BIGSOUND 2012: Lars Brandle

Business/Position:
Australia correspondent for Billboard Magazine and Senior Writer for The Music Network.

How did you first become involved in the music business?
My first taste of the music biz was from the other side – as a musician. Like most folks in the industry, I tried and failed as a rock star. That was in the mid-90s, well before online marketing, streaming music, social networking and text messages. Back in those days, when you wanted to alert your fanbase to an upcoming gig, one of your main tools was Australia Post; you'd physically mail flyers to your followers. It costs a bloody fortune. I've been a full-time working journalist for about 15 years, most of that time spent in the U.K.

What do you perceive to be your area of expertise, and how did you gain experience in this field?
I specialise in writing about the behind-the-scenes action, and try make sense of the difficult issues bouncing around the industry. When I joined Billboard Magazine in early 2000, I didn't realize I'd spend much of the following decade writing about legal and technology. But those are two crucial foundations of the business. At one stage in the mid-noughties, I was appointed editor of the international copy for Billboard's “Entertainment Law” publication. If you'd told me that 10 years earlier, I'd probably have cried with laughter. In music journalism, the perception has always been that interviewing the artist is where the glory is. I'm the guy who interviews the exec who signed the artist. My experience came from the stage, and from grafting away at my portfolio. I then moved abroad and opened a bunch of doors in the U.K. There was an element of luck, but I worked hard and made the right connections.

What will you be primarily discussing during your appearance at the BIGSOUND conference?
I'll be talking about all-things triple j Unearthed. Bigsound will mark a full-year since triple j flipped the switch on its Unearthed digital service. The numbers behind Unearthed are rather impressive. There's more than 30,000 artists on the site, and the app has been downloaded more than 130,000 times. In the post-Myspace landscape, most industry execs now use Unearthed as their first port-of-call when researching an artist.

What are you hoping that people will be able to learn from your panel/interview?
I always want to achieve two things from my sessions. I want the audience come away informed. And I want them to be entertained. If I achieve those two things, then I've done OK. 

What are you expecting to take away yourself from your visit to BIGSOUND?
This will be my fifth time speaking at Bigsound. I know the drill pretty well. By the weekend, I should have a swag of new pals, I'll have seen a bunch of kick-arse bands and I'll walk away with a bank of new memories for the book -- every hack is writing a book.