Music SA CEO says saving SA’s flailing music industry could be key to population growth

Leading voices say the state is sitting on a cultural knife’s edge – but believe reinvigorating this industry could put SA on the global map.

Leading voices say South Australia’s music industry is on the brink of collapse – but believe reinvigorating the state’s arts scene could open the door for untapped population growth.

In the wake of revelations live music institution the Crown & Anchor’s 171-year history could be under threat by major development plans, Music SA CEO Christine Schloithe said SA’s cultural vibrancy was currently on a knife’s edge.

As revealed by The Advertiser last week, Singapore-based purpose-built student accommodation developer Wee Hur Holdings Ltd has lodged plans for multistorey student accommodation on the Grenfell St site – prompting backlash from thousands of live music fans.

Earlier this week, major music promoter Secret Sounds announced the cancellation of Splendour in the Grass festival for 2024, putting the future of SA’s Harvest Rock festival under a cloud.

Music SA CEO Christine Schloithe says the state’s industry is on the brink of collapse. Picture: Jamie Hornsby

SA bands like West Thebarton have made it big on the international stage – but Ms Schloithe fears young musicians are leaving the state in droves. Picture: Jack Fenby/@fenj_

Ms Schloithe said if something wasn’t done soon, SA’s music industry faced near-total collapse – but believed the challenge presented an “incredible” opportunity to reinvigorate and recalibrate the state’s arts sector.

“It is a really difficult time for live music at the moment and it has been for quite some time,” she said.

“The industry really didn’t get an opportunity to recover properly from the pandemic before the cost of living crisis started to impact the live music landscape.

“If we don’t work very hard, very quickly to shift the settings, we are at risk of losing something that is incredibly unique in South Australia.”

The Music SA CEO said there was a missed opportunity to bolster population growth by encouraging a thriving cultural scene, believing that successive governments have “forgotten” the breadth of jobs created within the arts.

“We need to be having a much larger conversation about the identity of our city and how we want to live in our city,” she said.

“If we really want to be driving population growth and having younger people and families moving into South Australia, we need to diverse sets of industry here.

“A lot of the discussion around growth recently has reflected on things like shipbuilding … but there are so many different jobs within the music industry that could draw young people to SA.

“People are leaving South Australia in order to build more viable careers in the state in the music industry, but we know those people don’t necessarily want to leave South Australia.”

Ms Schloithe has backed a move to consider “cultural and social heritage” for development plans, with fears over the future of live music institution the Crown & Anchor.

Ms Schloithe said recent Spotify data showed a 50 per cent revenue surge in streaming for independent artists – providing a unique opportunity for SA’s smaller live music industry to put itself on the global stage.

“A number of local musicians who I consider really talented and have huge potential in this industry have grown up being taken to WOMAD every single year since they were born, they have been immersed in the Adelaide Fringe environment,” she said.

“We have got incredible, full time music industry career professionals here — we’ve got some of the best technicians in the world that jump on national and international tours and choose to come back to South Australia because of the vibrancy of the state.

“If we can leverage that cultural vibrancy, we can actually draw more young artists here to build their careers here.”

Protecting venues such as the Crown & Anchor would be key to saving the industry, Ms Schloithe said, with the leader backing the Greens’ push for an overhaul of planning laws to consider the “cultural and social heritage” of buildings prior to development.

“We certainly aren’t anti-development, but we do fundamentally believe that the vibrancy of a space and a place should really be considered as part of the criteria for development assessments,” she said.

“For professionals who choose to work in the creative industries, institutions like the Crown & Anchor are what make SA quite unique.

“If we can leverage the people we’ve already got and create the pathways for those really established professionals that are working here to provide that support to grow our emerging artists and businesses, then we have an incredibly robust music industry that I think can hold its own and will be taken notice of globally.”