In an industry where challenges can arise unexpectedly and explode into the public domain with velocity, understanding how to prevent, prepare for, mitigate and navigate crises effectively is paramount.  Join us on June 27 at the Music Market for an insightful discussion on Crisis Communications in the music industry, hosted by the Victorian Music Development Office (VMDO). 

We're thrilled to have Stacey Piggott, renowned publicist and leading crisis specialist from Daydream Nation, and Josh Bornstein, esteemed Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn and media superstar, sharing their expertise in navigating complex situations in the media in turbulent times. 

This discussion will empower music industry professionals with knowledge on how to:

• Expediently handle crises and effectively manage the flow of information. 

• Highlight the importance of the relationship between PR and legal when it comes to effective crisis strategy and management.

• The best vehicles for reaching the public quickly and ways to ensure facts prevail over misinformation. 

• The most effective way for an organization to communicate its wrongdoing. 

• How to avert a crisis altogether minimise damage. 

• The power of preparation and a plan.  

Stacey Piggott is the Director of Daydream Nation and one of the leading and most respected entertainment crisis communications strategists in the country, she has been the driving force behind the creation and execution of extremely successful, national PR campaigns for some of the country's most loved brands, music festivals, international and local artists, food and wine events, sports personalities, and comedians. 

Josh Bornstein is a Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, based in Melbourne. He is the national head of the firm’s Employment and Industrial Law department. Josh is one of the most accomplished and respected employment lawyers in the country. His first book, ‘Working for the Brand: how corporations are destroying free speech’ is scheduled for release in October.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided and there will be time for networking and to meet the presenters at the end. 

 If you have specific questions or topics you would like addressed during the session, please submit them through the ticket booking link.

Tickets are free but booking is essential.

Come to Music Market on May 7th to witness our latest Links event "Music, Games & the Future of Creativity". The event will involve short, conversational presentations from three creative professionals who are working with emerging technology, especially in a music industry context.

Sally Coleman is a musician, creative technologist and former Triple j Breakfast host. Her current project, Big Sand, is an animated band that uses Unreal Engine and motion capture to bring the characters to life. This event will be the world premiere of Sally's short documentary 'Chasing the Horizon: Creating the Big Sand Live Show'. The 20min film explores the development and broader industry opportunities of using game engines & motion capture for a live music performance, and was supported by the APRA AMCOS x Creative Australia Digital Futures Initiative.

Ego is a digital artist and creative technologist with 15 years experience in the music industry creating work for the likes of Matt Corby, Jessica Mauboy, DMA'S and Nina Las Vegas.
He'll talk about his work building a crowd-sourced, video game experience with Sydney producer Ninajirachi and more broadly about his work using video game engines to create interactive experiences within the music space and beyond.

Annette Vieusseux is a producer with two decades of experience with artists, arts companies, festivals and community projects. She’ll talk about takeaways as Exec Producer for the first Now or Never. What is she looking for in programming? What are industry challenges eg. skill gaps, suitable venues?

Each presentation will be followed by a 5-10min Q&A.

The event will have drinks provided and time to network and meet the presenters at the end.

Tickets are free but booking is essential.

Doors open at 4:30PM with the event starting at 5:00PM sharp.

Place: Music Market Event Space, Collingwood Yards (Find us HERE)

Refreshments will be provided.

GET YOUR FREE TICKET BELOW OR HERE

On April 11th we were joined by Susan Cotchin of Good Neighbour and Matt Bird of White Sky as they discussed everything we needed to know about the current state of Neighbouring Rights. With an annual global value estimated to be around $2.7bn, you'd think Neighbouring Rights would be a revenue stream everyone was over. And if it was, Susan Cotchin would have a lot more time on her hands. Instead, she has spent the last couple of decades tirelessly advocating both for a broader understanding within the industry and changes at the governmental level.

Conversation covered several issues, from how best to protect your rights and collect for you or your artist, to why Australians are missing out on millions compared to acts from other countries.

