Note: The slides for this presentation are available via SydneyMusic's Patreon.

I was invited to facilitate a couple of discussions at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music across two sessions.

Both classes were incredible - there were a lot of really insightful and often very candid thoughts shared, and I was excited that the topics resonated.

In the discussion we covered:

  • Why do we / should we care about live music?

  • Current sentiments on live music as enthusiasts and performers

  • What defines a "healthy" or "unhealthy" ecosystem? What can work against us having a healthy ecosystem?

  • What can we do about it?

  • What's SydneyMusic.net trying to do about it?

To explore this further we looked at:

  • What goes into making a music scene feel more "connected"?

  • Do we have a demand problem in Sydney right now? (i.e. do we get enough punters out to shows? does live music matter to enough people right now?

  • DIY vs industry channels

  • I shared my thoughts on how the business models of digital platforms are designed, informed from my experience working as a tech leader at the height of "digital disruption" in media.

  • We talked about how platforms changing the rules for reach and discoverability ultimately means the artists are creating for the platforms

Some thoughts that the students shared (loosely represented from notes taken on post-its):

  • There's heaps of stuff happening in terms of number of events, but what about the turnout?

  • Infrastructure is poor - it often feels like venues and artists aren't looking for the same thing

  • Different types of spaces radically impact the kind of art that can be performed and created (sounds like what Daz Cross was talking about when he discussed the difficulty of playing "ecstatic folk guitar" in pubs)

  • "Social media has cornered us" - a focus on volume, growth, "ever-changing" and trends and techniques ("unsustainable") - means artists become more and more conditioned to follow formulas.

  • "You need people to have life" - but the internet disrupted connections between people

  • A deeply felt need for "more engagement, support, knowledge sharing and collaboration"

  • "It's easier to stick to your crew"

There was a lot of beautiful passion for community. But the cohorts I spoke to definitely felt the weight of the world they're living in.

Thanks to Nerdie for his thoughts about how "I feel like in music today there are no songs, just vibes", recorded from SydneyMusic Social #2 back in May.