An Integrated Approach for the Australian Contemporary Music Industry

Background   |   How to contribute your views   |   Challenges facing the industry   |   Options for improving the competitiveness of the industry   |   Project contact


The Allen Consulting Group recently presented at the Adelaide Fuse Festival.
Download: Copy of the Presentation


Background

The Australian contemporary music industry is on the cusp of taking greater control of its destiny.

Between 2001 and 2003, the Australia Council sponsored a series of 'Round Table' meetings which brought much of the contemporary music industry together to debate the challenges and opportunities facing it. Those participating in the meetings - and who generally represented the varied interests of the industry - recognised that if the industry could act in concert it had the opportunity to wield significant political, cultural and economic influence.

Participants recognised too that responsibility for progress to that end lay firmly with the industry itself. Participants agreed that a working group - the Contemporary Music Working Group (CMWG) - prepare a report identifying options for advancing the work of the Round Table process.

The result of the CMWG's work was the report entitled The Power and The Passion. That report noted: a raft of challenges facing the industry - the majority of which originated or were compounded by difficulties of integration or cooperation within the industry - and identified four options for moving forward; and that these options need to be explored in greater detail, with full participation of industry and government, and that more information and consultation would be required to properly evaluate these or other goals.

Following on from that report, the CMWG appointed The Allen Consulting Group to investigate and report on challenges and opportunities for the industry. This review - funded by the Australasian Performing Right Association, the Austereo Group, the Australia Council for the Arts and the PPCA Performers' Trust Foundation - will be the first industry funded national review of the Australian contemporary music industry.

The purpose of the review is to identify and implement a process or structure to provide long-term support, integration and opportunities for the Australian contemporary music industry. The Allen Consulting Group will submit its final report to the CMWG in early 2005, after consulting widely with industry and with Government.

This site is a vehicle for interested parties to contribute their views on the challenges identified to date, to identify other challenges, and/or to contribute their views on options for improving the competitiveness of the contemporary music industry.


How to contribute your views

Stakeholders are invited to respond to questions contained in the documents below, or to any related issues/concerns. This can be done:

Submissions will be accepted until the end of November.

For those who contribute via email, could you please indicate whether or not the views expressed are confidential.


Challenges facing the industry

Download: Challenges facing the industry

  1. Are the challenges identified representative of the challenges still facing the industry? Are there industry-wide challenges that have not been identified?

  2. What is the relative importance of each of these challenges to you and/or the industry?

  3. Without some form of intervention, are these challenges likely to continue into the foreseeable future?

  4. What are the particular barriers to greater coordination and integration?

  5. To what extent is access to funding a barrier to success?

  6. To what extent do each of the tiers of government - Commonwealth, State and local - contribute to the development of the industry?


Options for improving the competitiveness of the industry

Download: Options for improving the competitiveness of the industry

  1. Are the options identified representative of those that the industry would consider for implementation? Are there other industry-wide options that have not been identified?

  2. What are the likely benefits and costs associated with each of the options?

  3. How would you rank overall attractiveness of the options?

  4. How should the preferred options be implemented?

  5. To what degree are the favoured options complements or alternatives? To what degree does this affect implementation approaches?

  6. Given the importance of funding to develop industry wide initiatives, what suggestions would you have for how such funds might best be raised?


Project contact

If you would like further information about the project, or to be included on a project mailing list, please email your request to contemporary_music@allenconsult.com.au.