Do you know your monthlies from your followers? What is streaming best practice? How do you turn passive listeners into engaged fans? How can you benefit from marketing your music catalogue? Whether you’re an artist, manager or independent label, these are challenges you’re likely to be facing every day.

The State of Streaming: The Current Landscape and How to Navigate It will attempt to demystify the world of streaming by answering some of these questions and querying what the right ones to be asking even are. Sarah Hamilton, DSP Consultant for The Annex and Former Region Head of Ditto, will be joined by streaming specialist and former Spotify Senior Editor & Strategy Lead Peter Stevens, bringing their insight to the Music Market for a discussion regarding the current state of streaming, how best to utilise the platforms and what the immediate future might hold. Following this you can have the opportunity to ask your questions as we open the floor for a Q&A.

The event will be held at the Music Market Event Space at Collingwood Yards. Tickets are free but booking is essential. 

More info & RSVP

The Victorian Music Development Office (VMDO) and CLOCK Your Skills are offering Victorian music professionals the chance to discover, recognise and validate their skills with formal qualification credits.

We understand that there are highly skilled people working in the Victorian contemporary music community who may not recognise the significance of their experience acquired throughout their professional working lives.

The CLOCK Your Skills program aims to help music business professionals identify and consolidate their strengths and transferable skills as well as contribute to formalised qualifications. Their programs are open to professional creatives who want to validate their skills at a master’s level, irrespective of any previous formal qualifications.

The sessions will take place in-person at Music Market in Collingwood, VIC from March 22nd.

VMDO previously introduced CLOCK Your Skills to Australia through a program in 2020 and again in 2022. 

CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop

Do you want to better understand your skills and where they might take you?

As creatives we can take for granted or miss the value in the many integrated and transferable skills we acquire throughout a career.

The 3-hour CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop is a space where our team of CLOCK mentors help you:

1. Uncover your sector-specific and transferable skills

2. Recognise, appreciate, and value all the skills you have learned and developed in any context

3. Gain a deeper understanding of your strengths and use that insight to move forward with your creative projects and ideas with renewed confidence and belief

The CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop is suitable for anyone at any stage of their career. Whether you work in the Victorian music industry as an employee, freelancer, volunteer, trainee, intern, senior manager, or entrepreneur, come join us!

The Victorian Music Development Office (VMDO) and CLOCK Your Skills are offering Victorian music professionals the chance to discover, recognise and validate their skills with formal qualification credits.

We understand that there are highly skilled people working in the Victorian contemporary music community who may not recognise the significance of their experience acquired throughout their professional working lives.

The CLOCK Your Skills program aims to help music business professionals identify and consolidate their strengths and transferable skills as well as contribute to formalised qualifications. Their programs are open to professional creatives who want to validate their skills at a master’s level, irrespective of any previous formal qualifications.

The sessions will take place in-person at Music Market in Collingwood, VIC from March 22nd.

VMDO previously introduced CLOCK Your Skills to Australia through a program in 2020 and again in 2022. 

CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop

Do you want to better understand your skills and where they might take you?

As creatives we can take for granted or miss the value in the many integrated and transferable skills we acquire throughout a career.

The 3-hour CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop is a space where our team of CLOCK mentors help you:

1. Uncover your sector-specific and transferable skills

2. Recognise, appreciate, and value all the skills you have learned and developed in any context

3. Gain a deeper understanding of your strengths and use that insight to move forward with your creative projects and ideas with renewed confidence and belief

The CLOCK Skills Discovery Workshop is suitable for anyone at any stage of their career. Whether you work in the Victorian music industry as an employee, freelancer, volunteer, trainee, intern, senior manager, or entrepreneur, come join us!

Do you know what an ISRC is? Do you know how metadata relates to making money from your music? Do you know the difference between a publisher, a distributor, an aggregator and a digital service provider? Did you know that every year $US2.5 billion is not paid out to artists and rights holders due to inaccurate and incomplete metadata?

Many in the music industry answer no to some, if not all, of these questions. A place full of confusion, opaque practices, and inconsistent language.

