In response to a viral tweet from artist Jack River.
Just when touring was back on the cards for Australian artists, COVID-19 once again, pulled the rug out from under us. After yet another wave of lockdowns, musician Jack River, whose real name is Holly Rankin, put out a plea to Channel 7, asking why they didn’t play Australian music during the Olympics, one of the most-watched television events in the country. It was from this social media post that Our Soundtrack Our Stories was born.
The key takeaways
- A new initiative has been launched between music industry organisations and companies to play Australian artists on local media and in local businesses.
- Our Soundtrack Our Story started after a viral post from Jack River (Holly Rankin) to Channel 7 for better Australian representation in the music played at the Olympic Games.
- The call-to-arms asks for business owners, musicians and consumers to get involved and support Australian music.
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Sometimes all it takes is someone asking the question to spur on a movement. After Jack River’s social media post, big players in the music industry such as ARIA, APRA AMCOS, Mushroom Group, Universal Music Group Australia and Music Victoria have created a call-to-arms in the hopes of championing local artists.
Basically, the initiative is asking for Australian media and businesses to get behind homegrown music which asks the corporate world to get involved in providing greater reach and more royalty revenue for our artists.
The movement has already started to gain momentum, with Coles Radio announcing their support to play more Australian music on their nationally broadcast channel.
For business owners, the initiative asks that you sign up for a license, so that artists get paid properly and play a radio station or playlist in your workplace that champions local artists.
For musicians and consumers, they’ve created some social media assets to share with your friends and supporters, aimed to get the message out and create awareness around the campaign.
Recent figures through an I Lost My Gig survey shows over A$64 million in revenue has been lost since July 1st, 2021, which also revealed that 99% of that was uninsurable.
With this in mind, it’s important that we get behind our Australian musicians and artists to allow them to continue creating music for us to enjoy.
For more information on Our Soundtrack Our Story and to get involved, head to the ARIA website.
