This was posted in the Annandale thread, thought it required its own space as it's a great place to have a say:
kuroneko said 39 minutes ago:
Re: funding.
There is currently a review of the Australia Council. They are conducting a public survey. Submissions due by this Friday 9th March. Anyone can take the survey and make the case for fairer funding for music.
Survey is here - doesn't take long, and it closes at the end of this week.
Get on it!
Can you please tell me who is doing this where it's going and if it's going to be of any use? I don't really wanna have to read another thread to get what the objectives are.
.......Lay-zeeeeeeeee
Thanks!
DONE!
Dead easy
Worth doing me thinks, and it can be private if you don't wish them to know your identity/gender/email
Narrows eyes and looks at lozenge
done.
Wow, I spent too much time on those questions. Felt like I was writing a grant application.
a successful one Max ?
This is why there should be a review:
Niche music label's federal funding creates discord
by: Matthew Westwood, Arts correspondent
From: The Australian
April 03, 2012 12:00AM
A storm has erupted over the future of a boutique classical music label seeking $3 million in federal government funds.
The Melbourne-based Melba Recordings has committed to CD such ventures as the 2004 Adelaide Ring and helped bring to prominence young violinist Ray Chen and tenor Steve Davislim.
The label is backed by business, cultural and political figures such as Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Baz Luhrmann and Sir James Wolfensohn.
But its funding arrangements and small output angers some in the music sector. The Australian has learned of at least five letters from leading music professionals to the office of federal Arts Minister Simon Crean arguing money could be better spent.
Melba received $5m in 2004 and $2.25m in 2009 from the federal government, but not through competitive grant rounds such as those of the Australia Council.
The company's annual report for 2010-11 shows it released three CDs that year while earning $750,000 in government funds and $275,980 in ''patron income''. Income from CD sales including its back catalogue was $18,000.
ABC Classics released some 23 recordings in the same period. Small independents Tall Poppies and Move produce six to 10 discs a year with little or no government funding.
Carl Vine, artistic director of Musica Viva and a former deputy chair of the Australia Council, said Melba had sidestepped the peer review process.
''Melba has made some nice recordings, but at around 50 albums over the full course of its history it might be considered more of a hobby than a serious producer of good musical product,'' Mr Vine writes in his letter to Mr Crean.
Tall Poppies' Belinda Webster said very little of the music on Melba's recordings ''contributes to the promotion of a distinctively Australian musical culture''.
Melba's managing director, Maria Vandamme, who has applied for $3m over three years, said Melba had ''been denied the possibility of peer assessment because there is no program at the Australia Council to support our work''.
Melba was not primarily commercial, but was the only international Australian label promoting Australian musicians on high-quality recordings.
Letters supporting Melba had been sent to Mr Crean from Sydney Symphony principal conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, Boston Symphony Orchestra artistic administrator Anthony Fogg and former World Bank president Sir James Wolfensohn.
The director of the music board at the Australia Council, Paul Mason, said Melba's current funding concluded in June, and there was an opportunity to review its outcomes.
Melba was not primarily commercial, but was the only international Australian label promoting Australian musicians on high-quality recordings.
WHAT?!
Story here, behind login but full article is viewable if you Google the headline.
Further research from the wonderful John Wardle (buy the man a beer, people) says:
The company's annual report for 2010-11 shows it released three CDs that year while earning $750,000 in government funds and $275,980 in ''patron income''. Income from CD sales including its back catalogue was $18,000.
hrrrrrrrr
How did they do this?
glitter and smoke.
I was going to suggest pointing a wand and yelling ''Stupify!'' but I like your suggestions better.
Some great comment on this.
waah waah waah they get more money for free.
Considering the rigorous process that ''normal'' artists undertake in order to obtain ANY kind of funding from these government bodies, this really does get up in my grill...GRINDS MY GOAT EVEN!
Some great comment on this.
I was with that article right up until the comparisons with ECSR...
(and by that I mean - it's a pretty big leap to go from 'this process was flawed' to 'this process was flawed and it meant other artists who aren't even in the same ballpark were disadvantaged by the process'.)
someone else having a turn on melba.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/05/my-cup-of-tea-millions-for-a-tiny-record-label-with-powerful-players/
It seems to have some important people within the arts industry as benefactors and patrons. It seems to fund classical recordings of national significance, this is probably culturally important. It does not seem like a waste of money.
I don't think I could spend those absurd amounts of money on releasing seven albums with a total income of $3500, even if I tried. I think that if they were really ''culturally important'', someone might actually know what they are. Otherwise, this is the top-down, dead understanding of culture.
It might be culturally significant. That's not the issue. The fact that they get a ridiculous amount of money in funding without the same checks and balances that everyone else has to jump through to get is.
http://www.melbarecordings.com.au/artists
Need more hookers and blow
What's the point of sharing a link to the artists on the label?
http://www.melbarecordings.com.au/node/4492
Honestly, rosary. $3500 return from a bazillion bucks of supposed production and promotion? Ridiculous.
Stop posting links that only prove our point. $3500 income means that not even a number equivalent to the Ambassadors and Patrons bought an album, such a great ambassadorial role they must be playing.
stop feeding the dinotroll
That was my first instinct too.
probably get freebies for being ambassadors and patrons.
y
The correct term is 'Boils my bagels.' So now you know.
Yes, you are creepy. Someone grant him his wish.
I wasn't saying that the patrons etc should all have bought an album. I said a number equivalent to. If the ambassadors can't even get one other person to buy an album, what is the point?
Just because it's designated 'not for profit' doesn't mean it should 'squander absurd amounts of money in return for a negligible amount of value'. Also, stop with the fucking Hitler sympathising, you absurd fool. Get help.
A ban means a ban.
Is this in reference to financial support? I think its the only support the Australia Council offers (from the Temper Trap Facebook page):
A big thanks to Australia Council for the Arts for supporting The Temper Trap’s most recent North American tour, which included shows in LA, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Washington and of course SXSW Festival in Austin, TX.
What was that about being in BRW's Highest Earners last year? I'm sure that $20,000 or whatever it was from the arts council really made all the difference
Review released:
[http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/more-funds-more-diversity-says-australia-council-review-20120515-1yp39.html](http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/more-funds-more-diversity-says-australia-council-review-20120515-1yp39.html)
Let's try that again