Music SA Unveils New Project Manager Role

Music SA has recently announced the creation of a new and vital position: the National Project Manager for the Australian Music Industry Network (AMIN), the national alliance of Australia’s peak contemporary music bodies.

MusicSA, as the peak body and advocate for the South Australian contemporary music industry, is “proud” to be working with AMIN to search for a successful candidate, whose work will be crucial in driving key cross-border programs and scoping a new National Regional Touring Network, contributing significantly to the growth and sustainability of contemporary Australian music.

The role, which is part-time, will be based in South Australia out of the Music SA office in the Adelaide CBD.

The creation of the National Project Manager role will hopefully allow for one large step toward decentralising the music industry and further supporting regional musicians and regional music bodies.

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The CEO of Music SA, Christine Schloithe, spoke with The Music with admirable clarity to further outline the role’s aims, and the overall significance of the position.

How exactly did the idea for this role come about?

It really came up through strategic planning processes that AMIN undertakes on a fairly regular basis. It’s something we have been talking about for the last few years: the ability to work more cohesively together as a national network in a way that benefits each of our states and territories, but also really acknowledging there's some tremendous kind of industry development and professional development work being done through funding by Music Australia, and just seeing the two opportunities sitting together.

Is there any particular reason that the position, even though it is a national role, was chosen to be based in South Australia?

That was a very specific decision, and at the moment, it is because South Australia is in a position to support and start up a role like that under the AMIN banner. Because part of this role is starting to explore and look at a national regional touring network, we wanted to make sure that we were also walking the walk, in that so much of the work happening in regional areas can be disadvantaged because of their distance or lack of proximity to the really big music business hubs that happen on the Eastern Seaboard. So the job really is embodying the notion of the work being truly national by being decentralised out of Victoria and New South Wales. This is a very deliberate decision. We also expect in the future that this role, should it continue past this initial two years, or should other projects come on board through AMIN, that we might be sharing them around other states. So we would love to have someone in Tasmania. We'd love to have someone in WA. We'd love to have somebody in Northern Territory. So it's not just a South Australian jurisdiction.

Is there anything you want to say to potential candidates looking to apply?

We are definitely open to regionally-based candidates. The role is hybrid, so there does need to be some time in the office, but that doesn't need to be on a weekly basis. As long as we can negotiate about 30% of the work time being based out of the Music SA office, we can be flexible about how that kind of hybrid and remote work is structured. So we could easily support a regional candidate that's happy to be in Adelaide for one week out of four, for example. And that's another way of looking at structuring the role. I would really love for people in regional areas to think that they could potentially consider applying for this if they've got an interest in the skills to bring to the table.

More details on the position are available on the official Music SA website here.