MusicSA Unveils Plan For New Festival 'Good Music Month'

MusicSA has launched a brand new festival, Good Music Month, and a three-year strategic plan to accompany it.

Good Music Month isn’t your typical one-to-three-day music festival you find across the country, but something more akin to the music and conference event BIGSOUND. A state-wide live music festival due to kick off its inaugural event in November, Good Music Month will be added to South Australia’s annual entertainment calendar.

Artists, venues, and industry professionals will have the opportunity to showcase their talents to local and interstate audiences, with local blues bands playing in pubs, orchestral concerts, and big-ticket gigs all to take centre stage on the same bill.

Good Music Month will provide registration and programming details for its first-ever event in the coming months.

Alongside Good Music Month, MusicSA has revealed its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan to the music industry, outlining its three-year plan to promote, support, and develop the South Australian contemporary music sector. You can learn more about the critical areas MusicSA will focus on below.

South Australian Minister for Arts, Andrea Michaels MP, said, “The Malinauskas Government has increased Music SA’s operational funding by 50 per cent, taking it to $300,000 per year, in recognition of the importance of our state’s incredible music scene and we look forward to them delivering their new Strategy for the benefit of South Australia’s music industry.”

MusicSA CEO Christine Schloithe commented, “South Australia has incredible talent, a highly creative and adaptable music industry and a strong cultural heartbeat. Our responsibility is to champion our incredible music industry, elevate its profile and build its capacity.

“Adelaide is proudly a City of Music - we want calendars full of music events and festivals, music venues full of live and local artists, and local, interstate and international audiences experiencing music as part of what makes South Australia such an amazing place to live and work. Good Music Month, the SA Music Awards and Scouted all celebrate and highlight music in SA.”

MusicSA Chair John Glenn added, “This is a pivotal time for the South Australian contemporary music industry and Adelaide as a designated UNESCO City of Music. Whilst the pandemic is behind us, the effects of COVID-19 will continue to impact our industry for many more years.”

“MusicSA has repositioned and restructured in order to more powerfully represent and advocate for South Australian artists, venues, promoters and music businesses and to deliver more nuanced and needs-based industry development opportunities for the sector,” Glenn continued.

“Our 2023-2025 Strategic Plan firmly places artists at the heart of what we do, focuses on First Nations and regional engagement, and prioritises advocacy, industry development and engagement as our core business and purpose.”

MusicSA’s 2023-2025 Strategic Plan focuses on the following tiers:

Advocacy: To promote and support the music scene in South Australia, and establish the city of Adelaide as a hub outside the east coast for contemporary music and industry professionals.

Development: MusicSA will enhance and unify the music scene in South Australia by starting initiatives that will improve skills, expertise, educational opportunities, career prospects, and the overall profile of industry professionals, all to enhance touring opportunities for national and international artists looking to add Adelaide to the touring circuit.

First Nations Engagement: MusicSA aims to establish stronger connections with First Nations music communities in South Australia. The plan includes implementing ongoing support for education, skills development and capacity-building initiatives tailored to the First Nations contemporary music sector to foster inclusivity, empower artists and businesses, and create sustainable pathways for their success in the music industry.

Regional Engagement and Development: A key goal for MusicSA is to grow and nurture live music opportunities in regional areas of the state by increasing the profile of MusicSA itself.

Sustainability: MusicSA looks to grow and strengthen “a progressive, respected, financially viable, and well-governed contemporary music industry peak body” to maintain the vibrant, enthusiastic, and opportunistic contemporary music industry in South Australia.