Out of Sight, Out of Sound: Is Australian Music An Afterthought?
Australia’s music scene has never been more vibrant…or more invisible. An op ed.
I recently attended a talk at Monash University after receiving an invitation to join as a student guest from the university where I’m studying to hear music industry professionals talk about what music gets attention in Melbourne, which prides itself as Australia’s music city. This talk focused on the growing presence of Asian music in Australia, primarily in Melbourne. It was utterly fascinating; however, one thing that the Live Nation Promoter (who is aiding in TWICE’s Australia tour) said stopped me in my tracks.
Regarding how difficult it is to pitch Australia as a place to tour, even at the Live Nation level, as “Australia is an afterthought with the live component”.
An afterthought. That word packs a punch and leaves a sour taste regarding the reality of how Australia is being viewed from the global music industry standpoint as a contender in the global music market. That afterthought is not limited to the live music experience but also the recorded music side of the industry, as those two aspects of the music industry are always hand-in-hand.
To elaborate on this, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organisation that represents the recording music industry worldwide, releases a report annually called the Global Music Report on the state of the industry from the previous year. Within this report, they rank the top ten global music markets. For the first time since 1996, starting as of 2024, Australia is no longer in the Top Ten list; now in what used to be its place is Mexico.
If the music industry outside of Australia doesn’t think about it or see value in coming to Australia for live music opportunities, recorded music that leads to the discovery of new music and new musicians, we have to ask ourselves a serious question. Why is that? Why is Australia an afterthought?
I blame visibility. It’s not just the hot buzz word, it’s the reality of the music industry, especially in the Australian music industry. Even in a meeting I had with the Creative Industries MP in June 2025, the MP and his secretary both naturally brought up visibility as a concern.
Visibility is just a fraction of the issues that are happening here on the ground in Australia. Visibility might be the “simplest” way to describe part of this phenomenon that is happening here.
This situation has become more recognisable since the pandemic created a before-and-after version of life. The COVID-19 pandemic (yes, I know a thing that most people would rather ignore) hugely impacted the music industry. Everything from how music was shared, performed, and created, to how people connected with music evolved, and so many issues that previously existed in the music industry became a red neon sign that the quieter downtime in the industry couldn’t ignore.
What’s Even Going On In Australia?
Here’s the catch-22 of it all – Australians love their music! It’s all over in the research papers and industry reports I read that are focused on Australia. This country loves its music. A few weeks ago, the most popular commercial radio station, Triple J, did a vote on Australia’s Hottest 100, where individuals voted on their top ten favourite Australian songs made by Australian musicians, and those votes got tallied at the end. That experience featured the final top choices being played out over the radio, and everyone listened with anticipation of what would be played next, as it dwindled down to the number one position, ending up with Never Tear Us Apart by INXS being the top one choice.
The Australian back catalogue is extensive and full of the most incredible songs that did and didn’t make the Top 100 list. In case you didn’t know, the music industry’s back catalogue is anything 18 months and older, so the Australian back catalogue (like anywhere else) is anything from less than two years ago and older. The music industry moves quickly, leaving us with a massive amount of music that has, does and will represent that Australian music sonic experience.
Triple J’s request of people to vote on their favourite music to be the 100 songs to be the poster image of Australian music did show that Aussies do and can pay attention to Australian music. Adding to that realisation is a governmental report on the insights of live music attendance details that six in ten Australians agree that music is important, and 92% of those surveyed in their study said that live music brings a sense of wellbeing and happiness.
There is support for the Australian music scene in some capacity. I wanted to know those who think music is important, so I did a short Instagram survey about what motivates people to go to gigs.
Most of the people who responded were from Melbourne, where there are over 400 venues where you can find a gig and attend. Their answers ranged from a big fear of missing out, how much music they have available on streaming, follower count, their online presence and what they could find out about who they are as musicians (persona). Their answers paralleled findings from my Master’s thesis on how musicians in Melbourne view success as they note on musicianship skills (“good music”), branding, stage presence and how they connect with others.
Within my role as Booker, I find myself using those criteria, amongst others, when deciding who to put on a show and how to promote shows.
Am I generating enough FOMO?
Am I putting on an emerging artist that can pull 50+ tickets (fans) into the bandroom?
How many followers do they have, and will that translate to the show?
How many of their followers are real fans?
Is this promotion (by the venue or the artist) even working?
All of these are things that I consider either saying yes or no to bands that want to play or bands that I want to put on. I take risks with shows I put on; regardless, this makes me a bit of a live music gatekeeper. And those who come to those shows are 100% there because they want to experience the band, the collective experience with other music lovers and hearing the music live.
