New MusicNSW Report Calls For A 'Do-It-Together' Approach To Strengthen Regional & Remote Music Communities

MusicNSW have this week unveiled a new report which provides a number of suggestions related to strengthening regional and remote music across New South Wales.

Officially released on Tuesday, the report is the result of input from more than 80 representatives in the state's music sector who participated in a NSW Roundtable held at the 2025 Regional & Remote Music Summit in July to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing regional music communities.

As MusicNSW Managing Director Joe Muller explains, the idea behind it all was to ensure that, rather than having one or two people speak for an entire region or sector, that a diverse group of voices with a vested interest in the regional community's success get to have their voices heard.

"We invited folks working in music from right across regional and remote New South Wales," Muller explains. "Literally from all corners of the state, from Broken Hill to the far south coast to Lightning Ridge. 

"We really tried to ensure that we had a representative sample of geographic spread, but also a spread of participants in terms of the types of people working in music, including a mix of artists, music businesses, and more.

"We can't have conversations about the realities for folks living in regional and remote music communities and working in that space and have those conversations be governed by people in, in organisations based in metro capital cities," he adds.

The report points out a handful of priority areas for action, including the investment in culturally safe, affordable and sustainable places for creation, rehearsal and performance; and the development of affordable touring networks that connect artists with communities.

Additionally, it also calls for the expansion of mentorship, training, and producer pipelines; the recognition of grassroots organisers and local champions as essential contributors to sustainable local music ecosystems; and long-term, flexible funding that focuses on regional NSW with mind paid to creating social and cultural value, and leadership diversity.

However, one of the biggest takeaways is the suggestion of a 'Do-It-Together' approach, focusing on the creation of alliances that support collaboration and cross-sector partnerships across councils, health, education, tourism, and sport.

Effectively, rather than the independent, grassroots 'Do-It-Yourself' approach of yesteryear, focus on collaboration and community and lean into the 'it takes a village' notion.

"It's a bit of a roadmap that will hopefully be useful folks as they navigate investment and advocacy priorities in terms of the way we speak to the government and other stakeholders for support," Muller explains.

"Hhopefully there are also some really practical kind of markers in there around ways that we can better work together to make sure we're scaffolding regional and remote communities for success, and to make sure that music is actually  thriving right across the state in those regional places."

Notably, while regional areas are often highlighted as areas which face issues in terms of support and assistance when it comes to ensuring their local music communities thrive, Muller is quick to point out that there's no blanket approach to addressing these challenges, given that they vary so vastly across the state.

"We've actually got a bigger regional team than we have a metro-based team, and we've got coordinators who are based in the Northern Rivers, the mid North Coast, people looking after far western New South Wales, the south coast, and the Riverina," he explains.

"That's an important feature of the way that we show up for those communities, and the reason we do that is because we acknowledge that the challenges and opportunities in the Northern Rivers, for example, are vastly different to what's going on down in Riverina, or along the Murray.

"There's downward economic pressures being felt by music festivals and existential threats of catastrophic climate events in places like the Northern Rivers, and then in more remote communities some of the challenges are really just about access.

"For many of those places, young people just need an opportunity to engage with music in the first place, or need skilled teachers to expose them to the potential of a life in music, not just as an artist, but as an industry worker," he adds. "There's a really diverse range of challenges across the state and indeed across the country, and so that's some of what the report has intended to capture."

Muller also notes that the recommendations presented in the new report will directly inform MusicNSW’s ongoing work across their programs and advocacy as they head into 2026. 

But how will these recommendations be acted upon? Will they be front and centre in terms of the creation of programs and advocacy, or will they be kept as part of the general conversation as a way to gauge the focus and success of everything that is done in the coming year?

"Firstly, we have shared these recommendations with government and we are actively involved in conversations with government about ways that they can meet the needs of regional artists," Muller explains. "So we show that work in our ongoing advocacy. 

"It's speaking to government about getting the investment settings right, getting the strategic environment right for artists to be able to have meaningful, sustainable creative lives. And then through our own programs, we certainly take this stuff on board.

"I mean, New South is a massive state, and we can't be everywhere, but we certainly are actively engaged in the process of thinking about how we can kind of create nuanced programs that meet the specific needs of local music communities," he adds.

"Ultimately, that's a kind of focus that we see as really critical, noting some of the bigger existential threats and the consolidation of markets being posed by multinationals. We see a focus on local community as being an essential path forward in our vision for a thriving New South Wales music community."

MusicNSW's full report can be found via their website.