Community radio is generating $153 million for the Australian music industry, new research has found.
Monash and Griffith Universities, in collaboration with industry partners, have finished a research project into the sociocultural and economic value of Australian community music radio.
The 12-month study examined different community radio stations as case studies, revealing community radio is doing heavy lifting for the Australian music industry.
Through promoting gigs and sharing emerging acts, community radio is a powerful platform for local artists. The study revealed that 30% of weekly community radio listeners discovering local artists through community radio.
This discovery flows onto streaming with 1.8 million Australians looking up a local artist on a streaming service after discovering them on local radio.
However, the biggest influence of community radio on the Australian music industry is in what community radio plays on air.
Griffith University Professor Susan Forde, who was one of the researchers on the report, said community radio outshines its commercial counterparts when it comes to playing Australian music.
“They [The Community Broadcast Association of Australia] collected all their Australian airplay data for their sector and they found that community radio airs about 390,000 hours of Australian music in a year,” Prof Forde said.
“The commercial radio sector reported their own Australian airplay data two years ago and they play about 160,000 hours of Australian music in a year.”
“So, community radio is playing more than double, well over double actually, the amount of Australian music that the entire commercial radio sector is playing.”
Community radio is setting up the future of the Australian music industry, with what the report labelled as “high intensity” radio station providing more than $105 million in promotion, gigs, studio time, and music industry personnel training annually.
Professor Forde said the promotion of locally produced music is vital to the Australian music industry.
“Within that, of course, there’s a lot of new and emerging artists that are being supported, she said.
“There’s no doubt that most of the new Australian music that’s coming through, and that has been coming through over the last 50 years, has come through community radio.”
The importance of community radio for Australian musicians was echoed by Zimbabwean Australian independent artist, Zuva.
“I think there’s such a rich culture around our community radio and hearing local artists on that radio. I think it really helps to anchor us to our specific special music culture that we have here in Australia.”
The report is published on the Monash University’s website.
