A senior NSW Government Minister has expressed his enthusiasm for the growth of country music and the success of the Tamworth Country Music Festival, highlighting the government’s ongoing support for the industry.
Having attended the festival over the past few years, New South Wales Special Minister of State, Minister for Roads, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism John Graham said he was eager to see how things were progressing in 2024.
“We’ve piled in quite a lot of support to the country music scene, and we are starting to see the results of that in some of the local area,” he said.
Country Music Association of Australia Chair Dobe Newton praised the NSW Government for its support of Australian music, and said we were seeing the benefits to the Tamworth festival, venues and the CMAA Academy of Country Music.
Through Sound NSW grants, the state government has been funding country music artists to go on the road and record, helping to bolster the genre’s rising popularity.
“One of the things I’ve been red hot on – it’s not up to the government to pick genres,” Mr Graham said.
“Country music is increasingly popular. I’ve seen young country music audiences flocking out to concerts in Sydney. The growing popularity of country is one of the reasons you’re seeing country music artists applying for grants and being success with twelve of those recipients being country, eight of them here at the festival.”
Mr Graham also noted the significant take up of government incentives designed to support live music venues, which are critical to sustaining the country music industry.
“We are seeing really good take-up of incentives for venues as well to keep music on the stages,” he said.
“Thirteen venues in the New England, seven in Tamworth will have lower licence fees and longer trading if they keep playing music.”
He emphasised that these plans had been in development for some time, and their implementation was now visibly supporting local venues and the broader country music ecosystem.
“It’s really about having people employed and having a music culture,” he said.
Beyond the festival, Mr Graham said he had been in discussions with the Tamworth Regional Council about strategies for maintaining and expanding the city’s reputation as a country music hub throughout the year.
“It’s a growing community,” he said.
“I think there is a good plan for Tamworth to grow at other times of the year. We need to make sure we keep the venues we’ve got, and keep the festival, as it’s such an important event for the region, but also Australia as a whole.”
Mr Graham said this year’s festival felt “really good,” with businesses reporting positive results and confidence in its ongoing growth.
“I feel it’s going to be a few good years as country music is rising around the country,” he said.
Noise management policies have also been introduced to ensure venues and residents can coexist. The government is funding noise abatement measures and has implemented measures to prevent a single complainant from shutting down a venue, now requiring concerns to be raised by multiple people.
“This is the first time putting in money to practically put money into venues to keep them operating and working at their best, and pragmatic measures to protect venues,” Mr Graham said.
Discussing the festival’s unique atmosphere, he highlighted the strong sense of community and passion surrounding the event.
“Tamworth is different to any other festival,” he said.
“It’s fantastic to see the atmosphere, the sense of community and seeing people loving what’s going on: it’s a special time and a special festival.”
The Academy’s Role in Building Global Country Music Connections
Mr Graham also spoke about the vital role of The Academy and the CMAA in fostering opportunities for artists both locally and internationally with a Nashville Sister City exchange happening each year between an Academy graduate from Australia or New Zealand, and an emerging artist from Nashville.
“The thing I love about what The Academy is doing is the two-way exchange,” he said.
“We’ve got some great artists, we’ve got a good scene, but if we really want to help break some of these artists into the biggest music market in the world, we’ve got to have the two-way exchange.
“What The Academy and the CMAA are doing is really building that. A lot of that is about personal relationships. That’s the future. That’s why we’ve invested in it and would like to do more of that. I see that as a model of what we can do more broadly. We’ve got to back the grassroots music ecosystem and get our people overseas and also invite some of the overseas industry people and artists and get them here as well.”
Mr Newton OAM echoed the importance of these international connections, particularly the impact of the Nashville exchange program.
“This year we saw emerging artists from all across Australia and New Zealand and Nashville at The Academy – it was fantastic,” he said.
“The great thing about the Nashville exchange is that those 30 Australian artists, for the last two years, now have a networker in Nashville who will help them and last year we had Anna Hamilton – she was fantastic with working with Jenny Mitchell who is our latest exchange and it’s just been fantastic. So, the network is spreading.”
This year’s Nashville Academy student was Sam Hatmaker.
Mr Newton said every Academy student spoke about finding their tribe when they entered the intensive course and discovered nearly 30 other emerging artists who loved country music as much as they did, when they usually come from places where they are the outsiders.
Mr Graham agreed with the work The Academy did.
“You don’t know what that will produce, but you can guarantee it will be magic,” he said.
Mr Newton highlighted the significance of financial support for Academy graduates to continue developing their careers internationally.
“Getting the funding to support the Academy graduate to go to Nashville has been vitally important,” he said.
National Country Music Census Set for 2025
Mr Newton also spoke about a major initiative to measure the impact of country music in Australia through a national census.
“I’ve spent a dozen years mainly doing live music census projects in Victoria,” he said.
This research will focus on small venues and the grassroots of the country music industry.
“We are trying to determine what happens in small venues which are the lifeblood of the contemporary music industry and, of course, the country music industry because that’s where everybody gets their start,” Mr Newton said
He said this census would update the 2019 country music census, which will provide insight into the genre’s current growth.
“We’ve been talking about doing census projects to update the 2019 project to see if country music is going through a growth phase,” he said.
“We put in a couple of applications with no great success and then, suddenly, Sound NSW, Creative Australia said ‘we love country music, here have some money.’ We are absolutely delighted we have some money to conduct a national census of the economic and cultural value of country music in Australia 2025.”
Mr Newton said the economic value in 2019 was $574 million and a preliminary estimate was it’s going to be $1 billion now.
The census will involve a team of entertainment music business students from JMC Academy in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne as research assistants, helping to build a clearer picture of the country music industry’s role in Australia’s cultural and economic landscape.
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