As an artist, then a record label owner and now a technology company with Envoke Network, Merida Sussex has always tried to reconnect and re-engage artists with their music and their music business, and one of the direct ways to do this is re-connecting artists to their metadata, as artists are the source of information about their music.

Over the pandemic, Prof Ellie Rennie (RMIT University) and Merida have interviewed artists, labels, publishers and managers all over the world about their processes of creating and communicating metadata. This research and subsequent development was partly funded by the ARC Cooperation through Code research project, the Australia Council, and the VMDO.

At our next VMDO Links session, Ellie and Merida will discuss some of their findings and some of the practical tools and practices people can do to ensure that their metadata is accurate and complete. They will also be joined by one of the artist's they interviewed - N'fa Forster-Jones.

Join us at Music Market on Thursday 3rd November, 5pm – 7pm. 

Doors open from 5pm, panel starts at 5:30pm. The session will be followed by a music industry mixer. Drinks & nibbles will be provided.

This is a free event hosted by VMDO, and RSVP is required to attend. 

Join the VMDO for a networking lunch as part of this year’s Gold Sounds Music Conference in Castlemaine this October.

Attending Gold Sounds? We invite you to catch up with your fellow delegates and participants over a locally catered lunch in the foyer of the Phee Broadway Theatre.

Saturday 15 October, 1:05pm - 2:15pm.

Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine.

No need to RSVP, simply turn up.

More info about Gold Sounds Music Conference here.

Victorian music industry professionals are invited to join Marion Briand (YouTube Music ANZ) to discuss how to best strategise your next music release.

Marion will walk participants through different stages in a release cycle, providing best practices for each stage and demonstrating these in detail through case studies. Attendees learn the fundamentals of releasing music on YouTube and get support and insights first-hand through the Q&A session after the presentation. All participants will be provided with a release checklist at the end of the workshop.

Please note: the session can only be attended in person and will not be recorded.

More info & RSVP

Music Victoria and VMDO are delighted to invite you to the Victorian Meanjin Mixer at BIGSOUND 2022. 
Come down for lunch (on us!) and connect with your fellow BIGSOUND Conference attendees and Victorians artists who are in town for the occasion.

 The event will feature live performances from Forest Claudette, BIG WETT and Kee'ahn. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

More info & RSVP

Have you ever considered how many different skills you’ve picked up while working in the music industry, yet don't have the credentials to show for it?

We understand that there are highly skilled people working in the Victorian contemporary music community who may not recognise the significance of their experience acquired throughout their professional working lives. 

CLOCK is an international organisation providing learning and professional development programs designed to help everyone, regardless of background, recognise and accredit skills needed to work in different roles across the Creative Industries. 

For the next instalment of VMDO Links, join us for a panel discussion with international guests Denise Stanley, Michelle Escoffery, Claudia Matera and Ximo Peris from CLOCK, in conversation with N’fa Forster Jones, lecturer at Box Hill Institute. The team will be sharing more info about their work and mission to make invisible skills visible and valued.

More info & RSVP

The VMDO are partnering with Sounds Australia to present you with a week-long program, ‘Music Export in 2022’, which consists of an in-person VMDO Links networking event, followed by one-on-one meeting opportunities with a Sounds Australia export expert.

Connect with Sounds Australia’s Esti Zilber, Millie Millgate and Dom Alessio in person and hear about what the international export landscape looks like right now. If you’re looking to play internationally for the first time, or you’re restarting your export activity, this is the session for you. 

The session will be followed by a music industry mixer. Drinks & catering will be provided.

This is a free event. More info and RSVP.

If you have a business that is changing the way we create, consume, distribute or share the profits of music, we'd love to hear from you!

VMDO and Australian Institute of Music’s iHUB have launched a new initiative, the Music Startup Amplifier, which will offer new music startups access to knowledge, experience, industry expertise and opportunities during a 2-day bootcamp at Music Market this August.

Join us for an online info session about the program on Monday 18th July.

Hosts will walk you through how the program will work, selection criteria and answer any questions you might have regarding the application process.

Monday 18th July, 12pm - 1pm on Zoom.

