s most competitive music centres.  One of its key concepts underpinning their success was the idea that if you had a solid, authentic domestic audience, you should be able to hit that same audience globally. 

James: With limited budgets, emerging artists need to do more with less. Crossover Music represents an opportunity to promote emerging acts internationally while they are generating buzz in Australia.

Joe: Building a career in music is hard enough let alone in a geographically isolated country.  The advent of social media and streaming services may have shrunk the earth and made it easier for artists to produce and self-manage, though it’s also increased the competition.  Artists still need support delivering the kinds of campaigns needed to cut through and be competitive. 

How does the program work?

Tyler: Currently we are independently funded. The program uses a network of industry specialists, publicists, radio pluggers, social media mangers etc, to deliver campaigns tailored individually to artists.  

We then use this exposure to promote artists to international labels, promoters, booking agents and publishers. Or provide them with a network and a foundation that they can continue independently.

 Who is running the show?

James: The program has been developed and run from three different perspectives of the music industry. Tyler (Treves) is a US-based radio promoter who has worked with a lot of great Australian acts.

Joe (Hay) is an economic development and creative industries policy reform advocate responsible for transforming the way the South Australian government supports the music and late-night industries.  And I have been managing bands, booking venues, promoting shows for about 10 years.

We also have a team consisting of social media managers, publicists, booking agents, lawyers, plus more who also believe in our vision of helping artists.

Crossover Music receives its official launch at Bigsound with free beers on the Mucho Bravado balcony (above The Foundry at 228 Wickham Street) at 3pm on Friday. For more information or to request a meeting at Bigsound, send an email to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.