Spotify Strikes Deal With Ticketek + all the latest Australian music industry news

Been out of the loop with everything that’s been going on in Australian music industry news recently? We don’t blame you. Here’s a wrap-up of all the biggest Aussie music biz stories from the past fortnight. Read the latest Australian music industry news!

Read all the latest product & music industry news here.

The top headlines:

• Spotify has joined forces with Ticketek, offering users direct access to the latest Ticketek events through the Spotify app.
• TikTok’s new subscription-only streaming service TikTok Music made a cautious debut in Australia last week in closed beta form.
• Mushroom Group have launched MBA, a new talent booking division.

Adelaide Guitar Festival Draws 18,000

Adelaide Guitar Festival drew 18,000 stringed slingers over two weeks in July, to a program covering jazz, rock, blues & roots, classical, folk, country, flamenco and metal.

“On The Road” travelled to 35 venues across regional South Australia. 32 artists presented 97 free shows including 11 aged care homes and four schools as part of the Resonance program.

For the metro program, Adelaide Guitar Festival delivered 11 ticketed and 13 free events with 23 international, 46 interstate and 77 SA artists.

They included talk sessions, a blues & roots showcase, Adelaide International Guitar Competition and the Yamaha Come and Try sessions.

Winter School held a week-long immersive program with 90 students tutored by major names, and culminating in two performances, a Blues & Roots free gig and opening for Melbourne Guitar Quartet at Dunstan Playhouse as part of Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra.

Standing ovations and sell-out shows included the Adelaide premiere of The Milk Carton Kids, The Music of Jeff Beck and Colours of Spain at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Joseph Tawadros with Connor Whyte, and Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim with Kathleen Halloran at Dunstan Playhouse, and Gwyn Ashton and Chris Finnen, and Paco Lara at Space Theatre.

The coveted Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition final had 30-year-old Deion Cho from South Korea taking home $10,000, a Jim Redgate guitar worth $23,000 and a concert engagement at the 2024 Adelaide Guitar Festival. Australians, Nik Divall and Tommaso Girotto took out second and third prizes.

The festival’s Artistic Director was classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan and the event was produced by the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Wanna Buy 10% Of Led Zeppelin?

Want a piece of one of rock’s greatest bands?

Helen Grant, daughter of Zep’s controversial manager Peter Grant is selling off the 10% stake she inherited when pappa joined that great jam session in the sky in 1995.

As of 2022, Zeppelin’s net worth was US$900 million (AU$1.32 billion).

Their music keeps generating royalties 40 years after they split, of course.

According to figures that emerged from the infamous “Stairway To Heaven” copycat trial, the track made $60 million in the last five years.

The Zep’s rights are also shared by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham’s estate (20% each) and Helen’s brother Warren (10%).

The sale is through Ian Penman of New Media Law LLP in London, at [email protected].

Spotify Strikes Deal With Australia’s Ticketek

Spotify made Sydney based Ticketek, its ticketing partner for its local Live Events Feed.

The streaming service’s users now get direct access to the latest Ticketek events through the Spotify app, not only making securing tickets easier, but providing personalised recommendations for upcoming shows based upon their taste profile.

In the meantime, Music Business Worldwide is wondering if Spotify should crack down on users sharing their password with friends and family, the way Netflix has in Latin America, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and the U.S.

As a result, Netflix’s many ‘free ride’ users have been forced to fork out for subscriptions.

So much so that last week (July 19) when Netflix released its earnings for 2023’s second quarter, it revealed it added 5.9 million new subs in that time, instead of the expected 2.1 million.

As a result, its operating income came in at $1.8 billion, well above its forecasted $1.6 billion.

As Mixdown predicted at the start of this year, more streaming services have been hiking up prices – including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.

Spotify Australia unveils its inaugural Australian Music Global Impact List

The list recognises the Top 30 tracks from Aussie artists with the biggest global impact on Spotify over the first half of 2023 (eligibility limited to tracks released between Jan 1 and Jun 30, 2023).

Topping the list is Kylie Minogue with her viral hit ‘Padam Padam’, while The Kid LAROI’s ‘Love Again’ and Empire Of The Sun’s ‘We Are The People (southstar Remix)’ make up the podium places.

Looking across the rest of the list, there’s a swathe of young and emerging Aussie artists breaking through globally, with great results for Dom Dolla (#4), Luude (#8), Vacations (#13), grentperez (#20), Seaforth (#22) and more.

The list is weighted and includes global streams (ex-Australia), combined with other signals like Follows, Saves and more.

