Power 50 - #29: Joel Edmondson

For the last three years QMusic has been helmed by Joel Edmondson and under his leadership the association has become an even more essential part of the Queensland music industry.

One of QMusic’s major annual projects is BIGSOUND, the largest musical conference in the southern hemisphere and the winner of Australia’s Best Live Music Event at the 2017 National Live Music Awards. Not only did festival attendance increase by 40 percent last year, but Edmondson and his team ensured that it would continue evolving well into the next decade.

According to Edmondson’s plan, by 2020 BIGSOUND will attract 2,500 conference attendees and an additional 10,000 punters for the conferences’ live portion. These staggering projections are due in no small part to Edmondson and his team securing an extra $350,000 funding from Arts Queensland and an additional $280,000 funding from the Australia Council yearly until the turn of the decade.

Late last year, following two years of negotiations, BIGSOUND partnered with Levi’s to announce the Levi’s Music Prize, the biggest music prize in Australian history. The prize will see four $25,000 grants awarded per year to any artist that has played BIGSOUND in the last five years. The first grant was given to rising-star Stella Donnelly at BIGSOUND 2017, followed by Alex Lahey in January 2018.

In 2017, QMusic had a ripple effect over the entire Queensland music industry, paying 185 arts workers and engaging a further 17,186 people in their services and events across the state. The association now also has three times more permanent staff than when Edmondson began in 2015, thanks to his commitment to the associations’ financial stability.

After being defunded under the Newman Government, QMusic’s regional professional development program, Industry Connect, was re-established across Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast in 2017. The program provides valuable resources and information to Queensland musicians and aspiring music industry professionals.

Edmondson shared his wealth of knowledge on a number of panels in the past 12 months, appearing at BIGSOUND and the National Contemporary Music Roundtable. He was also chosen to moderate an international conversation about how to improve the culture of the music industry at SXSW 2018 thanks to his unique professional background in culture change program leadership.