All music workers are encouraged to complete the survey by 20 June
In December we confirmed our support for a national Music Industry Review, and shared the news that external experts (the review team) have been engaged to review the industry’s workforce culture.
Following a consultation process, the Review is launching a national survey for all music workers. If you work in the industry, we need to hear from you. Your stories, opinions and observations will help create safer and more inclusive workplaces in which we can all thrive.
APRA AMCOS supports the national Music Industry Review. Your completion of the survey will help us to ensure our national music industry is one that is diverse, inclusive, respectful and safe for all. To keep up to date on the progress of the review, you can visit the Music Industry Review website and sign up for their newsletter.
A sobering briefing from Alex Shehadie in the lead up to the launch of the national Music Industry Review Survey (if you’re in the industry, please complete it – it’s for all of us. The more of us who complete it, the more we’ll be able to see and learn about ourselves).
Why sobering? Because we see ourselves as an industry that’s passionate about music, vibrant, creative, innovative, world class. And, like every good mirror, the Review is also showing us our shadow side: the everyday sexism and harassment, the sexual misconduct that’s not held accountable. What we’re also seeing clearly, possibly for the first time, is the bullying, by men and women, of men, women and non-binary people in our industry. And the exclusion: the faces and the voices that are missing around our tables, at our gigs, on our streaming services, on the airwaves.
The Review has deliberately sought out those voices. The qualitative research included 200+ interviews, 14+ focus groups with widely diverse groups, including First Nations’ people, people of colour, LGBTQI+ people, people with a disability. The First Nations’ interviews and focus groups are being facilitated by First Nations’ people and are still underway.
It takes courage to sit with these uncomfortable truths about an industry that we love. And it will take commitment to turn it around. What’s also emerging from the Review is how hungry we are for change in our industry and for the opportunity to make this a space where everyone can belong.
The survey – conducted by data research experts Roy Morgan and Co – is live now. It closes on Monday 20 June. It’s completely anonymous. Alex noted that the survey is itself a positive intervention: “It is often the case that prior to doing a survey of this kind people have normalised a number of the behaviours. The survey allows them to understand that these behaviours are not acceptable and should be called out."
If you’re in the Australian music industry, take a moment now to complete the survey. You’ll be helping to shape us into the kind of community you want to belong to.
If you or someone you know needs support, there is help available:
SANE 1800 187 263