WELCOME!

---

By Hans Hoegh-Guldberg, Editor, MCA Knowledge Base  (Economic Strategies). 
Last updated: 2 October 2007

The MCA knowledge base can be explored by clicking the appropriate pages listed in the right-hand sidebar, which defines the structure of the music sector as we see it. The section named Context contains a graphical picture of the sector in the page named The Music Sector. It can also be downloaded here.

The Acknowledgments page in this ‘welcome’ section shows that the venture could not become reality without assistance from many sources, including a grant for 2007 from the Australia Council for the Arts, and of course all the contributions from MCA councillors and others alike.

The knowledge base aims to provide a dynamic, comprehensive picture of the Australian music sector, in words and numbers. Such a picture requires contributions from many sources which we are constantly canvassing (click Guidelines for contributors in the sidebar to see what we are looking for).

The ideas for the knowledge base grew from a 2005 report advocating an expanded economic, social and cultural view of the music sector, based on expanded statistical inquiry. MCA’s quarterly magazine, Music Forum, contains a summary.

First, the creators and performers of music (composers, songwriters, musicians and singers) are the focal point – not mere inputs into a music industry centred on recording (a view that is getting antiquated anyway in an increasingly digital world). Without music creators and performers there would be no music sector, very little recording, no dissemination of music through records and digital media, and a critical ingredient would be missing from television and radio programs, films, videos and DVDs.

A society without music is of course almost inconceivable but the extent to which the society provides support is of paramount importance. The health of any national music sector depends vitally on the cultural, economic and tangible infrastructure support for its creators and performers, and on the extent to which the environment encourages cultural activities.

Second, the music sector model incorporates the creation or use of existing recorded music in broadcasting, film and advertising, public spaces, digital delivery, computer games, and for telephone ring tones and other new areas. These activities disseminate recorded music whether produced by the established recording industry or elsewhere. Conventional music industry models underestimate the economic importance of these activities.

Third, the music sector includes support activities ranging from music education and relevant business training to the role of a broad range of managerial and marketing activities, music organisations, copyright collection agencies, government funding authorities, research facilities, suppliers of musical instruments and equipment, and service providers such as accountants and lawyers specialising in assisting the music sector.

top