‘Burn it down’: Band manager slams Music Victoria over awards stuff-up

Police are investigating a “well-executed act of fraud” that targeted last month’s Music Victoria Awards, and which has forced the small non-profit organisation to reallocate the prizes in five out of six publicly voted categories.

When the winners of this year’s awards were announced on October 24, the publicly voted categories revealed Gregor as best album winner for Satanic Lullabies, RVG as best group, Audrey Powne as best solo artist, ZÖJ as best regional act, Good Morning winner of best track for Excalibur and DJ PGZ as best DJ.

Angie McMahon accepting the award for best independent release at last week’s ARIA Awards.Credit: Nina Franova/Getty Images

But on Wednesday, Music Victoria revealed that the awards had been hit by a “targeted action by unknown assailant/s”, and that this action had resulted in “thousands of misregistered votes being falsely attributed to nominees, resulting in a change to the recipients of five of the six publicly voted categories”.

Only DJ PGZ, who retains the best DJ title, was unaffected. There is no suggestion that the affected award winners had any involvement in or knowledge of the scam.

The new winners of the publicly voted categories are:

Best album – Angie McMahon for Light, Dark, Light Again
Best group – Gut Health
Best solo artist – Maple Glider
Best regional act – Leah Senior
Best track – Jess Ribeiro for Summer of Love

Liam Parsons and Stefan Blair of Melbourne indie soft-rock duo Good Morning.Credit: Jarvis Taveniere

The breach of voting integrity was discovered earlier this month, more than a week after the awards were handed out at a ceremony at Federation Square. After internal investigations, the original and new recipients of the awards were informed of the issue on Wednesday.

Both the original and the new winners will get to keep their trophies, the organisation said.

For Lorrae McKenna, who manages two of the original winners through her company Our Golden Friend, the attack reveals issues with the peak body for music and musicians in the state.

“I think that it really highlights the dysfunction of Music Victoria and the infrastructure of that organisation,” she said. “A lot of people in the music industry have been very frustrated by how Music Victoria has operated for a really long time, and how it hasn’t serviced us properly.”

The Music Victoria awards were held at Federation Square on October 24. Credit: Sam D’Agostino

After McKenna was informed by Music Victoria of the issue on Wednesday, she had the unenviable task of informing her acts, RVG and Good Morning, that after years of toiling without recognition, their moment in the spotlight was not a moment after all.

“We tie a lot of gratification to awards, but really we should be celebrating anyone who’s put out an album in one of the hardest years for this industry because that is the true testament,” added McKenna.

The manager, who describes herself as a “spiritual, woo-woo kind of girl”, added that she hopes there’s an opportunity in the mess.

“I feel like this is the tower moment for Music Victoria,” she said, explaining that the tower card in the tarot “speaks of burning infrastructure to the ground, rebuilding it the way we want it to be. We have a true pivotal moment right now to look at Music Victoria and burn that shit to the ground.”

Music Victoria would not speak on the record as the matter has been referred to Victoria Police’s cybercrime, fraud, scams and online safety unit for investigation.

Late on Thursday, a Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed detectives were “investigating if the voting system had been compromised”.

“As the investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” she said.

It is understood that Music Victoria is baffled by the attack, given the relatively small prizes at stake.

Award recipients in all categories receive a trophy, and winners of some categories receive a prize, typically in-kind studio services worth up to $1000. The greatest value, though, is in the bragging rights conferred by a win.

Simone Schinkel, who had informed the board in early October that she intended to resign in December after four years as chief executive, said in an awards release issued on October 24 that “previous winners have often shared how these honours elevate visibility and recognition, and this year’s nominees and recipients are worthy of it all”.

The organisation claims a nomination in its awards “results in increased promotion, recognition and attention on your music, career, venue or festival. This recognition can translate to audience growth and increased record or ticket sales.”

Whether this is what the scammer or scammers hoped to achieve is unclear.

McKenna suspected it was probably orchestrated by “some 15-year-old in Brunswick who just wanted to see their favourite bands succeed”.

But whoever the perpetrator, and whatever their motives, she felt they might have done the local music scene a favour.

“This has nothing to do with me, and it has nothing to do with my bands,” she said. “It is actually a bigger situation about blatant disrespect for the peak body of our industry.

“I hope we can all see this as a powerful moment where we can actually build something from the ashes of this absolute f---ing shit show.”

With Lachlan Abbott

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