A Federal Government inquiry into the challenges facing Australia’s live music industry rolls into Brisbane tomorrow.
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts will hold its first round of interstate public hearings in the Queensland capital, where it will hear from the likes of QMusic, Arts Queensland, The Zoo and the Woodford Folk Festival.
In its submission to the inquiry, QMusic, the peak body for Queensland’s music sector, outlined a range of challenges facing live music festivals.
The submission stated some of the challenges included:
- Extraordinary amounts of sales for touring international acts, including more than a million tickets being sold in the same month for Taylor Swift, Fred Again, Blink 182 and P!nk.
- Fatigue of Australian audiences towards some domestic artists, possibly contributed to by these artists being the only possible live experience during COVID.
- Recent challenges around audience trust, due to extreme weather events.
- Declining interest by international artists to feature within Australian festival lineups in comparison to doing their own tours.
- Low and late ticket sales.
- Major increases in all costs, including travel, production and insurance.
The QMusic submission stated: “We feel that some of the challenges being faced are potentially not just the ebbs and flows of the market, but are emblematic of widespread generational change and shifts, of which our festivals are just the first indicator.”
Inquiry Committee chair Brian Mitchell said as well has hearing further from industry stakeholders, it would host roundtables with musicians, venues, academic researchers and Commonwealth and State government agencies.
Mr Mitchell said the committee was keen to discuss the rapidly changing face of the Australian live music industry, including changing audience preferences post-pandemic.
He also flagged new demographic behaviour and how digitisation was impacting career pathways and business longevity as topics for investigation.
“The Committee is (also) keen to hear about the opportunities to foster live music as an important way to tell and maintain Australian stories, including through First Nations music,” Mr Mitchell said.
