The last Shade for 2020

It’s been a year… A year of frustration, confusion, change, gains and losses…

A lot of people got hurt this year as the entire Australian music industry went into shutdown because of the global pandemic we call the Rona’

Being the resilient musicians that we are, we moved to online methods of delivering our craft and stood up to government regulations at any point we could but ultimately, their focus seemed to be more on allowing 50,000 drunk punters into a closed stadium yelling and screaming at each other following “strict” social distancing measures (what a joke!) than allowing more than 10 people to stand in a venue for a musician….. Because, sports…

What we learned was two things really… First is a musician’s ability to make shit happen when it needs to by being creative to make ends meet.

We saw countless live streams, online gigs, streaming festivals and so many creative efforts to deliver music live, keeping the dream alive and warm while we wait for it to return to venues.

The other thing we learned was, the music industry seems to still have a stigma of helping their own cliques rather than to help the industry as a whole.

50,000 people in a stadium in the middle of a pandemic happened because the Australian sporting industry works together for a common goal. Music in Australia seems to still thrive heavily on knocking their own down to get to the next rung which ultimately, hurts the industry as a whole.

I’m not going to deep dive this one on a point-by-point like I normally would BUT have a think about it for a minute. If you look closely, you have Music Shops feuding with each other over brands in stores, Artists feuding with each other over spots on bills, Venues feuding over events being held on the same night, Artists feuding with Venues because they all only seem to have a “small budget for now but as it picks up, we can pay more” mentality… Shit, even local town Facebook groups are fighting with each other because they happen to be doing the same thing as the other…. Which is Supporting Music!?!

Confusing as it is, a lot of this is just business BUT that should not affect every interaction. Regardless of competition in Business, the connection to music should be an overall point of support… Which unfortunately, doesn’t seem to exist in all facets of the Australian Music Industry….

So…

What now?……

2021… The year of change… The year we all stand up, change the game, support each other unconditionally and grow as an industry… Bit of a pipe dream as many have preached this for a long time BUT we are keen if you are 🙂

We primarily support Rural and Regional artists from all around Australia… Send us your work, promo, media releases etc… We will support you!