I share all of this because despite there being an indication that Australian music is sought domestically resulting in the 2024 IFPI report that the recorded music revenues in Australasia earned USD $629 million and Australia’s revenues increased by 6.1% and 2023-24 live music in Australia earned AUD $438 billion – attendance at small venues where Australian music begins is decreasing, musicians are not making enough money resulting in questioning their careers and what’s charting in Australia is primarily not Australian.
How can this be? This is where visibility comes into play, or the lack of visibility.
Australian + Visibility = ?
Let’s revisit something I’ve mentioned before, Triple J and their Hottest 100. They also do one for a Hottest 100 of the year, where people can nominate their top choices for the year, both Australian and non-Australian. The hope is that Australian musicians will dominate this list – reflecting the love and support for Australian music.
In 2024, the top song was ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ by Chappell Roan, who is not Australian. It’s not that Chappell Roan does not deserve recognition, but it’s an interesting thing to reflect on. Why wasn’t an Australian artist at number one? Royal Otis, who is Australian, was 2nd on the list, so close enough, right?
When looking at the entire list and filtering it out to only see the Australian artists nominated and made it on the Top 100 list, only 24 out of the 100 artists were Australian. This is low; less than a quarter of the list is Australian musicians! If you’re not saying yikes yet, just you wait.
The ARIA Charts, essentially Australia’s version of the UK’s The Official Chart and the US’ The Billboard Charts, reported very few Australian albums and singles on their annual 2024 top 100 chart report. In the album report, only 2 were Australian, and in the singles, 5 were Australian. The ARIA does separate domestic reports of the Top 50 Australian albums and singles from 2024. When looking at the domestic top 50 vs top 100, you’ll notice that despite those albums and singles doing well enough to be in the top 50 category, not all were “strong” enough to compete for a Top 100 spot against the international musicians.
This has nothing to do with how good or not good the music is! It’s more about where the attention goes for visibility of music engagement. If domestic artists charting in the Top 50, like Troye Sivan, are not on the Top 100, imagine that situation for smaller emerging artists who are 1,5, or even 10 years into their careers! Obviously, Troye Sivan is at a more established point in his career in comparison to the musicians I book for shows, but it doesn’t mean that the ripple effect that someone who is signed is not being felt times 100 at an emergent indie level.
On The Ground in the Indie Grassroots Trenches
Before the pandemic, being an indie musician wasn’t easy, and then during the pandemic, that was definitely awful. Especially here in Melbourne, this musical hub of Australia. The city spent over 250 days in lockdown, impacting how musicians traditionally create music, share music, perform music, earn money and so on. There’d be waves where the lockdown would roll back, only to be reinstated until it was lifted in October 2021.
During this time, many other countries had already begun to roll back their lockdowns, and music was being recorded, shared and even performed with restrictions like masking. Much has changed since then; however, with that long a lockdown in Melbourne, it’s playing musical catch-up.
People were still finding ways to do music during that time, and now, on the other side of the pandemic, there is this urge to do more and be more present in this industry. However, visibility in the grassroots emerging/rising musician experience is difficult. There’s this notion more than ever that you can only be a successful Australian musician if you’re outside of Australia, resulting in great talent wanting to immediately export themselves before developing here and finding a fan base.
Why not build a fanbase in the local music venues by playing your tunes?
The visibility issue surrounds this.
Attendance is dropping at live music events at small and medium music venues and pubs that put on music, while major venues that typically host extensive international tours or established domestic acts have maintained a steady turnout. This puts music venues at risk for closure if no one purchases tickets and stays at the venue for food and drinks, along with the music. In addition, many music festivals have shut down their operations for good due to a lack of attendance and climate change negatively impacting how they can run their shows.
I see this first-hand with gigs that I put on – the venue I work at has a capacity of 200. It’s a nerve-wracking situation for me and the bands I put on. Everyone wants the show to have a fantastic turnout, and with the tradition of online presales being slowly bought, now even slower, it makes everyone nervous about how many people will be at the show. I’ve had one show sell 40 tickets online the day of, plus another 20 at the door; another show I had 80 buy immediately when tickets went on sale, and got up to 150 sold the day of the show; then I had one show where only seven showed up.
The turnout for those ranged from how well the artist was promoting, how well the venue promo went, what platforms the artists are active on, the ticket cost (cost-of-living crisis is real), and people not knowing how to find a new gig to go to.
