MEAA submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Australian Music Industry
These submissions are for musicians in Australia’s full time Orchestras and musicians working in the broader music industry.
These sectors drive our music industry, each facing different challenges. Our orchestras are internationally significant institutions that necessarily rely upon public funding to fairly serve audiences and communities across the country. Various features of the funding system have however resulted in them struggling to employ the number of musicians they need. We offer detailed recommendations to help restore and build our orchestras as key cultural and music industry institutions.
Musicians in the broader industry rely upon live performances in a huge variety of settings to make a living, mostly struggling on low incomes and needing second and third jobs to sustain their careers. While recent reports indicate increasing profitability in the recording and streaming segment of the industry, the vast majority of musicians are not benefiting from this growth. Instead, the musicians who sustain our industry, and the thousands of jobs it creates, are reliant on the live performance sector which is actually contracting. Adverse terms of trade measures also indicate an opportunity for Government to facilitate more support for local musicians.
Our recommendations direct Government attention to live music performance as the dominant part of the sector and an area where growth can be achieved with relatively straight forward reforms.
MEAA submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Australian Music Industry
Last update: October 25, 2018