More info & RSVP

MUS3 is a new educational initiative between VMDO and Reggie Ba-Pe from CLUB MEDIA, funded by Creative Victoria with additional support from Australia Council for the Arts, to share knowledge and introduce Web3 concepts to the music industry.

To kick things off, we’d like to invite the Victorian music industry to gather and discuss all things music and Web3 at our next VMDO Links networking event – MUS3 Mixer.

This is a casual meetup open to everyone interested in exploring the convergence of blockchain and music.

Whether you are a musician, manager, lawyer, graphic designer, label manager, publisher, filmmaker, developer, student or entrepreneur, this is the perfect opportunity to find and connect with like-minded people who share your vision and curiosity about Web3 in music. You’ll get to hear about the forthcoming MUS3 program and join our dedicated Music Web3 community in Victoria!

There will be free drinks, snacks, music and NFTs on display from Victorian artists. Bring your friends and prepare for some fun and inspiring conversations!

More info & RSVP

Have you ever had a great business idea and not known what to do next? 

There are smart ways to go about building a new business that will increase your chances of success. Teaching us some of the secrets will be Tristonne Forbes from Pathwize and co-founder of AIM iHub. Tristonne will present a 30-minute entrepreneur masterclass, talking through music startup need-to-knows and what it takes to foster innovative ideas. 

Following the masterclass, Tristonne will facilitate an in-conversation with Matt Allen, CEO and co-founder of Tractor Ventures. Matt recently co-founded Side Stage Ventures, a new investment syndicate backed by several high-profile entrepreneurs including Jaddan Comerford of UNIFIED Music, Linktree co-founders Alex and Anthony Zaccaria and Emily Casey, founder of What the Health?

Join us for an informative session aimed to shine a spotlight on music startups and inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs. 

More info & RSVP

VMDO are partnering with Hue to deliver three anti racism workshops, aimed at professionals and businesses working in the Victorian music industry.

1). Understanding Race and Racism:  Tuesday 17th May 9:00am - 12:30pm 

2). Deconstructing Whiteness: Tuesday 31st May 9:00am - 12:30pm

3). Allyship in Your Workplace: Tuesday 14th June 9:00am - 12:30pm

It is highly recommended you sign up for all three workshops in the series.

All sessions will take place in-person at Music Market.

More info & register.

Presented by the Victorian Music Development Office and Association of Artist Managers (AAM)

Tuesday 12th April, 4pm - 6pm AEST

What comes to mind when you think of music merchandise? In the modern day, we've come a long way from the trusty black t-shirt (and yet it remains a staple). Merchandise has traditionally sat hand in hand with touring and has since evolved to involve sophisticated e-commerce, digital marketing strategy and virtual goods. 

Now that touring has returned, how can the artist (and their team) balance traditional sale opportunities while serving a market well beyond the merch desk? Join us for a panel discussion with Jack Dowling McDonald (Sound Merch), Paige X. Cho (Bolster) and Ashleigh Hills (UNIFIED) as we examine how the market has changed, crunch the numbers and discuss the opportunities for merch in 2022. 

Speakers: Jack Dowling McDonald (Sound Merch), Paige X.Cho (Bolster) and Ashleigh Hills (UNIFIED)

More info and RSVP

VMDO are proud to be partnering with Kerry Kennel, Meagan Lea Waters and Ngarrimili for this exciting face-to-face workshop around personal empowerment within your business.

The workshop will explore:

• Through meditation, visualising future goals & how you want to feel when you get there

• Defining self-worth and self-confidence

• Tips & advice for confidence building around affirmations, understanding core values, and celebrating your successes

• Learn how to put all this workshop goodness into your business

• Know how to choose work that is values-aligned, and how to say NO!

• Celebrating your milestones

This workshop will take place Saturday 26th March, 11-2pm at Music Market and also be live streamed for those who cannot make it. The event will be followed by networking and light drinks.

This event is free for all First Nations businesses and creatives. Childcare provided for the workshop.

Artwork by Sophie Co. Creative Agency

More info and RSVP