That’s the truth, some people don’t know how to find gigs or what gigs are even on! A lack of awareness of what music events are on, where they are, and even how to find information about them. People rely on social media (97% reported from insights on live music attendance) to learn about gigs and other traditional forms of awareness like word of mouth, mailing lists from artists and/or venues, streaming platforms, and physical advertisements. Notice that I didn’t say radio. This is because not many of the gig-going audience that needs to be targeted by emerging artists are listening to community or commercial radio.
Speaking of radio, it is required to play at least 25% Australian music in Australia. Community radio stations like the ones in Melbourne, Triple R and PBS, most likely play over 25% of Australian music from local Melbourne bands and from other cities. Versus Triple J seems to play just enough to meet the required 25%. Trust me, turn on Triple J and you’ll hear a sprinkle of Australian music in a sea of international music.
Most live music attendees will likely learn about their shows and new music via Instagram or TikTok. And there appears to be a resistance from artists to being online on TikTok in some genres. Pop and its subgenres do really well online, like Holly Hebe, for example. Some indie rock artists, like Worm Girlz, do great on TikTok, too. Meanwhile, other bands I know such as Romanie, George Carroll Wilson (Pollyman), Fenn Wilson and Mature Themes do pretty well on Instagram as their only platform. And folks like Angus Legg, Gretta Ray and Terra Rouge do well on both platforms. However, that all depends on how consistent they are online and what content they post – and if they are meeting their audiences where they are at.
Those I know that are strictly on Instagram can be a hit or miss, depending on when the algorithm will have your post pop up on your audience’s feed. I had a conversation with a musician friend about diversifying their content that they uploaded instead of event poster first and then a photo, do a photo first then event poster or even a video to brainstorm new ways that his content could get seen by more people after feeling a bit defeated that his posts were not getting as many views and likes as he thought they would.
There’s even a document by the Australian government called Am I Ever Gonna See You Live Again?, which mentions how algorithms on Spotify and socials like TikTok make it difficult for Australians to find Australian musicians. Even on a governmental level, they are trying to brainstorm how to work out a system where the algorithms can favour Australian music and creators being pushed out first, alongside international music and creators.
This results in musicians hoping that their paid ads get seen for their show, their new album, their merch, whatever it may be.
What needs to happen if Australia struggles to be seen on and offline?
What Is Being Done?
The Australian government is following this cultural plan called REVIVE, which focuses on making Australian voices more visible. This will also include a few other opportunities to boost the chances of making recording music more viable for musicians through grants, and the same for live music venues.
In Victoria, the 10,000 gigs grant fund was given out in hopes of boosting audience turnout by allowing selected venues in the metropolitan area of Melbourne and regional Victoria an allotment of money to give a guarantee (fixed amount of money) to musicians (five to ten shows) regardless of the audience turnout. This boosts musicians’ careers and gets them in front of more people. The outcome of this grant went to some questionable “venues”, but I do hope that it does boost that visibility and aid in musicians getting more fans as part of career development.
Researchers like myself are looking into the post-COVID music industry. My focus is primarily on how emerging musicians are navigating their careers and how they can sustain them.
Others are creating gig guides, interviewing musicians, getting into radio and photography, hoping to aid in spotlighting the local talent and placing it on social media to boost more Australian music in feeds.
I talk non-stop about the Australian music industry on my Australian artist development TikTok page where I challenge, question, and champion this industry to boost conversation and visibility.
Music venues like The Last Chance created a post challenging people to support live music by encouraging people to take one person to a gig with you. Then you and that person bring one more additional person to another gig and continue this behaviour to re-cultivate the gig-going behaviour.
Thinking About What’s Ahead For Australian Music and Visibility
As I progress into my PhD, I hope many of these visibility issues will change. I mentioned at the beginning that visibility is just a fraction of the problem. It’s the easy-to-blame issue, but the root cause is that the music industry already had unsteady, shaky foundations in the first place.
We are all, especially in Australia and in Melbourne, where it feels the most, learning to rebuild, resocialise, and relearn what it means to do music and to be within music. And the thing that we can control is visibility in how shows are promoted, in artist pitches, authentically showing up in spaces, how we share new music and go to gigs, how we post on socials, amongst many other things.
People want to take a bite into Australian music. Australia needs to relearn how to find music and engage with it. It’s not an issue for those who are already doing it in the ways they can, but getting those who don’t engage to engage.
As people will turn out, as I saw while working the door for a sold-out show in mid-July for a rising indie-pop-rock artist, Jacob Fitzgerald.
I encourage non-Australian readers (and even Australian readers) to challenge themselves to find a new Australian artist to listen to and follow. Here’s a playlist of modern Australian music to start you out:
