Watch the full video here
Future Audiences – Are Young People Into Live Music?
Live and online forum presented by the ALMBC with The Push, QMusic, Association of Artist Managers (AAM) and Gyrostream.
Tuesday 28 May 5.30pm for a 6pm start.
Speakers
Kriza Canzon
Gyrostream
Kriza Canzon is the Royalties, Copyright and Data Manager at GYROstream & DistroDirect. By day, Kriza is helping artists by taking care of the day to day Royalties and Copyright areas of Distro—by night you can catch her playing gigs in multiple local Brisbane bands all around South East Queensland. Kriza’s background in digital communications, live music, and her fast accelerating career within distribution makes her the ultimate person to talk to about all things Distro!
Claire Qian
Media Arts Lawyers
As the Local Music Programmer for Groovin The Moo Festival, Claire is at the forefront of Australia’s emerging music scene, where she is passionate about supporting local talent and accessible all-ages live music events.
Since starting as a FReeZA volunteer at 15, Claire’s six years experience in the industry now ranges from having been an artist and label manager for Push Records, curator of multiple Sidney Myer Music Bowl shows and booker for Groovin The Moo. Now entering her last year of law school, Claire is also a Paralegal at Media Arts Lawyers.
Claire’s dedication towards understanding the nuanced challenges facing the music sector, and attention to new trends, has been recognised by The Push Inc through its ‘25 Under 25 – Best and Brightest New Faces of Australian Music 2022’.
Ixara
Anti Dismal
Ixaras is a queer Indie Pop Rock artist & songwriter raised in Meanjin Brisbane who champions her self expression through the art of music and live gigs. Alongside her melodic ear worms and incredibly thought provoking lyrics about the complexities of growing up and young love, Ixara emulates youth, inclusivity and accessibility with her all-ages, DIY event management and record label ‘Anti-Dismal’. This year Ixara’s live show and Anti-Dismal were taken to new heights where she has put on multiple sold-out shows across Brisbane (not a phone in sight) and freshly announced the record label arm of the company.
Lucy (Sugarman) Anh
Music ACT
Songwriting and performing on Ngunnawal Country since she was just 10 years old, Canberra’s Lucy Sugerman’s resume ranges from national TV, to folk festivals to songwriting for sync and advocacy for the music industry. Her sixth sense for storytelling coupled with a gift for crafting assured melodic hooks is a recipe for sweet pop that can still pack a punch. Lucy’s got two independently released EPs under her belt and has supported acts like Gretta Ray, LANKS, Sly Withers and John Farnham, and played on festival lineups like Groovin’ the Moo, Yours & Owls Festival and SummerSalt. At just 22, the self-managed artist possesses an impressive work ethic and dedication to staying honest to her art and herself – letting people into her world through relatable tales of her struggles and triumphs in romance and growing up, cathartically capturing the spirit in learning from your own experiences.
Outside of her work as a songwriter and performer, Lucy worked at Canberra music venue group UCLivex, overseeing programming and marketing for their venues and festivals including UC Refectory and Stonefest.
Lucy currently holds the role of Program Manager at MusicACT, delivering a myriad of professional development programs and advocating for the Canberra music industry at a local and state level.
Side quests include presenting a few episodes of TOPS on triple j Unearthed each month, and working alongside Dr Anna Hartman at the Australian National University on a study about live music market dynamics. Lucy is also (very very slowly) studying a Bachelor of Laws part-time at the University of Canberra.
Blutes Bar
322 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
All ages welcome. Under 18 must be accompanied by a guardian.
Accessible
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER in person or online
Introduction
Creative Australia released Soundcheck; Insights Into Australia’s Music Festival Sector on 9 April 2024.
Among other items, this included the anticipated but startling facts about the drop in young people purchasing tickets to festivals. This sits alongside anecdotal evidence of poor ticket sales for smaller live music venues across the country, and is juxtaposed by record-breaking speed and numbers of sales for larger international acts touring the country.
So what’s happening?
The ALMBC partners with key music industry orgs to hear directly from young music industry professionals as they unpack the current situation and look at what might be some short term and long term fixes.
Background
Australia Council for the Arts released Creating Our Future – its 4th Annual National Arts Participation Survey in August 2020.
The report provides critical evidence concerning the pivotal role arts and creativity play in Australian society, culture and social well-being.
Importantly, the results demonstrate that Live Music is the most commonly accessed Arts and Cultural activity by Australians and is critically important to younger Australians.
Also, nearly half of all Australians (48%) accessed Live Music in 2019 representing an increase of 5% since the survey started and 66% of young Australians access live music in order to ‘improve their wellbeing, understanding of other perspectives and culture, connect with the community and participate in the arts’.
Overwhelmingly, 76% of young Australians feel that ‘First Nations’ arts are an important part of Australian culture’.
One of the key consequences of the pandemic has been the impact on attendance at live shows be they local gigs, concerts or festivals.
Young people currently in the 18-24-year-old demographic, an extremely vital participant in live music historically, were denied the opportunity during the pandemic for live music to become part of their identity formation.
As such, gigs are not part of their weekly ritual and we are seeing fewer young people going to events overall.
Equally, mounting downward financial pressures across the economy are impacting those in the 25-34 age demographic who are being more ruthless with their discretionary spending.
Traditionally, these two age brackets have been the core of live music consumption in the market and we need to find ways to incentivise them back to the market.
The overall impact of this trend is that cash flow into the live sector is severely hampered and the level of risk for live music operators increases tenfold. Even if a show does eventually sell out, the trend towards late ticket purchases severely compromises the way businesses operate in the market so are likely to reduce their exposure by doing less events or finding other ways of reducing their overheads which has a flow-on effect on the whole music ecosystem.
Pre-reading
https://www.iq-mag.net/2023/06/uk-study-highlights-battle-for-next-generation/?mc_cid=d68e43e7f6&mc_eid=a7d8d14afc
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-65849904
Bolster Research https://aiforg.com/initiatives/first-festival/ and https://www.firstfestival.co.uk/
