Near 20 years ago local muso Bobby Burgess was catching up with a friend when he heard the news of a new EP by a musician he knew. For Burgess, new music to check out wasn’t anything new. By then he had been playing guitar and experimenting with music for over a decade.

But when his friend went online and began playing tracks instantly, Burgess noted a turning point. He had just witnessed the sudden death of a much loved routine: his need to visit a local music store to listen to new stuff. It was a death knell that signalled the music industry was changing.

There was no longer the thought of “Oh cool, I’ll try and remember that next time I’m in a record store”, or “I’ll pick up a CD if I’ve got the money,” he said.

“Now, it’s like water from a tap, and it’s taken for granted.”

Starting out as a young guitarist in the mid-1990s, Burgess turned to music after realising he wasn’t that into sport. Now, he plays as part of blues/rock band The Barstools, who have just released an EP to add to their discography.

Since his beginnings, he has observed clear, significant changes in how music is consumed, especially local tunes.

The good news, for him, is that artists no longer need record labels. Back in the day it was difficult to sign with them. On the other hand, streaming has also meant local artists can find it harder to get noticed due to the volume of content from all over the globe.

Australia’s streaming paradox

For most of today’s young population, a world without a billion songs at your fingertips is unimaginable; and while this relatively new era of music has reshaped how music is accessed globally, it also redesigned the industry on a local level.

And it can be easy to overlook how the extent to which it has shaped how the nation’s home-grown artists are discovered, promoted, and celebrated.

Why don’t Australians listen to more Australian music? And why is this important?

Academic Christina Ballico, now from the University of Aberdeen but originally from Perth, says local musicians are important and should be protected as every big, successful artist began as local themselves.

She says without a bright and thriving local scene, musicians would struggle to break out beyond their smaller communities.

“To go from playing a tiny bar to virtually no-one to being able to headline the largest venue in town, there’s a lot to learn between the two,” she said.

“Without that, musicians would struggle to be able to navigate music beyond their home scenes, to have the basics down before they take those next steps. That’s why venues matter, and why they need to be supported and protected.”

Radio review, streaming start-up

During Burgess’ early days he was part of a band named The Scotch of Saint James. Their first big break followed a feature on Triple J’s Unearthed program – a radio show that gives new, unsigned artists exposure.

Thanks to radio, like Triple J, the band shot to success, going on to play multiple festivals and garnering a significant following.

Triple J is part of the ABC, a public-service broadcaster, and has been broadcasting since 1975. It has, at large, centred its reputation around playing far more local music than its commercial counterparts. While not legally required to play a certain quota of Australian music, it has long been committed to promoting national artists (around 60% of its programming is local music), making it one of the country’s main outlets of Aussie music.

Burgess says: “I think a little bit of the radio station’s power has been taken away because of the internet in the last 20 years.

Current ARIA radio regulations state that commercial radio stations could be required to play from none to 25 per cent local content depending on their classification, which is self-determined. Though radio exposure has traditionally given artists a way of “breaking out” into the industry, the dominance of streaming and lack of regulation have caused new challenges for local music.

West Australian Music chief executive Owen Whittle says changes led by tech-giants have been detrimental to how artists can monetise and distribute their music. He also says there’s been consolidation of power among firms and labels who promote artists.

He explains that while listeners deserve their right to listen to what they want, when they want, there was work to be done to push local talent, specifically by doing something he called democratising the algorithms. This would mean pushing a more transparent and user-focused system of discovery and promotion onto streaming platforms, giving independent artitsts more avenues to be found.

Whittle argues it is also crucial to support existing avenues for Australian artists, as a way to push back against newer platforms that can push their music aside: “We need to rely more on the distribution channels we’ve got, like community radio, and focus more on good structures that we know exist and work.”

A challenge for younger artists

While those old structures continue to function and evolve as they always have, there are other local musicians finding audiences on newer platforms.

Perth singer-songwriter Meki Ghadouani, known as Might be Meki to the music world, started writing songs as a way to help their mental health, to process their emotions. Their music gained traction after making the most of some of these newer instruments of the music industry – Tiktok and Instagram.

Asked about challenges younger artists face in the local music scene, Ghadouani says the nature of Australia’s dispersed, significantly smaller population made it difficult to compete with American music exports.

Meki Ghadouani believes that building relationships as an artist is a main struggle in the Australian local music scene. Photo: Orson Lorenz.

In a city like Perth, the world’s most isolated capital, they say it can be a challenge to build a following as an artist.

“People see you more as their friend who they’re going to support because they like you as a person, rather than finding people who like your music. I know artists who have had trouble with that,” they said.

Monestisation on social media apps like TikTok is also an issue for young, local arists. TikTok’s Creator Fund, which pays its users for interactions gained, has not yet been extended to include Austalian accounts. This makes it even harder for musicians on social media to recieve any sort of payment for the success they gain online.

Shifting mindsets, growing music

If Australians are going to listen to more of their own music, solutions must be found to both the promotion of content and the attitudes of listeners.

Owen Whittle from WAM believes the quality of music is higher than ever, and once Australians can move past the “cringe” that can express a hesitancy to listen to local music, the industry will flourish.

“I think there needs to be a resourced campaign and process to push through that kind of tall poppy syndrome that we can develop locally,” he said.

“We need to find a more diverse way of getting live music to people who want to see it.”

On top of improved promotion efforts, Burgess imagines a world where the listener is encouraged to independently seek out more local music.

“There’s a rich vein of local art of all kinds in your community, so just go out and engage,” he says.

And for Meki, creating music is about following your heart, and they have faith that the listeners will come organically.

“It’s something you stumble upon, something you have to do because something in your brain is telling you that you have to.”