Australian content - to be or not to be?

This is a very delayed update to the coverage of song summit, being that it was over a week ago but never the less, as promised my dissection of the commercial radio debate.

So to give you some background, this is what song summit had to say about the panel-


Australian Content – 'To Be Or Not To Be'

The Australian Government's enquiry into Media Convergence, and the proposed National Cultural Policy, have ignited the debate on Australian Content. Is it good for culture yet a hindrance for commerce? Hear both sides of the argument.

Speakers:

Chris Scaddan
Clare Bowditch
Joan Warner
Russell Thomas
Kath Letch (Moderator)

So essentially what this Panel became about was the amount of Australian music that commercial radios play. In case you weren't aware commercial radios are required to meet certain quotas for their content. Here's an overview of the breakdown:

Commercial radio stations have a minimum quota of music that has to be played that is Australian music, 25% and of that a further 25% has to be new music.
The Quotas are broken down into categories based on the type of music that the station falls under I.e top 40 , adult contemporary etc. 
Public radio, such as triple j and FBI do not have quotas however they are, by their charters, designed as community organisations for the purpose of representing the local arts community and as such usually play a larger percentage of local and particularly independent music by design. 
Triple j in fact have a self imposed quota of 40% Australian music and FBI (from memory) plays about 50% with half of that being unsigned. 
In addition to this Triple j unearthed has become a lot more successful than originally anticipated, leading to the new triple j unearthed digital radio station which plays exclusively Independent or unsigned Australian music,

This begs the question, why are the commercial radio stations so combative when addressed regarding the issue of quotas? (It may be noted that Joan Warner, head of the commercial radio association, came out swinging from the outset. She was clearly expecting a fight and I understand her position but I'm not sure telling a room full of music industry practitioners that radio "doesn't need music" was necessarily the best place to start.) As they so adamantly insist, they not only meet the quotas but exceed them and were they not meeting their quotas surely this would be addressed by the regulatory body. Their argument for not playing more Australian music comes down to quality. Commercial radio stations are exactly that, commercial endeavours whose purpose by and large is to make money. Their argument lies in the fact that local music is not up to the standard of international releases  and additionally that listenership for local music is simply not as accepted by the masses in Australia as are international artists. The obvious answer to this is that in order to win over the commercial radio stations you first have to win over the general music listening public. Essentially this is what most artists aspire to anyway, for if we were only playing music for ourselves we would never leave our bedroom. The contention over quotas therefore seems to stem not from the percentage itself but from the seeming lack of support for Australian music producers from the commercial radio community, with the legislation taking the form of a concerted effort to force the commercial radio stations to give AirPlay to Australian artists whether they support it or not. This forced nature of the initiative inevitably causes friction and resentment on behalf of the commercial networks, not just because of the possible economic impact on a commercial venture but because they may feel that they are doing the work of winning over the public in place of the artist taking this control and earning their representation. However this could be argued against as many of Australia's prominent artists have never had commercial airplay and yet have a dedicated fan base (as Claire proudly pointed out - and a well deserved point it was!).
This could also reflect the fact that most Australians artists are not traditionally pop orientated, which is where the majority of Australian radio stations sit. Possibly then with the emergence of digital radio and the variance of styles available in that medium there will be more opportunity for Australian artists to receive AirPlay on commercial networks, if not on the traditional stations like 2day and foxfm. Alternately if aspiring Australian artists want to gain commercial airtime they have to produce music that fits within the narrow niche of pop or pop crossover (rnb, rock, country). The last option sitting somewhere in the middle of these two options is to create the type of mass market appeal necessary to warrant mass market distribution, prior to approaching commercial stations. That is to make the stations come to you, after you've garnered the publics support. Strangely it seems the best way to do this is still to gain recognition overseas before returning to Australian audiences. The best way to do this however is still the greatest mystery in the music industry. Suffice to say when I figure it out you'll be the first to know. Well you'll probably know before the commercial radio stations anyway.