Greetings from Queenstown

Post CCi Conference, now visiting New Zealand's Queenstown Winter Festival, where music is everywhere, of outstanding quality and indeed - musicians are highly respected and well paid (and actually, the FOH and technical people put on as much a show as the stage musicians - more like DJs, totally into the music; cool to hang out by the desk).

In fact, New Zealand rates music and cultural policy at the top of government policy, yet with a population so much smaller than Australia's. Something the Australian Rudd government might want to think about, given the country's first and only cultural policy hasn't been progressed much since the Keating Government's work in 1994. Creative Nation II, anyone? Hon. Garrett MP?

Some great jazz and original music in one of the Skyline Gondola restaurant venues, from Anna Whitaker and the Company Band:

Meanwhile, in another room, an incredible cross of Bob Marley-meets-James Brown – funky, loud and just amazing music from NZ's Tahuna Breaks:

Post CCi Conference: Brisbane, June 2008

Had a great time at the CCi 'Creating Value: Between Values & Commons', the international conference of the ARC Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation, with several papers presented and published from staff of the Queensland Conservatorium (links to abstracts and papers, below). 

Mine was a piece oriented around the issues that come in music licensing and its implications for education in Australian universities, Who’s really doing the stealing? How the music industry’s pathological pursuit of profit and power robs us of innovation (perhaps of interest, in the light of the recent Fête de la Musique discussion).

Matt Hitchcock, leader of the Bachelor of Music Technology program presented his work on web 2.0 and collaborative on-line learning in his paper, Making music together: The blending of an on-line learning environment for music artistic practice. 

And Don Lebler, leader of the Bachelor of Popular Music program co-authored a piece in collaboration with international education guru Prof Eric McWilliam, entitled Aligning curriculum, pedagogy and assessment for building creative capacity in undergraduate students: a case study from the con. 

BCC & APRA - Right of Reply to Fete de la Musique:

In the interests of open commentary, below are posted responses from Brisbane City Council and APRA:

Subject: Fete de la Musique

Hi Mr Draper,

I read your comments about Fete de la Musique in the Courier Mail with interest yesterday. I just thought I'd forward on Brisbane City Council's response to your letter so you're aware of our reasoning as well.

Brisbane City Council in partnership with Brisbane Marketing, Alliance Francaise, and supported by Courier Mail, rolled out Fete de la Musique on 21 June for the first time in Brisbane. The event attracted a broad diversity of musical genres and talents from school choirs through to renowned Brisbane jazz groups and international artists. The underlying ethos of the international event is to celebrate and represent the ‘grassroots’ music and arts community.

Fete de la Musique was held in 340 cities worldwide over the weekend, who all staged the event in a similar format.

The program format was developed in consultation with Alliance Francaise - the body who hold the international rights to presenting the event and in direct consultation with the Cultural Attache from the Embassy of France. Involvement in Fete de la Musique saw Brisbane artists participating in an international celebration of music. The charter of the Brisbane program was provided by the international partners which clearly outlined the terms of engagement with artists.

Fete de la Musique provided the opportunity for artists at any professional level the opportunity to perform and take part in a citywide and worldwide celebration of music. All artists participating in the program did so of their own volition and the response from participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

All 290 artists were fully aware that no payment would be forthcoming. Participation in the program generated a genuine sense of community spirit which has been clearly expressed through correspondence received from artists after Saturday's event.

Brisbane City Council offers many paid opportunities for artists through initiatives such as the City Entertainment Program, including weekly lunchtime concerts in City Hall, major community festivals such as Stylin' UP, regular brass and concert bands in public parks, schools engagement initiatives, and other community development projects throughout the year.

The event was only made possible by the contribution of many volunteers including staging, technical, and organisational staff. Brisbane City Council is looking to present Fete de la Musique in 2009 and will do so based on the international charter provided by the international body responsible for the event.

Damian Hubert from Alliance Francaise has also supported Council’s involvement with this year’s event in the following statement:

(In Fete de la Musique) the musicians are asked to perform for free, and all the concerts are free for the public. Fête de la Musique encourages the major music institutions (orchestra, operas, choirs, etc.) to perform outside their usual locations. These kind of institutions can also welcome other types of music. In this way it offers an opportunity to develop exchanges between city centres and their outlying areas, to promote encounters and exchanges between young musicians and well-known talents.

