Paul has been booked for two separate topic discussions during the conference: the future of music festivals in Australia, and what 2014 has in store for us. Overall, he appears to have a very healthy sense of cynicism and optimism about the industry as a whole, and in typically irreverent fashion, he was happy to tell us how he was feeling about these upcoming engagements at the conference.
“Regretful,” he states is plain but tongue-in-cheek fashion. “I generally avoid schmooze fests and conferences so I must have had a momentary lapse of reason or an unguarded moment on the day I was asked. However, I do like to chat, I love Melbourne and it is good to give the Billions Australia jet a long-haul flight every now and then so it is not so bad.”
In a broad sense, he is speaking about the immediate future of music festivals and the industry overall, but he was happy to tell us about some of the more ‘nitty gritty’ subjects he is delving into during his chats.
“I’m sure the death of inner-city multi-genre festivals and what that will do to the overall landscape will be central to discussions,” he explains. “But the usual suspects such as ticketing, new technologies, new media, shifts in marketing strategy, artist revenue could all get a run depending how boring the mediator is.
“I am just hoping for a nice mix of hope and despair,” he adds. That combination of hope and despair comes across plainly in his very detailed response to questions regarding the much publicised changes, good and bad, that the industry has gone through in the last ten years or so. “Technology has outpaced the capacity of government and the industry’s ability to control and exploit it correctly, so although that has created some great opportunities, it has made a great big mess in most areas of the music industry,” he suggests. “I think we have come through the period where it is not about content but more about the use and exploration of new gadgets and software. With mobility now fully integrated with these tools and such a large amounts of (mostly shit) information pounding us, I think the focus will shift back to quality filters and content. People only have so much time to troll through their options and will look for reliable filters and leaders to find good stuff.
“Label A&R, festival bookers, radio, managers, media, etc seem to largely base decisions on hits/views/likes as ‘evidence’ of popularity rather than listening to music and seeing potential as a starting point. This favours new bands, younger bands, novelty bands and sexier bands and has sent us back to the time of the one hit wonder. Fortunately for the world there is always the odd band with the artistic and ethical muscle to captivate an audience outside or beyond the bullshit. We need ways to support the bands working towards those exciting moments,” he concludes.
That predominant feeling of hope tinged with healthy cynicism (or is it cynicism tinged with hope?) comes across very clearly once again, when Paul is asked what value he feels events such as the Face the Music conference add to the industry as a whole. “I think amongst dozens of people explaining how awesome they are or telling cool rock’n’roll stories, that the best outcome is that they encourage new connections between people who may only previously have known each other as an email address.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
