Transcript — Lightning Speech to Arts Queensland “Ministers Thought Lab” (7 Oct 2014)

At the invitation of Arts Queensland I was asked to present a short lightning speech on the topic “How we can address the challenge of identifying and meeting community and market demand without compromising diversity, innovation and originality in the production and distribution of Queensland Arts and Culture?”

This is a transcript of the speech. I spoke for myself and was not formally representing any organisations or affiliations with the sector.

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I would like to acknowledge the elders past & present — the Jagera and Turrbul people on whose lands we live, work and meet on today.

I would also like to personally acknowledge and pay my respects to the great depth of cultural strength, leadership, history and diversity of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

I work with contemporary music — pop, folk, country, indie, alternative rock and a toe in the water of hip hop and urban music — I work with contemporary, original musicians — young people under 30, Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists working together.

I have had a 20 plus year career, based in Brisbane — extreme highs (platinum records, awards, international travel) to the brutal economic lows delivered with the collapse of the economic model of the music industry.

I speak today as a music manager — whose own careers and businesses are inextricably linked to the PROFESSIONAL and PERSONAL successes and failures of a third party — our artists.

In Queensland currently there are approx 20 of us — deriving the majority of our earnings from a commission based income model. Managers can go for months with NO income, are often owed thousands of dollars from their artists (as they support the artists cash flow) and then earn the majority of their annual income in a matter of a month or so! It isn't for the feint hearted — no superannuation, paid leave, workers compensation or security. We thrive on the small wins, the rewards of facilitating the creative AND the market development processes that empower our artists to be the BEST they can be. Interestingly, Green Music Australia recently undertook some research that identified music managers as the MOST influential people in the sector hands down , with the lowest carbon footprint — so that’s a win!

I spoke recently at BIGSOUND (our annual gathering of the tribe — in 2014 it was bigger, more vital, more fierce, more fun and delivered more domestic & international opportunities than ever before — and I've been to all of them!) . The panel I participated in launched a “Code of Conduct” framework for new Australian Music Managers presented by the AAM — we are finally talking about ethics!

Without ethics artist managers don’t survive — our role in an artist’s life and career development is beyond “market development” “arts policy” “innovation” “originality” — to keep our job we need rock solid ethics — able to build foundations of trust, respect and integrity.

The two biggest challenges to OUR own businesses are

a) an artist can choose to walk away, change their life, may get ill or quit anytime and we are left with nothing but our skills, knowledge and the resilience to pick ourselves up again and many walk away from the sector and

b) we can invest years of time, expertise and money in to an artist career before they start to earn a dollar.

To turn now to the concept of “market demand” . Firstly, as a manager looking for “artist clients” there is NO SHORTAGE of amazing music and talent. However, good managers are few and can only generally resource managing 2–3 artist projects over a number of years. I would personally, receive between 5–20 approaches a week from artists looking for management. Of which about 50% are Queensland artists.

Secondly, I would like to suggest there is GREAT RISK in strategies that invest resources into trying to “predict” market trends — ie a particular, sound, style, genre is “where the market is going next”. Artists, managers, record labels, marketers that chase these trends are all ending up, quicker than ever on the “where are they now?” pile.

To develop strategies to market music you need to understand the importance of CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT — this can take months or years — and without the following 7 ingredients (reference: John Watson Eleven “Snowball” keynote speech approx 1998) there is an extremely high risk of failure — due to lack of momentum or any traction with an audience:

The first 5 ingredients we CAN control — they can be learned, crafted and supported :

1. GREAT songs

2. GREAT vocal performance

3. Strong instrumental performance

4. Compelling image

5. A Story

Then add 2 variable ingredients that are out of our control

6. Luck and

7. Timing

Once an artist is ready for the marketplace there are a number of challenges that managers are currently wrestling with :

1. Content Content CONTENT! Feeding the beast of news feed consumption

2. Shorter and shorter product release cycles

3. Less residual income between release cycles

4. Decimated royalty streams in general due to piracy, digital streaming etc

5. Content ownership/control by third parties

6. Rising costs of touring.

Having said that working in the current paradigm of music marketing a number of key opportunities have emerged including:

1.Fan/Audience led marketing — direct sharing, recommending and able to measure “stickiness” quickly and react accordingly. The artists voice is stronger and more direct in these relationships then I have ever seen.

2. Courting strong personal relationships with “champions” — not so much anymore “who you know” as “who loves what you do and tells other people”

3. Market Intelligence supported by technology we have access to information in real time like never before as to what works (or doesn't) eg Google and social media analytics, Shazam charts, Next Big Sound, Music Klout etc etc

4. International markets can be reached simultaneously and quickly — through digital distribution, the blogsphere and social media generally

5. The quality of contemporary Indigenous music, seeing it increasingly being embraced by “mainstream” media and reaching broader audiences, no longer tethered by segregated festival/venue programming

6. Awareness of value based marketing — telling stories not just selling the product

7. Negotiating marketing outcomes into contracts and agreements to benefit BOTH parties eg industry events, festivals, product launches, TV campaigns and even funding agreements

8. Seeding creative collaborations to drive new products into the market and build on existing combined audiences

In conclusion I was asked to float some ideas for what you as government, business, education and thought leaders in the cultural sector could choose to do activate demand for the high level of artistic output we have in Queensland.

1. Trust and invest in the creative processes and “meritocracy” of the independent arts sector. We do this well, empower us, engage with us, learn from us, celebrate with us, tell our stories to the world.

2. Respect and invest in emerging, mid-career and established managers, creative producers, curators etc to build a bigger pool of representation and know-how to exploit our artists products in the smartest way

3. Support and resource Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in decisions making processes and leadership roles in the arts

4. Invest in arts and corporate relationship building through networking event and meaningful sector engagement for participation in shared understanding for mutually beneficial outcomes.

5. Understand the modern copyright landscape with regard to content creation and ownership. Understand why it is important to put the ARTISTS need for control and ownership at the centre — it is the only superannuation they have, their rights.

Thank you Arts Queensland for asking me to speak today and all of you for listening — I look forward to hearing and learning from the other speakers and participating today.