Thursday 23 April, 2026
Music Data & Insights Summit 2026
Program Schedule
Day One - Monday May 18
8:30 am: Doors Open
9.00 am: Commencing with Sose
9.15 am: Welcome to Country
9.30 am: Supporting First Nations Led Music Business
Kaleena Smith, First Nations Development Manager, MusicNSW
This report was an important opportunity to engage directly with First Nations–led music businesses, creatives, and industry leaders to listen, learn, and better understand what meaningful support looks like from a First Nations perspective. Grounded in community consultation and lived experience, the findings emphasise the importance of creating spaces where First Nations voices are not only heard but actively shape the design of programs, resources, and industry pathways.
At its core, the report highlights the need for deeper, ongoing conversations, with cultural authority at the forefront.
10.15 am: Why Is Gender Still An Issue in Australian Music?
Associate Professor Catherine Strong , Freya Linke-Langley, Hannah Fairlamb, Jeri Karmelic
* This panel is supported by MIRC
11.00 am: Break
11.15 am: Hiding in Plain Sight: the economic and cultural contribution of community music radio
Associate Professor Shane Homan (Monash University) and Professor Susan Forde (Griffith University)
Shane Homan and Susan Forde discuss the findings of the Australian Research Council project examining the cultural and economic contribution of Australian community music radio to the Australian music industries. This includes revealing the economic value of the nine activities central to community radio, including (for example) airplay, music curation, artist interviews and outside broadcasts that generate value for Australian artists and the wider ecosystem. The project researchers will unpack the ways that community stations are both a cultural asset and economic driver for local music scenes, particularly for emerging and First Nations artists.
11.45 am: Radio Panel
Panellists tbc
Radio broadcasting is one of the most important pieces of Australia’s cultural infrastructure, holding a special place in the broader radio ecosystem with its focus on discovery, community and diversity.
Recent ACMA data shows overall weekly radio reach, including commercial and the ABC network, has stabilised at 66% of Australians. After years of decline, this signals resilience, but also potentially a ceiling. Meanwhile, the 2025 Listening In report says Australians want to hear more local music. In a time when algorithms have been shown to favour music from overseas, this resilience offers an opportunity to ensure Australian stories can be heard.
What role can the music industry play in preserving this key driver of local content discovery and future proofing it against rising technological challenges?
12:30 pm: Chris Carey Provocation #1
12.45 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm: Marketing To Gen-Alpha In The Age Of Social Media Bans
Marlen Hüllbrock (Director of Marketing & Strategy, Music Ally),
Everyone is talking about Gen Z, but the savviest music marketers are already looking at Gen Alpha. The landscape is changing fast: four months into the world's first social media ban for under-16s, Australian artists, managers, and labels are preparing to navigate a potentially new reality for fan-building and marketing. In this presentation, Music Ally dives into the latest data on this audience and guidance on how to navigate this shift.
2:00 pm: The Social Media Ban: Disruption or Reset?
Moderator: Paige X. Cho (Media Director, Bolster Group), Marlen Hüllbrock (Director of Marketing & Strategy), Rose Riddell (Head of Content, Laneway Festival), Mardi Caught (Founder and Head of The Annex), Ixaras (Artist)
Australia’s youth music economy is being reshaped in real time. With a world-first social media ban for under-16s disrupting discovery pipelines, and platforms like TikTok and YouTube driving up to half of youth music discovery, the industry faces a critical question: how do you market music to young people when the primary channels are shifting to alternative channels, such as gaming or live or disappearing?
2.45 pm: The Push’s National Plan for Young Australians and Music
Jamison Kohl and Abby Flett
For 40 years, The Push has backed young Australians to find their sound, their people and their future in music. The Push's new ten-year national plan sets out to ensures that every young person can participate and thrive in Australian music. Currently, for too many young Australians, particularly in outer-suburban, regional and remote communities, participation in music depends on luck - but it shouldn't. This presentation will explore the National Plan for Young Australians and Music and examine the systems and infrastructure required to build a music ecosystem shaped by young people, for young people. Bringing together the Youth Leads at The Push, this session invites audiences to imagine, and help build, a future where participation in Australian music is not determined by postcode, privilege, or chance.
3.00 pm: Break
3:15 pm: The Reality of Independent Music: Data-Driven Insights for the Industry
Matthew Rogers ( Chief Commercial Officer GYRO.Group)
Presented by GYRO.Group, the session offers a rare opportunity to explore the patterns, strategies and choices that are truly driving the independent music ecosystem today. Independent artists are constantly shaping and redefining the Australian music landscape, yet many of the narratives about “what works” in streaming, release strategy and audience engagement can be based on assumption rather than evidence. This session uses GYRO.Group’s unparalleled dataset of independent Australian releases to provide a clear view of how artists are actually behaving at scale. The discussion reveals where industry thinking aligns with real-world activity, where it misses the mark, and how artists are quietly innovating outside the spotlight.
