Mushroom boss Michael Gudinski has welcomed the music policy for the Labor Party to reverse the damage of the current government’s vanity program Catalyst.
Under Catalyst, funding normally allocated through the independent Australia Council, was redirected to the coffers of George Brandis who then appointed a board who then withdrew all funding to Australia’s most active international music platform Sounds Australia.
In a statement Michael Gudinski said:
“We applaud the Australian Labor Party’s recent announcements of their intention to support Community Radio and boost funds to help in the export of Australian contemporary music to a global market.
“Community radio is not just a vital forum for the discovery and development of new Australian music but is also an important place to foster the talents of DJs, technicians, and producers. Keeping community radio alive, and nurturing these people and their jobs is fundamentally important for the future creative development of Australia.
“Likewise the support of live music to a global audience through Sounds Australia is significant. It is an unfortunate reality that the majority of local artists need to be deemed an overseas success before they will receive mainstream recognition within Australia. Ironically promoting Australian artists to the world will be significant in helping to develop them locally.
“Ensuring Australian content is supported across mainstream media continues to be relevant and I consider it a tragedy that streaming services such as Foxtel, Netflix, Stan remain exempt from this requirement and is something still to be addressed.”
Last week Labor leader Bill SHorten promised to “commit $1.8 million a year over four years to support the expanded Sounds Australia. This will operate as a public-private investment partnership between Government and the music sector. Through this partnership the music industry will provide an additional annual investment of $500,000 a year.
“This initiative will grow job opportunities including for artists, their managers and a range of affiliated professionals such as digital content managers and promotion and production workers. A greater number and genre of artists will benefit from the expanded services and markets provided by Sounds Australia, enabling them to gain exposure to wider audiences and markets both domestically and internationally”.
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