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.

The Think Tanks will consist of small working groups of 15-20 industry experts and have the aim of identifying best practices and principles to increase Australia’s performance in the digital music area. Membership of the working groups will consist of carefully selected experts.

These are full-day meetings (running from 10:00am-4:30pm). Through a facilitated process, participants will address the most pressing issues in the digital music sector; identify areas where there are knowledge gaps, opportunities for co-operative action and industry-partnered research. Outcomes from the Digital Music Think Tanks will be publicly disseminated.

The series will work its way along the value chain, as you will see below.

There will be no charge for participation. However, participants will have to meet their own travel expenses. There may be a few assisted airfares to the Brisbane session, for artists only.

Organising Committee

Julian Knowles, Rob Appel, Phil Graham, Dick Letts, Michael Smellie

Dates, Themes and Locations

1. May 9–Brisbane (QUT–A Block, Level 3, Room 330, Cnr of Musk Avenue and Victoria ParkRoad, Kelvin Grove Campus.) map
   Artists, Managers, Venues and Agents
2. June 12–Sydney (APRA, 16Mountain Street, Ultimo.) map

Labels and Publishers.
3. July 24–Melbourne (APRA Melbourne office, 3-5 Sanders Place, Richmond, VIC.) map
   ISPs, Distribution, Promotion and Retail.
4. August 28–Brisbane (QUT – A Block,Level 3, Room 330, Cnr of Musk Avenue and Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove Campus)
   Selected group will pull together conclusions from the previous forums.

Briefing Papers