It was March of 2020 when I visited my first electronic music festival. I had recently come back from traveling overseas for half a year and in turn was ready to take on exciting experiences and delve into a scene of music I hadn't fully emerged myself in previously. I had been to single day festivals in the past, but this was a whole new ball game of camping for four nights and dancing in the days. Dance I did. It was a mixture of discovering music, meeting new people and leaning into a culture I hadn’t been part of before.
I loved this new world and I yearned to explore it further. My fondness of electronic music and the community it brought with it grew and grew.
Little did I know my next music festival of this kind would be 2022. I made it my post-lockdown goal to immerse myself in gigs and festivals as much as I could to make up for lost time.
Now, fast forward to 2024, I pick and choose what festivals I attend and rarely get to go to the gigs I want to. Like many people, I have felt the effects of the cost of living crisis. As much as I want to support the music industry and consistently attend events, it isn’t as easy a decision as it once was.
If I am feeling this merely as an attendee of events, I can only imagine how this has impacted the artists who perform.
A recent article in ABC found that since the beginning of COVID-19, 1,300 venues in Australia have closed, which makes up 25% of all live music venues in Australia. This is due to the high costs associated with inflation that come with running the venues. Despite some venues having record sales, they still closed because they cannot compete with the high costs.
Music venues are incredibly important for artists, especially in the early days of their careers. It creates a community for people who aren’t always from fortunate backgrounds, and builds a space for emerging artists to practice and network as most people don’t have the opportunity to go to music and art universities or schools to build their career.
After learning this, you could imagine my frustrations when I came to find out that giant multi international entertainment company, Live Nation, made $34 billion revenue in 2023. How could it be that Australia’s local music is suffering so much, while large corporations are recording such large revenues?
A new survey released by Musicians Australia – an initiative of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance – found that half of Australia’s working musicians earned less than $6000 last year – a mere 15% of the national minimum wage. This means that artists have to look for work outside of the music industry to be able to afford living.
It is difficult to feel like celebrating the success of businesses like Live Nation, when you hear statistics like the above.
I do believe that Australians see working in fields like music, or the creative industry in general, as a fun ‘side hustle’ that you may or may not make money from. It’s not really advertised to us as an option for a career or an industry where we can make a living wage.
I also worry that those who suffer most from these beliefs are those who are least fortunate. If you are interested in being a musician and are aware of the unlikelihood of making a living wage, but don’t have the means to take the risk, you might never take the jump. I can only imagine how many incredible artists we have missed out on experiencing because of this.
Looking back on the history of electronic music, it was formed by working class communities. Despite this, Australia is constructing a more and more inaccessible music scene that isn’t welcoming to these groups. The electronic music scene is straying far from its roots, and it’s important we see a change.
So, what is Australia doing about this?
In 2023 the government announced the National Cultural Policy called Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place. Backed by $286 million in dedicated funding over four years, Revive’s centrepiece was the establishment of Creative Australia – the Government’s new principal arts investment and advisory body.
Within Creative Australia the government announced the establishment of Music Australia – a dedicated new body to support and invest in the Australian contemporary music industry. A few themes that Music Australia will focus on include:
- Training and skills development for artists and artist managers.
- Supporting emerging artists to develop career pathways and build support networks.
- Extending the careers of Australian artists.
- Preservation of traditional songlines that are the foundation for contemporary Indigenous music.
Additionally, as fans of the electronic music industry, there are ways we can help to keep it alive.
There are plenty of free events, you can find them on social media and by keeping up to date with your favourite local artist’s accounts and posts. I also encourage you to go to your local bars and clubs when you can for gigs, even if you don’t know the artist, give it a shot. Or, try listening to a small scale radio station. Lots of artists practice their music on radio.
If you have the means to, I encourage you to go to a paid event or gig when you can. It is more likely the artist will get paid if it is ticketed. And, continue to listen to musicians across all music listening apps and websites. Save, like, subscribe and download to get their numbers up!
There are also a few not-for-profit charities that raise money for the music industry that you can donate to. Some being, The Push, Support Act, Musicians Making a Difference and the Yothu Yindi Foundation, to name a few.
Electronic music is important to our culture. It builds communities, strengthens bonds, explores creativity and encourages adventure. Together, we can keep it alive and see it continue to grow.
