Our Soundtrack Our Stories: ARIA and partners band together for Aussie artists
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05.08.2021

Our Soundtrack Our Stories: ARIA and partners band together for Aussie artists

Jack River
WORDS BY SAM MCNIECE

In response to a viral post from Jack River.

Just when touring was back on the cards for Australian artists, COVID-19 once again pulled the rug out from under us. After yet another wave of lockdowns, musician Jack River, whose real name is Holly Rankin, put out a plea to Channel 7, asking why they didn’t play Australian music during the Olympics, one of the most watched television events in the country.

It was from this social media post that Our Soundtrack Our Stories was born.

What you need to know

  • A new initiative has been launched between music industry organisations and companies to play Australian artists on local media and in local businesses
  • Our Soundtrack Our Stories started after a viral post from Jack River (Holly Rankin) to Channel 7 for better Australian representation in the music played at the Olympic Games
  • The call-to-arms asks for business owners, musicians and consumers to get involved and support Australian music

Keep up to date with all the latest music interviews, news and reviews here.

Sometimes all it takes is someone asking the question to spur on a movement. After Jack River’s social media post, big players in the music industry such as ARIA, APRA AMCOS, Mushroom Group, Universal Music Group Australia and Music Victoria have created a call-to-arms in the hopes of championing local artists.

Basically, the initiative is asking for Australian media and businesses to get behind homegrown music which asks the corporate world to get involved in providing greater reach and more royalty revenue for our artists.

The movement has already started to gain momentum, with Coles Radio announcing their support to play more Australian music on their nationally broadcast channel.

For business owners, the initiative asks that you sign up for a license, so that artists get paid properly and play a radio station or playlist in your workplace that champions local artists.

For musicians and consumers, they’ve created some social media assets to share with your friends and supporters, aimed to get the message out and create awareness around the campaign.

Recent figures through an I Lost My Gig survey shows over $64 million in revenue has been lost since July 1 2021, which also revealed that 99 per cent of that was uninsurable.

With this in mind, it’s important that we get behind our Australian musicians and artists to allow them to continue creating music for us to enjoy.

For more information on Our Soundtrack Our Stories and to get involved, head to the ARIA website.