Courtney Lock
Media Relations Officer
Marketing and Communications
Brisbane City Council
Ph: 07 3403 5406
Fax: 07 3407 2947
Email: courtney.lock@brisbane.qld.gov.au
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Comments from APRA (Australian Performing Right Association):

Hi Paul, 

further to your comments, I just wanted to clairfy that I was on the Committee of the MusicFest which brought Fete de la musique to Australia in Sydney in 2006. This was because I was a past Committee member of Alliance Fancaise de Sydney and at APRA. APRA supported the project by promoting it to members and venues who were all volunteers, as was the organising committee. We had volunteers also design an amazing website which allowed performers and venues to register their interest and create the programme. APRA was not involved per se as you say iun your blog. Sydney council cooperated in providing some venues for performances in Hyde Park and some other council buildings. The idea and how it is practiced around the world is that it is one day of the celebration of the performance of music for free in unlikely venues. In Sydney we put on performances in ferries, in parks, building foyers, hsopitals, etc. This year however, MusicFest in Sydney transferred back to the Alliance as we lost some of the committee members and the cost of public liablility insurance and time became too much. Also, the weather in Sydney on the winter solstice was not like in your fiar city. You also have the Valley which is a perfect area for outdoor performances - we were hampered by regulations regarding performing in public.

As for your notion that performers were paid in France - this is not the case and I am surprised you would rely on wikipedia as an information source for this. Check out http://fetedelamusique.culture.fr/87_English.html which gives you mroe accurate information. I will also send you some information by email on the event hyere and abroad. We would hope that the Qld Con would see the value of the idea and support it, as the Sydney Con did here. The irony of making such an empassioned plea for payment of the performers at this free event in the context of a panel for Creative Commons was not lost on me....

Scot Morris. APRA 

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More on Brisbane's Fête de la Musique

FYI, and many thanks to Sean O'Boyle & Lyndon Terracini for taking this up with Brisbane Marketing. Sean wrote:

 . . .  someone passed me your email, I was at a dinner with some heavyweights that Brisbane Marketing organised and I bought up the very point you're making. Lyndon Terracini also got stuck in. I think the message is loud and clear. The guys who organised it at Bris Marketing are quite low on the food chain and I don't think that the "non-payment" ever filtered to the top. John Aitken is a good bloke and he will be putting the right changes in place.

Would also appear that the Australasian Performing Right Association Australia (APRA) had a fair role to play in bringing this event to Australia, given the fairly heated lunchtime debate about this today at the Creative Commons Conference at the State Library of Queensland. APRA refuted the facts as argued below (last blog post).

Also interesting to note that someone has subsequently altered the Fête de la Musique charter as posted at Wikipedia re. the terms of playing for free . . .
Here's the change made at 14.32 today - http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fête_de_la_Musique&diff=221405971&oldid=221205313

And some fairly nasty following anonymous posts to the last blog entry, including comments about the Conservatorium not paying performing artists, etc. (Although I should add, many more emails from musicians around the country in support). And so, I think that's likely enough of that for me. Sean & Lydon have weighed in well, so many thanks to them again. I think we made our point.

The Fate of Fête de la Musique?

I was disappointed to hear from Brisbane City Council's (BCC) Fête de la Musique organisers that no musicians were paid for any of the large number of performances held across Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) this last weekend, 21 June. 

The organisers cited 'how wondeful it was' that musicians could 'expose' themselves to audiences, cited this tired old line while claiming that free performances were part of the strict terms of the Fête de la Musique 'World Music' international charter. An extract of this charter is posted on the BBC website.

However, this misrepreents the terms of this international charter by what it omits, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fête_de_la_Musique. Many free concerts are organized, making all genres of music accessible to the public. One of the caveats to being sancioned by the official Fete de la Musique organization in Paris that,

. . . all concerts must be free to the public. It's not required that musicians play for free, though many [may choose to] do so.

However, here in Brisbane, in the so-called 'smart state', while no musicians were paid, BBC origanisers revealed that the hire companies, sound equipment, lighting and staging operators etc were paid. It was also clear that Brisbane City Mall public traffic was up enormously and that many retailers saw increased sales though this public engagement, bought about by the performances of many of Brisbane's variously up-and-coming musicians or established acts.

Suggestions: retail might consider contributing to the costs of artist's fees and/or other value-adding through cross-subsidisation or promotions?

Well past time Brisbane grew up in respect to valuing its art, and that BCC took stock of is ethical stance and rewarded its communities - inlcuding artists - instead of only mutlinational industries and local goverments who take avantage of artist's IP and music content. 

Is this really what the council and goverment means by 'creative industries' as expressed in these actions?