About us

Driving Victorian music businesses forward

VMDO is a State Government-funded initiative delivered by Music Victoria that exists to provide value to the Victorian music industry.

 
 
 

It focuses on servicing micro to medium businesses and mid-career to established professionals with the goal of creating opportunities, facilitating connections and bolstering growth on a local level for global success.

What we do

VMDO provides support directly to the Victorian music industry’s many businesses

 

We are highly aware of the significant economic and cultural value to be found in supporting the music industry, and the businesses within it, and we’re here to make sure that is not taken for granted.

We assist Victoria’s small and micro music businesses in reaching their full potential through research, professional development, and more, ensuring a vibrant, thriving music industry for all to enjoy.

VMDO will focus on three core business priorities: 

 
 

1 . Creating Pathways

At VMDO we are committed to providing high quality programs and services to music businesses to enable them to become more sustainable, relevant and robust.

  • With our eyes fixed firmly ahead, we are working to build a bright future for Victorian music businesses, and for VMDO itself.

    We understand that in many ways, music businesses have been forced to be reactive due to an ever evolving industry landscape and technological advances.

    We take a proactive approach to supporting businesses to develop and flourish.

    By identifying trends and changes in the industry as they emerge, we are able to share with Victorian businesses, whom can in turn adapt and keep up with the rapid changes of our industry.

    With this knowledge, we tailor our projects to be relevant and timely for Victoria’s music professionals, creating programs that assist in creating strong foundations for businesses, and ensuring sustainable growth and career longevity.

    The transformative impact of our projects will always be assessed and constantly monitored, ensuring that all aspects work as efficiently and effectively as possible for music businesses and professionals.

    Through regular professional development programs, networking events, and workshops, we provide businesses with access to the best and most relevant information.

    Networking is an underlying theme for VMDO and our events. We’ve identified that people work well when they work together, and having a peer group to call on is important in building a health, well-function business. Much of this industry can be isolated work, so from both a professional and mental health perspective, we’ve made it a high priority to encourage and support community as much as possible. Consequently, we’re growing a community of music business professionals that can learn and grow not just from our programs, but from one another.

    All this works together as we shape what will be a thriving Victorian music industry, long into the future.

 

2 . Strategic Connections

VMDO is constantly investigating the way music industry professionals, and other professionals, are working across the globe, and most importantly joining the dots to provide access to untapped markets for the development of the Victorian industry.

  • By engaging with export-ready Victorian music industry businesses, we enable lost time (due to covid) to be made up quickly, providing information and advice on opportunities in new territories, and creating contacts and networks within them.

    Not just geographical, we are also focussed on intersectional development, assisting Victorian artists in spaces beyond their current market, and identifying markets that can be better exploited. We assist in seeking new opportunities across sectors and provide insights, guidance and expert feedback so that music professionals can maximise those opportunities, and confidently know their worth.

    Simultaneously, we provide music professionals with the tools to understand what their markers of success could be.

    We also work to create greater awareness of the Victorian industry, and the professionals who make it up, within these new markets.

    We’re proud of the Victorian music industry at VMDO, and as part of our market development strategy, we’re utilising social media and traditional news coverage to share the good news about the Victorian Music Industry on a global scale, so the worldwide music community can be privy to the great work that is being done in our beloved state.


3 . Research that Influences Change

At VMDO, we are committed to not only keeping up with innovation within the rapidly changing music industry, but leading the charge. By understanding relevant issues, information and trends, adopting the best and most successful practices, and communicating results – we can ensure that the Victorian music industry is well placed to take full advantage of potential opportunities and mitigate against risk.

  • All of our business development is underpinned by a dedication to research - being aware of and implementing, world class best practice protocols from industries around the world.

    We dedicate time to understanding the way the music industry is changing across the globe, keeping our fingers on the pulse of relevant research, and conducting our own studies. Guided by the expert counsel of true innovators and disruptors of the music industry, we are developing a complex understanding of how Victorian music businesses should look as we move into the future.

    Though a number of business resources for Victorian small and micro businesses already exist, we have discovered they are not readily used by music businesses. Similarly, while business, market development and consumer insight research does exist, it is rarely specific to the music industry, let alone in Victoria, so lacks in its ability to influence decision making.

    Therefore, we are adapting existing resources for small and micro businesses to be more relevant to the music industry and creative sectors, and initiating our very own research. With the supervision of those in the know, we are developing a hub of relevant information and research for Victoria’s music businesses.


We are global, we are the early adapters, we are taking calculated risks and benefitting from the returns, we’re the pilot project that enables broader implementation.

VMDO is the music industries’ aspirations realised and maximised - an initiative of Creative Victoria, proudly delivered by Music Victoria.

Welcome to what is possible when the government has a powerful vision.