Labor arts policy: $5.4 million for Sounds Australia, Live Music Office

If the Australian Labor Party (ALP) takes power next month, it would be a major boost to the contemporary music industry.

$5.4 million over three years is allocated to Sounds Australia, Live Music Office and the Australian Music Centre.

As part of the ALP’s Creative Industries, Creative Country announcement at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne last Saturday, “Australia is the 6th largest music market in the world and has the potential to become a significant global exporter of contemporary music. The talent of contemporary Australian musicians should be shared with the world.

“A Shorten Labor Government will strengthen Australia’s contemporary live music industry by bringing the Live Music Office and the Australian Music Centre under the umbrella of an expanded Sounds Australia to deliver export, domestic and content management strategies.

“The expanded Sounds Australia will develop and strengthen three key areas:

Export: Expand the operation of Sounds Australia to include the export of all music genres to key and emerging international markets.

Domestic: Expand the remit of the Live Music Office to include all genres and venue types.

Content Management: Use the Australian Music Centre content management system to aggregate and promote Australian artists and music content.”

APRA AMCOS welcomed the announcement. It said, it “has advocated the importance of investing in the contemporary music industry, and this commitment directly supports thousands of musicians across all genres, from local pubs to global stages. We also welcome the commitment to continue funding of APRA AMCOS’ school-based SongMakers program which invests in Australia’s future songwriters and composers.”

APRA AMCOS has just launched athree-question survey to share the Australian public’s voices with politicians. Take the survey here.

Sounds Australia’s Executive Producer Millie Millgate was “genuinely pleased to see the broad support for the contemporary music sector. An investment in Sounds Australia is an investment in fast-tracking music export success globally. Australian talent is far too good to not be seen on the world stage.”

John Wardle, Policy Director at Live Music Office) pointed out that the investment in the three bodies “recognises not only the value of the service we provide, but also the importance of investing in coordinated domestic and export music industry development.”

Speaking on behalf of the Australian Music Centre, John Davis (CEO) commented, “We create opportunities and revenue for composers and their work, through many partnerships and collaborations, including with APRA AMCOS, Sounds Australia, the Live Music Office, and many others. We welcome any investment that enables us to continue this important work, reaching larger audiences for Australian music, both nationally and internationally.”

Labor has promised $160 million for the arts – with Shorten describing the funding as an investment and not a cost. Labor claims to have “a plan to fix the damage and restore our creative industries to their rightful place at the centre of Australia’s cultural and economic life.”​

Aside from its commitment to continuing digital community radio (reported in TMN last week), other promises made as part of Creative Industries, Creative Country were:

* The Coalition’s controversial second funding program Catalyst (a “ministerial slush fund”) to be scrapped. “Arts funding should never be a political plaything of the government of the day,” Labor said.

Aside from returning the remaining money ($30 million of the original $105 million cut) to the Australia Council for the Arts, there will be $20 million a year in fresh cash-ups over four years from 2017.

* $60 million extra to the ABC to increase local drama production by 20 hours a year that will “express the national character.”

* $8 million increase for the Regional Arts Fund to increase employment and professional development opportunities for regional and remote artists.

* $2 million a year to expand school music programs such as Music: Count Us In, Musica Viva in Schools and the Song Room.

* At the launch, Shorten promised, “We will be a government which will celebrate and treasure the contribution that all of you make … We are very fortunate with the calibre of our artists, in the passion of their commitment and the scale of their ability. And the Australian arts community deserves a government as brave, as optimistic, as dedicated to enriching the identity the heart and the hinterland of the Australian people.

’We shall be that government if we are elected on July 2. And we will make sure that the arts – whilst it doesn’t necessarily change an election – it will change our nation and change it for the better.”

At the launch, Shadow Arts Minister and lawyer Mark Dreyfus said, “I come from a family of musicians. My father George Dreyfus is a composer, and I’m pleased that he’s not overseas conducting orchestras today, as he sometimes is, so that he can be here with us today.

“Perhaps I rebelled by rejecting my family’s artistic traditions to follow the scandalous career path of a lawyer. I often think that in my family going to law school was a bit like running off to join the circus!”

He added, “The Abbott-Turnbull government has been a disaster for the arts and for Australia’s creative industries.”