This report, by Graham Strahle, analyses the size, frequency and type of live music reviews included in major Australian newspapers.  Over three months, six major newspapers were surveyed, demonstrating that some states are fairing better than others when it comes to performance criticism.  Strahle also points out that the quality of music criticism varies, with some articles being previews, promotional or journalistic articles.  Some music reviews have been written without the writer attending the actual performance.  For the full report and findings click here.

This report is concerned with Government funding of new classical music at a state and federal level, so that new music can continue to be created, presented and documented.  The report is a preliminary step towards further investigations into the adequacy of new music funding.  This is the first time that a national mapping survey of funding to new music has been attempted.  In undertaking this project, one of the initial objectives was to identify geographic and/or chronological trends if they are occurring. However the difficulty of obtaining a full set of data was one of the chief concerns of this project. A complete national picture of new music funding was simply not possible. This is because those grant agencies do not employ data systems that allow target data to be accessed.  Obviously, better systems would be of benefit not only for internal auditing purposes but also for any external research.

The larger objective of the project is to contribute towards a better understanding of the long-term sustainability of new music creation and performance. Its fluid and constantly changing nature means that established grant funding categories and criteria might not continue to serve it adequately or optimally.   What the project reveals is a lack of a common understanding about the sector variously labelled as ‘new music’, ‘new classical music’ or ‘new art music’. A consistent terminology is needed, as this would avoid a large amount of confusion that presently exists. A uniformly adopted definition, such as that used in this report, would enable clearer distinctions to be drawn between this and other styles or sectors of music, such as jazz, contemporary, rock, pop. Industry development of new music will continue to be inhibited as long as this lack of clarity exists. At the same time, the plurality of artistic practice that has developed in new music in recent decades needs to be fully recognised in the development of any long-term strategies for sustaining it as a sector.

The immediate outcome of this study would hopefully be that all funding agencies are encouraged to continue to provide statistics to add further to the body of data so far collected. Over time, the resulting body of data could be a worthwhile resource that assists in agencies’ strategic thinking. Essential to this strategic thinking would be a more coordinated approach between the state and federal governments. How this research might proceed further is open to general input and discussion.

To read the full report, click here.

A study carried out for UNESCO by the International Music Council with involvement of the MCA through its Executive Director, Richard Letts, who was the Principal Investigator. It includes information from Australia.

June 2006

This is a major and complex study involving some 50 consultants from all five continents. It was commissioned by UNESCO, which has a position in support of cultural and therefore musical diversity, in a period in which one of its great priorities is the adoption of its Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The UNESCO interest in cultural diversity has been present virtually since its inception. It has adapted to changing circumstances over the years but at present, it is probably fair to say that its current interest arises in part from a concern that diversity is being diminished.

There are various ways in which musical diversity might be threatened. Especially in music, globalisation brings with it an ever-spreading power of a relatively homogeneous western-sponsored pop music, backed by enormous marketing budgets. This music can displace local musical traditions. Local musical traditions that grew from the circumstances of rural life can weaken as rural life changes or as rural populations drift to the cities. Governments faced with multiple ethnicities within their populations may seek their assimilation into a single cultural identity in the interests of national cohesion. Religious fundamentalism may seek to silence music completely.

The first six sections of the study are these:

1.      Musical diversity and human rights                                   

2.      Musical diversity and sustainable development         

3.      Musical diversity and peace                                            

4.      The standards regulating musical diversity                         

5.      Musical diversity and the imposition of a monoculture

6.      Musical diversity, the musicians, and identity  

The seventh section, ‘Musical diversity: challenges and responses’, is a compendium of the challenges to the protection and promotion of music diversity within the private sector, civil society, government and the international sphere.

A set of appendices follows. It includes a listing of the international agreements protecting cultural rights and a survey of the reports on a number of projects supporting music development in developing countries.

Then there are appendices, each one from a different country or region in the Arab world, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study is therefore a sort of matrix. The main report is organised around themes and how they manifest in various geographical areas. The appendices is organised around nations and regions and how all of the themes manifest in each one.

To read the main report, click here.

To read the appendices, click here.

Conducted by the Music Council of Australia for the Statistics Working Group of the Cultural Ministers Council.

Investigators: Hans Hoegh-Guldberg, Economic Strategies Ltd, and Dr Richard Letts, Music Council of Australia P/L.

With contributions from members of the Music Council of Australia, and the Music Council of Australia Network.

Published here is a summary by Hans Hoegh-Guldberg of the research paper, under the title "Statistical light dawns on the music sector," published in the Music Council journal, Music Forum Vol. 11 No. 2, February 2005. The authors believe that this formulation includes a couple of world-firsts: a comprehensive model of the music sector with as its main categories in the value chain, creation, production, and delivery. It also includes a socio-cultural value chain, to capture the non-economic value music has to society.

To read the article about the study, click here.

