After enduring three consecutive cancellations, Bluesfest successfully pulled off a five-day event at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm over the 2022 Easter long weekend. Bluesfest not only featured headline performances from Midnight Oil, Crowded House and Amy Shark, but sent beams of optimism through the Australian music industry at large.
Helping with the beatific execution of Bluesfest 2022 was Headline Acts, the festival’s official wine sponsor and a brand that has live music at its core. There’s more than a smidge of symbolism to Headline Acts’ partnership with Bluesfest. Headline Acts aims to become an integral part of the live music landscape throughout the post-Covid rebuild and beyond. So, the ubiquity of Headline Acts’ vintage psychedelic graphics at Bluesfest was a taste of things to come.
Red red wine (and white and rosé)
Headline Acts Shiraz
The primary and most obvious way in which Headline Acts is seeking to win over Australian music fans is through its wines. As many Bluesfest punters can report, Headline Acts’ core range consists of four wines.
There’s a shiraz, a signature red wine with raspberry and plum flavours and a soft, refined finish; a sauvignon blanc, a tropical white with hints of passionfruit and a crisp, refreshing finish, especially when chilled; a vibrant rosé, featuring flavours of strawberry and cherry; and rosé bubbles, which combines notes of raspberry, red apple and citrus in a lively sparkling wine.
Headline Acts makes sure its four flagship wines are high quality drops, and the same level of dedication is apparent in the brand’s investment in local music.
How Headline Acts is helping the Australian music industry
Headline Acts Rosé
Headline Acts will return to the Northern Rivers region in July as the official wine partner of Splendour in the Grass 2022. Splendour is set to surge back to life this winter, boasting a lineup of international headliners, such as The Strokes, Gorillaz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Tyler, the Creator, and local legends, including everyone from Amyl and the Sniffers and Ruel, to G Flip, Ruby Fields and Baker Boy.
But Headline Acts’ music industry support goes further than simply making itself known at Australia’s biggest music festivals. As part of its founding mission, Headline Acts is partnering with the live music start-up, Muso, to help grow the careers of rising Australian artists.
Muso is a live entertainment app founded in Melbourne and now active Australia-wide. Muso seeks to connect musicians with venues in a way that optimises revenue opportunities for both parties. The Muso app is all about efficiency, transparency and fairness—the company’s long-term goal, in its own words, is to “make live music more accessible to more people.”
Headline Acts is giving $150,000 to the local music industry
Headline Acts Sauvignon Blanc
As part of its partnership with Muso, Headline Acts is injecting $150,000 into venues around Australia over the next 12 months. Local musicians who’re signed up to Muso will be the ultimate beneficiaries of Headline Acts’ investment, as the money will go towards organising gigs and shoring up Australia’s live entertainment sector.
“The music industry has had a tough couple of years, so Headline Acts’ investment into Muso that goes directly to supporting emerging artists and venues feels like the best way to kick things off,” said Eric Thomson, global marketing director for Headline Acts.
Headline Access and “The Release Cycle” program
Headline Access
Headline Acts is taking a direct approach to supporting Australian artists via the industry fund, Headline Access. The fund will provide financial support to selected small-time artists discovered on the Muso app. Headline Acts has appointed a panel of industry experts—including Johann Ponniah (founder of I OH YOU Records) and Johnny Took (guitarist and songwriter in DMA’S)—to narrow down the acts they think deserve a leg-up.
The first Headline Access initiative is “The Release Cycle,” a program designed to boost the fortunes, literally and figuratively, of budding local musos. The Release Cycle is all about equipping musicians with the know-how and connections to take their careers to the next level.
Artists just need to register with Muso and enter via this link to go in the running for the invaluable opportunities available through Headline Access: The Release Cycle. Entries close 26th of June. Muso is free to join and Headline Acts will continue to roll out initiatives supporting local musicians over the next 12 months.
In the meantime, by buying a bottle of Headline Acts, music lovers can show support for the brand’s investment in the local music industry. Plus, Headline Acts has launched curated Spotify playlists to pair with each of its flagship drops.
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