Great Debate #2: Triple J Unearthed Radio

Triple j Unearthed radio: great redeemer for Australian independent music or another peg in the national broadcaster’s market monopoly? As part of our summer Great Debate series, MATT SHEA talks to bands and industry representatives to get their thoughts. Weigh in on the debate in the comments section below for your chance to win a $250 record store voucher of your choosing thanks to Hyundai’s Veloster.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] When triple j announced the introduction of a dedicated digital radio station for its Unearthed talent-finding initiative, there was understandably a lot of excitement from up-and-coming artists, industry representatives and the listening public. But the national youth broadcaster perhaps wasn’t expecting a complimentary amount of negative opinion, whispered among PR people and floating about on the internet. The station has been accused of shoring up its monopoly in the alternative youth market, being involved in a large-scale branding exercise, and doing a whole slice of the industry – A&R reps, publicists, small label owners – out of a job.

So a few months after its launch, what is the industry’s take on triple j Unearthed radio? And how do they see it applying to their music or business? Well, getting comment for this story proved – perhaps unsurprisingly – very difficult. Some people flatly refused to talk to M+N for fear of their comments affecting relationships with triple j. And one – “Jeremy”, our third commentator below – asked to be published under a pseudonym for the same reason.

David Vodicka (Melbourne)

Managing director, Rubber Records

I guess Unearthed is good for independent music in Australia, but I don’t really factor it into our business strategy at all. I think anything that’s marginal, which a lot of the acts on Rubber Records are, don’t really apply or are probably considered a bit too old. triple j want to appeal to youth, and I don’t begrudge them: that’s what they set out to do, so fair enough. I think triple j’s main channel without a doubt, supports independent labels disproportionately to their market share, because they draw a lot of material from there. From that point of view, they’re pretty vital. You do consider triple j’s main station as being central to any of your plans, because you’re always trying to figure out if there’s something that might get a bit of play on there.

I feel slightly disengaged from the Unearthed digital radio station, in a way. On one hand I think, “We’ll throw a whole bunch of our acts on there and see what happens. Are they really going to know?” I don’t think they’ve got the ability to check whether an artist’s signed or not signed, and it’s hard to know whether people pay that much attention these days. The main thing is that if you sign up to the Unearthed channel, I get the impression you in effect give them a free performance right, and the ABC probably don’t have to pay for the material that they’re playing. It’s partly extending the Unearthed brand, but it also gives an entire channel of content that they potentially don’t have to pay any performance revenue for. If there’s something there that says you give a free promo licence to perform, then I would say that there is no income being paid for the content, in which case I do think it’s slightly cynical.

In terms of a promotional platform for a band to get noticed and create a base and all that sort of stuff: yeah sure, I wouldn’t dispute that. It’s triple j’s money and decision to make Unearthed a digital station, and fair enough if that’s what they want to do. A lot of things triple j do are good for triple j. It’s not like they consult with the music industry because I don’t think they think they’re part of the music industry. But it’s better to have them than not to have them – that is my view, very surely.

I think that if the price was right for a licence, someone might take a punt on competing with triple j, but in the meantime they should be lauded compared to the fucking idiots we’ve got running the commercial stations – try listening to any of them without putting a gun to your head. At least triple j arguably program things that are interesting, and Unearthed will give you an interesting listening experience. If it was on the regular spectrum, I’d program it in my car over Triple M any day.

Ben Preece (Brisbane)

Director, Mucho Bravado

It’s hard for me to say a bad word about Unearthed. A lot of our bands have careers that have hinged almost entirely on triple j Unearthed, especially with Hungry Kids Of Hungary and Ball Park Music. I think, like most people, I had a little jump for joy when I heard about the digital radio station. I mean, there’s a lot skepticism out there, but I certainly think that it will be a good outlet for exactly what it’s going to cover: new and emerging, unsigned music. I view it as an additional door. Unearthed radio offers an outlet to those artists who possibly aren’t quite up to the triple j standard of things but can do very well in Australia.

