Australian Musical Futures

The Australian Music Futures scheme began in 2008 with Australian Musical Futures: Towards 2020, a sector-wide summit that took place for a full day at Sydney Conservatorium. The title derived from the set of meetings organised by the then new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. They included a cultural summit but music sector people figured that it probably could not go very deeply into any particular aspect of culture or any particular art form. So it was decided to bring together one hundred of our musical best and brightest to do that job for music.

Australian Musical Futures 2009: Digital Distribution

In 2009, Australian Musical Futures looked intensively into the situation around the digital distribution of music. For Australian Musical Futures: Digital Distribution, four think tanks were organised in collaboration with the Institute for Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, two in Brisbane, one each in Sydney and Melbourne. The think tanks worked down the music industry value chain – basically, creation, production, distribution, with the fourth gathering synthesising the outcomes from the first three. About 20 people attended each one, with people from each of the three sectors joining personnel from the MCA and QUT.

Australian Musical Futures: Towards 2020

The MCA is initiating a series of think tanks, titled Australian Musical Futures.

Towards 2020 is the first of these think tanks. It follows through on the Commonwealth Government's summit, focussing on the music sector, filling in the gaps and further developing some of the recommendations.

It brings together one hundred leaders and thinkers from across the music sector to consider futures in education related to music, music in the community, music infrastructure, the interventions of government through legislation and regulation including copyright, and funding, and the possible shape of the new music industry.

2009 Music Futures Think Tank Introduction

Dates, themes, and venue details

The Music Council of Australia, in partnership with the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation (iCi) at QUT, is presenting a series of Digital Distribution Think Tanks to be held over the next five months. These think tanks are an action arising from the NewMusic Industry group at the 2008 MCA Australian Musical Futures Summit.

2009 Think Tank: Digital Distribution Papers

AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL FUTURES: TOWARDS 2020

BRIEFING PAPER: COMMUNITIES, CONTEXTS & CONSTRUCTS

Huib Schippers

While many of the discussions at the music summit will inevitably focus on formally organised music practices (in schools, in venues, through flagship companies, through business and industry), a great deal of music making is in fact largely unregulated. While this sector may be more difficult to map or measure -as few of its activities require reporting and research is thin on the ground- it can be argued that it is of crucial importance to a healthy Australian musical landscape. Understanding this area better may enable stakeholders to contribute more effectively to sustainability and development.

Music Education

Ian Harvey

All people are musical Australians whether they recognise their own musicality or not share their life with music. Music marks many of the major events in our lives. It defines our childhood and our youth. A relationship with music is something that we share from our cradles to our graves.

When two or more of us are gathered together to consider the big issues in music and look for the big solutions, there is a tendency to identity a problem and hand the job of solving it to the care of the government.

AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL FUTURES: TOWARDS 2020

DELEGATES' IDEAS

Delegates are invited to send in a brief statement describing issues or outcomes the summit should consider. This is an opportunity to turn other participants' thoughts towards issues that you believe are important, in advance of the discussions.

This initial Australian Musical Futures summit will add considerably to the knowledge and understanding of issues affecting the future of the Australian music sector. Through its mediated sessions, it will at the very least generate a set of valuable ideas for future action to guide the sector towards 2020 and beyond. Equally importantly, the ideas and recommendations will emerge from a consensus of more than a hundred knowledgeable people, who through the mediating process are encouraged to identify with ("own") these ideas.