Play it forward
- 24 Jul 2015
While contemplating what a thriving music industry might look like in five to ten years from now, QMusic Executive Officer Joel Edmondson proposes greater collaboration is needed to solve the music industry’s biggest challenges...
Music is the heartbeat of everyday life, and has been for as long as there have been communities of human beings seeking meaning and togetherness.
The sustainability of the contemporary popular music industry in Queensland is currently challenged by a complex range of interrelated challenges. Internet piracy and the growing dominance of subscription streaming services like Spotify have decimated artist income from recorded music. Live performance fees are touted as the panacea, but changing liquor licensing laws across the country mean that it is becoming increasingly difficult to stage live music in nightclubs, bars and pubs. The small to medium sector, which makes up about 99 per cent of the contemporary popular music industry in Australia, will be further devastated by proposed changes to arts funding at the Federal level.
I believe that the music industry will only deliver the true scale of its potential benefits to our society when its systemic complexity is managed strategically by a taskforce involving all levels and portfolios of government, music industry organisations and digital innovators. Not only is the music industry itself complex, but it is also deeply embedded in so many other parts of the economy. Hospitality, retail, tourism and education are but a few of the sectors that need a thriving music industry to succeed. Complex systems demand fully integrated solutions. Piecemeal approaches have unintended consequences in complex systems, as we are already seeing in the music economy.
A cohesive approach will only be possible if facilitated collaboration happens on a grand scale, using some integrated conceptual model of the music economy as its basis. The concept of music cities as the foundation of an integrated music economy is useful. Music Canada’s recent publication ‘The Mastering of a Music City’ demonstrates how this has been successfully accomplished in other places, including Melbourne. Brisbane has the fundamentals in place to become a major international music city, but the full potential for flow-on benefits to the rest of the economy is latent due to the absence of a concerted, collaborative effort.
Seven years ago I left the arts and higher education sectors and entered the world of organisational change management, eventually specialising in organisational culture and leadership development. The common thing I observed during that time is that collective attempts to change are primarily undermined by the inability of individuals (mainly leaders) to understand that their behaviour and decisions impact the broader system or network of stakeholders. Blind determination to protect established personal interests can sometimes be the culprit, even when those individual needs would be better served in the long-term by the collective benefit that the desired change is attempting to realise. More often than not, though, people just don’t seem able to see the bigger picture.
As fundamental and insurmountable as the problem of human self-interest seems to be, I believe that the necessary collaboration is possible if a mindset shift takes place, stimulated by an improved understanding of what the music economy actually is and how different stakeholders influence it. I take great inspiration from the time I spent in Edinburgh in 2006 and 2007 working on music projects designed to improve the collective problem-solving skills of children with developmental disorders. With all their perceived limitations, those children were able to overcome many of their own internal conflicts and social problems by working together. If they can do it, why can’t we?
Ultimately, all social change starts with people who are willing to perceive the world differently and act accordingly. I see stimulation of this change process as a key challenge in my role as the QMusic Executive Officer. As ambitious as it seems, nothing less will suffice.
It seems fitting that a unified approach is required to ensure the sustainability of something that gives us such collective joy.
Joel is a Brisbane-bred musician engaged in a life-long exploration of the role music can play in meaningful social, economic, political and spiritual change. After completing his undergraduate studies at Griffith University, Joel was awarded the Scotland Scholarship by the British Council. He completed his Masters in Music in the Community at the University of Edinburgh. During this time he won numerous awards for his design of innovative musical instruments for children with developmental disorders. In recent years, Joel has further developed his skills as a creative change facilitator, implementing strategic reform across the not-for-profit and local government sectors. Joel was also a founding director of the Red Hill DIY venue Hangar, and its artist-run label, LoFly Records. He joined QMusic as the Executive Officer in January 2015.
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