4.00 pm: Keynote - Data is the New Oil
Dean Ormston, Chief Executive, APRA AMCOS
4.30 pm - 6.30 pm:APRA AMCOS Mixer @ Runner Up
Day Two - Tuesday May 19
9.00 am: Doors & Coffee
9.30 am: Cultural Power Is Political Power
Kate Ben-Tovim, Founding Director, Turning World
In our increasingly turbulent world, can (and should?) the music sector better leverage its role as a force for good in Australia’s national interest? Reflecting on her recent Churchill Fellowship, Kate Ben-Tovim considers whether music has a stronger role to play in Australia’s cultural diplomacy arena, and what’s holding us back in areas of policy, coordination, and funding.
10:00 am: AI and Data Policy - 45 mins - speaker document sent Session Title: AI and the Future of the Australian Music Industries
Format: Lightning talk (~15 minutes) + panel discussion with Q&A (~30 minutes) Tell them only 30 mins
Presenters: A/Prof Jake Goldenfein (Melbourne Law School), Dr Joel Stern (RMIT University), Dr Sophie Freeman (RMIT/Melbourne University)
10.45 am - 11.00 am: Chris Carey 15 mins
11.00 am: Break
11.15 am: Music Tech - Merida + friends 5 mins break
11.45 am: Data After Dark – Unlocking insights via data collaboration
Dr. Xiangyi Kong
Emily Collins, Head of Sound NSW
Data After Dark is a world-first, innovative data platform delivering integrated, near real-time insights into NSW’s night-time economy. Developed and operated by the Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner, the platform brings together diverse datasets to provide a comprehensive view of after-dark economic activity.
In this session, we will explore the core capabilities of Data After Dark, showcase insights relevant to the sound and music sector, and discuss opportunities for deeper insights sharing and data collaboration
12.25 - 1.00 pm: Live Music Office, Bronwyn Adams blurb by COB Friday 17.3
1.00 pm: Lunch
1.45 pm: Why Music Matters for the Australian Games Industry
Professor Dan Golding (Monash University)
Here goes the headline: videogames now make more money than music and film combined (BBC, 2019). By now, it's a familiar refrain - but in setting creative forms against each other, it's not telling the whole story about what is going on here. The games industry is as complex, as dominant, and as precarious as any other, and its workers just as reliant on global platforms, local communities, big data, and small audiences as the music sector. In fact, there is a convincing affinity between the videogames and music industries. In this presentation, drawing on recent surveys and studies of Australian games and their audiences, Dan Golding will chart the surprising similarities between games and music, outline the opportunities in games for the music industry, and think about what it means to look at Australian games with a musical eye.
2.15 pm: Sound Fair? - On Listening, then Acting
Cameron Lam (Musician and researcher)
The Sound Fair? report (conducted by Cameron Lam, in partnership with Music Australia and Creative Australia) draws on dual surveys to collect data on Australian art music commissioning practices and rates from both music creators and music commissioners. The report is an important snapshot of industry conditions (the first in 10 years) highlighting ongoing structural issues. But, importantly, it informs the creation of a 'Best Practice Guide for Art Music Commissioning' this year - the first Australian guidance on the topic since 2011.
Musician and researcher Cameron Lam highlights and connects the importance of research informing action, and action being the impetus for research. Action alone would suggest an updated rate card, research alone would show the status quo and highlight inequity. Together they produce a practice guide that addresses knowledge gaps, give clear pay guidance, and reframes the methodology of commissioning into something more reflective of the intention, labour, and licensing involved.
2.45 pm Qualification Trends and Occupational Shortages - Are Music Training Systems Doing What Industry Needs?
Rachel Simoons (Research & Analysis Manager, SaCSA) and Bronwyn Coulston (Stakeholder Engagement Manager - Arts, SaCSA)
Service and Creative Skills Australia presents insights into vocational and higher education patterns, and their alignment with labour market trends and emerging occupational shortages. We will explore how training pathways are adapting alongside what employers say they value most in a rapidly changing industry. Join us to take a closer look at the future of skills development and how to support a resilient music workforce.
3.15 pm: Afternoon Tea Break
3.30 pm: Music Australia: The Bass Line 2
Following the launch of The Bass Line: Charting the Economic Contribution of Australia’s Music Industry, Music Australia will present the second edition at the VMDO's Music Data and Insights Summit. Building on the foundation of the inaugural report, the second edition provides a comprehensive snapshot of the industry’s economic contribution and impact for FY2024-2025, undertaken in collaboration with McAtamney & Advisors. The session will guide attendees through The Bass Line – Edition 2 and feature an industry discussion unpacking the report’s key findings.
6.00 pm: Mixer Runner Up