ARC project to assist Australian music industry

Friday, 17 July 2015

The University of Newcastle (UON) has been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project funding to research the economic and cultural value of Australian music exports.

ARC project to assist Australian music industry

The interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Professor Richard Vella from the Faculty of Education and Arts includes Professor Stephen Chen from UON's Faculty of Business and Law, Associate Professor Shane Homan from Monash University, and Ms Millie Millgate executive producer from the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). The Australia Council for the Arts is also a partner investigator.

The project also involves an advisory group from across UON: Dr Karen Blackmore and Dr Keith Nesbitt (School of Design, Communication and Information Technology), Dr Rita Matulionyte (Faculty of Business and Law), and Ms Tracy Redhead (School of Creative Arts) as project manager.

This will be the first methodical study on how Australian artists are developed internationally through government and industry programs. It will provide a detailed picture of entrepreneurial activity within and between industries, not-for-profit sectors and governments.

It will also assess the effects of globalisation and digitisation in the creation of a music export. The project will identify strategies for improving the public exposure of Australian music within increasingly complex international networks of music production, consumption and governance.

"The awarding of the Linkage grant is very timely,"  Professor Vella said. "With cuts in funding to the Australia Council for the Arts and what seems to be an increasing cautiousness for anything that is experimental or unable to be categorised immediately, our study will provide insight into the important roles government, the not-for-profit, education and business sectors play in the creation of music outputs that begin firstly as having cultural value, and their translation into outcomes that lead to music export value."

Including the investment from partner organisations, the funding for this three-year project totals $314,000. This is the second ARC Linkage Project award that is linked to UON's Creative Industries Research and Innovation Cluster (CIRIC) and the first nationally competitive funding awarded to Collaborative Environment for Creative Arts Research (CeCAR) group based within the School of Creative Arts.

The research team is calling on Australian artists and businesses (including managers, record labels, publishers, booking agents, music producers and promoters) to complete a detailed survey that canvases the full scope of the Australian music export ecosystem resulting in a definitive study. Contribute to the project by taking part in the survey, which is open until Friday December 2nd, 2016.

Contact

  • Richard.Vella@newcastle.edu.au