New Zealand has some of the best artists in the world, but that doesn’t mean our music industry can’t be improved — far from it.
Speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, three of our best current artists — Rei, Kaylee Bell, and Sola Rosa — reflected on the changes they’d like to see in New Zealand music.
“It would be great to have a centralised database of venues all with streamlined costs and contact details,” Rei said. “At the moment, when an artist plans a tour, they’ve got to track down venues, find the contact, wait days for emails, find out hireage and sound, lighting, door person costs, and it all takes a LOT of work. And they all have different systems.
“Some will give you the venue for free, others will need a fee, others charge for absolutely everything, without even a free drink for the artist hiring the venue. If there was a centralised database and even a network of venues in different cities with similar operating systems, that would make things a whole lot easier.”
The Māori artist would also like to see “[m]ore support from radio, streaming services, festivals, and even film and TV.”
“If we can support NZ music as much as we did in the pandemic era every year, there would be a lot more full-time musicians singing about our own unique Kiwi life experience. This in turn builds more cultural resilience, and a stronger, more connected Aotearoa,” he continued.
Country star Bell agreed with Rei about radio. “[…] I do think we need more NZ artists on radio and that will flow on to touring, etc,” she told us.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
“Put proper sound gear in venues through NZ so we don’t have to bring everything in from scratch, support more NZ touring, and support more NZ artists on radio as radio support can still break careers for artists.”
Andrew Spraggon of Sola Rosa, meanwhile, noted the difficulties that have come with the decline of pre-sales.
“[…] we’d probably all feel a lot calmer if people still bought pre-sale tickets the way they used to, but there’s definitely a tendency now to leave things until the last minute.
“People seem to wait and see what the weather’s doing, how they’re feeling that week, or whether they can afford it at the time — which I totally understand — but when you’re putting on a tour costing tens of thousands of dollars upfront, it can be pretty terrifying.”
While Spraggon claimed that funding opportunities “are pretty good” for artists in Aotearoa, he’d love to see “more support for artists who maybe don’t have the stats required to get the grants, such as streaming numbers or big social followings.”
“I was lucky to come up during a pretty nascent electronic scene, but now there are so many artists competing in a really small country, with fewer venues and rising costs. A lot of those artists need support too,” he added.
We caught up with the three artists for a new feature on NZ On Air’s New Music Project Touring pilot fund, which was created to help artists bring newly funded albums and EPs to audiences across the country.
Its first round attracted 36 applications, with 20 artists receiving grants of up to $50,000 to cover as much as half of eligible touring expenses, including transport, accommodation, production, venue hire, marketing and musician fees.
Collectively, they planned shows stretching from Whangārei to Invercargill, including dates in regional centres and smaller towns often left outside traditional touring routes.
Read the full feature here.
