POWER 50 2025: Michael Chugg (Chugg Entertainment / Chugg Music)

BACKGROUND CHECK:

It’s hard to understate Michael Chugg’s role within the Australian music industry. Over more than six decades, he has played a central role in building the touring infrastructure and professional standards that artists and audiences now rely on, with his roles as Chairman of Chugg Music and Chugg Entertainment, and as Co-Founder of City Pop Records and the Wheelhouse Agency appearing atop the resumé.

With his professional history effectively mapping out the growth of the country's modern live industry, Chugg's myriad of focuses have helped build and solidify the infrastructure that artists and audiences now take for granted. Alongside Chugg Music seeing him co-lead a roster that boasts Lime Cordiale, Sheppard, Midnight To Morning, Lane Pittman, and others, Chugg Entertainment's business with Frontier Touring has delivered countless live shows, and his serving on the Music Australia Council cements him as an advocate for change.

THE YEAR IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC:

A veritable changemaker both at home and abroad, Chugg Entertainment and Frontier Touring have delivered more than 150 arena, stadium and festival shows in 2024–25, including Australian runs for The Chicks, Robbie Williams, and Luke Combs’ record-breaking stadium tour – with more than a million tickets sold across this vast list of shows. 

While acts such as Go-Jo, Lime Cordiale, Midnight Til Morning, and Teenage Dads have all experienced major overseas success, so too has the country sector experienced growth on local turf, thanks to Chugg, with the likes of CMC Rocks bringing in 23,000 attendees and generating an estimated 14 million dollars in local economic impact for its latest edition, and the Wheelhouse Agency (co-founded with Select Music and Andrew Stone) booking more than 200 shows in its first 18 months.

With decades of experience across the worlds of touring, festivals, artist services, and policy, it can be difficult to find someone with fingers in more Aussie music pies than Chuggi.

THE MUSIC SPEAKS:

The word legend is sprayed around pretty liberally these days (we know we’re guilty), but in Chuggi’s case, it’s more than justified. It’s not just his “investments” in live and recorded music that give him his power; it’s his passion. He’s the guy who’s in the front row of his latest signing, no matter what size.

He’s the one in the closed room arguing behind closed doors that someone can “get fucked” because of their lack of support for Australian artists, while everyone is pussyfooting around looking for a solution. He’s the loveable teddybear when he needs to be, or he might just tear your head off (“Hey, you in the black T-shirt!”), but one thing’s for sure – he’ll argue to the death for the right of Australian music to survive and thrive. He knows the chessboard better than anyone, because he created it.

Whether it’s industry figures or government, when Chuggi speaks, you listen. And if you don’t, watch for the potholes.