ARIA To Launch Weekly Show Celebrating Australian Music, ‘ARIA AMPLIFIED’

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has today announced its latest endeavour in the pursuit of celebrating the local music scene: a short-form web and TV series called ARIA AMPLIFIED, promising a “cool, credible and up-to-date voice for Australian music and pop culture”.

Hosted by triple j alum Bridget Hustwaite, the show is being developed by Roving Enterprises. Each episode will run for approximately two-and-a-half minutes, and in addition to being published online through ARIA’s own channels, they’ll air on the Nine Network’s TODAY show every Tuesday morning. It follows the format of a quick, to-the-point news blast recounting major chart movements, tour and release announcements, industry happenings and more.

In a press release, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said the body’s mission with the show is to offer “a way to plug Australian music directly into the online conversation and capture the imagination of culture junkies and media darlings alike”. She further explained, “This isn’t simply [about] creating a show for Aus music fans to keep up with their favourite artists, this is a place for a growing community to celebrate the global success of Aussie musicians leading culture from LA to Lorne and Sydney to Seoul.

“It reinforces ARIA as an always-on driver of Australian music and its role in global culture – rather than a once-a-year event – and allows us to amplify artists’ stories leading up to the ARIA Awards in November. We can’t wait to launch and are immensely thankful to our partners at American Express for their continued support of Australian music, as well as the Australian Government for their backing through music.”

Also involved closely with AMPLIFIED is Music Australia, with director Millie Millgate saying in her own statement: “The opportunity to invest in an initiative that unites our industry by collectively sharing and promoting Australian success stories every week was a no-brainer for Music Australia, and we are excited to partner with ARIA to bring Roving Enterprises’ vision to life.”

The concept was developed by Herd alongside Craig Campbell – executive producer for the annual ARIA Awards and creative director of Roving Enterprises – who asserted in today’s (August 7) press release that AMPLIFIED is “an extension of the enthusiasm and pride the artists brought to the [ARIA Awards] last year”. He continued, “AMPLIFIED is a look into their world and it allows us to follow the excitement of the music biz well after the awards show has wrapped.”

ARIA AMPLIFIED will launch its first episode next Tuesday, August 13. Ahead of its debut, The Music was invited to watch a conceptual pilot that covered the news of the week commencing July 15; the aesthetic was snappy and colourful, with tightly edited shots of the artists mentioned interspersed with eye-catching graphics. Artists featured included heavyweights like The Kid LAROI, Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan, but also more emerging acts like Nick Ward, 3% and Royel Otis. Also featured was the announcement of this year’s Ability Fest.

Speaking to The Music earlier this week, Herd said she and her team are devoted to ensuring AMPLIFIED covers a “diverse and inclusive” range of artists, including up-and-comers: “It is definitely targeted at a mainstream audience, [but] this is not just an ARIA play, it’s not a major label play – Roving are curating the content, and they will be absolutely balanced and even in looking for content across all labels, all artists, all genres...”

It’s similar to the approach she and Campbell take for the ARIA Awards: "We use big, well-known names to bring in an audience, and then we show them what's up-and-coming and what's hot in music, including artists that are just starting to cross over to mainstream audiences, or breaking through [in underground circles] – and that's 100 percent what AMPLIFIED will do.”

To that end, Herd says last year’s ARIA Awards were instrumental in the pitch for AMPLIFIED coming together – particularly because of the wholesome and collaborative atmosphere between the artists and industry figures represented. She explains: “One of the things that we loved so much about the ARIAs last year was that it really felt like the industry was lifting each other up again. You know, everybody was cheering for everybody – it didn’t matter what label you were on or whatever.

“When those artists got up onstage to accept their awards, you could see that they felt really proud – and a lot of them said as much in their speeches, you know, that they were so proud of our industry and that it felt like a confident, global-facing industry. That’s what we want AMPLIFIED to reflect.”

Touching more on its genesis, Herd says the ARIA board had spent years throwing ideas around before they settled on the concept of AMPLIFIED: “The board was looking for ways that we could [celebrate] the success of Australian artists, both here and globally, outside of the month of the ARIAs. There are obviously print and [online] news outlets to go to, but there was nothing primarily video-based, and that’s what we were really looking for – we felt there was a gap in [the Australian music landscape] for something like this.

“There's so much incredible content out there, on socials and around the place, but unless you’re spending your whole life online, you will inevitably miss a lot of it. So we wanted to curate the best moments every week, so that if you just watch ARIA AMPLIFIED, you'll still have a pretty good idea of what's going on in Australian music and what our artists are up to.”

The show will evolve as time goes on, too – Herd notes that Roving are interested in incorporating “more insider news and sneak-peeks, and that sort of stuff from within the industry, because we know that's what's going to drive viewers”. The team behind AMPLIFIED are eager to “try different things”, she says in closing – “see what works, see what doesn't work – and lean into what works, obviously”.