UPDATE: This article originally stated that the government would no longer be funding Sounds Australia, including cutting off funding from the Australia Council. However, the Council will still proceed with funding Sounds Australia with $300,000 per year between 2017 and 2020.
Last week we reported on the devastating blow that has been dealt to Australia’s independent musicians after the government revealed they would no longer fund Sounds Australia, the market development initiative aimed at helping young musos spread their music overseas.
It followed on from events in May, when the government’s Catalyst program spent up to half of its four-year funding allocation in less than a week, doling out more than $20 million in grants to already cashed-up organisations like The Australian Ballet, but not Sounds Australia.
As The Music Network reported at the time, the Australia Council, the country’s premier governing body for doling out arts grants, eventually confirmed that they would be giving $300,000 in funding to Sounds Australia each year between 2017 and 2020.
But whilst the Australia Council funding is secure, it was confirmed last week that the federal government’s Ministry of Arts would no longer provide funding for Sounds Australia as of the end of this year. The confirmation came via a statement from Tony Burke, the Shadow Minister for the Arts.
What’s fascinating and frankly disheartening is that the confirmation comes as news outlets are reporting on the result of the government’s long-awaited National Opera Review, an examination of “artistic vibrancy, engagement with audiences and financial positions of opera” in Australia.
Opera, as The Music notes, is responsible for less than a tenth of the ticketing revenue generated by contemporary live music in Australia, which doesn’t include music festivals. Opera brings in just $42 million compared to more than $600 million by the rest of the sector.
Yet somehow the government’s review still recommended Australia’s four major opera companies receive more than $24 million in extra federal funding over the next four years. That’s considerably more than the $300,000 Sounds Australia was hoping for.
As The Guardian reports, the $24.14 million sum would be put towards core funding for Australia’s four major opera companies, as well as $1.2 million to be allocated towards an annual “innovation fund” to support the creation of new works.
The only bright spot in the whole review was the recommendation that Opera Australia no longer be funded for commercial enterprises such as the many prominent musicals it puts on as they are, y’know, commercial pursuits which already make money for the organisation.
Seemingly, the government considers exporting Australia’s vibrant contemporary music scene overseas to be a needless expense, even as Australia’s homegrown artists become more and more prominent on the world stage, but there’s enough spare coin to go funnelling it into opera.
