The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) denounces the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) decision to register the Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) Code of Practice with failing local radio music quotas left unchanged and reasonable recommendations to fix the deficient Australian music quotas ignored.
Current quotas are not meeting policy objectives. While stations are nominally meeting existing quotas, loopholes allow stations to self-select lower quota categories and dump most Australian music to off-peak time zones after 10pm when audiences are small. This means local audiences are not hearing Australian music as intended.
To address these issues ARIA recommended to CRA and the ACMA that at a minimum listening hour loopholes must be closed so Australian music must be played when audiences are listening.
Despite recognising that a significant number of submissions called for strengthened Australian music rules, ACMA has not required CRA to make any changes to strengthen current quotas instead deciding to simply enforce genre categories. We welcome the ACMA’s commitment to enforcing this, however changes to how categories are defined based on music genres should not have been made without any consultation with the music industry. On new music provisions, ACMA has stated it will work with CRA to ensure existing provisions are enforced and understood.
ARIA and PPCA CEO, Annabelle Herd, said: “We are extremely disappointed that despite all the evidence put forward showing that these quotas aren’t working, the ACMA has not pursued any reasonable or practical changes. CRA Code reviews don’t happen very often and yet this has become another instance of Australian radio policy failing the country’s homegrown culture and artists in the very market where they should have a natural advantage.
“Commercial radio uses publicly owned spectrum to generate over $1 billion of revenue annually. That is a privilege, and it comes with a responsibility to surface Australian stories, Australian voices, and Australian music at times when audiences are actually tuned in. Under the current framework, stations are meeting their obligations while relegating Australian music to overnight and off-peak slots. The practical effect is that the quota exists on paper but delivers little for artists or the Australian listeners it was designed to serve.
“For the ACMA to agree to changes to important music genre categories without any input from the music industry is baffling.
“Numerous other countries enact policies to ensure local content on radio is not swamped with international music but in Australia, we continue to leave our artists exposed, undermining the National Cultural Policy and support for Australian artists undertaken across multiple levels of government and industry.
“There is so much excellent Australian music being released right now. Many local artists are seeing large local fan bases and major success internationally. They are winning Grammys, performing to massive international festival audiences and sellout crowds. This is not a supply issue.
“At a minimum we are simply are asking for Australian music to be played when Australians are listening. That is a modest and reasonable expectation, and it is disappointing that the opportunity to deliver on it has been rejected by the ACMA.
“It now falls to government to recognise this gap and examine the ways in which it can ensure Australians are hearing local music in their own country. Our artists carry Australian stories to the world: they deserve a framework at home that gives them a genuine foundation to build on.”