I think Unearthed as a brand is important to triple j. They want to appeal to an international market, and it’s important that names like Birds Of Tokyo and The Jezabels and Boy & Bear and Art Vs Science exist: “Look what we’ve achieved and look what we’ve unveiled.” I’m sure some bands don’t always want to be discovered – they might feel that they should present themselves – but I wouldn’t complain.

For Mucho Bravado, we do factor Unearthed into our strategies quite a bit. For a triple j-style artist then most definitely; it’s almost the first port of call. You go in every couple of weeks and you service the music team, then you upload it to Unearthed to make sure you service triple j Unearthed Radio as well as open the door for presenters and other reviewers to jump on and have their two cents. You’re trying to generate some listens and some play on the radio, but you’re also trying to generate attention and quotes from the likes of Richard Kingsmill, or Dom Alessio, or Zan Rowe, or whoever.

I think bands are sometimes in danger of trying to appeal to triple j too much. At the end of the day, you’re either made for it or you’re not – if you’re not, you should probably find your other outlet and stop obsessing about getting onto triple j. A good example is The Basics – Wally de Backer’s band – who I used to work for. When I joined them they hadn’t had any triple j airplay, and yet had one of the strongest fan bases of any band I’ve worked with. They were an incredible live band, and they got through on that incredible live reputation. In my time with them they eventually got a song onto triple j – a song called ‘With This Ship’ – but regardless, they had an incredible live following. The Basics were a completely different kettle of fish to Gotye.

Jeremy (Sydney)

Musician

We’ve had some success via triple j, but I’d say on balance it was more down to direct contact rather than our presence on Unearthed. That said, our experiences on triple j Unearthed over the past few years have generally been pretty good. We’ve had songs that we put up on there that weren’t serviced at all, and then we’ve had some that were flagged and reviewed and led to us making feature artist. Through Unearthed, we made a lot of new fans.

Put it this way: say there are 1000 bands on Unearthed – only a very small percentage of those bands are in any way professional. It’s a good way, then, for young bands to put their stuff out there and have a chance for it to be listened to. The station’s got to make sure you’re not singing about offensive content, so it all gets listened to. And if you keep putting good songs up there, you’ll eventually get noticed. But the fact is you’re going to need PR and all that stuff as well, because the music industry isn’t just about how good your song is; it’s about your story, your look and this, that and the other.

Regarding the Unearthed digital station, I'm not sure what it’s trying to achieve. They already play the best of Unearthed on the main station, so it seems a bit redundant to me. But then you’d think the whole Unearthed system’s probably had an injection since the beginning of the radio station. They would have had to. Every song has to be vetted and somebody’s now got to run that station. All of the good bands and all of the good songs will rise to the top, and if they’re not persistent they’re probably not cut out to be an indie band.

Still, to many indie bands, triple j can sometimes feel like a benevolent dictator: they will give with one hand and take with the other. They’re your best mate, and then all of a sudden you just disappear. It happens. There’s that aspect to it of: “We don’t need you. You need us.” That’s really the way it is.

Miro Mackie (Brisbane)

Musician, Little Scout

We definitely benefited from Unearthed after getting selected for the triple j Next Crop in 2008. We’d only really been a band for maybe six months, so for us it was a sign to the broader industry that there was something there that was of interest. We then found a booking agent pretty quickly and a manager, and we found ourselves on a few tours that we would have otherwise not managed to get. For that we’re really grateful. Now we have that team, and they deal with the radio station and any other industry type people. The industry relationships are always going to be needed, because there’s a rapport there and a relationship – Unearthed is not going to replace that. But if you don’t have a publicist and no one knows who you are, Unearthed can take you to the point where you’re ready for those things.

I’m very positive about the new digital radio station. I think it’s easy for people to be skeptical and say that it’s only about the music triple j wants to play. But at the end of the day anybody can upload music, and my view is that anything that’s there and helps support Australian music is a good thing. Currently, media content is becoming more and more driven by users, rather than programmers or radio stations. The Unearthed website fits into this too, allowing people to listen to what they want to listen to, rather than being dictated to, so much.

