Michael’s Rule: Australian tour promoters back change to live music support acts
Months after the US singer’s mega tour left our shores — and the Australian music industry fuming — senior artist managers think they have a solution.
The nation’s top live music promoters have backed a manager-led push to reinstate a voluntary code of conduct so that Australian performers are included as support acts on all tours, including visiting international artists.
The initiative, dubbed Michael’s Rule, was proposed last week by the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), whose members represent the careers of many of Australia’s most popular artists, including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Midnight Oil, Tame Impala and Kasey Chambers.
Named in recognition of Michael McMartin, the late former manager of Hoodoo Gurus who lobbied to establish the agreement decades ago, Michael’s Rule has been met with broad support by tour promoters including Live Nation, Frontier Touring, TEG Group, Untitled Group and Destroy All Lines.
When The Australian approached these five companies for comment on the proposal, all of them responded positively to reinstating the code of conduct.
As well as including Australian artists on all tours – a policy that was agreed upon, and followed, by promoters in the early 2000s, before slowly falling away – Michael’s Rule calls for the local artists to appear on the same stage as the headliner while backed by “reasonable sound and lighting”, and for the Australian artist to be announced at the same time as the tour, in order to benefit from the marketing and promotion.
The promoters’ collective agreement indicates that the managers’ association is well on the way to securing the broad support of the live music sector.
For AAM and its 404 members – and the 1100 or so Australian artists and bands they represent across the country – this is a happier alternative than the trickier, more time-consuming path of calling on the federal government to step in and make it a condition of issuing visas that international artists touring Australia must agree to comply with Michael’s Rule.
“Live Nation is dedicated to supporting local artists and looks forward to working with the AAM and the wider industry on any measures to promote and nurture our homegrown heroes,” said Mark Vaughan, senior vice president of touring at Live Nation Australia.
Vaughan cited the example of pop singer-songwriter Tones and I supporting US artist Pink on her recent tour, which played to about 900,000 people across 20 stadium dates. Live Nation’s upcoming tours include Pearl Jam, 30 Seconds to Mars and Billie Eilish, with the latter co-promoted by Frontier Touring.
A spokeswoman for Frontier Touring – whose upcoming tours include Macklemore, Tenacious D and J Balvin – said: “Frontier has a long legacy of supporting Australian music, through our late founder Michael Gudinski, and our place in Mushroom Group, Australia’s leading independent entertainment group. Over 2023 and 2024, Frontier has continued to actively program Australian artists onto our line-ups, with more than 85 per cent of tours featuring an Australian support. While reasons can differ from tour to tour, in some cases it isn’t practical for creative or logistical reasons to include a local artist. We are supportive of ‘Michael’s Rule’ as another step in supporting great Australian music.”
TEG Group chief executive Geoff Jones said: “TEG is a proudly Australian company, and we aim to consistently support the local industry by creating opportunities for Aussie acts.” TEG’s upcoming tours include Melissa Etheridge, Iron Maiden and UB40.
Independent promoter Untitled Group, whose festival brands include Beyond the Valley, Wildlands and Grapevine Gathering, said: “Untitled Group is committed to ‘Michael’s Rule’ and we call on our friends in the live music sector to do the same. We’ve witnessed first-hand the transformative power of spotlighting local talent at our festivals and events, many of which have gone on to achieve global success. This initiative has the power to play a vital role in the discovery and visibility of emerging Aussie acts.”
Untitled’s upcoming tours include Dom Dolla, Iniko and Northeast Party House. Its statement continued: “We need to remember that while the live performance industry has its own challenges, there is no industry without a thriving local music culture and healthy grassroots scene. Fostering and platforming local talent must be a core responsibility for promoters – the future of Australian music and the live music sector depends on it.”
Chris O’Brien, general manager of independent promoter Destroy All Lines, said: “As a champion of Australian music Destroy All Lines absolutely backs ‘Michael’s Rule’. Over the past 12 months, 97 per cent of all our tours had at least one Australian artist. Our agency represents 49 Australian artists who get the full support and infrastructure of our touring company as well.”
Destroy All Lines’ upcoming tours offer a mixed bag of genres, including Byron Bay metal band Parkway Drive, British pop singer-songwriter James Blunt and US rapper Xzibit; the company also promotes Good Things festival, and co-promotes heavy metal event Knotfest Australia.
“We work incredibly hard at providing all our artists with the best opportunities possible to further their career within Australia and globally,” said O’Brien. “We already commit to any Australian artist having access to the same stage using reasonable sound and lighting. National touring Australian supports are always announced upfront, not just so they can capitalise on marketing, but so we can shine a light on them. They are not on our tours to make up the numbers – they are there as an integral part of the launch.”
The five tour promoters’ comments, though not quite humming in harmony from the same song sheet, indicate a desire to improve on the status quo.
As it stands, international touring artists can choose to sidestep booking local supports entirely if they so desire, without recourse – a move which is met with anger and despair by Australian managers, whose artists miss the chance to perform before new audiences in a streaming era where listeners are deserting Australian music.
This was the case with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in February, presented by Frontier Touring: Swift’s sole support was fellow US pop performer Sabrina Carpenter, and not a note of Australian music was heard from the stage.
Also in February, US band Blink-182 brought another American punk rock act, Rise Against, as the opener for its 15-date national arena tour promoted by Live Nation.
“Our major music promoters make a significant investment in supporting the career development of Australian artists, at home and globally,” said Evelyn Richardson, chief executive of Live Performance Australia (LPA). “Most international tours already include Australian artists as support, providing them invaluable opportunities to build their audiences and careers.”
“The choice of an opening act is made by the headline artist, not the promoter,” said Richardson. “From time to time, there may also be other factors which influence the type of support act that is chosen, including the genre, audience, and artist availability. Our live music promoters are already doing a lot of the heavy lifting to support Australian music industry in a changing industry and business environment.”
LPA is the peak body for Australia’s live performance industry, and it represents promoters, producers, performing arts companies, venues and music festivals, among others.
“There’s an opportunity for bodies such as Music Australia and AAM to work more closely with our major promoters on these issues, and to harness their extensive experience, expertise and global capabilities to create more opportunities for Australian artists,” said Richardson.
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