1. Kylie Minogue, Padam Padam (18-May-2023)
2. The Kid LAROI, Love Again (27-Jan-2023)
3. Empire of the Sun, We Are The People – southstar Remix (17-Feb-2023)
4. Dom Dolla, Eat Your Man (with Nelly Furtado) (2-Jun-2023)
5. Timmy Trumpet, Good Morning (feat. YOU) (23-Jun-2023)
6. Shouse, Live Without Love (Armin van Buuren Remix Edit) (23-Jun-2023)
7. PNAU, The Hard Way (10-Mar-2023)
8. Luude, TMO (Turn Me On) [feat. Kevin Lyttle] (27-Apr-2023)
9. Go-Jo, Mrs. Hollywood (1-Mar-2023)
10. Keenan Te Scars, (17-Feb-2023)
11. Dirty South, Carte Blanche (2-Jun-2023)
12. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Motor Spirit (16-Jun-2023)
13. Vacations, Next Exit (14-Apr-2023)
14. Pendulum, Halo (2-Jun-2023)
15. The Teskey Brothers, I’m Leaving (16-Jun-2023)
16. Ruel, MUST BE NICE (25-Jan-2023)
17. Voyager, Promise (22-Feb-2023)
18. Lithe, Hold Out (17-Mar-2023)
19. Clinton Kane, DANCING ALL ALONE (17-Feb-2023)
20. grentperez, Silver Lining (2-Jun-2023)
21. DOPE LEMON, Kimosabè (2-Jun-2023)
22. Seaforth, Get The Girl (16-Jun-2023)
23. Tame Impala, Wings Of Time – From the Motion Picture Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (10-Mar-2023)
24. Torren Foot, New Bottega (10-Mar-2023)
25. Spacey Jane, Lots of Nothing – feat. BENEE (10-Jan-2023)
26. Tones And I, I Am Free (21-Mar-2023)
27. ASTON, Mama Didn’t Raise No (10-Mar-2023)
28. G Flip, Be Your Man (10-May-2023)
29. Tash Sultana, James Dean (13-Mar-2023)
30. Polaris, Inhumane (25-May-2023)

New Products Showcased At Festival Industry Conference

Aside from offering keynotes, panel discussions and workshops to help festivals grow/revive their businesses, the Australian Festival Industry  Conference (AFIC) also has a one-hour New Product Showcase to highlight cutting edge products and services which recently came on the market and making a difference to festivals.

These include new structures as Wave 55 Roof, Igloos and multi-level decking structures (Stagekings), the untapped potential of group bookings (Backpocket), intelligent data capture technology to improve understanding of how attendees move and interact with festival and event space (Meshh) and generating revenue from festival waste (Bold Futures).

AFIC is on August 30 & 31 at Sydney Luna Park.

New Signings

EMI’s latest addition to its Australian roster is First Nations R&B singer Jada Weazel, from Woorabinda in Central Queensland.

Her debut single “Skin” was produced by Melbourne-based UNO Stereo and Sydneysider LEN20, with her music director Stephen Collins.

Sydney based songwriter, composer and producer Glenn Hopper is now with Sweetie Zamora’s Pointer Recordings/ Remote Control.

New single “Just For Now”, about the transient nature of modern life, started ten years ago as a stream of consciousness rant on his phone (“inspired by Jack Kerouac”) and then cleaned up on his studio above Newtown’s bustling Enmore Road.

Latest home for long time improvisational post-punk Melbourne outfit bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit (also referred to as the acronym, bodies) is Dinosaur City.

New single “song for fear” dropped last week (“Something changes when we embrace fear. It’s an eruption that leaves an imprint, dent or a residue of sorts”) with debut album all the songs i know about fire set for an Oct 10 release.

TikTok Launches Music Streaming In Oz

TikTok’s new subscription-only streaming service TikTok Music made a cautious debut in Australia last week in closed beta form.

This came just weeks after it launched in Brazil and Indonesia, its second and third largest markets after the U.S.

Australia’s launch at $11.99 a month came with Mexico and Singapore, all on beta.

It means it will be tested among a group of 18—24 year old volunteer users for three months.

Users sync the service to their existing TikTok accounts to listen, download for offline listening, share songs, discover personalised music recommendations, access lyrics in real time and create collaborative playlists with friends.

We have no conclusive data on the extent TikTok shapes hits on Australia’s ARIA chart.

But in Dec. 2022, it said 13 of the 14 songs that hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 “were driven by significant viral trends on TikTok.”

James Music Closing

After 45 years in operation, Adelaide music equipment sale and hire store James Music on Sturt St. is closing permanently next February.

Its owner Maurice James told the Advertiser that at 81, he needs to retire next year.

But more, sales were slowing even before COVID, with James revealing, “Business is absolutely disastrous. I’ve got at least 120 vacant hooks that guitars used to be hanging on.”

New Agencies MBA, Bolster Group, Launch

Two new agencies have launched.

MBA is a new talent booking division of Mushroom Group’s, in a new partnership with Guven Yilmaz (previously Vita Music Group).  

Led by Yilmaz, MBA is an artist-first agency specialising in live bookings and strategy, touring and partnerships, and a staff team with Matt Thomson (former Niche exec who will run the Sydney office, Shelley Liu, and Sam Rogers.

The roster includes Peking Duk, Bliss n Eso, Conrad Sewell, Skin on Skin, Winston Surfshirt, BIG WETT, Kaylee Bell, Milan Ring and Tasman Keith.

Bolster Group is the coming together of Bolster, Common State, Aeroplane Agency and Going North to form Australia’s first dedicated culture and entertainment group. 

It provides a full-service offer incorporating strategy, creative, media, PR and experiences.

Clients include Nike, Bacardi-Martini Australia, YouTube, KFC, RISING, music promoter Secret Sounds, Melbourne International Film Festival, Tourism NT, Always Live, Square, Revel Group, City of Melbourne, Afterpay, Sydney Festival, Electronic Arts (The Sims, FIFA and Need for Speed), Google, ACMI and Pernod Ricard.

For more information about Spotify x Ticketek, head here.