Unearthed is just a great tool for new bands to be noticed. It gets you some attention, and that’s the time when you need that stuff the most. Bands aren’t going to have long, fulfilling careers on Unearthed alone. For many bands triple j’s a really big piece of the puzzle, but to say that it’s the be-all and end-all and that through that one entity you can have a career: that kind of view is not a holistic approach to media and music in Australia.

Monte (Melbourne)

Musician, The Delta Riggs

Unearthed is one of the few outlets for exposing new music, so I think in that sense it’s been really good and it’s helped a lot of bands. I guess they’ve got a monopoly, but the fact that they’re actually doing something means a lot as opposed to doing nothing. What else is there?

With the Unearthed radio station, my initial first reaction was, “This is cool.” But I was under the assumption that it was going to be another FM station. I didn’t really read into the digital part that much. Until digital radio becomes more frequently used, I don’t know how much benefit it’s going to be. At the same time, at least triple j Unearthed are doing something to try and promote new bands, and it works across online mediums like Facebook and so on: up-and-coming bands’ names are now getting thrown around and I’d say it’s helping them more than not.

In the end, though, it still comes down to the song. For the actual triple j system as a whole, management and publicists and A&R are definitely still necessary. For Unearthed, I don’t know the system. Is there a music director at triple j Unearthed? Is there a program director? What’s the format? I don’t understand how they pick what gets played on there, and I don’t think anyone really does, unless they’re inside there. But I still think that it’s better to have something there than nothing.

Dan Lewis (Brisbane)

Director, Bon Voyage Records

I represent a band, Feathers, who have received some good blog coverage in the States and been played on Home & Hosed on triple j. I eschewed Unearthed because I didn’t really think it was necessary. I tend to see Unearthed as something more for unrepresented artists, and being a representative, I haven’t seen any use in it.

I’m pretty ambivalent about the new Unearthed radio station. I see the audience for my records as lying more with online stuff, as in blogs and that sort of thing. I’ve also compiled a US college radio database, and I’ve been sending music over there. Unearthed radio has its points for unrepresented artists, just in terms of exposure, but I don’t think it’s going to sideline industry people like myself. And if I had a record that was a fit for triple j, I’m confident I could get it on there without going through Unearthed.

It is easy to think that they’re sitting in their citadel down in Sydney. But then I’m a publicist, and when you know the lay of the land in that regard it’s easier to decide where to go and what fits. As a band, you can represent yourself. It does help to get some guidance on it, but I don’t think official representation is necessary in that initial phase – just an understanding of how things work, and how bands acquire that understanding is up to them.

Andrew Stone (Brisbane)

Director, Rare Finds

Our job at Rare Finds is to get bands played on radio, featured online, as well as taking care of their wider publicity campaigns. Unearthed is our number one tool to get triple j's attention. It’s my understanding that discovering new music is part of the brief for presenters and producers at the station, so if you can direct them to a band’s Unearthed site, everything that they might need to decide whether they go on to be played on the station is right there. And it’s not just triple j who use it as a kind of press kit: the wider music industry goes to a band's Unearthed page when they're doing their research because everything is right there. If you’ve got quotes from the presenters or a feature interview it’s an easy way to say, “Yep. These guys have got the tick of approval from the biggest tastemakers in the country.” So for us, it’s a definite first port of call.

The fear with the new Unearthed radio station was that it would affect the amount of Unearthed content they would play on the main triple j station. But since its release that isn’t the case at all. All of our dealings with triple j have been exactly the same. It doesn’t have an impact on what we do, aside from providing a fresh avenue to discover some new bands. The new Unearthed station adds another tool to the kitbag, but it doesn’t replace airplay on triple j or reviews on the Unearthed website or the wider purposes of publicity campaigns.

As far as alternatives to triple j goes, I think if anything the internet has shored up triple j’s position in music in Australia. Things have gotten so crazy with everyone out in the digital world talking at once that they’ve emerged as a beacon in Australia. At the end of the day there’s only 20 million people in this country and we’re ridiculously spread out, which makes triple j that much more important as well.

+

To listen to Unearthed digital radio click here

GREAT DEBATE #1: Hourly Daily Vs Hi Fi Way