To read the study itself, click here.

A study commissioned by the ManyMusics Program of the International Music Council, Paris, and carried out by the Music Council of Australia.

The ManyMusics program of the International Music Council is concerned with fostering musical diversity across the planet.

There is not a lack of musical diversity. Every one of thousands of cultures has music that is distinctive and an important aspect of its identity.

The ManyMusics program would not have been undertaken were there not a perceived threat to this diversity. The perceived threat comes from "globalisation" in its current manifestation.

This study looks at the effects of globalisation on local musics. It especially examines the potential effects of free trade treaties that could deprive governments of the right to give special support to the cultural sector.

Globalisation has been with us for centuries and in hindsight, we can see that musical cultures have been strengthened, altered, extinguished as military or commercial victors exerted their influence or more benignly, simply as one culture came into contact with another.

The urgency felt in this present phase of globalisation probably results from its pace and pervasiveness. In music it is there for (nearly) all to hear in the market and share-of-mind dominance of international popular music promoted across the globe mainly by five transnational record companies based in Europe, the USA and Japan. This music is seen to spread at the cost of local musics -- although there are additional causes for a weakening of local musics perhaps not so directly attributable to globalisation.

This is an enormous subject. What actually are the effects of globalisation on local musics? Despite the obvious fact that the effect of globalisation is the subject of this investigation, the Investigators volunteered relatively little evidence in their respective countries. Given the intensity of the concern, it is surprisingly difficult to produce clear examples. For instance, a lot of change results from urbanisation, and the most evident causes of urbanisation might appear to be local rather than global.

This small project seeks to shed some light by looking at circumstances in five contrasting countries – not so much in order to compare them, but rather to see to what extent globalisation works differently in differing circumstances.

Investigators were engaged in each of the five countries and asked to answer general questions about the structures of musical life in their countries, the role of governments, international trade and exchange of music, and the effects of globalisation with special regard to the actual or potential effects of trade liberalisation treaties. As might be expected, we do not have a tidy set of comparable statistics from the participating countries. So the study is a mixture of statistical data, as available, and factual and impressionistic information. Accepted in those terms, I believe it throws some interesting light on the effects of globalisation on music in the extraordinarily differing circumstances of these countries.

The study was commissioned by and carried out with funding provided by the International Music Council, Paris. The Music Board of the Australia Council also made a small financial contribution.

Richard Letts

Principal Investigator

Click here to read the report (2.7Mb PDF Format)

Australian radio broadcasters operate under self-regulatory codes of practice that include minimum quotas for Australian music.

These quotas are vigorously defended by the music community as being critical to the preservation of a local musical culture and industry, and it is regularly argued that the minimum amount of Australian music to be played by broadcasters should be increased.

The benefits of airplay may appear to be obvious. The payola scandals in the USA, past and present, demonstrate a strong belief on the part of the record companies that airplay brings sales. However, it would contribute usefully to the debate over this policy if evidence were established to support the fundamental presumptions about the role of local content regulation in developing and maintaining an Australian musical practice.

In particular, this research has particularly sought to establish evidence of the effect of the local content requirements as mapped against the changes in those requirements. It is presumed that collection of such evidence will assist in assessing their ongoing utility and suggest potential future amendments.

Click here to read the report

Associate Professor Dr Michael Hannan of Southern Cross University was engaged to research the scope and circumstances of careers in music or music-related activity. He has compiled information about nearly 200 work categories. The research was completed in June 2002, and will be published by the Music Council and the University of NSW Press in a book, An Australian Guide to Careers in Music, in February 2003.

Click here for information about the book, or to purchase

This study, completed in July 2003, collected data for public, Catholic and independent school systems in each of the eight states and territories, in order to ascertain trends in the provision of music education in schools. It has assembled a great deal of information about the provision of music education, but discovered yawning gaps in the data even about current circumstances. Because of the lack of data from past years, it was not possible to illustrate national trends in most aspects of the provision.

Nevertheless, serious issues do arise from the data, such as the lamentably meagre tertiary music training of primary classroom teachers, who in most states bear the responsibility for teaching music to primary school children.

Associate Professor Robin Stevens of Deakin University, and also currently Chair of the Australian Association for Research in Music Education, has been the Principal Investigator in this most important data-collection project.

He was assisted by State Investigators:

ACT: Gavin Findlay

NSW: Dr Pauline Beston and Dr Anne Power

NT: Nora Lewis

QLD: Dr Andrew Brown

SA: Suzanne Rogers

TAS: Wendy Ross

VIC: Christine Oldham

WA: Andrea Stanberg

The project was jointly funded by the Music Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Music Association, Australian Arts Trust and Deakin University.

Click here to see the completed report

Click here to see the separate reports from the State Investigators for this project.

Click here to see Professor Stevens address: Why teach music in schools? Changing values since the 1850s